3 Seventeen Year Olds

**3 Seventeen Year Olds** is the first episode of the fourth season in the remake version of *S.W.A.T.*, and the sixty-seventh episode overall, which was aired on November 11, 2020.

## Summary

Hondo, his father Daniel Sr. and his teen charge Darryl Henderson confront the history of racial tension in Los Angeles between law enforcement and the Black community, through flashbacks to the city in 1992 following the Rodney King verdict. Also, the SWAT team pursues El Diablo's scattered drug cartel hiding in the city and a Jihadist group detonating bombs in coordinated attacks.

## Recap

Things were once normal. Back in March, the only thing Hondo had to worry about was his father. It was coming up on the anniversary of the LA riots and he and his father have always disagreed about the way things were done back then. Pops sided with Rodney King. He felt the men who beat Rodney almost to death should have gotten punished and yet he wasnt surprised that they walked. Pop knew the system was flawed. He tried to teach his son that the system was flawed and Hondo hadn’t wanted to believe him. Hondo believed there must have been other evidence that people didn’t know about. He thought the cops that beat Rodney King so badly were perhaps mistaken or had seen something that wasn’t caught on tape. And Hondo felt that way because even then he knew he wanted to be a cop.

Hondo eventually became a cop. His father wanted him to go to college on a football scholarship and possibly pursue the sport afterward. Only Hondo wanted to be a cop. He became the cop like he always wanted and he joined the elite forces in SWAT. Hondo even ran his own team. He was a team leader and he and his men were cleaning up the fallout of a previous case. They had taken down a notorious cartel member by the name of El Diablo. El Diablo had sworn right before he died that the violence wouldn’t end with him and that the streets would run red with blood. The team had no idea what he was talking about. They chose to investigate it because they wanted to know why El Diablo was in the city and they found out he was there because of his nephew.

El Diablo’s nephew is Jam “Bricklayer” Gomez. It seems this Bricklayer got his name because he loved to cause damage and he was trying to take over the cartel behind his uncle’s back. El Diablo flew into town to stop him. The fact El Diablo is now dead meant Bricklayer didn’t have to worry about him anymore and he could assume control of their whole organization. The bricklayer was on SWAT’s radar now. They made a move against him and they took prisoners. They later learned from a certain prisoner that his uncle was also in town to stop his side business. He ran a coyote operation and he smuggled people from Central and South America into the United States.

Bricklayer said that his uncle had been right about the bloodshed. He transported a group of four into the U.S. and these people were bent on destruction. He said it was one woman and three men. They came asking for directions. They wanted to know heavily trafficked areas and he knew they planned on committing terrorism. It’s just that Bricklayer didn’t care. Bricklayer was rocking jihadi tattoos. He knows he looks badder with them and by hanging around genuine terrorists. He was hoping to trade on his relationship with them to take control of the family business, but SWAT had inadvertently helped him by killing his uncle. And now Bricklayer is willing to turn on his friends.

He’ll turn on them for a price. He wanted to walk from the charges and no one wanted to give him that. They were truly hoping he was lying when the first attack happened. A woman had blown a building. Her attack was supposed to be the first among many and so the team was coordinating with Homeland Security to take this group down. They tracked down the woman in the footage. They found an apartment with bomb-making capabilities and the evidence showed that there were going to be countless bombs. The team later found a second bomber when he launched three bombs at a promo event and that time he killed ten people. The team stopped him from killing any more.

The team also quickly realized that they hadn’t gotten all the bombs. The evidence from the apartment showed it was more than three and so the terrorist still had access to some. So, the hardest part for the team was determining where will be the next attack. They relied on what they found. They found a terrorist and they were able to link him to a group. He was on the Interpol watchlist with his friends. They were all from supposedly good families and they didn’t come from the same area. They were from all over. They were also working with an American. The team soon found out this American was a white EMT driver. The terrorist would only need an EMT driver if their next attack required one.

It was Hondo that realized that the EMT was supposed to be used in an attack on a triage center and Hondo knew he had to stop it because he knew his godson Darryl was visiting a friend there. Hondo tried to get in contact with Darryl. He called him several times and the teenager was away from his phone. With Darryl out of communication, the only way to protect him was to stop the terrorist. The team set up a stopping point on the bridge and they waited for their EMT. They all began shooting at him when he got close enough and at first, it wasn’t working. They were ordered to stand down because Hicks hadn’t wanted to risk anyone. And it was just Hondo who ignored their order to stand down.

All Hondo could think about was Darryl. He kept shooting until he took out the EMT driver and because he delayed getting out of the way for so long, Hondo was in the blast zone when the ambulance crashed with all its explosives. He cracked three ribs and was otherwise okay after being taken to the hospital. Hondo was feeling so much better that he went to the anniversary held for the LA riots. He went with Darryl and his Pop. He also later admitted to his Pop that he turned down college because he had wanted to hurt him. His dad had left his mother for another woman. Hondo realized if he went to college that it would bring him closer to his dad and, at the time, he didn’t want that.

Hondo now regrets hurting his father. He was glad he joined the Marines because he did get to see the world and help people. It also was a nice transition into being a cop. Hondo loves what he does and he believes the world has changed for the better. He’s not saying it’s perfect, but he does think there’s been progress and his Pop disagrees. His Pop feels like nothing has changed. He said that every few years it something or someone that just picks at the scab and it starts bleeding again. Pop had said that Darryl’s time would come. That the young teenager would see a tragedy like they did and that did happen when he watched George Floyd die.

Hondo was so moved after that he ended up joining a protest with both his Pop and Darryl. The trio took the knee in front of a memorial of all the people that were unnecessarily killed by police and it turns out Pop was right. Things don’t really change.

## Cast

### Main

* Shemar Moore - Daniel Harrelson
* Alex Russell - Jim Street
* Lina Esco - Christina Alonso
* Kenny Johnson - Dominic Luca
* David Lim - Victor Tan
* Patrick St. Esprit - Robert Hicks
* Jay Harrington - David Kay

### Recurring

* Amy Farrington - Piper Lynch
* Obba Babatundé - Daniel Harrelson Sr.
* DeShae Frost - Darryl Henderson
* Chris L. McKenna - DEA Agent Peter Simons

### Guest

* Donald Dash - Young Hondo
* Rico E. Anderson - Young Daniel Sr.
* Dahlia Salem - FBI Special Agent Rafa Bashir
* Kurt Caceras - Lego
* Deja Soufka - Salim
* Lynette Dupree - Ms. Hattie
* Kalea McNeill - Abena
* Demetrius Hodges - Stokely

## Trivia

* The episode is initially serves as a Season 3 finale. Due to COVID-19 pandemic, it was repurposed as the fourth season premiere.
* Luca was in Germany advising cops from Germany, France and Italy. While behind the scenes Kenny Johnson was in a legal dispute with the production company Sony Pictures Television at the time over injuries he allegedly suffered during a helicopter scene on the show.

### Notes

* Hondo went on the Black Lives Matter protesters.
* Hondo is making breakfast for Darryl and his father.
* He put bomb inside the building where he used the detonator to explode and fled people away.

**Deaths**

* 10 (killed by the blast explosion)
* 1 (killed by Chris)
* 2 (killed by Hondo)