Bravo Team’s at a bar (nobody saw that coming, right?) shooting the breeze and poking fun at Sonny for keeping a watchful eye on his phone. As the team filters out, Clay brings up the topic of Ray’s eventual departure from the team to lead one of his own when his promotion takes effect... it’s clear that Clay wants to take over Ray’s role.

Back on base, the team interviews a number of new candidates, only one of whom will be selected to keep Bravo at its current strength. Ray tries to talk to Jason about his choice to go the Warrant Officer route instead of Master Chief but gets interrupted by Clay’s arrival.

The new unit CO, Lindell, brings in a physiologist — Natalie — to work with the team to mitigate the aftereffects of their strenuous deployment cycle and constant exposure to combat. Jason doesn’t appreciate an interloper in Bravo’s midst and is cold toward’s Lindell’s decision.

Sonny and Davis attempt to make plans to see each other later on, but a terse interaction with Ray puts those plans on hold — Davis realizes that Ray knows about her relationship with the fun-loving Texan SEAL.

After meeting with a colleague to discuss his application packet, Ray finally manages to let Jason know that he’s going the WO route, only to have it backfire spectacularly when Jason angrily lets him know he’ll be throwing off the balance of Bravo’s operational readiness.

Meanwhile, a new mission materializes for the team... pirates holding American hostages at sea on a ship dangerously close to Chinese territorial waters, with the window for extraction rapidly closing.

Bravo gets to work mocking up the ship with CONEX boxes and repeatedly practicing assaulting the vessel while Green Team serves as OPFOR. One failure after the other leaves Jason angrier than before and frustrated with the rest of the team.

Tensions run high, and Jason orders the team to remain on base to practice the ship takedown repeatedly until they execute it flawlessly.

Back in the intel shop, Davis bumps into Mandy and the two put their heads together to find the pirates’ ship.

While the team takes a break, Jason ices his knee with a few cans of beer cling-wrapped around his leg. Natalie tries to talk to him briefly, though that goes nowhere and the battle-weary SEAL brushes her off.

Davis finds the ship but almost immediately lapses into her pattern of self-doubt. Lindell doesn’t take any of it, and promptly tells her to cut it out — it neither helps her as an officer nor does it help her stress levels.

On the flight over, Jason makes nice with the team and apologizes for taking out his own stress on them after being reminded by Sonny that the strength of the wolf is in the pack.

The team infiltrates the boat and the mission goes awry in a matter of minutes when they are spotted by sentries. They split up into cells and methodically take down the ship, while being informed by command that an unidentified vessel is closing in — likely a Chinese ship.

Just in time, the second cell takes the bridge of the ship and changes the vessel’s track, while the lead cell rescues the hostages.

On the way home, Ray and Jason make up, and the former tells the latter that Vic Lopez, a young Green Team SEAL, would be the ideal candidate to bring over to Bravo. Back at base, Jason introduces Lopez to the team and gives him a unit coin, much to the chagrin of Clay, who makes himself scarce.

While the team’s mission was successful, Sonny’s efforts to keep his relationship with Davis are not, and the two tearfully part ways at the end of the episode, with Davis saying that they can’t be together while they’re both at DEVGRU.

Christian’s Take

A lot cooler operationally in E4 as compared to E3.

But first, The interview.

I have literally no idea what it’s like to be interviewed for a slot on a DevGru squadron coming out of Green Team (the training pipeline for ST6), but based on some accounts, the questioning of Lopez and the other candidates tracks with the kind of scenario and mental evaluation the wannabe operators go through.

The Hostage Ship

A very cool idea, I think, creating this floating fortress of ransom banking. Electrified hulls, barbed wire rails, lots of hopped up douchebags protecting their ill-gotten gains. And it is not an entirely unrealistic mission for Bravo to be deployed to (unlike that stupid power plant boondoggle).

The Rehearsal

Last week we saw Bravo ripping around a shoot house with Jason driving them hard — that’s training.

But what we see this week is a bit different. It’s the team planning a rehearsing an operation they’re set to go on. Reminds us of the intricate planning and run-throughs the SEALs did before the bin Laden raid.

