‘SEAL Team’: David Boreanaz on When He Knew He Was ‘Finished’ & Jason’s Possible Ending

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Jason Hayes (David Boreanaz) shocked the higher-ups when, at the end of SEAL Team Season 6, he spoke publicly about his TBI. What that means for his career—as well as for those who also spoke up about their own issues to support him—has yet to be seen.

The military drama returns to Paramount+ for its seventh and final season with the first two episodes on Sunday, August 11, and just like the show is saying goodbye, Jason may be as well, Boreanaz tells TV Insider. Below, he opens up about knowing he was “done,” how the series might end for Jason, and more.

Last season ended with Jason speaking about his TBI and then other SEALs coming forward to back him. How is his head this season?

David Boreanaz: His head is almost very familiar to when he was dealing with the inception of what these operators go through. That’s always been a consistent throughline for Jason’s mind and its ultimate balance with his heart and what he thinks is balanced could not be balanced or what he thinks is right is him feeling like he’s the problem and the issues, the arduous task of a character like this is understanding those very fleeting moments of an emotion and then going completely to a different direction with them and how that affects them.

For us, it’s like, alright, the trauma is your first kill. How do you deal with that? So starting the season it was like, okay, this is the perfect way to wrap that cycle up for this character. For me, I knew that that was the right way and I knew going in before the writers’ strike that I was done. I had expressed my interest not to do the show anymore. I was finished regardless of even if they wanted to do two more seasons, one more season, I was done. So then the writers’ strike hit and it became six months later and that had already been decided.

Michael Moriatis / Paramount+

So we were able though to get this last season in to help complete that cycle for him. So that trauma’s there and how he deals with it will be the front half of trying to think he is in a good place living with his family and seeing his daughter get married and seeing his daughter’s boyfriend taking the same path as he did, a lot of reflection. It becomes almost like a reflection of his whole end in a lot of ways. The reflection of the type of characters these are is you could always die on the battlefield. And that’s something that we look at the season for Jason, that may be the ultimate end for him, on the battlefield.

How does Jason feel about the state of Bravo now? You also have Drew (Beau Knapp) coming in and Drew says, “I’m not here to make friends,” but Bravo is such a family.

Well, yeah, well, Jason knows. It’s like, “I’ve seen this.” I think Jason knows more than what Drew’s putting out or what he’s hiding. Jason’s peeked into that door. He knows because A, he’s been there, [and] B, he has dealt with it and continues to deal with the trauma. You can try to deal with it, heal some of the trauma, but the process is always going to be there but you just handle it differently. That’s what Jason does. So he can kind of read Drew pretty quickly. It’s like this guy comes on and he’s like, “I don’t want anything to do with [everyone],” and Jason’s like, “Dude, I’ve seen this before. I’m a few steps ahead of you. When that time comes, that vulnerability, I will be able to give insight into where I was at that time, how it will help you.” And that’s family.

So it may be disturbing from the outside and while it’s in it, but that’s still family. So he handles it just kind of how he’s dealing with his own trauma, how he’s dealing with the first kill and how that’s haunting him and how he ultimately may have to go back to Afghanistan to confront that. That’s part of the season. And in that being said, what we see up front is the team is kind of on the sidelines, but then this crazy stuff happens in Sweden at this mall. There’s blood, and Jason’s like, “I can’t deal with this and now it’s bringing me back and I don’t want to be back fighting this demon, and oh, let me escape to my daughter. Let’s go to the beach. This is the way it’s supposed to be.” And then something happens with them and he’s like, “If I wasn’t here, then this wouldn’t happen.” So he starts blaming himself.

He may possibly lose his son this season in an episode that I directed, which was very heart-pulling and emotional, and even at the end of that episode, he’s like, I just ruin things back here, which I think is the right thing to do. And now I want to go back to the battlefield. And that battlefield could be his ultimate death. And that’s something that I really enjoy about this character.

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How’s Jason’s relationship with Mandy (Jessica Paré), especially as he’s dealing with all this?

We see it strong in the beginning. She sees the red flags as we progress into the third, fourth, fifth episode. She’s seen the cracks. She’s there for him. There’s a beautiful moment in [Episode] 6 that I directed where she comes back and shows up and is there for Jason. He’s like, wow, I didn’t expect you to actually be here, right? I’m on the phone or talking about working the problem and my son has taken something that may kill him. Things are bleak. And she shows up. It’s like, wow, that’s an awesome move. That’s a relationship move. That’s an I want to marry you move. That could be the ultimate for Jason Hayes. It’s the cake, it’s the best ending, and then bam, dude. It’s like, here we go. But it’s a different type of trauma that he’s dealing with, right? That’s the beauty of it.

That’s what these special op guys go through. And that’s hard. It’s hard to study it. It’s hard to play those emotions. It’s difficult. And I always go back to when you get messages from these real guys or veterans saying, “Thanks for saving my life. … I changed my life. I’m going to get help.” We know that we’re doing the right thing. We always had that and the show’s success for us was that. It wasn’t about awards. It wasn’t about putting a tuxedo on and going down a red carpet. Every actor would love to do that, be presented an Emmy for so-and-so or his work being recognized. For us, but for me specifically, it was always being recognized for the people that we help. And I’m so grateful that I was able to be a part of that and take that on to the next level, excited to use that to the next level and continue to shine that light brightly because just being a part of that alone has just been a very huge impact in my career.

I cannot wait to see that episode you directed because of what you’ve teased.

Yeah, it’s a very impactful episode. I was so happy to be able to do a subject matter of that intensity. And I’m excited to see Jason Hayes, maybe a flag wrapped over his coffin at the end of this series. Never know.

SEAL Team, Seventh and Final Season Premiere, Sunday, August 11, Paramount+