SEAL Team is finally returning to CBS after a rollercoaster ride of a fourth season, complete with weeks of uncertainty about whether or not it would get a shot at Season 5. Now, after months of hiatus, Jason Hayes and the rest are on the way back to television for a few weeks before making the move to a new platform, but SEAL Team isn’t just picking up where it left off. Showrunner Spencer Hudnut previewed what’s happening with the time jump for Season 5 when it comes to the characters.
The show said goodbye to some characters in Season 4 and dealt a traumatizing blow to Ray, but the fourth season also ended with Clay and Stella getting married, and Sonny’s future looking bright as a new dad even with questions surrounding what happens next with Davis. Throw in everything that Jason has gone through, and there is a lot that needs addressing on SEAL Team. Showrunner Spencer Hudnut opened up about how long the time jump will be and what’s in store, telling TVLine:
Three months, and I would say, ironically, that Jason is probably in the most stable place, because of all the work he did on himself last year. He is becoming an even better, all-around leader, more of a sheep dog inside the wire and outside the wire. He’s kind of more Obi-Wan than Luke Skywalker now, but he’s in a good place.
Let it not be said that Jason always repeats his mistakes, or that SEAL Team does nothing but retread old ground with him! What he went through in Season 4 set him up for some stability in Season 5. I doubt many fans would have thought to compare David Boreanaz’s character to Star Wars’ Obi-Wan Kenobi before this point, so the showrunner’s comments definitely paint an intriguing picture of what’s to come.
But Jason being stable doesn’t mean that the rest of Bravo is going to be in the same position. SEAL Team boss Spencer Hudnut went on to share what’s happening with other characters after how Season 4 ended for them, saying:
As for Sonny, as a parent, as a dad, that’s new ground for him…. Clay is now married and taking on more responsibility within the team…. And Ray over those three months certainly has had a lot to work on. He and Naima took baby steps to repairing things, but he certainly had a long ways to go when we last saw him.
Being a new dad is new ground for Sonny as well as for fans, although it remains to be seen how much he’ll actually get to be with his child once the action picks up again. The three-month time jump may have given him some time with the baby, but it’s probably safe to say that SEAL Team isn’t coming back to spend episodes at a time focusing on the characters’ domestic lives from start to finish. Clay will evidently be stepping up more for Bravo.
Of course, Ray for one had a mess to clean up on the domestic front after what happened with him and Naima last season. Acknowledging his problem was a step in the right direction, and as the showrunner noted, he had a lot to work on, but maybe those three months will be enough to get him ready to go back in the field and able to cover his Bravo brothers’ backs.
Jason, Ray, and the rest may be returning to CBS for SEAL Team Season 5, but they won’t stay on the broadcast network for long. After the first four episodes of the fifth season air on CBS, the series will move to streaming service Paramount+. The development came after David Boreanaz led fans in a campaign for the series to get another season, when it seemed like every CBS show other than SEAL Team was getting renewed.
Non-subscribers to Paramount+ may not be thrilled about the move, but David Boreanaz had nothing but good things to say about what releasing on streaming can mean regarding what isn’t possible to produce for network television. For now, though, you can catch episodes of SEAL Team on CBS on Sundays, with the Season 5 premiere at 10 p.m. ET on October 10 in the fall TV lineup.
