SEAL Team - Borderlines - Review: "No More Discovery Channel for Sonny"

I apologize for being late with this review. I’ve been prepping for and entertaining family in town for Thanksgiving and time just got away from me.

I loved the mission in this episode. Jane Cole, a CIA agent, and two Brazilian men are kidnapped and held for ransom. Jason and the team are sent to South America to rescue her.

Not surprisingly, Sonny hates the jungle. He considers it more troublesome and dangerous than SERE training. I think the team needs to set Sonny up with a sports only cable package. No more nature shows for him. It causes the man too much stress.

Their mission into the Brazilian jungle isn’t a problem, other than the fact that the men taken with Cole have been killed. The kidnappers have figured out that she’s a CIA agent and handed (or sold) her to Hezbollah, and they’ve moved into Paraguay.

This puts them into a position where they’re hampered by bureaucratic red tape. Jason heads to the CIA field office in Paraguay (‘on vacation’) to force the annoying little Chief of Station to get them some information and permission to act.

He gets the information, but can’t get Jason’s team permission to operate in the city. All is not lost though; a Paraguayan unit is prepared to rescue the women themselves. Not.

These guys are too arrogant to realize how poorly trained they are. They get three of their own men killed, five wounded and allow the bad guys to escape with their hostage.

The contrast of the Paraguayan operation and the SEAL Team’s operation was huge. The only part of the main mission that clanged in my head a little was Ellis’ speech to the Field office guy (Buckman).

I thought the ‘I’m friends with his daughter’ bullying tactic was a little lame. But, on the other hand, Buckman seemed like the kind of guy who needed that kind of bullying to get off his butt.

Back at home, Spenser finished up training with SERE training. At least it seemed like he finished the way that plot was concluded. The fantasies/hallucinations that he used to handle the torture weren’t as strong for me as I would have liked.

On the one hand, the idea of watching the training phase alongside missions was an interesting idea; on the other, if felt a so separate from the main mission story that it dissipated the energy too much. I’m getting the feeling that the powers-that-be have decided to drop that. I hope this means we’ll be getting more (and more interesting) stories revolving around the families back home.

Speaking of back home, Jason finally gave his wife what she’s been asking for. He began to open up and talk to her. We finally got to see more of Ray at home.

The final scene between with Ray and his wife, Naima was, in a way, the mirror of Jason and Alana. Ray's wife had been protecting him from the realities of their financial situation, much like Jason had been trying to protect Alana from the darkness of his job.

In both scenes the walls began to come down. It's something I've been waiting for. I'm glad they've finally started to deal with it.

What did you guys think about the episode? Any thoughts on the impending addition of Spenser to the team?