Just over a week ago, S.W.A.T. was looking at its series finale airing on May 17. But now, the CBS drama has been uncanceled (for the second time!), and instead, “Twenty Squad” will be the Season 7 finale—though nothing had to be changed, as star and executive producer Shemar Moore tells TV Insider.
According to CBS, in the episode, SWAT faces their deadliest adversary yet when a violent cell of extremists looks to exact vengeance by blowing up half of Los Angeles, potentially killing thousands. Still reeling from the anger and outrage directed at him by his own community, Hondo (Moore) questions if he still has what it takes to lead 20-Squad, adding to the fear that he won’t be able to pull the team together in time to save the city.
With that, “art is imitating life,” Moore tells us. “Shemar—me—wondering, do I need to start thinking about my next chapter? That’s where I was up until [12] days ago. What’s next? I have a bunch of ideas, but it’s not like I got a job waiting for me when this is over. Hondo is struggling to keep the team together, Shemar fighting to keep the show together, so it was all kind of one and the same.”
It has been a season of change, with Street (Alex Russell) transferring to Long Beach, Luca (Kenny Johnson) retiring after an on-the-job injury took him out of the field, and Deacon (Jay Harrington) planning to retire. “Nobody likes that,” Moore knows. “You go in the comments, ‘Bring Luca back, bring Chris [Lina Esco] back, what’s happening to our team? Bring Street back.’ But what people have to understand out there is it’s a business. And also without going into too much detail, oftentimes people make choices and want to go new directions and want to pursue other chapters. So a little bit of that is involved. And then it comes down to numbers and money and all of the above.”
But what is constant, for those watching the show and part of it is “nobody likes change,” especially Hondo this season. “You see him struggle. Has everything he stood for been for naught? Is he going to be deemed a failure? And so you see him start to crumble, you see him start to fade and sink and can he fight his way back?” Moore asks. “And Season 8 or no Season 8, it was fun for me to find the strength to get—like in boxing when you get sucker punched and you end up on a knee, it was fun for me to play the hurt of that punch, but to find a way to get up and keep fighting. And again, art imitates life. That’s what Hondo had to go through and that’s what S.W.A.T. had to go through, led by me.”
After all, the show survived cancellation twice! “Yeah, we got sucker punched and we got put on a knee, but we got up and kept swinging and we knew we might lose, but we were going to go into the bell and we got to the bell and we won,” he continues.
With those departures from the team already though—”If we lose too many people, what’s our play on the field going to be? What are our numbers?” asks Moore—will anyone new come in permanently? Or will S.W.A.T. continue to bring in people to work with 20-Squad, like Rocker (Lou Ferrigno Jr.) and Vasquez (Jessica Camacho) returning in the April 18 episode?
“There will be changes to the team We gotta fill the slots,” says Moore. “But you know what? They’re good changes. You got the OGs—you got me, you got Hicks [Patrick St. Esprit], you got Tan [David Lim], and I know you’re waiting for me to say other names, but you gotta watch to the end. And you got the newbies—you got Powell [Anna Enger Ritch], you got Alfaro [Niko Pepaj], and then there may be another addition or two beyond that. So it’s going to take some getting used to the audience, to the fans, but now it’s a new challenge for Hondo. He’s got to get this team tight and get them cohesive and get the chemistry together. And if Hondo can do that and Shemar can do that with the old and new cast members, that will resonate on the screen and I think people will be able to feel that and get behind that.”
Speaking of the OGs though—we did see Hondo looking at an old OG team photo recently—what are the chances of seeing, say, an engagement party for Street and Chris? In Russell’s last episode, Street revealed his plans to propose. “My answer to that is nobody died,” is all Moore would say. “So those of you who miss Chris, those of you miss Street, those of you miss Luca, I’m not promising you anything. Again, this is a business and I don’t get to make those big decisions. I can give my opinion, but as long as you didn’t die in the world of Hollywood, anything’s possible.”
What we do know: “These last few episodes will be so worth it,” promises Moore. “By the time we get to the last episode—which is no longer our last episode, it’s just the Season 7 finale—I believe you’ll feel good and fired up.”
S.W.A.T., Fridays, 8/7c, CBS