SEAL Team Season 4 Episode 3 Review: The New Normal

A little change of pace may be what's best for everyone.

Both Bravo Team and its former members were all struggling on SEAL Team Season 4 Episode 3.

You take its best operators (Jason, Ray, Clay, and, yeah, Cerberus) off the squad, and of course, its performance is bound to fall off.

How did Thirty Mike end up Bravo One? Was that a reward for shooting the terrorist chief on SEAL Team Season 4 Episode 2?

I'm guessing so. It can't be for his people skills. Arrogance isn't a leadership quality. People have to want to follow a leader, and Mike is leading Bravo right into ruin.

Not that there's any other obvious candidate currently on Bravo.

Sonny is a knuckledragger who will run through a wall for his brothers. But no one has ever considered him to be a strategic thinker.

Trent, Brock, and Full Metal are background characters, and Pepper, well, is a dog. So they're all out.

Lindell could always bring in someone new from outside. But no way would improve the already bad team chemistry.

No, this early part of the season will be about how to bring the Big Three back into Bravo.

Which is a shame, really, as all three were headed for lives outside of Bravo.

Whether that would mean better lives is yet to be seen.

Jason is turning into that cliche: the operator who can't let go of his glory years.

It's like he told Cerberus: neither of them is cut out for civilian life.

It's a shame, really.

It was heartening to see that Natalie had given Jason another chance and that they'd formed a family unit, adopting Cerberus.

Even Emma was urging Jason to take that next step with Natalie, and he was honest-to-goodness trying to walk away from Bravo.

But still, Jason blamed himself that Bravo couldn't succeed without him (and Ray and Clay), that they didn't absorb anything from his leadership.

And hanging out in Ops was taking away from the job Jason was supposed to be doing. Granted, mission planning paled in comparison to operating, but this is the life of a SEAL on the backside of his career.

Did Jason hear Lindell's admonition to get his head in the game? To a degree, but as the trailer for the next episode revealed, his stint at HQ promises to be short-lived.

Jason seems headed to becoming one of those mercenary contractors who end up in war zones after his next bad injury, with no wife and less contact with this family.

Then there's Ray, who became a warrant officer searching for better work-life balance and more time with his growing family.

He's the leader that Bravo needs now, but he's too valuable for that, which is why he ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time during that explosion.

I also still expect that Agent Green to make a play for Ray if, you know, she survived. Ray's home life is just too perfect.

The attack on Ray is going to be the catalyst that pulls Bravo Team back together. Watch and see.

And maybe Thirty Mike could be collateral damage on that mission. Few would mind.

And poor Clay. Didn't you know that doing such a noble thing would turn around and bite him in the ass?

For a skilled operator such as Clay, pushing papers has to be the ultimate torture.

Of course, Lindell is upset that his golden boy, his rising star, would go outside of channels and do such a thing. Naturally, he has to punish Clay.

But he's ruining one of his elite fighting units in the process. If Clay were on Bravo, while he's too young to lead the squad, at least he could temper some of Sonny's worse impulses. Like taking live rounds into a training operation.

While it isn't surprising that Sonny feels abandoned, he really needs to pull up his big boy boxers. Jason, Ray, and Clay made what they consider the right choices for themselves, and it's his job as a brother to support them.

For a time, it appeared like the old spark was back between Sonny and Davis. But then she got promoted for her good work, and she couldn't afford to be linked to screwup Sonny. It's sad, but he had his chance with her and blew it.

It truly appears that Mandy is done. While I'll miss Jessica Pare, Davis has made Mandy redundant.

Everything Mandy said to Jason during her departure should have resonated with Jason, but apparently not enough. Mandy can land a cushy security position somewhere while Jason's private-sector future wouldn't be so bright, ending up at a PD or alphabet agency somewhere.

We got a glimpse of Cerberus's replacement Pepper, but the squad was so busy messing up during training that it could be a while before we get to see Pepper in a combat situation.

The big question remaining is how long will Bravo remain separated. I suspect it will extend beyond the next episode, to the other side of the holiday hiatus.

To follow the changes in Bravo, watch SEAL Team online.

How badly hurt is Ray?

What will cause Lindell to relent on Clay?

Will Jason screw up the good thing he has with Natalie?

Comment below.