S02E05: Say Again Your Last

[CooperTV]

Quote

While tasked with rescuing a group of American students held hostage in Mumbai, Bravo Team suffers life-threatening injuries.

Wednesday, Oct. 31

[mojoween]

I say to my husband “ugh why is Cerberus even there they aren’t even using him” and he says “he still needs to smell stuff” and then he goes to bed.

Naturally five minutes later Cerberus has to sniff the college girl to help with the mission.  I hate when he’s right.

Too bad about Adam, he DID get red-shirted.

Sucky way for Jason to go back to the team, and he broke all sorts of rules bringing Emma on the notification call.  And don’t they usually have two officers do that?

I appreciated the small thing of the newest guy silently stepping off to the side when Jason showed up at the plane to bring the casket out.

[Raja]

We are so used to standard story telling that when Clay got shot I was trying to think which one was the other Clay who went down. No way was it Bravo 2.

When the Senior Chief assumed command as Bravo 6, six just sounded right. from at least Vietnam through my years of service the 6 was the commander, the 1 being the adjutant  (personel department) with the 5 as second in command 

[Lonesome Rhodes]

I am not worthy.  I am grateful.

As for the episode...the one thing I can't get past is Clay directly countermanding Ray's order to stand down until exfil.  I very much get the emotion and the "code" around leaving a fallen warrior brother.  How difficult would it have been for them to get the Indian Lt. to help them?  But, how on earth can Bravo maintain cohesion if putative Bravo 2 will not accept legal orders?

The one really bad piece of art for me was the return to base.  The FSO?  He would have been loooong gone.  The odds that everyone else would have been caught off guard at the approach of the makeshift cortège?   I'd more easily win the lotto.  The enormity of the moment was quite enough.  The dishonest staging was not necessary.  

What is necessary is that I consciously take some significant time to consider and honor the sacrifices of those in uniform.

[Raja]

8 hours ago, Lonesome Rhodes said:

I am not worthy.  I am grateful.

As for the episode...the one thing I can't get past is Clay directly countermanding Ray's order to stand down until exfil.  I very much get the emotion and the "code" around leaving a fallen warrior brother.  How difficult would it have been for them to get the Indian Lt. to help them?  But, how on earth can Bravo maintain cohesion if putative Bravo 2 will not accept legal orders?

The one really bad piece of art for me was the return to base.  The FSO?  He would have been loooong gone.  The odds that everyone else would have been caught off guard at the approach of the makeshift cortège?   I'd more easily win the lotto.  The enormity of the moment was quite enough.  The dishonest staging was not necessary.  

What is necessary is that I consciously take some significant time to consider and honor the sacrifices of those in uniform.

Well with suicide bombers and snipers all over Mumbai a body recovery  would be a low priority  as Indian police and security forces were dealing with a second mass attack on Mumbai in a decade and trying to protect  the living.  The American's secret objectives were over but the Indians had a whole lot of work to do, and probably waiting for daylight for their less experienced security forces for that type of mission

[rove4]

Clay really annoys me so it's not fair they tease killing him when everyone knows it'll never happen.  Ray already said they'd go back for Adam's body.  Waiting for a vehicle to be available wouldn't make any difference to Adam at that point and he sure as hell didn't sacrifice himself so that Clay could act rashly and risk the team retrieving a body (that Adam certainly doesn't care about anymore) an hour or two sooner.   At least I didn't have to suffer through any Clay/Stella scenes.

Though I feel sad Adam died, I still don't understand why Ray wasn't made Bravo 1 to begin with.  Adam kept Clay at the 2 spot (another WTH? plot point) because they have a "shorthand" well, Ray has a shorthand with the entire team so that explanation makes no sense to me.

The actress who plays Jason's daughter is really good.

Team Cerberus!

[Lunula]

36 minutes ago, rove4 said:

Though I feel sad Adam died, I still don't understand why Ray wasn't made Bravo 1 to begin with.  Adam kept Clay at the 2 spot (another WTH? plot point) because they have a "shorthand" well, Ray has a shorthand with the entire team so that explanation makes no sense to me.

Agreed. And further not making sense that Ray said Adam is the one who recruited him to Bravo team - so wouldn't they have known each other well, too? I never thought it made sense that Clay was #2 after Ray left - would a newbie ever get catapulted up so quickly?

I'm disappointed that Jason got pulled back in so soon after Alana's death. We all knew it would happen, but the transformation in his daughter's thinking was too fast for me and no one even spoke to his son to see what he thinks? Boo!

I was shocked that both Trent and Brock had dialogue this week! I think that's the most we've ever heard Trent speak? Haha!

Annoyed that they had to make Cerebrus a male dog when it's a female dog! It bothers me every time they call her, "Boy!" -  it doesn't make the team less macho to have a female dog working with them. 

[CoyoteBlue]

11 hours ago, rove4 said:

Team Cerberus!