And we’re reminded this week with the al Baghdadi raid of the planning that goes on behind the scenes when a target is identified and a mission is set for a go.

Nice placement with the S&S Precision Plateframe and rig Bravo team operators are wearing.

It’s also rad to catch a glimpse of the operators’ full-on duty weapons with suppressors being used with simunitions.

All the breaching tools and their operational issues? Also cool AF.

I’ve had the opportunity to learn a bit about all these breaching tools with some special operators down at the Blackwater Academy (when it was still called Blackwater) and they are complicated and take some serious training. Integrating these accurately into the show was a great detail … kudos to the producers, writers and production team.

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The Op

More kudos to the production team on their set design and arrangement. Where did they get a ship like this to shoot an episode? Really, really cool.

I do hate that the lighting was necessary for the shot. “Sneaking” up on the aft of the ship in a rubber raiding craft? Any of the four sentries could have seen it coming in plenty of time to warn the fellow terrorists.

Those were some tricky, off-angle shots the Dev boys took to kill the sentry when they came over the rails.

Also liked Bravo sporting assaulter suits in Wolf Grey...a nice touch on a shipborne night op.

And we’re back to the amazingly well executed camera work. Moving through the narrow spaces of a ship, keeping up with the movement and making sure all the dudes are in frame — without making everyone sick in the process — is a tough job. It’s a big change from the vomit-inducing wobble of the power plant episode.

All in all, a great episode and a welcome return to the quality of E1 and E2.

Ingrid’s Take

Episode 4 was 100% better and more exciting than Episode 3!

The Interdiction:

A lot of what I was going to write this week I’m just seeing was already covered by Christian. (thanks Christian!) I, too, can only imagine the practice, training, rehearsal – whatever you want to call It – that goes into interdicting a ship. Of course, Seal Team missions are fresh in all of our minds as we read about the al Baghdadi raid. Once we saw Jason and his team actually taking over the ship, it gave a really good picture into how important it is to work as a team, knowing exactly what is expected of each member, how to react if things don’t go exactly as planned and how to cover each other.

I’m wondering if the ship they showed as the Team was racing up on it was for real? It sort of looked fake – probably because of the lighting. I have read where ship scenes are sometimes shot in a bathtub type of environment. It sure seems like the “bad guys” would have seen them in such calm, lit waters. Once they were actually on the ship, it was much more real.

I wish that Dita the Team dog had been in this episode. Once again, with the al Baghdaid raid all over the news pronouncing the Team’s dog as the star, it emphasizes how dogs are so important in the military and that they are trained to be an integral part of many missions.

The relationships:

I think that Jason showed more empathy in this episode than I’ve seen from him in a long time. In a few of the beginning scenes he actually smiled and laughed a bit. I liked the part right before they left for their mission where he said that he trusted every single one of his team with his life – that there were no other people he’d jump into hell with. And I especially liked how gentle he was with the female prisoners on the ship after they realized they were being rescued. “Gentle” and “Jason” probably have never before been used in the same sentence.

And then of course there is Natalie, the doctor. I wonder if she and Jason might get together?! I know that some sort of liaison is coming for Jason. I just don’t know who the lucky lady will be yet.

I was really disappointed in Clay. I couldn’t believe his pouting when the Green Teamer he wanted was not the one that Jason selected as their newest Team member. He didn’t even congratulate Lopez. Childish and not cool at all.

I have good feelings about Ray. He and Jason seemed to patch up any hard feelings they might have had. They’re very close friends and I think they both see the value in each of their positions…not because Ray is a Warrant Officer with “one foot on each side” as Jason put it, but because they totally understand each others strengths and weaknesses and always have each others back.

Last…Lisa and Sonny. I guess it’s over for them unless one of them leaves the team or program. It will be interesting to see how their relationship – or lack of – plays out during the life and death situations that are part of their respective jobs – Sonny directly and Lisa on a computer.

Conclusion:

Like Christian, I think that the production/camera team this season is outstanding. The camera angles are so spot on.

About Ian D'Costa

Ian D’Costa is a correspondent with Gear Scout whose work has been featured with We Are The Mighty, The Aviationist, and Business Insider. An avid outdoorsman, Ian is also a guns and gear enthusiast.

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