Gut Punch

**Gut Punch** is the fourteenth episode of the sixth season in the remake version of *S.W.A.T.*, and the one-hundred-twentieth episode overall, which was aired on February 24, 2023.

## Summary

A powerful new mystery drug hits the streets. SWAT must find who manufactured it and stop its spread.

## Recap

Tan who went out for drinks. He had just gotten told that his wife’s been cheating on him for six months. He felt a drink would make him feel better. But it didn’t work for him. Tan shouldn’t even have gone out in such a horrible mood. He should have just stayed home because the drinks didn’t make that mood any better. He started a bar fight. He got arrested and his bosses found out about it. They benched him for a month because they thought he was going off the rails. Street knew why Tan had gone out drinking and he didn’t say anything because he didn’t think it was his place to start telling people about Bonnie.

It was up to Tan to tell people. That is if he even wanted them to know the truth or if he was hoping to get back together with his wife. Tan just found out about the adultery. He still needed time to process everything. He also needed space. Street made Deacon aware that Tan was going through something, but that it was up to Tan to handle it from here and so SWAT found someone to replace Tan while he was out. They asked the new guy Miguel to fill in. Miguel and Street didn’t really get along. Only Street was willing to bite his tongue for now.

Street figured Miguel wouldn’t be around for long. He knew Tan was only benched for a month. SWAT in the meantime was asked to help out with a case that Major Crimes was investigating. Major Crimes was looking into organized crime, and they wanted to take down a crime boss by the name of Nazarian. Nazarian was running an illegal counterfeit ring. He was also branching out into something else according to a detective that managed to infiltrate Nazarian’s crew. And that detective’s name was Erik Arkun.

Arkin has slowly been working up the ranks. He’s gotten close to Nazarian. Nazarian even feels he can trust him and so Major Crimes came up with plan to arrest everyone at once. They were going to make it look like Arkin got swept up in the raid. They wanted to protect his cover in case he needed it in the future. But something went wrong with the plan. SWAT showed up at the site of the counterfeit and they arrested everyone there and Nazarian wasn’t there. Arkin wasn’t even there. Nazarian suddenly went on a field trip mere moments before the raid.

Nazarian now knows the cops are onto him. He can easily go on the road and where does that leave Arkin? Arkin could get blamed for the raid. They could figure out he’s a cop. They’ll kill him if they suspect him and so a simply raid gotten dragged out into a rescue mission. They needed to find Arkin before he was made. They went looking for him and Nazarian. They couldn’t find a trace of either of them. They also couldn’t talk to the people they arrested during the raid because most of those people knew better than to talk to the cops.

It was actually Street who realized the lowest on the totem pole might be helpful. The guy wasn’t told anything. Only he acted as a driver for Nazarian. He would therefore know where Nazarian goes and that could help them find their missing detective. Street’s plan worked out in the fact they got told locations. They then started looking into these locations when they come across someone dying on a overdose at one of the sites. They used Narcan on him. It didn’t work. The guy eventually died and so that’s when they remembered that Arkin said Nazarian was branching out into something big.

Well, the guy was making a drug more potent than fentanyl. Narcan doesn’t work on its victims and so that made Nazarian a very dangerous man. They had to find him. They had to find him fast. They got lucky when Arkin sent out a message. Arkin managed to send a message on a cell phone that he had been made. SWAT was able to trace that phone call and SWAT went there via helicopter. The helicopter cut down on time. It was faster than taking Betty and they were on the scene so fast that they were able to save Arkin’s life. And arrest Nazarian.

They also got to arrest Nazarian’s inner circle. This included his daughter who Arkin tried to use, and she ratted him out to her father’s crew. But while they were able to resolve the case, Hondo was dealing was even more pressing issue. He found out that the department wants to make an example out of Tan. They wanted to suspend him for two weeks without pay. This would force Tan to stall. He would never be able to get a promotion or to progress anywhere from or even withing SWAT. And so, Hondo wanted to fight this.

Hondo went to Tan. He noticed that Tan wasn’t wearing his wedding ring and that’s when Tan said that the marriage was over. It had been over for a couple of days by that point. Hondo got angry with himself for not noticing a member of his team was in pain and so he thought Tan getting in trouble like he did was on him. He should have stepped in before Tan had gotten so bad. And now its too late.

Tan officially got a mark against him. He got suspended and he wasn’t fighting it. He felt he deserved it for causing that fight.

And Powell got an offer to join Rocker’s crew, but she talked to Street, and he made her realize that she should stay with the team.

## Cast

### Main

* Shemar Moore - Daniel Harrelson
* Alex Russell - Jim Street
* Kenny Johnson - Dominique Luca
* David Lim - Victor Tan
* Patrick St. Esprit - Robert Hicks
* Rochelle Aytes - Nichelle Carmichael
* Jay Harrington - David Kay

### Recurring

* Anna Enger Ritch - Officer Zoe Powell
* Lou Ferrigno Jr. - Donovan Rocker
* Niko Pepaj - Miguel Alfaro

### Guest

* Sammy Sheik - Peter Melkonyan
* Matthew Jones - Sgt. Samuel Clark
* David Gautreaux - Edward Yanick
* Noah James - Eric Arkun
* T.J. Ramini - David Nazarian
* Sarah Khasrovi - Ellen Ohanyan
* Michael Thomas Wallace - Jesse
* Demetris Hartman - Brian
* Tariq Syed Razi - Adam Grigoryan
* Omar Zaki - Guy #1
* Mehdi Merali - Guy #2
* Ralph Lammie Jr. - Bartender
* Monique Lea-Gall - Worker

## Trivia

* Despite being credited, Kenny Johnson do not appear in this episode.

### Notes

* It reveals that Eric Arkun is the LAPD Detective.
* Victor Tan has permanently suspended from LAPD, after he is drunk from the drinking bar.