Keep the Faith

**Keep the Faith** is the seventh episode of the fifth season in the remake version of *S.W.A.T.*, and the ninety-first episode overall, which was aired on December 3, 2021.

## Summary

When Hondo returns as leader, the team is soon pulled into a dangerous case involving a large stockpile of cash and the Russian mob. Also, Daniel Sr. opens up to Hondo about a painful time in his past.

## Recap

It’s Chris’s birthday. The team tries every year to get Chris to celebrate her birthday and she never does. Chris hates her birthday. She hates celebrating it. She doesn’t even wishes to acknowledge it. Chris ignores the day entirely and her team never does. They still find ways to celebrate it. They wish her the Happy Birthday and then they tried to convince her to do something with them. But this year they got called out for work before they could do anything more than throw confetti. They responded to a scene where some guys tried killing some kids and were firing back at the police trying to stop them. The ones firing were identified as Russian mafia. They were firing at the kids because the teenagers had all been in the car when one of them robbed a place with a toy gun and then tried to flee.

The Russians managed to shoot one of the teenagers. The other two teenagers got away with the money and they too were now wanted for questioning however the police didn’t know about the robbery when they stopped the Russian mafia from killing those kids. SWAT was called and they settled things with the armed men at the scene. They also rushed the injured teenager to the hospital and so they were still trying to figure out why the mafia would want with three kids. Hondo’s team later got lucky when an old friend of his father’s offered to help. This friend was called Saint. He works in the community helping fresh immigrants and he knows the kid in the hospital. He said his name was James.

Saint didn’t know James too well or his friends. But he offered to send a woman who would know down to Hondo’s precinct so that she could talk to him and that was great help. Hondo’s team later found outside security footage of James rubbering the dress shop. The same shop was later found burned down and the store owner was packing his bags to get out of town. They brought him in for questioning and they quickly got him to confess. His store used to be a front for the Russian mob. He would wash their money for them. He also said that James stole fifty million dollars from them and that teenagers were dead men walking. The team now knew what they were what they were looking for.

They needed to find the two remaining teenagers who had the money. Hondo took Saint’s suggestion of speaking to a woman by the name of Ivy and she identified the remaining kids, Fabi and Manny. She said they were a brother and sister fresh from Haiti. They arrived after the hurricane. They were living in a homeless encampment and Ivy even had the number for one of them. She gave her cell to Hondo, whose team traced the number. It traced back to a homeless area where Hondo and Luca both traveled and they found the kids, but they weren’t the only ones to do so and they had to fight off the Russians once again while the kids ran during the chaos. Fabi and Manny also took the money and so it was getting hard to protect them.

The Russians that were captured weren’t talking either. They were working for a man named Victor Sasha aka “the Baron” and Sasha was a savage guy. He even managed to escape a Russian prison. He immigrated to LA where he quickly rose the ranks of organized crime and now he runs things. Sasha wants his money back. He sent his goons and he will continue to send his goons after the kids. The team needed to find them first and so they asked James. He woke up in the hospital. He was convinced by Saint to talk to Hondo and he told him where their hiding place was. The team later went to the location. They found Fabi. She was hiding with the money. She said her brother was luring the men with guns away by telling them he was leading them to the money.

But this meant Manny didn’t have a lot of time. He was going to be shot the moment the Russians realized he was playing them and so the team secured Fabi in a safe location. They then went after her brother. The team found Manny before he could be shot. They rescued him and then had to pursue the Russians who tried to flee. Hondo had to go one on one with one of them. He was able to out-best and out-gun a man who turned out to be Sasha himself. The team was able to close the case. They even recovered the stolen money and Street got to give Chris her birthday present. He got sky-diving vouchers. She always wanted to try it. Street overheard her mentioning it one day and he made sure he got her the vouchers. There was two of them. They were good for a year and he said a lot could happen in the next year.

Tan went home to his wife who was feeling a little insecure with a hot female and Chinese neighbor moving in next door.

And Hondo finally got his father to admit why he left the Black Panthers. But Hondo later realized that his father’s old friend Saint was in fact behind the Russians and that he was using the cops to track down the kids so that he could get his money back. Hondo later confronted Saint. Saint didn’t deny it but he also said that Hondo didn’t have proof and that everything he has he earned.

## 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.
* Karissa Lee Staples - Bonnie Lonsdale

### Guest

* Carl Lumbly - Hank Saint John
* Ungela Brockman - Ivy LaFluer
* Trisha Molina - Joy
* Erin Croom - Fabi Kameka
* Tyler Lofton - Manny Kameka
* Shane Liburd - James Bernard
* Aleksandar Filimonovic - Gorov
* Cinda Adams - Miriam
* Danny Garcia - Leo
* Hays McEachern - Carl
* Katie Marshall - Nurse Penelope
* Noelle Bellinghausen - Officer Duarte
* Rico E. Anderson - Young Daniel
* Roman Mitichyan - Victor "Baron" Sasha

## Trivia

* Hondo is doing the boxing training with Luca.
* It reveal's that Chris' birthday is today.
* Hank and Daniel Sr. are playing chess while Hondo is checking on his father.
* Victor Tan and his wife Bonnie has moved to a new apartment.

### Notes

* Neither actors are native Cantonese speakers.

## Quotes

**Hondo**: Those kids, they're younger than Darryl.