Fog of War

***Fog of War*** is the 13th episode of the third season of *SEAL Team* and the 57th episode of the series overall.

## Summary

Following a mission failure, Bravo Team conducts a high-stakes After Action Review to identify who's responsible for a possible career-ending mistake.

## Plot

Having just green lit in operation, despite the fact Bravo is running low on ammunition and has no working coms or overwatch. They are running late but eventually returned back to the tarmac in. Venezuela With a body bag of *Dr. Craig*. Jason informs Blackburn of their complete mission failure. Eric informs Jason that the doctor they 'rescued' was a British citizen and brought in by the Pentagon. Explaining how bad the optics look at he was killed on a SEAL raid. He strictly informs Jay, Command will need an answer as soon as they touched down at for Virginia beach. Jason begrudgingly agrees and gathers his team to go over what happened. Meanwhile, a still shaken Lisa is sitting beside Mandy. She asks how she shakes off such an encounter, and Mandy tells her, she never really will. Jason vents to Ray how Blackburn is coming down hard on him because the Pentagon is coming down hard on Blackburn. Both noting how bad it looks they got a British citizen killed. Especially in a place, they weren't cleared to be.

Jason gathers all of Bravo around to go over the time-consuming task of determining what happened and how Dr. Craig died in an explosion. Ray and Sonny start. The explanation, he and Sonny split from Clay and the rest of Bravo. While clearing the rooms they could hear the doctors screaming from his torture. They were surprised when they were faced with machine gunfire. Ray threw a crash, and there was a big explosion. Jason turns to Clay to ask for his point of view. He continues that he, Trent, and Vic all went to a higher level heading up the stairs away from the other two. While going down the hallway they found a female hostage. When in the room, Clay was shot at. After taking out the first attacker, he was rushed by a man in a suicide vest. Clay, then, yelled *“avalanche”* before he and the team took cover. Jason and Ray insist neither heard Clay call “avalanche.” Vic confirms he did, as it saved their lives. They acknowledge it must've been the spotty coms. Sonny adds, with the new intelligence that one of them had an S vest, he now believes one of his attackers, who also had a baggie vest, and is confident he too was wearing an S-Vest. They ask him to confirm, and he says he is confident now with this new information of what he saw and is willing to go on record. With the conclusion that the second blast was another S-vest, the team adjourned their meeting and go to sleep.

Having been briefed on their information, Lisa questions Mandy and Eric why there would be a second suicide vest. Eric asks what she is insinuating and she backs down, saying she is not. Getting more Advil for her headache she runs into Sonny. He urges her to write down a formal complaint about her head injury, as that's the only way she will ever receive help for it years down the line if it turns out to be a real problem. *(Something that Brett Swann never did, and because of that wasn't able to receive adequate care for his brain trauma after leaving the military)*. Lisa brings up her suicide vest theory to Sonny. He confirms it's what he saw and Lisa begins to press him about how that is not their normal tactic. Sonny isn't bothered, but Ray overhears them and asks Lisa what she is talking about. She says the suicide vest theory is not their normal MO. Lisa then rather quickly makes her exit leaving Ray & Sonny get into a heated argument. Ray asked Sonny what happened. Sonny eventually admits he saw an explosive but no vest. Ray asks why he lied and Sonny says because getting a civilian doctor killed is a career-ender and he will not put the team through that. Ray's angry and insists it's better to be truthful and find out what happened. He demands everyone to wake up. Hitting Vic as he walked by to wake up.

Everyone is gathered back around the table with a map of the building's layout. Each with a toy soldier representing themselves. Jason confirms he heard two explosions very close to each other while outside with Full Metal. The team questions Clay if he is sure he saw the person with an S vest, and he once again says he is confident he is. Though the narrative begins to shift at him possibly being the guilty party. Trent confirms he was with Clay and saw the same thing. And that the explosion was incredibly loud, had to be bigger than a crash. Ray immediately gets up to go check his belongings. Insisting he always carries two crashes with him and a homewrecker. Both his crash and homewrecker are gone. He admits to Jason that he was the one that killed Dr. Craig. In their haste to get to the building, he unpacked his duffel incorrectly and must have thrown a homewrecker instead of a crash. Causing the explosions that were in the other room to also go off when ignited.

