Never Again

**"Never Again"** is the sixth episode of the second season in the remake version of *S.W.A.T.*, and the twenty-eighth episode overall, which was aired on November 1, 2018.

## Summary

A group of well-organized and heavily-armed robbers hit several diamond merchants across downtown Los Angeles. The S.W.A.T. team tries to determine the next dealer targeted. Cortez reveals that the three dealers are connected to the Israeli mafia and she reaches out to their top enforcer, who previously helped her against the Russian mob, to try to prevent a blood bath. After Hondo kills one of the suspects in a shootout, found to be a woman, they discover the suspects are Israeli women on student visas with a very personal motive. Afterwards, Hondo, emotionally affected by the suspect's death, seeks comfort from his mother, Charice. Also, while Street worries that Luca, his S.W.A.T. training academy instructor, has a personal vendetta against him, Chris contemplates an unorthodox proposition from the new woman she's dating: a triad relationship with her boyfriend.

## Recap

Chris at a family picnic and them asking her about Kira, the new woman in her life. She enjoys her lunch and is off to meet Kira. Meanwhile, a masked crew breaks into the back of diamond dealer, where the manager locks himself in a bulletproof room. The thieves show him a photo of his wife and girls, saying he needs to give them the diamonds, or his family dies. He lifts the glass and they rob the safe, but as they make their escape Hondo gets the call while off duty and responds to the call.

LAPD is in pursuit of the armed truck and gives chase, clearly no match for their automatic weapons and the squad car rolls. Hondo pulls the officer out of his car and he calls Command informing them what they are dealing with.

Deacon jokes about Hondo not having enough bad guys to chase while he is on duty. Cortez tells them there is a city wide alert out on the thieves; they believe its the same crew that hit another diamond dealer the week prior, with a total haul of $11 million. There is no doubt they are military and Jessica informs them SWAT is taking over from robbery/homicide and they better be ahead of the crew before they make their next move.

Chris walks into the bar, smiling when she greets Kira. She can only drink water as she is on call, but they toast to drink number 3. Kira feels they are at the point where she needs to be honest about something. She says she has a fiancée named Ty, they live together and she is very much in love with him; confessing that her and Ty are polyamorous. Chris learns that they had a third person that recently took a job in DC and that was 6 months ago.

Chris is annoyed, saying she didn’t say anything about this in her profile, but Kira points out that she did say she was bisexual and she can have both. Chris tells her this is way too complicated. Their conversation is interrupted when her phone goes off and she has to go to work. Kira presses, asking her to meet Ty and to think about it, but Chris says that isn’t her and she has to go.

Luca goes to see Jim Street (Alex Russell) telling him to improvise on fixing something, despite the budget cuts. Street wants to know about the training exercise from that morning, arguing with Luca about why he is docking marks off of him. Hondo comes in, thanking Jim for all that he is doing, but he feels he is just doing his part. Street thanks Hondo for giving him a second chance. Hondo reminds Jim that Luca is third generation SWAT and he has a family legacy to protect and Luca will never understand why Jim would risk being kicked off the team; he encourages him to show up, play hard and kick some ass.

SWAT gather and discuss the intel they have so far on the crew, they decide to install cellular monitors in all the diamond dealers and if cell signal, they know that is the one that is about to get hit. Jessica reveals to Hondo that all 3 diamond dealers that have been hit are connected to LA’s Israeli Mafia that supposedly doesn’t exist. She shows him the top enforcer, who gave her information against the Russian mob when she worked for Organized Crime. She is certain they are looking for the suspects too and Cohen will kill them if he finds them first, so she plans on talking to him; but since he is so dangerous she wanted Hondo to know where she was going if something happens.

Cohen asks Jessica to sit, where she is very direct. He admits they have started an investigation, but she cuts him off, saying she has copies and knows they have 8 million reasons to want their hands on the suspects and demands that if they get their hands on them before they do, to hand them over. She promises to keep her word like she did last time and its more important to have a friend like her than an enemy.

Luca, Chris and Victor Tan (David Lim) ran all the pickups in the area; they ask her about Kira, but quickly learn she has lost some sizzle. While they continue to search for trucks, the crew breaks into Durant Diamonds and SWAT gets there before they can do anything. Hondo calls into Command that they are heavily under fire; they can’t pierce the armor but Hondo is able to skip a bullet. They unmask the perp shocked to find out its a white female.

Adina Bagdula is a 22-yr-old, who is there on a student visa. Deacon reveals it is mandatory for all Israelis to join the military, so it’s clear she had plenty of training. She has no family state-side. Chris wonders if the rest of the crew who escaped are female. Jessica asks how Hondo is doing with the shoot and he diverts asking how things are with her new guy, David. He admits there is no one serious in his life and Jessica clears him for duty, he goes back to work.

Jessica asks Street what the request is for, after the budget cuts. He says he has someone who could buy the lights she got by accident and it could possibly cover the cost of the new gun; he is tired of people assuming the worst of him when she asks if it is someone legal. She just asks him to take them out of there without anyone noticing.

Deacon finds Hondo using the microwave in the kitchen, something he’s never done. It’s clear that it does bother Hondo that he did kill a woman as his mama taught him to always protect women and kids; feeling there might have been another non-lethal way to have done this. Hondo throws his food in the garbage, but Deacon reminds him, laying on the slab she may have looked like a regular woman, but she was a killer.

Tan and Chris question Adina’s roommate from college about her family in Israel and her life on campus. They can’t get any real information about her at all. Jim meets with Tony Larmen who swaps an L Rod for the lights. Jim tells him the situation is “to be continued” when it comes to Squad and SWAT.

