Memento Mori

**Memento Mori** is the fourth episode of the fourth season in the remake version of *S.W.A.T.*, and the seventieth episode overall, which was aired on November 25, 2020.

## Summary

The SWAT team searches for a rogue member of an extremist group planning to attack the memorial service of a famous musician who was outspoken about police brutality. Also, tension mounts between Hondo and Leroy, Darryl's father, when Leroy is released from prison early.

## Recap

Leroy is out. He was released on early parole because he’s been a model prisoner for years and the coronavirus has led to prisons around the world wanting to offload some of their clientele. But there was a problem. Leroy hadn’t changed his ways. He was running things from behind bars and he’ll go back to life in a heartbeat. Leroy was a criminal for life. He wasn’t going to change because of his prison and he sure wasn’t going to change for his son Darryl. Darryl used to want to be like his father. He wanted to be in life and it was Hondo that stopped him. Hondo stepped in because Leroy asked him to. Leroy wanted better for his only child and so Hondo agreed to help. He brought Darryl home with him. He tutored him. He finished raising him and now Leroy is back.

Leroy didn’t like it that his son was looking up to Hondo. He felt like Hondo was trying to steal Darryl from him and so he made a big show about being a part of Darryl’s life now that he’s free. Leroy went to the house. He surprised Darryl with a visit and he asked Darryl to come to hang out with him. Darryl has an important event for potential colleges later on. Hondo reminded him of it and he told Leroy that Darryl couldn’t miss the event. Not for anything. Darryl needed to be there because he should start thinking about college and Darryl told Hondo that he would get a ride from a friend. Darryl didn’t want to miss out on spending time with his father. He still looks up to his father and so Hondo stayed in touch.

Hondo checked up on Darryl to make sure he went to the Expo. Darryl told him he made it in time and he said that it’s all good between him and his father. Hondo tried to respect that, but it was hard knowing that Leroy was back because there was no telling what Leroy might do and so Hondo tried to focus on work. He and his team were going to be doing surveillance on a memorial. The memorial was for the singer’s name Rhodium and she was big on defunding the police. She had taken that on as a personal chant before she passed. She’s also upset a lot of people by supporting this and unfortunately, someone has to chosen to act on their threats. Chris later found a semi-automatic weapon hidden in the bushes as she was doing a sweep. She reported it to Hondo and he believed like her that someone was planning something.

It could be just to frighten people at the event or it could be to kill them. Either way, the team had to do something about the threat. They brought in Rhodium’s mother who was in charge of Rhodium’s memorial. Her mother said that there was a box full of threats that were delivered on the daily basis and Jillian also requested that Deacon remove himself from her daughter’s memorial service. Jillian had tried to hire Deacon’s security company in the past for her daughter. She was told “no” by them because they hadn’t liked her daughter’s politics and so Jillian reminded Deacon that nothing has changed. She doesn’t believe someone like him could honor her daughter. She cast doubt on what he was willing to do for the job and so the others spoke up for him.

Hondo and Hicks spoke up for him. They said Deacon was one of the best and that he was needed. Jillian backed down on having him removed, but she didn’t like it and Deacon had hated being put on the spot. Deacon talked to Hondo about it. He said that he couldn’t support the defend the police agenda because every day they put their lives on the line and they deserved more gratitude than that. Only Hondo didn’t agree with him. Hondo didn’t like the defund the police either only he knew why some people supported it and he gets where Jillian is coming from. Jillian is a black woman. Her daughter was a black woman and she knew that neither of them had been safe from the police because of the color of their skin.

Jillian probably thought anyone who didn’t defend having oversight was one of the bad ones. Hondo gets it because he was a black man and he tried to explain it to Deacon who as a white man never had to live with that same type of fear. Hondo also knew Rhodium’s story. She was a teenager hanging out with her boyfriend when cops came by because her boyfriend matched a description and the cops ended up shooting the boyfriend because they mistakenly thought he was reaching for a gun when he was just trying to pull up his pants. The boyfriend lived. Technically. He was in a vegetive state and Rhodium was paying for his care the second she made it big. She never forgot where she came from or what the cops were prepared to do and that’s why she supported defunding them.

So many people were angry about that. They all tried to ruin her memorial. They tried to paint photos of her and they tried showcasing photos of her with the word murder written across. Then there was the man who hid the semi-automatic. He was later identified as Mitch Anderson. His father Rick was killed by the cops because he cut off his ankle monitor and he refused to be taken in. He held himself up in his house for hours before the police were able to take a shot at him. They killed Rick and his son Mitch has never forgotten it. His father was killed for two thousand dollars while the police were going out of the way to throw a memorial for the late singer that “hated” them. Mitch didn’t think that was fair.

Mitch ordered a gun from a guy willing to break the rules for him. Except this guy freaked when he found out Mitch was targeting the memorial because his kids were going to that thing and he didn’t want them to get hurt. The team, therefore, found out about Mitch. They found out he was the one targeting the memorial and they did their best to stop them. They increased security. They also changed the direction of the motorcade after they received an anonymous caller from someone claiming their neighbor was being held hostage inside his apartment that was alongside the original route. SWAT showed up at the apartment. They freed the hostage and they found out that Mitch disappeared with a bag full of grenades.

SWAT went looking for Mitch as the memorial. They fanned out and they found him by the bathrooms. They told him to stop. He refused to and so they were forced to shoot. Mitch dropped the grenade he had on him when he went down and it set off his bag full of grenades and so he’s dead. He’s been blown up. Afterward, Jillian thanked Deacon for the role he played. She also apologized for her behavior earlier and he told her that it was okay. He forgets sometimes that not everyone that wears the badge holds themselves up to the same honor he believes in. Deacon expressed his condolences to Jillian for the loss of her child and then he went home to his family. Hondo returned to Darryl.

Hondo found out that Darryl missed most of the expo. He arrived an hour late and so he was angry. He later spoke to Leroy. He told Leroy that Darryl needed to be focusing on college and Leroy implied that his son could make his life out of the streets. Like he did. Leroy was willing to destroy Darryl’s life just to prove a point and Hondo didn’t know how he was going to stop him.

Also, Chris and Street talked about the competition they were both in and Chris promised that she would return to her normal friendly self the moment she beats both Street and Tan and so Street is looking forward to it because he misses his friend.

## 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

* Obba Babatundé - Daniel Harrelson Sr.
* DeShae Frost - Darryl Henderson
* Michael Beach - Leroy Henderson

### Guest

* Michael Graziadei - Mitch Anderson
* Joyce Guy - Jillian Spender
* Abhi Sinha - Sunil
* Benny Nieves - Frank Espinado
* Braden Lynch - Ladder Blue Boy
* Mario Ardila Jr. - Paul Garcia
* Naira Badalyan - Gabby

## Trivia

* Abhi Sinha, Shemar Moore and Michael Graziadei all appeared in *The Young and the Restless*.
* Despite being credited, Kenny Johnson do not appeared in this episode.
* Memento Mori is a Latin phrase meaning "Remember you must die".

### Notes

* Tan is doing the driving lesson and he passed the test.
* SWAT Team recently found the AR-15.