Yeah, I feel like Brock has really good life expectancy because no one is going to kill off the dog... (Justin Melnick is Dita's actual handler) 

[rove4]

Wow, that's really great!

[Mom2twoNonna2-3]

Continuity, especially, in uniform is important. Jason shaved for the notification, but, while still in uniform on his way back in the talk with his daughter, he has scruff on his face and not just a shadow. That totally threw me off. 

Did anyone think of West Wing, "Two Cathedrals" when Brothers in Arms was playing? I will forever connect that show with the song, but, it was the perfect song for the final scene tonight.

I guess Jason's mom will be staying to take care of the kids now. But, won't they have to move off base?

[Raja]

10 hours ago, Mom2twoNonna2one said:

 

I guess Jason's mom will be staying to take care of the kids now. But, won't they have to move off base?

Why Master Chief Hayes' position is why they have family housing  and until he is permanently reassigned nothing changes. I do wonder how long Master Chief Siever's survivors are allowed to stay?

Edited November 2, 2018 by Raja
spelling

[dwmarch]

I thought this was one of the better episodes so far. Still, some nitpicking:

The team goes in through a side door at the University, intercepts one hostage who ran and finds all the rest locked in a room upstairs but they don't encounter any bad guys until they're on the way back out. Did the bad guys also have a test that they needed to study for? They weren't looking for the hostage who ran and they weren't guarding the hostages they had so what were they doing?

I found it a little strange that Jason would get the call to do the death notification. He just left the team although I guess the paperwork hasn't been processed yet (and at least according to Tom Clancy paperwork is the part that takes the longest). All of a sudden he gets a call that says "hey, would you mind going over to the house of the guy who replaced you and letting his family know he's gone?" I feel like this is a problem of scale on the show. The team is a half-dozen dudes, a few support people and a dog. The real life military is much, much larger and the death notification probably would have been assigned to someone who wasn't even a part of the team (granted, it could be different with Special Ops forces).

The idea that the widow could choose if she wanted to "tell the world" is not consistent with what I know of Navy SEALs. As far as the public is concerned, they do not die in action rescuing hostages. They die in "training accidents" because they aren't supposed to be wherever they were doing what they won't admit they were doing. It is only more recently that Navy SEALs have become subject to public fascination and various books I have read indicate that with a couple notable exceptions (like "No Easy Day") they do not like, appreciate or seek public scrutiny. They prefer to not exist. The show even got into this a bit in Season 1 because Clay's father wrote a book and the rest of the SEAL community was not okay with that.

Jason's daughter sure got a level in self-awareness. Instead of being a snitty teenager she's now all into her dad's emotional state and how/why he makes his decisions. Perhaps she realized that because of her pitching a fit over daddy not being home one of her friends now has to deal with their daddy never coming home.

Great camera work in this episode and some nice subtle moments too, like Cerberus' handler having chew toys that look like grenades in his locker. There was also the shot where the EOD guy stepped aside so Jason could take his spot. I appreciated that after Clay took a round in the chest plate he had a giant, nasty bruise instead of the typical Hollywood mosquito bite.

[Loves2Dance]

9 hours ago, Raja said:

Why Master Chief Hayes' position is why they have family housing  and until he is permanently reassigned nothing changes. I do wonder how lone Master Chief Siever's survivors are allowed to stay?

180 Days when my husband retired. Before we invaded Afghanistan and Iraq the policy was much more brutal. Like, less than 30 days brutal, but a lot of policies were amended once they realized the impact this had on families. 

[rove4]

I wanted to know if the creed the team recited at the end was an actual thing and it is.  The real Seal Team Six creed is longer, of course.  What got used on the show starts about the midway point.

https://www.public.navy.mil/NSW/Pages/EthosCreed.aspx

Edited November 2, 2018 by rove4
spelling

[sabretooth]

21 hours ago, Mom2twoNonna2one said:

Did anyone think of West Wing, "Two Cathedrals" when Brothers in Arms was playing? I will forever connect that show with the song, but, it was the perfect song for the final scene tonight.

Yes! It was the perfect song for the end of the show. And that entire recitation of the SEAL creed was really well done. 

I'm going to miss seeing Michael Irby as badass biker guy on Mayans MC on Tuesdays and respectable SEAL on SEAL Team on Wednesday. 

[Raja]

20 hours ago, dwmarch said:

 

The idea that the widow could choose if she wanted to "tell the world" is not consistent with what I know of Navy SEALs. As far as the public is concerned, they do not die in action rescuing hostages. They die in "training accidents" because they aren't supposed to be wherever they were doing what they won't admit they were doing. It is only more recently that Navy SEALs have become subject to public fascination and various books I have read indicate that with a couple notable exceptions (like "No Easy Day") they do not like, appreciate or seek public scrutiny. They prefer to not exist. The show even got into this a bit in Season 1 because Clay's father wrote a book and the rest of the SEAL community was not okay with that.

