Episode 2 finds Bravo Team still in Serbia hunting a bombmaker on the lam after almost getting blown to kingdom come in the previous episode, had it not been for Cerberus and Clay’s quick thinking.

Lisa Davis is still struggling with her new role with Bravo, especially having to send them into harm’s way with her intel. It doesn’t help that her beau — Sonny — is one of those guys who goes into battle.

Ray gets the good news that he’s going to make E-9 (Master Chief Petty Officer), but also learns that his time with Bravo might be coming to a close with the potential for him to take charge of his own team. He doesn’t seem too pleased, considering his bro-lationship with Jason.

Mandy tries to have a heart-to-heart with Jason, but it goes nowhere with the hard-headed SEAL shutting her down.

Jason walks in on Ray video-calling his wife with the good news and like a habit, he goes back to scrolling through a list of his fallen teammates on his phone.

Read More: ‘SEAL Team’ season 3, episode 1 recap

While trying to get a nap, he’s suddenly awakened by a phone call from... none other than one of his fallen SEALs, calling from Fallujah with the ominous message that he wishes he had gotten out of the military.

Jason wakes up with a start, only to realize it was just a dream... a really horrifying one.

A few short minutes later, the team’s headquarters apparatus pinpoints a new high-value target, a wealthy financier named Peter Malkin. Chances are a mission is imminent and Bravo’s about to get spun up.

Sonny uses bringing Lisa food as an excuse to check up on her, worried that she’s not handling the stress of her role well. Ray overhears the meeting.

On the ramp at an airport in Bosnia, Bravo inserts and halts a private jet after taking some fire from nearby hired guns. They promptly dispatch the bad guys with some practiced trigger pulling, then they yank Malkin away. Mandy creatively interrogates the HVT and manages to get the location of the bombmaker, Vadim Tarasov.

Ray presses Sonny on what he earlier overheard and tries to get the loud Texan to 'fess up... but Sonny vehemently denies anything deeper than a professional working relationship with Davis.

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Cheers to a new episode of #SEALTeam tonight! 🍻

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Still unable to sleep, Jason goes out to the makeshift gym to blow off some stress. Ray finds him outside and finally gets his best friend to open up. Jason admits it might be time for a change.

The team has finally traced Tarasov to a fancy estate in Albania, and they insert by foot nearby to hump to the target. After clearing most of the mansion, Bravo finally finds their quarry in a study.

Instead of allowing himself to be captured, Tarasov pulls a suicide-by-SEAL when he reaches for a gun and Jason domes him with a clean shot.

On the extraction flight, Jason grabs some shuteye for the first time in what seems to be a very long time. Back at Bravo Team’s ferry, a C-17 Globemaster III, he reenlists for another two years as a Tier 1 operator.

Upon making it back stateside, Jason returns to an empty house, alone with his thoughts.

Christian’s Take

This episode is clearly more a character-driven one. We’re moving Jason and Ray along. I suspect Jason will have a good deployment but might call it quits as the senior NCO on the team, only to have Ray get promoted and take over Bravo.

Care to take a wager on that surprise ending?

Also, it was nice to get some lines from Trent. Trent is Tyler Grey in real life and is a good friend of GearScout and our video production team. He’s a former Delta operator who was severely wounded in the arm in Iraq and has come back as a fairly accomplished actor, producer and technical advisor.

I always found it ironic that a former D Boy is advising (and acting) on a ST6 show.

Airfield takedown —

Same loadout as the vehicle takedown in Ep1, but why not wear body armor? They already have intel that Malkin has sophisticated security with him and Bravo’s being transported via helo to the objective, so no weight to hump. I’d sure as hell wear a plate (and they’re wearing lids, aren’t they?)...

And they have two helos, so why isn’t there any aerial overwatch?

Love the line “The only easy day was yesterday”...harkening back to a saying that’s used in Basic Underwater Demolition School where sailors try out for the SEAL teams.

Interrogation —

I gotta say, I like the way they’ve developed Mandy’s character this season. It’s like she’s untethered and can be as badass as she wants flying under the radar as an interrogator.

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Mandy doesn't mess around. 💥#SEALTeam

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The trick she plays on Malkin is awesome. Who cares if he knows it’s a game — “Are you willing to bet your life on that?” No ma’am, I’m not.

Villa takedown —

Nice scouting work on the part of the “SEAL Team” staff here. What a friggin’ cool backdrop for the mafia villa takedown. Have we seen that house before in other shows? I’m wracking my brain.