Jason explains to the team what's happening as it looks like Ray was the one who got the doctor killed. They are all very upset. Sometime later, Clay Trent, Brock, Vic and Sonny all decide to go with their original theory of the suicide vest. Since it is a better plan and none of them will get in trouble. The only obstacle being to get Ray to go along with their plan. Ray asks who would dare attempt. They all plead with him to allow them to cover for him. He insists it's wrong. That they are held to a higher standard and must be better. It would be even worse if discovered years later down the line that such an elite force covered up a murder. Ray who has always put honour and loyalty above everything, even though he is facing a career-ending move, insists he will take the rap alone. There was no one to blame but himself. Vic attempts to talk him out of it, and Ray says, that's exactly why he has to do it. No one is above what is right and what is wrong, and the fact that the youngest of them want to bend the rules is proof that they need to be better than what they are fighting.

Before arrival, Blackburn tells Lisa and Mandy to find some missing footage. Lisa can't recall due to her concussion. He leaves them and they both agree if the footage of Ray accidentally throwing the homewrecker does exist, they will destroy it. The team finally lands in Virginia Beach. The injured Glen Mack is the first carried off the plane, along with the doctor's body. Before getting off Jason and Ray have a heart to heart. They both admit what an honour it is been working together with each other for the past approximately 18 years. Ray refuses to let anyone cover for him still. Both heartbroken this is how it ends.

The entire team is gathered in a board meeting in the war room. Ray has yet to face his counsel. Eric enters the room and informs the team, now that they have given all their statements, that Lisa and Mandy were able to discover some previously missing footage. The satellite picked up someone's movement outside the building. It shows a person standing by the wall closest to Dr. Craig before apparently throwing in a grenade. Jason mentally places everyone's whereabouts and notes that Vic is the only one who could've been outside. Vic again retells his side of the story. After being attacked outside, he threw a grenade into a room with multiple people, unaware that the doctor or explosives were directly above him. His explosion is what caused the larger explosion that killed the doctor. Eric and the women leave Jason to determine the outcome of his unit member.

The room is silent as Jason asks him to explain. He admits when that suicide vest story began taking shape he thought it was a win-win for everyone. But when they reconvened and it was no longer a plausible outcome, he got scared when Ray began taking the fall. Claiming he was too scared at that point to come forward. Sonny attempts to attack him but is stopped. Jason orders him to stand outside. While out in the hallway, he tries desperately to calm himself.

Inside the board while everyone discussed what to do. Jason decides it should be Ray's choice, as it was he who was almost terminated. Trent brings Vic back inside, pointing at him to stand at the head of the table. Jason asks him to explain himself. And he confesses how sorry he is, and how the team is his family, and there is no excuse for what he did. Jason informs him, Ray will make the decision of what to do, and the team will stand behind him. Ray stands up in front of Vic to tell him he understands why he did it and that he forgets him. But unfortunately, he cannot trust him. Jason comes up behind him and passes from the knife. As he cuts away his Navy SEAL badge from his uniform from a heartbroken and destroyed Vic. He is forced off the team.

## Notes

* This episode takes place in Caracas, Venezuela.
* This marks the first time Trent Sawyer has taken credit for a shot on-screen.
* Cerberus was mentioned, but does not appear.

**Deaths**

* 4 Terrorists
* Dr. Isaac Craig
* 1 Suicide Vest
	+ 2 killed by Vic Lopez
	+ 1 killed by Clay Spenser
	+ 1 killed by Trent Sawyer

## Trivia

* This makes *Lucca De Oliveira's* last on-screen apperance.

## Cast

* David Boreanaz as Jason Hayes
* Max Thieriot as Clay Spenser
* Jessica Paré as Mandy Ellis
* Neil Brown Jr. as Ray Perry
* AJ Buckley as Sonny Quinn
* Toni Trucks as Lisa Davis
* Judd Lormand as Eric Blackburn
* Jusitin Melnick as Brock Reynolds
* Tyler Grey as Trent Sawyer
* Scott Foxx as Full Metal
* Lucca De Oliveira as Vic Lopez
* Coby Bell as Glen Mack

**Others**
* Luis Jose Lopez as Carlos Ramos
* Paul Fox as Dr. Isaac Craig