The BEST Episodes of S.W.A.T. (2017)
Every episode ever - ranked by fan votes!
Last Updated: Nov 27, 2019
Network: CBS
Los Angeles S.W.A.T. Lieutenant Daniel ‘Hondo’ Harrelson is assigned to lead a highly-skilled unit in the community where he grew up. Torn between loyalty to the streets where the cops are sometimes the enemy, and allegiance to his brothers in blue, he strategically straddles these two worlds. Hondo encourages his team to rely on communication and respect over force and aggression, but when a crisis erupts, these unflinching men and women are prepared to put their tactical training to the test.
#1 - School
Season 2 - Episode 11
The SWAT team faces difficult reminders of a past school shooting when they receive a warning that a copycat plans to re-enact the crime. As the team races to stop the new threat, they flash back to the day of the tense first mission.
8.00 
#2 - Invisible
Season 2 - Episode 19
The abduction of Luca and Street’s neighbor sends the SWAT team in pursuit of a home invasion crew targeting domestic workers to gain entry into upscale homes. Also, the SWAT division prepares to help Mumford mark a major career milestone.
7.96 
#3 - Immunity
Season 3 - Episode 4
Deacon’s family gets caught in the crosshairs of a drug cartel when he and the SWAT team aim to bring down its leader, a former foreign rebel force leader running drugs in plain sight via a local flower market. Also, Hondo receives troubling news regarding his father, and Tan is forced to go before an internal review board due to his girlfriend’s indiscretion.
7.95 
#4 - The LBC
Season 3 - Episode 5
Street reconnects with his estranged foster brother to help a joint investigation between SWAT and the Long Beach PD when criminals steal a mass arsenal of LAPD assault rifles. Hondo finds himself at odds with his father over the elder man’s declining health. Luca is overwhelmed when the entire team reconsiders becoming investors in his food truck.
7.93 
#5 - Kangaroo
Season 2 - Episode 23
The SWAT team goes in pursuit again of the militant group The Emancipators when the criminals hold a live stream kangaroo court to publicly execute city politicians. Also, Hondo fights to lift Darryl’s spirits; Deacon feels unworthy as he prepares to receive one of the LAPD’s highest honors; and Street catches a break in the search for his missing parolee mother, Karen Street.
7.91 
#6 - Funny Money
Season 3 - Episode 3
The SWAT team bumps heads with Lynch when she signs them up for an off-book undercover operation to take down a local gang printing counterfeit money, without giving them enough time to prepare for the mission. Tensions rise at home for Hondo as his parents’ strained relationship becomes worse.
7.91 
#7 - Seizure
Season 1 - Episode 10
As the SWAT team goes inside a prison riot to rescue civilian hostages, Hondo suspects the inmates have an ulterior motive behind the uprising. Also, when Deacon’s wife, Annie, stops by headquarters to celebrate Deacon’s 10th anniversary with the SWAT division, her visit takes an unexpected turn.
7.89 
#8 - Day of Dread
Season 2 - Episode 21
The SWAT team finds itself under internal investigation after a civilian is killed as they attempted to bring in the city’s most wanted criminal. As the mission details are revealed, the force’s internal affairs team calls Hondo’s leadership into question.
7.89 
#9 - Hunted
Season 1 - Episode 21
Hondo and Deacon must apply all their SWAT training and skills to evade a gang of armed mercenaries hunting them in the Angeles Mountains following an ambush. Also, Chris oversteps in an attempt to help a female SWAT trainee she suspects isn’t being evaluated fairly.
7.89 
#10 - Hoax
Season 1 - Episode 22
A fake 911 call puts Hondo and the SWAT team on the hunt to stop a white supremacy group from executing bombing attacks on local communities. Also, Street’s relationship with his recently paroled mother, Karen, jeopardizes his career, and Jessica is thrown a curveball by her colleague, Michael Plank, president of the police commission.
7.87 
#11 - Fire in the Sky
Season 3 - Episode 1
The SWAT team works with Lieutenant Piper Lynch, a senior LAPD Hollywood Division officer, when the mayor assigns her to oversee city departments joining forces to stop a serial bomber using drones as detonation devices. Just as Hondo settles into legal guardianship of his teen charge, his home life becomes more complicated when his estranged father unexpectedly moves in.
7.87 
#12 - Trigger Creep
Season 2 - Episode 22
The SWAT team races to locate the next place a lone gunman will strike while he is at large in Los Angeles. Also, Hondo takes some time away from the team to pursue an investigation that hits close to home, and Jessica is presented with an unexpected opportunity.
