The Best Episodes of S.W.A.T. (2017)
Last Updated: Dec 10, 2018
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 - 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.
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#2 - 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.
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#3 - 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.
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#4 - 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.
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#5 - 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.
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#6 - 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.
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#7 - 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.
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#8 - 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.
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#9 - Shaky Town
Season 2 - Episode 1
The SWAT team engages in a standoff with human traffickers holding child hostages when a major earthquake hits Los Angeles during their operation and compromises the takedown. Also, while Hondo forms an unexpected personal connection with Deputy District Attorney Nia Wells, Jim Street has trouble adjusting to his new life as a patrol officer.
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#10 - Fire and Smoke
Season 2 - Episode 3
The SWAT team is enlisted by Hondo’s new romantic interest, Deputy District Attorney Nia Wells, to protect the jurors of a high-profile bribery trial, after some of them are targeted by organized crime in a series of fire-bombings.
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#11 - Payback
Season 1 - Episode 16
When a young heiress, Juliette Carlton, is kidnapped for ransom, Hondo and the SWAT team go on a citywide search to bring her home before she is harmed. Also, the team worries that Mumford is moving too fast when he announces he’s getting married for the fourth time.
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#12 - Contamination
Season 1 - Episode 12
Hondo and the SWAT team join forces with the FBI on a manhunt to find members of a militia group planning a domestic terror attack by weaponizing cyanide. Also, as Jessica’s new police initiatives with Michael Plank, president of the police commission, move forward, she braces herself for the negative impact the plans could have on her relationships within the department.
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#13 - 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.
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#14 - Vendetta
Season 1 - Episode 20
Hondo’s life and career are endangered when his bosses and his godson’s kidnapper, Jae Kim, discover he’s been secretly surveilling Kim with the help of retired DEA agent Katrina Walsh. Also, Street and his newly paroled mother, Karen, both have trouble acclimating to her prison release.
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#15 - Armory
Season 1 - Episode 17
As Hondo and SWAT work to de-escalate a hostage situation in which an ex-convict is holding a local family captive, the mission takes a dangerous turn that impacts the team. Also, when Street tires of his complicated romantic entanglements, he agrees to let Chris make over his online dating profile.
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#16 - The Tiffany Experience
Season 2 - Episode 8
The SWAT team races to find a stalker pursuing Tiffany, a social media star, after the online celebrity’s dangerous admirer turns a fan event into a shootout that endangers Jessica.
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#17 - Radical
Season 1 - Episode 4
After a domestic bomber dies in a Highland Park explosion, the SWAT team races to find the man’s partner before more devices detonate. Also, Hondo reaches out to Buck, his former team leader, when he worries he is isolating himself after his recent firing, on S.W.A.T.
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#18 - Miracle
Season 1 - Episode 8
Hondo and the SWAT team are forced to work over their Christmas vacation when a drug cartel is out for blood after their cache of gold bars is stolen. Also, Jessica draws the attention of Michael Plank, president of the Police Commission, when she approaches him with her ideas on how to improve the SWAT division.
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#19 - Gasoline Drum
Season 2 - Episode 2
The SWAT team works together with their former member Jim Street to find a woman and her son who are running from an international drug cartel. Also, Hondo makes a distressing discovery about his incarcerated friend’s teen son, and Luca mulls over a government program that allows officers to buy homes in the at-risk neighborhoods they police.
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#20 - Source
Season 1 - Episode 19
Jim Street debates whether or not his mother, Karen, should live with him upon her prison release after Hondo and Chris warn him against it. Also, Hondo and the team are assigned to protect Irina Zemanova, a high-profile Russian journalist visiting Los Angeles, from being assassinated.
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#21 - Cuchillo
Season 1 - Episode 2
Hondo and the SWAT team spread out across Los Angeles in pursuit of four escaped convicts, including a violent criminal Jessica helped bring to justice, before department rival Mumford and his team beat them to the collars. Also, Hondo’s new role as team leader is called into question when Street displays a flagrant disregard for SWAT protocol.
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#22 - Ghosts
Season 1 - Episode 14
Hondo and the team go on the hunt for a serial killer who escaped justice two years prior by faking his death. Also, Hondo worries that Buck Spivey, the team’s former leader, is spiraling into depression in the aftermath of being fired from the department, on S.W.A.T.
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#23 - Octane
Season 1 - Episode 6
Hondo puts aside his misgivings about Jim Street’s recklessness and allows the newbie to go undercover as a broker in a luxury car theft ring to bust a ruthless trafficker. Also, Hondo visits Raymont Harris, the teenager recently shot by a former member of the SWAT team, who is dealing with PTSD.
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#24 - Patrol
Season 1 - Episode 18
Hondo confronts his long-held resentment towards his ailing father, Daniel Harrelson, Sr., when he and his sister, Briana, try to convince their dad he’s no longer well enough to live alone. Also, when the SWAT team works as patrol officers for a day, Chris is partnered with Mumford, who intends to make her a surprising offer.
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#25 - Blindspots
Season 1 - Episode 9
When a misconduct complaint filed against Hondo gets him taken off active duty, Deacon steps up to lead the team in finding a robbery crew that is hitting marijuana dispensaries. Also, when Tan notices a similarity between the current robberies and a case from his time with Hollywood LAPD, he asks for help from an informant with whom he has a complicated history.
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