S04.E09: Next of Kin - S.W.A.T.

14 hours ago, Sweet Tooth said: Did I know this was coming? Of course. Was I hoping they'd build up some kind of sexual tension? That Street would man up and split up from his girlfriend before professing his love to someone else? Yes.

14 hours ago, Sweet Tooth said:

Did I know this was coming? Of course. Was I hoping they'd build up some kind of sexual tension? That Street would man up and split up from his girlfriend before professing his love to someone else? Yes.

The disappointment I feel that they bungled this, can't be overstated.

Agreed,

What really gets me about all this is that Street never showed any real affection for Erika, beyond that of being cordial to a co-worker. Why her death would suddenly make him want to throw away all the good he has in his life and be a selfish jerk to Christina is beyond me.

Nate's death didn't make him want to run to Christina, why would Erika's?

14 hours ago, Sweet Tooth said:

I really thought the wife/girlfriend getting involved with a cop and then suddenly realizing that the hours are horrible, and they might get killed, and ragging on them for it, went out in the eighties.

You'd think that, before creating (or rather, reviving) a cop procedural the writers might have first read The Great Book of Cop Show Cliches You Should Avoid, but I guess not.

Here's the thing about Annie's exhortation. So, ignoring the actual realities of SWAT and accepting this show's version of SWAT's reality, we have to assume that each year Deacon goes on at least a dozen, if not more, "high risk" raids each year.

Now, remember that Deacon is the most senior member of the SWAT team (or he's at least senior enough that he was thought of as the heir to Buck Spivey's leadership of the team). I don't know if the show has ever said exactly how long Deacon has been with the team but let's assume it's at least 10-15 years, leaning towards the "over".

I'd also assume Deacon is around the same age as Hondo (the actor portraying Deacon, Jay Harrington, is 49, about a year Shemar Moore's junior) and he's a Sergeant, so he's probably been a police officer for well over twenty years.

Annie, if I recall correctly, was Deacon's high school sweetheart. I don't know if Annie's age has ever been revealed but the actress portraying her, Bre Blair, is 40.

So let's assume that Deacon and Annie have been together for...25 years. Which would make them late to the party to starting a family (Lila is seven years old, and that's established since she was named for high school shooting victim Deacon couldn't save, which according to the show's cannon occurred eight years ago), but it's not too far out of the ordinary.

Anyway, we've established that Deacon and Annie have been together throughout Deacon's long career on the police force, including a long time in the most riskiest of police jobs, which is SWAT.

Now, I could give the writers the benefit of the doubt that maybe Deacon has never experienced the death of a fellow officer in the line of duty (though that's doubtful) and that maybe he's never experienced the death of a SWAT team member on a mission while he is also an active SWAT member.

Maybe. Considering how hard the SWAT teams train and how hard they are on team members who take unnecessary risks, it could be believable that no one- before Erika- had died while on a mission in anyone's lifetime. However, given how risky their jobs are portrayed, Erika being the first SWAT member to die in the line of duty in over a generation feels very lucky, to say the least.

Regardless, you would have thought that, in all those years together, that Deacon himself has been through a few near-death situations while on the job.

Heck, during the show's run we've already seen Deacon get kidnapped and held hostage and another time we've seen Deacon get his house shot up by a gang out to get him.

That latter part is why Lila apparently has to switch schools...because the shooting still traumatized her.

Oh, and Annie also nearly died of brain cancer, so she's also aware of her own mortality.

If Annie didn't think then during all those times that Deacon's job is too dangerous for him and the family, why does Erika's death prompt her to think that now?

Annie could have had least told Deacon, "the past few years have been rough on us, maybe it's time to ditch the danger". She- or Deacon, or both- could have also insinuated or flat out mentioned they've had this conversation many times before, because they probably have.

Yet the writers treated Erika's death as not "the straw that broke the camel's back" but merely as a straw. The one incident that made Annie change her mind about how comfortable she is with the risk Deacon takes on every day while he is at work.

As if all those other times didn't matter.

Never mind getting her house shot up or getting brain cancer or dealing with Deacon actually getting held hostage.

No, the fact that a SWAT member, one whom Deacon was not particularly close with and someone Annie might not have even met, that's the trigger that changes Annie's mind seemingly forever about how comfortable she is with Deacon and the job he takes on.

I mean, I don't know if it would have made the cliche any better, but a little bit of wider awareness and a nod to continuity might have made that scene easier to understand.

Instead, everyone winds up looking bad all because the writer just couldn't be bothered with adding a line or two to give the scene better context.

If that's not lazy then I don't know what is.

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