SWAT season 7 finale: How did the series finish the season?

SWAT’s season 7 finale did a great job of bringing together the team in what was, at the time, a series finale. But they managed to still leave it open enough so that once it was confirmed the show would be returning for season 8 we would be able to explore a new team dynamic. First, how did things turn out for 20 Squad?

It was all hands on deck for the entire LAPD when the 60-Squad team was led into a bombing. Cabrera, who we have seen with the team multiple times, was injured in the explosion but survived along with the rest of the squad.

The explosion was the work of Zane Graham, who was part of the Green Rebellion eco-terrorist group the team was after in the previous episode. After his girlfriend, Eliza Crane, was shot and killed amid a kidnapping plot, he was out for revenge. He, along with another group of terrorists, was planning something bigger to destroy Los Angeles.

The team believed he was going to bomb a convention center after they found the body of a man who was involved with city planning, including the convention center where an event was about to be held. However, there was no bomb to be found, but they did find the van that Cabrera spotted before the explosion.

FBI Agent Vasquez was on site to investigate and thanks to the interrogation of one of the men in the van, they learn that Zane was planning a large scale attack like three other ones. Those bombings had no credit attached to their name, but it appears Zane was the one responsible.

Eventually, the team figures out that Zane is planning to detonate the Semtex he stole deep down into the pipeline that stretches through the city. 20 Squad works together to stop the attack, despite there still being some bad blood between Alfaro and Tan specifically.

The team, alongside Agent Vasquez, manages to stop Zane thanks to Alfaro, who had found a connection through Eliza. They had met at a protest, and where they met is now abandoned. With the bomb already set, Alfaro and Tan work together to ensure it doesn’t detonate. Alfaro remembered how Tan jammed a circuit with wire in a previous case they were on. This allows them to stop the bomb from triggering, but Zane escapes with an oil tanker.

Hondo gets on the back of the tanker to try and stop Zane before he can reach another area close to the pipeline. While he plans to cause the tanker to explode to stop, Deacon works hard to grab him so he does not get killed.

In the end, the team truly showed they had what it took to work together. While it looked like there was a chance 20 Squad would all be separated with the upheaval surrounding the team, everyone worked things out and it appears that Deacon will also return as well.

Even though we may not see Street and Luca a part of the team again, we can at least hope we will see them return in some capacity. Plus, with Tan, Zoe, Deacon, Alfaro, and Hondo a team, who will be their sixth partner?

The episode truly did feel like a final episode for the show, but it also gave us a glimpse into how we could see a future of the show. Getting to know a new team and see how everyone works together. For now, we’ll just try to get through the summer until season 8 returns.

Make sure to catch up on previous episodes of SWAT on Paramount+.