The way things are going, all of Bravo team might not make it back from Africa.
The unit’s dysfunction continued to be a problem on SEAL Team Season 4 Episode 14.
Most of the problem swirled around Sonny, who couldn’t seem to deal with his unborn child and Hannah being half a world away.
Being on the U.S.S. Keating is absolutely the wrong place to be for a budding alcoholic such as Sonny.
You would think a sailor would know that since 1914, the only alcohol aboard U.S. ships was reserved for the wardroom officers and the Captain’s Mess.
The SEALs seemingly usually get transported by air, either plane or chopper.
So Sonny has been finding his time in on a U.S. warship near Africa to be damned inconvenient since he has to deal with his loneliness without his preferred coping mechanism.
Worse yet, alcohol-fueled screwups he could get away with on-base aren’t acceptable here. His drunken actions reflect badly on the team. And Bravo wouldn’t be based on a ship for their missions against Boko Haram if they had any options on land.
The problem is that while no one is completely ready to become a parent, Sonny is particularly unprepared.
He’s already learning that even before she’s born, his unborn daughter’s health scares can provoke fear.
Although Hannah attempts to pump him up long-distance about his potential as a father, truth be told, anything she gets from Sonny in the parenting department would be an unexpected bonus.
It doesn’t help that he’s still processing his latest breakup with Davis, and she’s always there, on every mission, close but untouchable.
Like all of Bravo, Sonny sets aside his problems (and the booze) while no missions. But so far, this trip to Africa has been a lot of hurry-up-and-wait. And a bored Sonny is a danger to himself.
And so he drinks.
When Jason found out Sonny was drinking aboard a ship on SEAL Team Season 4 Episode 13, the newly touchy-feely Bravo One laid down the law. Sonny paid lip service to do better.
Then Clay, likely seeking distraction from Stella’s apartment woes he could do little about from another continent, decided to be the angel on Sonny’s soldier. He was going to spend every waking moment with Sonny to keep him on the straight narrow.
But you can’t turn your back on Sonny, or he’ll find a way to get falling-down drunk.
There was little worry about a concussion with Sonny’s thick skull. But while his teammates tried to hush up Sonny’s indiscretion, the rest of the sailors on board had little compunction gossiping about one of the golden boys who had slipped up.
But since Bravo needed its demolition man, Soto just benched Sonny temporarily until the real mission got rapidly set into motion.
Clay’s harping at Sonny to confess to Jason certainly didn’t help Sonny keep his mind on the mission.
If Sonny were the only problem child, that would be one thing. But he wasn’t.
Ray hasn’t been right since his stint as a prisoner of war, which continued on this mission.
To appease the newly aware Jason, Ray pretended he was patching things up with Naima at home.
Then he got claustrophobic in the water-tank truck when a hatch stuck on him. It was a wonder that anything worked on that slapdash contraption.
One obstacle after another on the mission started with comms being shut off from the ship because of the unidentified submarine nearby.
Ray’s hack went smoothly. But the multiple prisoners were unexpected, and Bravo was ill-equipped to deal with the situation, especially with the rest of the Boko Haram contingent returning.
While it affected everyone on Bravo to have to leave all but one of the prisoners behind, it affected Ray most because he understood the helplessness those prisoners were feeling.
That look of pity on his face when the aid worker proclaimed that he was free at last said it all. Too often lately, Ray finds his mind drifting back to his incarceration in Tunisia.
Even though Soto hasn’t been around that long, he was aware that Ray is off his game. Jason tried to lay it off as just a domestic squabble, but even he realizes Ray needs help.
That’s probably why Ray was pushing Jason not to worry so much about the team’s mental health: to throw Jason off the scent of despair. Now Jason’s back to “Take the win and hit the showers,” not an improvement.
Jason wasn’t the only one frustrated by their attempt to do good for their fellow sailors. Davis fell into the same trap.
She thought she had subtly set Whitshaw straight on SEAL Team Season 4 Episode 13. Only there was blowback on Mina for Davis’s efforts.
Davis convinced Mina to report Whitshaw for sexual harassment to a female officer, and all appeared right with the world.
Only the Navy needed Whitshaw more than Mina, so he just got a slap on the wrist in the form of counseling. Leading to that decision was Davis’s history with Whitshaw, which was painted as retribution.
It sounds like Davis may be getting a different job, so maybe Mina could take over for Davis and escape Whitshaw.
To revisit the Boko Haram mission, watch SEAL Team online.
What’s going to save Sonny?
Will Ray get help?
Should Davis keep trying to protect Mina?
Comment below.
Dale McGarrigle is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.