OK, now I have another bone to pick. Too risky for a helo insert, too risky for a HAHO or HALO insert, so let’s hump it in, right? Dude, what’s with all the chit chat and har har on the walk in. I mean, I can’t tell if they’re even posting security. Doesn’t seem very snake eater to me.

Then it gets all dark and our Bravo frogmen are sporting NVGs — but no one’s using them! Again, I don’t get it. Sure it’s a bit backlit by the villa lights, but at least on the last few meters in to find their firing positions.

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The strongest pack! 💪 #SEALTeam

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I did like the fact that they agonized over the bad guys finding the dead bodies. That’s a nice detail touch.

While the villa looks cool on the outside, the director did a great job ramping up the tension when Bravo started clearing the interior. Big, ornate, refined and basically empty. Reminds me of tales of ST6 and CAG takedowns in Iraq where the whole house was rigged to drop on the team with no enemy inside. I kept waiting for something awful to happen.

And the jacked up Santa dolls? Do we have a feeling those will come up later during a terrorist bombing campaign for the holidays? Trent no likey…

Another hat tip to the technical advisors and camera crew/director of photography. The flow of the action is really engaging and the camera movement smooth and action packed.

No vomit-inducing jerkiness or wobble, and all the actors are in frame. Also, these dudes’ muzzle discipline is spot on. I can’t find a single instance when they sweep a fellow “operator” moving through all those doors and corners.

Really well done.

One thing though, did the mission technically fail? I mean, Mandy and Lisa asked that they bring Vadim Tarasov back alive to get intel from him. And Jason just taps him in the head?

Beer bottles clinking on the C-17 ride home? I dunno, I was thinking Blackburn and Co. would have a few words on that impulsiveness.

Speaking of the C-17 flight, Jason’s reenlistment ceremony was spot on, and touching ... but ominous.

Ingrid’s Take

Well, at the end of the first episode, it looked like Bravo 1 was not destined to make the season…but of course, since he’s the #1 character in the show, that was not going to be the ending. I thought.

Fast forward to the second episode and Jason’s same funk was still surrounding him. Looking at the clock ticking. Obsessing with fallen comrades. Dreaming that one of them was phoning him.

He admits to Ray that the bad dreams started after Alena, when Sonny nearly drowned and then when Ray was nearly killed by terrorists.

He keeps having nightmares about when he narrowly escaped the bombing in the first episode (I would, too). He tells Ray that he can’t go on kicking in doors always wondering what’s on the other side.

Then it looked like maybe Bravo 1 was going to be replaced with Ray when Blackburn told him that he was up for a promotion to Master Chief and also told him that there can only be one Master Chief – the not-so-hidden meaning that Bravo 1 was on his way out, one way or another.

Moving through the program… the Team is now in Albania to take out the “courier” who has been in back of all the recent bombings and who lives in a huge frigging mansion.

The Team moves through the house shooting everyone in sight and moving up flights of stairs and taking all the bad guys out on their way up. It reminded me of the movie about when the real Seal Team Six took out bin Laden.

Looks easy but takes years and years to be able to coordinate and execute such a mission.

Back to the mansion. Finally Jason opens the last door on the top floor, not knowing what’s on the other side. No bomb, but one very weird looking dude. Jason shoots him as he picks up a gun to shoot himself.

When Jason turns around facing the camera, he didn’t exactly smile, but the look on his face in that instant said it all. He was back. He could kick in doors, being smart about it but not being afraid of what was on the other side.

On the flight home, he reenlisted for two years and was sworn in. But when he finally gets home to an empty house, the depression is clear.

Like I wrote after the first episode, he needs a woman. I still think it’s coming. I think he and Mandy should get together. They’re both sort of lost souls.

Three of my favorite, very minor scenes included seeing Dita the dog open her own kennel to enter and go to sleep. I also liked the way she rushed into the room where they thought the “courier” was to sniff out any bad stuff. Not sure what it is about Dita, but I just love her.

Another favorite scene was when Bravo came across the Santa Claus dolls in the mansion. What was that about? I assume it was about nothing at all? Funny though.

The last one was when Lisa used the word “plethora” and Sonny chastises her – like “what the heck does that mean?!” A very short minor scene but I found it humorous. Sort of showing the officer-enlisted divide.

Question…what will happen to Ray’s promotion? It didn’t really make that part of the story very clear.

Next episode – “First Rule of Special Ops: Know Your Enemy.“ Same as in business and everyday life, but especially relevant when human lives are at risk.

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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