Hondo and Deacon reveal to Jessica the 3 women who have been flagged for extending their student visas. Shoshonah Peretz, Dania Ganz and Tori Vavev, all of them grew up in the same settlement of Rimon and had one parent murdered by a group named Segol Foundation, a Jewish Charity there in LA. They believe the parents were killed for trying to smuggle uncut diamonds across the border.

Deacon called a friend believes Cohen’s boss is linked to the charity and is using it to launder dirty money but no one has been able to prove it. Although they cannot find where the girls are located, Deacon was able to find the last thing Shoshonah posted on social media about a month ago, with a photo of her and Nicholas, whom she was enrolled in the same class with. Jessica admits that Cohen left all of this out when she spoke to him.

Jessica confronts Haviv, showing him the photo of the dead girl. She reveals everything she knows, asking him if he was told to kill the girls when he finds them. He says he will call them if he finds them and drives off; Jessica plants a bug on him.

Shoshonah wakes up in the middle of the night and grabs a gun, slinking up the ladder and starts shooting as SWAT arrives. Hondo arrests Nicholas and they chase after her, but she fires back. Hondo and Luca surround her and shoot out the glass under her, causing her to fall but not kill her. After her being patched up, Deacon and Hondo question her. She reveals her tattoos, “NEVER AGAIN” saying they made a pact, all four of them, saying they refuse to be victims twice. Hondo tells her that they don’t need to worry about LAPD, its Cohen she should fear and promises they will bring in her friends unharmed.

Chris comes to see Street in the armory, revealing it was Luca that ran over the rod. She says she is there for advice, but he needs to promise not spiral into some juvenile fantasy. She explains and does begin to spiral, but he wants to know if she really likes her; she admits she does but can’t do this polymerous thing. Her family loves her but barely accepted her for who she is, could he imagine if she brought home both a man and a woman? He tells her to do what she wants to do and she shouldn’t care what anyone else things, reminding her that she is amazing.

Shoshonah does tell them where they will hit next because they want to get back everything their parents have lost, at any cost. Dania and Tori put on their masks as Cohen approaches in his car. Jessica contacts Hondo saying she has Cohen in her sights at the real target LCJ Metals and SWAT realizes Shshonah fed they a diversion.

Jessica orders Cohen to lay down his weapons as the LCJ Manager shows them the safe in the floor. SWAT arrives, Jessica assures Hondo she has Haviv under control as gunfire erupts inside. Luca rushes back to the armed vehicle for any gear they have. Chris takes the manager out of the building and Hondo attempts to talk them out of them but they shoot at him. Luca returns with the sonar gun and they put in their ear plugs. They are able to arrest the girls without further incident.

Jessica confronts Haviv in the restaurant. She brings him paperwork showing that organized crime has been circling Farbric for years and now they are going match names on the list with the blood diamonds that belong to his boss. Jessica reminds him that she told him not to do this as he would need all the friends he could get and now he just lost his best one.

Deacon and Hondo joke about how their ears are still ringing. Deacon talks about how they obsess over their losses, reminding him of another story where Hondo saved someone else’s life and that he should hold onto the good things too.

Chris decides to meet Kira and Ty, trying to wrap her head around all of this, asking what she would be to the two of them. Ultimately they are looking for a partner, there is no keeping score and it will only work if everyone is open and honest. When Ty asks what else she wants to know, Chris smiles and takes a sip of her drink, clearly not sure what to say.

Luca goes to the armory, where Jim confronts Luca, asking if he is wasting his time going through the Academy. Luca tells him that he had his spot and he threw it away, so he shouldn’t have a spot. Jim explains he never had a family to teach him to be a part of something special and he only did when he lost it. Luca tells him he has more natural talent and intuition than guys who have been on the job for decades; but this is more than a job, this is life and Jim can’t take short cuts. Luca tells him to be up at 5 am for training and gets ready to leave; Jim can’t help himself and tell Luca not to run over the rod again.

Hondo makes his mom a homemade meal sharing how hard it is getting some aspects of his job and still be the man she raised him to be. She encourages him to sit down, saying there is nothing a good casserole and his mama can’t help him solve, he agrees.

## Cast

### Main

* Shemar Moore - Daniel Harrelson
* Stephanie Sigman - Jessica Cortez
* 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

* Debbie Allen - Charice Harrelson
* Daniel Lissing - Ty
* Claire Coffee - Kira

### Guest

* Mark Ivanir - Cohen
* Joe Abraham - Frankel Manager
* Leeron Amiel - Tori
* Inbal Amirav - Dania
* Jared Boghosian - Nicholas
* Chelsea Marie Davis - Chelsea
* Julia Garcia - April
* Lidiya Korotko - Shoshonah (credited as Lydiya Korotko)
* Richard Neil - L.C.J. Manager
* Sean Riggs - Strickland
* Ani Sava - Aunt Helena
* George Tovar - Uncle Sarzo

## Trivia

* Despite being credited, Patrick St. Esprit does not appeared in this episode.

### Notes

* An LRAD is a Long Range Acoustic Device, or a sound gun It is a less-lethal (non-lethal / non-kinetic) tech, designed for crowd dispersal, or to incapacitate individuals with controlled bursts of audible sound.
* A tactical flashlight, is one that can be mounted on top of a weapon such as a rifle or pistol, as oppose to a makeshift solution of attaching a mag-lite with duct tape.
* Non-kinetic operations can be defined as the employment of non-lethal strategies and tactics with weapons that are "sub-lethal" or "weapons not intended to be lethal".