7.83 
#13 - Bad Faith
Season 3 - Episode 2
Lynch pulls the SWAT team’s focus when the mayor tasks her with enacting a departmental review of the squad right as they pursue the unstable and dangerous fugitive leader of an infamous doomsday cult. Luca asks the team to invest in his new passion project—a Guatemalan food truck.
7.83 
#14 - Cash Flow
Season 2 - Episode 18
Hondo has a tense reunion with a fellow Marine, Ruiz, when the SWAT team hunts an escaped convict who was broken out of prison by criminals using stolen military weapons. Also, Chris prepares for a difficult goodbye when her former K-9 partner becomes ill.
7.83 
#15 - Crews
Season 1 - Episode 15
The job becomes personal for Hondo when his criminal informant friend is killed while seeking information about a robbery crew that a joint SWAT and FBI task force is trying to capture. Also, when the FBI task force leader acts erratically, Jessica worries the woman’s behavior will endanger the team in the field.
7.82 
#16 - Never Again
Season 2 - Episode 6
The SWAT team tries to determine the next diamond dealer to be robbed by a group of highly organized thieves executing heists across downtown Los Angeles. When Hondo is emotionally affected by a suspect’s death during the case, he seeks comfort from his mother, Charice. Also, while Street worries that Luca, his SWAT training academy instructor, has a personal vendetta against him, Chris contemplates an unorthodox relationship offer from the new woman she’s dating.
7.81 
#17 - Rocket Fuel
Season 2 - Episode 20
The SWAT team discovers a new version of PCP with ties to an escaped drug dealer who created a version that ravaged the city decades earlier. Tan’s personal ties to the case emerge when he brings in his mentor, Ben Mosley, the former lead detective on the original drug case, to help. Also, Chris weighs a major decision regarding her romantic relationship with Kira and Ty, and Hondo’s patience is tested by his new familial responsibilities.
7.81 
#18 - Jack
Season 2 - Episode 17
The SWAT team tries to zero in on the next target of a carjacking ring that’s using deadly force to boost luxury vehicles all over Los Angeles. Also, Hondo takes a big step to help his childhood friend’s incarcerated son, Darryl, and SWAT team leader Mumford weighs a major decision.
7.80 
#19 - Track
Season 3 - Episode 7
The SWAT team searches for thieves who are on the run with a high-tech thermal lance that can cut through almost anything. To find the thieves, SWAT works to identify their target. Also, Chris confronts an imbalance in her relationship with Kira and Ty.
7.79 
#20 - K-Town
Season 1 - Episode 11
Hondo teams up with an old DEA friend, Special Agent Katrina “K.C.” Walsh, on a task force aimed at unmasking the secret leader of a fentanyl drug smuggling ring. Also, Jessica and Michael Plank, president of the Police Commission, begin implementing her new law enforcement community initiatives.
7.79 
#21 - Fallen
Season 2 - Episode 15
The SWAT team pursues a group of unknown assailants responsible for a patrol officer’s death before tension in the city between the police and the community explodes. Also, as Chris reels from the revelation that she knew the patrol officer who was killed, Deacon and his wife, Annie, prepare to welcome their newest child.
7.79 
#22 - S.O.S.
Season 2 - Episode 5
Hondo and Lina go undercover to infiltrate and take back a cruise ship that’s under siege by drug smugglers who will execute passengers if they detect police on board. Also, Street enters the SWAT Training Academy and finds the competition fiercer than he expected, with the applicants all vying for the one SWAT position available for the year.
7.79 
#23 - Inheritance
Season 2 - Episode 7
The SWAT team hunts for a band of criminals re-enacting the crimes of the infamous Symbionese Liberation Army, whose decades-old offenses made local and national news. Seeking expertise on the original crime spree in the 1970s, Luca and his father, Carl Luca, review the files of Luca’s late grandfather who worked for SWAT during the era of the original crimes. Also, Hondo experiences discrimination from a fellow officer during a SWAT training seminar for local law enforcement in Arizona.
7.79 
#24 - Kingdom
Season 3 - Episode 6
The Harrelsons engage in a tense family reunion when Hondo’s older sister, Winnie, begrudgingly arrives in Los Angeles to see their sick father for the first time in decades. The SWAT team searches for an abducted Middle Eastern human rights activist. Luca’s food truck business hits a snag. Street worries that dating Captain Hick’s daughter, Molly, will negatively impact his career.
7.78 
#25 - Saving Face
Season 2 - Episode 4
Hondo suspects an ulterior motive when Eric Wells, a U.S. marshal who is the estranged husband of his romantic interest, Deputy District Attorney Nia Wells, requests the S.W.A.T. team’s help with apprehending a fugitive who is robbing drug cargo shipments. Also, Jessica is forced to implement departmental budget cuts, and Street makes a heartbreaking discovery about his mother, Karen.
7.78