Clay (Max Thieriot) is dealt a bad hand on SEAL Team, and now Bravo Team may have to say goodbye to one of its own.
While in Manila to train Filipino SEALS, the team uses its down time to hang out in a bar, only for the fun to be interrupted by a bomb attack. However, it’s a second explosion, one originating from a backpack in the street, that inflicts the most damage to Bravo, leaving Clay in critical condition.
Clay’s future as a SEAL being uncertain is, sadly, foreshadowed leading up to the explosions. At the beginning of “Paradise Lost,” he volunteered to drink the “snake wine” from the first Filipino SEALs. (The venom is “almost always” harmless at this stage.)
Then, he wins a hand of cards with aces and eights, which Sonny (AJ Buckley) calls “bad juju” and “the dead man’s hand.” “It’s what Wild Bill had the night he got schwacked,” he says. Since Clay’s been eager for some action, he doesn’t mind.
Furthermore, Clay has made it clear that being a SEAL is what “matters most” to him. He sees it as “a life,” he tells Jason (David Boreanaz), immediately prior to the bomb attack. “Riding with Bravo is all I need,” he says. “I’m going to give it all of me.” He may have already done just that.
After helping the injured, Clay hears a phone ringing but doesn’t have time to react when he sees it’s coming from a backpack. The blast from the second bomb blew him back, and the team quickly read him for transport to the hospital.
Clay is left in critical condition, with traumatic injury to both legs and severe blood loss. While he’s airlifted back to the United States, the rest of Bravo Team is ready to move as soon as they know who’s responsible for the attack. Mandy (Jessica Paré) hopes to find a photo of that person on the phone of the victim closest to the first bomb.
Whatever happens to Clay, his life as a SEAL is at least on hold for the time being. If he survives, he’ll need time to recover after the damage done to his legs. That likely won’t be easy for him since he’s been focused on his life as a SEAL, especially after his and Stella’s (Alona Tal) breakup. His new roommate, Brett Swann (Tony Curran), who is adjusting to life after service, may be the person to help Clay through this.
