Did ‘S.W.A.T.’ Just Kill Off [Spoiler] in Final Season Premiere? Shemar Moore Teases Drama Ahead

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the S.W.A.T. Season 7 premiere, “The Promise.”]

S.W.A.T. may want us to think that one of its own just died at the end of its final season premiere, but we know better. That doesn’t mean we’re not worried, though!

“The Promise” sees Hondo (Shemar Moore), Hicks (Patrick St. Esprit), and Powell (Anna Enger Ritch) head down to Mexico City to escort a fugitive who escaped Hondo’s custody 10 years earlier back to the States. (He killed a witness, and Hondo promised her daughter he’d catch him.) But while doing so, that fugitive escapes, and by the time they track him down, he and his crew are selling some military-grade stolen weapons, including a thermobaric vacuum bomb that could kill thousands. The fugitive is killed in the ensuing gunfight, but the bomb is missing from the weapons they recover.

As the episode ends, Powell’s getting ready to head out for dinner with the local cop she’s been getting close to, Gabriel Bautista (Rick Mancia), only for her to get a glimpse at his phone in her room as they wait for their reservation. She realizes he took the bomb, and he attacks, strangling her. She looks dead at the end of the episode, but Ritch has just been upped to series regular for this season, so clearly, she’s not.

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Moore acknowledges that fact, though he tells TV Insider, “It makes for some drama. Powell is a much more intricate part of the show and the team. Anna’s a sweetheart, so we’re enjoying having her. She just brings a fresh, new dynamic.”

This season will test the team and its unity and stability, and new aspects like that are part of that. “You’re going to watch Hondo, Deacon [Jay Harrington], and the team struggle with that and fight to keep all the pieces together and still be at their best saving the day,” he explains.

Still, even though Powell is alive, this motivates the team—the rest get involved in the second episode—to go after Bautista, “this punk,” as Moore calls him. “He’s got a bomb in his hand that can cause all kinds of craziness. We gotta band together and go get the job done, and we do it in a very cool, action-packed way.”

Pepe Molina/Sony Pictures Television/CBS

Hicks was actually right outside Powell’s hotel room while she was being attacked; he’d gone to talk to her after sharing his opinion on her and Gabriel and Hondo pointing out her love life is none of his concern. But he ultimately decided to talk to her later. Might he feel guilty and that be something Hondo has to deal with in the second episode?

“He doesn’t really have to deal with it,” says Moore. “He kind of becomes like a Dr. Phil to Hicks. He’s just like, ‘Hey, man, don’t beat yourself up, but trust your gut and do what you feel,’ so that he can mend fences with Powell.”

After all, they have more pressing issues—like that bomb!

S.W.A.T., Fridays, 8/7c, CBS