‘SWAT’ Season 4 Episode 1 ‘3 Seventeen Year Olds’: Will George Floyd death and Black Lives Matter change Hondo?
Get into full-blast action mode as ‘SWAT’ showers heavy-duty storylines in Season 4. Bringing out the big guns, the episode begins with the tie-ups between Sergeant II Daniel "Hondo" Harrelson Jr (Shemar Moore) and his father Daniel Sr (Obba Babatundé). Since the very beginning, the two disagreed on how he sided with the Rodney King verdict. But the question that hovers over everyone's mind is: Has anything changed between April 1992 and March 2020?
Through flashbacks to the city, Hondo, his father, and his teen charge Darryl (Deshae Frost) confront the history of racial tension in Los Angeles between law enforcement and the Black community. With a powerful depiction of George Floyd's words "I can't breathe," the series premiere makes a strong point as the words echo in your ears: "If you want things to change, be the change."
Back in the day, when Daniel Sr tried to tell his son how the system was flawed, Hondo didn't want to believe him. Siding with the cops, Hondo believed there must have been other evidence that could probably show why Rodney King was beaten so badly — perhaps, something wasn’t caught on tape. Eventually, Hondo's dreams of being a cop came true and he joined the elite force in SWAT.
Shot in the blazing Southern California heat, the Season 4 premiere picks up right where Season 3 finale ended with the chase of notorious cartel member, El Diablo. Right before dying, he swore the streets would run red with blood.
"I want you to remember when it happens and the city goes up in flames, remember I tried to stop it," those words are etched in Hondo's memory. As the team investigates his real motive, they come across his nephew Jam “Bricklayer” Gomez. A young boy whose goal is to cause damage, he comes into SWAT’s radar. Guess what? He has a narco tank at his disposal.
Wondering if narco tanks were actually real? 'SWAT' writers reveal they were "famously used in a siege in Culiacan in 2019 with a warning: "They’re not street legal in the US, so don’t get any ideas." Little did they know BrickLayer also has a coyote operation where he smuggled people from Central and South America into the United States. Sporting jihadi tattoos, he transported a group of four — one woman and three men — into the US who plan to attack Los Angeles.
The largest blood bank on the west side is the first target as a suicide bomber kills seven and injures six. They soon discover an apartment with countless bombs and Tan (David Lim) recognizes a YouTuber's hat. At his pop-up event, another bomber launches three bombs and the explosion kills 10. While they manage to stop him from any further attacks, the mission is far from over.
Connecting the dots, they find a fifth member known as "The American". Hondo soon realizes that it's the EMS ambulance driver, Frank Tammel, on his way to the center where the victims from the second attack are being treated. To add to the tension, his godson Darryl (Deshae Frost) is there checking on a friend. While Hicks (Patrick St Esprit) orders them to stand down, Hondo can only think of Darryl and shoots the driver multiple times. At the expense of two cracked ribs, he does save all lives.
After the entire fiasco ends, Hondo goes to meet his Pop and confesses he disobeyed him to go to college because he had wanted to hurt him. Dismayed after his dad left his mom for another woman, he didn't want to get close to him. There's a tinge of regret in his eyes. However, Hondo says that he loves what he does. "Don't you think we've made progress?" he asks his dad and he replies, "We're still trying," opening his eyes to how the world watched George Floyd die.
Moved by his words, Hondo joins a protest with his father and Darryl and the trio take the knee in front of a memorial of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and all the other people who were unnecessarily killed by police. Daniel Sr is right: Things don't really change. Explaining the significance of the title, SWAT writers say it is called 'Three 17-Year-Olds' because "it touches on Hondo's father, his experience with the police when he was 17, touches on Hondo's experience at 17 during the riots in '92. And, touches on what Darryl is going through in 2020."
Directed by Billy Gierhart and written by executive producer Aaron Rahsaan Thomas, the brilliant writing and flashes from the past bring tears to eyes and could be dubbed the best Black Lives Matter depiction on TV. After the soulful depiction, will the Black Lives Matter movement change Hondo?
Back when the incident actually happened, executive producers, Thomas and Shawn Ryan said in a shared statement on Twitter “[We are] frustrated, angry, but determined to do better. On-screen and off.” Talking about how George Floyd's death might change his heart on the show, Thomas told TV Line, "Hondo definitely has that crisis of at least wondering if the efforts that he’s making are actually making a difference, and also wondering if the fight is even worth fighting."
"Again, considering the legacy, considering how many times this has happened over and over again just in his city, much less the country, these are all questions that we’re leaning into. We’re challenging him this season on multiple layers and rightfully so — and we’re not confining it to one episode."
How will it be depicted? Thomas told the outlet, "Our entire Season 4, pretty much every episode in some way is hitting on that dilemma and not always from Hondo’s perspective. Tan is a Chinese American in the age of xenophobia, so he has his own perspective that’s going to be very unique from anyone else’s. Like I said, we’re going to put Chris through an emotional ringer, and some of that is based on her own world of working in a very testosterone-driven environment. We’ll be dealing with white nationalists in the course of this season, and not everyone necessarily has the same perspective on how to deal with them."
The first part of the two-hour fourth season premiere of ‘SWAT’ aired on Wednesday, November 11 from 9-10 pm ET/PT on the CBS Television Network.