A brutally raw episode of SEAL Team that is really a roller coaster from the moment it begins, picking up from the previous season finale and pushing viewers into a nightmarish scene that unfolds in real time. I wasn't ready for what unfolded. The directing and depiction of battlefield trauma was noticeably more graphic, intense and difficult to watch than probably any previous episode of SEAL Team - certainly beyond what CBS would have approved if this had aired pre-Paramount+. That's commendable, even if it's hard to see as a viewer.
The scenes with Clay are absolutely brutal to watch. For a show that has (sometimes to its detriment) manufactured an enormous amount of personal character drama in previous seasons, this episode was jarring in how real and genuinely damaging it felt to both the characters and the viewer; for the most part, we're there with Bravo, waiting for that helicopter, waiting for a nurse, waiting for the phone to ring.
Alona Tal (Stella) brings one of her best performances of this series in this episode, from immediate reaction to later handling a FaceTime call. You can feel her overwhelming anxiety. Same for AJ Buckley (Sonny), who takes his character to places we haven't really seen before.