‘SEAL Team’ Faces a Very Personal Mission to Help Clay

Watch Your Six

Season 6 • Episode 6

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for SEAL Team Season 6 Episode 6 “Watch Your Six.”]

Bravo has a very different mission, but one of their most important, personal ones yet, in SEAL Team’s 100th episode. The military drama rightfully focuses on what makes it so good: the relationships within the team, even if one of the brothers isn’t on Bravo at the moment.

Upon returning home from Syria, Jason (David Boreanaz) may at first be focused on trying to find a reason to spin up again and also spend time personal time with Mandy (Jessica Paré), but that changes once he hears about what’s going on with Clay (Max Thieriot). Sonny’s (A.J. Buckley) the one to find him sleeping in his bed after Clay walked out on Stella (Alona Tal) and suggest a boys trip hunting to make up for lost time with his battle boo. Then Jason learns that Clay was told to take time off after erratic behavior, “probably the same stuff you’d do if you went from being the Navy’s deadliest weapon to training the Navy’s deadliest weapon,” as Blackburn (Judd Lormand) puts it.

It’s when they’re already at Full Metal’s (RIP) cabin that Sonny sees the pills in Clay’s bag and calls him out, considering his plan to do rehab clean. “I was, then I realized I lost my f**king leg,” Clay says. Green Team hasn’t been the easiest, and he needs the pills to numb the pain. And now he thinks Stella thinks he’s dangerous and a threat to their son, which hurts worse than anything that’s come from his injury. Sonny urges him to get comfortable being uncomfortable and reminds him he owes it to Stella to show her he’s still the same guy.

Monty Brinton/Paramount+

Just as they’ve decided to skip hunting and instead follow a map they found in Full Metal’s cabin with “Big Bucks” marked on it, Jason (unable to help but feel guilty again for Clay’s injury since he’s now struggling), Brock (Justin Melnick), and Trent (Tyler Grey) join them. Ray (Neil Brown Jr.) wanted to come, but he and his wife are opening their vet center next week. They run into an obstacle in following the map, however, when Clay can’t climb the terrain and refuses any help. They instead all return to the cabin.

After Clay retreats to a bedroom, Jason tries to organize a hunting expedition inside the cabin, for the rat that’s chewed the wire of the VCR and through their food. Clay instead wants to go to a bar, which turns out to be a bad idea. At first, it’s great. They reminisce. Then a guy accuses Brock of hitting on his girlfriend, Jason steps in, and all seems great … until Clay gets really angry and starts a fight. Everyone’s involved, and eventually Clay has to be pulled out of there.

Back at the cabin, Clay defends his actions as those of a good teammate, but Jason knows he was looking for trouble. “I might be off Bravo but you all are the ones who forgot what being a team guy’s about,” Clay argues before again retreating. The others talk about the pills and do understand that Clay didn’t just lose a leg, but the brotherhood and, as Trent understands from walking away from Bravo briefly, a sense of purpose, as well. “I’m happy he survived, we all are, but seeing him like this, I get why some operators feel warriors are meant to die on the battlefield,” Jason admits.

Monty Brinton/Paramount+

Then Ray joins them and tries to get through to Clay. “You’re my brother, and I am sorry I haven’t been in touch more. I can’t imagine what you’re going through,” Ray acknowledges. Clay argues that Ray’s been through worse and is fine, but the other man corrects him: He only got close to where he is because he admitted he wasn’t OK and he had his brothers. He also knows that Clay isn’t doing well and may need to find another way to serve. He is worried that Clay is nearing a slippery slope with the pills. “I used to look at the future and all I saw was possibilities. And now, I’m scared of what’s around the next corner,” Clay admits. But Ray has some encouraging words: He pushed Jason so hard to draft him because he saw what needed to be done and did it, and losing his leg doesn’t change that. He just needs to find a new way to use his talent.

Soon after Ray reveals to Jason that he’s planning to retire when he hits his 20 — in four months — Sonny interrupts their conversation to report that Clay took off with a loaded rifle. He’s drunk and hopped up on pills, so they have to be concerned he’s not thinking clearly. And what’s more concerning: Trent admits when he was away from Bravo, he took a few walks in the woods he didn’t intend to come back from. They split up to search, and unsurprisingly, it’s Jason who finds Clay, by thinking about what he’d do: adapt and overcome or die trying, which is why (former) Bravo 6 found a way to find the “Big Bucks” spot from the map.

Clay explains he became a SEAL not to serve (as Ray Thinks), but to prove he’s better than his father, he’s the best, and that’s why he was chasing Jason’s footsteps all those years. Jason, in turns, reminds him of what he told him at the Bulkhead: There’s more to life than operating. Says the guy who kept his teammates in the dark about his TBI, Clay remarks. And he’s still hiding it from command. (SEAL Team really is so good when Jason and Clay have these important conversations.)

Jason knows he’s the guy who puts walls up to push people away, which is what Clay is doing right now, and it took him losing his leg to get where he wanted: to be like Bravo 1. For Clay, “teaching at Green Team, hanging with my brothers, I don’t fit in.” He’s not an operator anymore. Jason argues he’s seen brothers come back from this injury and isn’t betting against Clay. But Clay feels like he’s failed everyone enough and worries about the risk of putting them in danger. Jason wishes he could tell him what happens when he jumps off this crazy train, but he tried that once and failed. Warriors are meant to die on battlefield, Clay reminds him. Not you, Jason says, pointing out that Clay did what he and Ray couldn’t: got off the path and put the people he loves first. Find a way to fix that, he advises. Then maybe Jason can follow in his footsteps.

So what is the “Big Bucks” treasure anyway? Apparently a big buck, which could be Clay’s next trophy if he has something to prove to himself, Jason suggests. But while Clay does aim his rifle, he doesn’t take the shot. He’s not a shooter anymore, he’s realized.

And soon after that, it’s time to leave the cabin — and for Clay to toss his pills. Jason just hopes they helped him and it’ll be OK. And now, all we can do is wait to see what happens next.

Overall, it’s a great milestone episode. It focuses on the characters and relationships (that of Bravo) we care about, and it shows the strength of and conflicts within the brotherhood. It is too bad that we didn’t get more of Davis (Toni Trucks) with the guys, outside of brief exchanges with Jason and Sonny, but that fits with her storyline this season. And while we may not feel the same way about Omar (Raffi Barsoumian) as Jason does, it was right to not include him onscreen (though the episode does a great job of addressing the tension there). SEAL Team delivered exactly what it needed to for 100.

SEAL Team, Sundays, Paramount+

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