Spoilers ahead for the Season 6 premiere of SEAL Team, “Low Impact.”
The Season 6 premiere of SEAL Team is here, and it was as intense as ever. Following the ambush on Bravo in the wild Season 5 finale, the team found themselves trying to make it through the fight. And unfortunately, Clay was left in serious condition, as he suffered major injuries to a leg and had internal bleeding. By the episode’s end, it was revealed that the medics had to amputate Clay’s leg in order to save him and, now, showrunner Spencer Hudnut is talking about Bravo 6’s mindset and future with the team after the "traumatic" event.
Considering that Max Thieriot was also filming his new CBS series Fire Country amid production, it wasn’t surprising to see that Clay took the brunt of the ambush. We got a preview of what was to come in the emotional Season 6 trailer for SEAL Team, but that still couldn't have prepared fans for that premiere. Spencer Hudnut spoke to TV Insider about the episode, providing insight into Clay's journey moving forward, and it sounds like the character has quite a road ahead of him:
Obviously, it’s a traumatic event for him, but Clay is never lacking in self-confidence. Clay has overcome every obstacle ever put in front of him. Clay was the leader in Green Team. He’s one of the best operators in command despite being one of the youngest. At first, like any problem, he’s confident that he can overcome it. But as time progresses and he really starts to understand how much he’s been impacted by the injury, it starts to seep into every part of his life, and that struggle for him is really part of his journey this season.
The season premiere was definitely hard to watch. While Clay seemed to be in good spirits and even downplayed his prognosis when talking to Stella, that can definitely change as the season progresses. Although Clay already told Jason that this mission with Bravo would be his last so he could spend more time with his family, the loss of his leg seems to solidify those plans.
Clay is an integral part of Bravo, though, and it wouldn’t be the same without him. (And of course, I'd miss his bromance with Sonny.) But not to worry, because Spencer Hudnut provided some optimistic thoughts on Max Theiriot's character remaining in the fold moving forward:
One of the things that made this storyline appealing is that there have been SEALs who have had a similar injury to what happened to Clay that have made it back to operating. We didn’t want to do anything that took that off the table down the road. We didn’t want to do anything that’s completely unbelievable, but the fact that there are operators who made it back from an injury like this gave us hope that we’ll see if Clay and his Bravo teammates can reunite somewhere at another time.
Bravo Team has gone through a lot these last few seasons, so there seems to be nothing they can’t handle together. It's great to hear that SEAL Team won't be missing Max Thieriot sticking around, despite his commitments to Fire Country.
Season 6 marks the show's second on Paramount+, and it's also its first full season on the streamer. The series has seen some advantages of moving to streaming already, as Spencer Hudnut did explained that the graphic footage with Clay’s leg might not have been possible on network TV. It makes me wonder just what else we might see moving forward now that the series isn't restricted by network censors. I'll be keeping an eye on that as well as what lies ahead for Clay.
New episodes of SEAL Team drop on Sundays, so grab a Paramount+ subscription and check it out. Also, take a look at CinemaBlend’s 2022 TV schedule to see what else is coming up during this fall TV season.