I think that things changed after 9/11 and we are in the case of where else would they be. It is not like the US hasn't been at war for 15 years and this was a secret mission to save President Putin from a Russian coup. The minute the mission changed from the FSO who could be told to keep his mouth shut to  a squad of students each with a journalist trying to get him on camera for an exclusive story it became a matter of which unit any President would name as he took a victory lap and moved to fast-track Master Chief Seiver's Medal Of Honor so he could award it while he was in office. 

[Lonesome Rhodes]

I was fine with Jason making an "unofficial" notification in uniform and with the daughter tagging along.  The news was going to leak at any time.  

The suspension of disbelief level in the library rescue was stupidly high for me, as well.  

[hookedontv]

Call me insensitive but I’m getting tired of Jason’s angry, banging things around and raising his voice because he’s grieving-especially in front of his kids. 

I know everyone grieves differently but this is getting old. Maybe because I never really liked his wife so I didn’t flinch much when she died. 

I always like to see Cerberus on the job, tho I’m paranoid about an injury! 

[Ohmo]

On 11/1/2018 at 9:21 AM, rove4 said:

The actress who plays Jason's daughter is really good.

Yes. but I hated the writing for Emma  I mean, I get it, David's the star, the show's called SEAL TEAM, and Jason's gotta get back to the team.  That said, Emma was awfully cavalier about speaking for her brother with her "part of you all of the time/all of you part of the time" speech.  I know it was supposed to be all noble and all that, and Mikey is young.  However, the fact is that Alana is dead and Jason's job is high risk.  He is their only parent.  If Emma wants to volunteer to potentially become an orphan, that's her business, but I hated how she was volunteering her brother for the same potential fate.  "Sure Dad, go and potentially get your butt killed so Mikey and I have no parents.  He's A-OK with it.  No problem."  Ugh!

[Ohmo]

On 11/2/2018 at 2:28 AM, dwmarch said:

Perhaps she realized that because of her pitching a fit over daddy not being home one of her friends now has to deal with their daddy never coming home.

Sorry, I don't agree.  The reason that Adam isn't coming home is because of a choice that Adam made, and Adam's daughter has to deal with a choice her father made.  While I have great respect for the military, I don't come from a military family.  If you want to serve in the armed forces and you're physically able, that's your decision.  If you want to marry someone in the armed forces, that's also your right as an adult.  However, I don't agree with putting that responsibility on your minor children.

In my opinion, Emma wasn't pitching a fit.  Her mother is already dead.  Adam's death, while tragic, was also somewhat of Adam's own choice.  By serving in the military these days, people are choosing to take a risk with their own mortality.  Emma didn't put that fact on her friend.  Adam did.  Like Jason said a couple of episodes ago, "it's "supposed" to be that Jason or Adam would be the one to die so that their children are raised by the surviving parent and the military is then out of the equation (because the service member is deceased).

Emma and Mikey wanting Jason there after Alana's death is the most realistic thing in the world, and I think to call it "pitching a fit" is assigning an adult sense of nobility to a child.  It's unrealistic to me to say that children whose mother had just died and whose father is a SEAL would be thrilled at him returning to duty.

Adam's death is not on Emma or Mikey or even Jason, in my opinion, for thinking of his children first, especially when he's now a single parent.

[JenMcSnark]

I actually was a bit insulted on Adam's behalf by Jason's repeated "if I was there then Adam would be alive".  It was demeaning of a dead man's ability and decision.  And I loved the creed at the end, but would rather Jason didn't get the god-like silhouette entry, nor take the place of the poor guy who was actually on the mission and just saw his teammate die.  But yes, it's Jason's show. 

[sigmaforce86]

On 11/1/2018 at 10:19 PM, Mom2twoNonna2one said:

Continuity, especially, in uniform is important. Jason shaved for the notification, but, while still in uniform on his way back in the talk with his daughter, he has scruff on his face and not just a shadow. That totally threw me off. 

Did anyone think of West Wing, "Two Cathedrals" when Brothers in Arms was playing? I will forever connect that show with the song, but, it was the perfect song for the final scene tonight.

I guess Jason's mom will be staying to take care of the kids now. But, won't they have to move off base?

I'm not that good at "spot the error" stuff but I noticed during the conversation in the truck Emma went from wearing a sweater when you saw her from Jason's POV to not wearing a sweater in close up.  Only reason it was noticeable was you could see the reflection of bare shoulder & arm in the truck's side view mirror.

I'd like to see a story line where Emma steps up and says she'll go to college near home and take care of the house and her brother when Jason is away.  Yes it's a lot to put on a 17/18 year old (she is a senior right?) but many have done it in real life and it would make for some interesting "home" stories of trying and succeeding, trying and failing, growing up and a new family dynamic for all of them.