"U-Turn" is the twelfth episode of the fourth season in the remake version of S.W.A.T., and the seventy-eighth episode overall, which was aired on March 24, 2021.
Summary
A high-stakes domestic disturbance involving a father and his two young daughters leads the team to race against the clock to save a group of international activists. Also, when Daniel Sr. skips out on several family commitments, Hondo becomes concerned his father is planning to repeat history, leading to a surprising admission.
Recap
A jogger was on her morning run when she heard gunshots coming from a house. She also heard the screams of a child and that child stopped screaming after the second round of bullets. However, SWAT was trained for such scenarios. They also have Luca back and so the whole team was together again. They all later responded to the call at the home.
They did a quick debriefing before they moved on the property and so they were told that the homeowner was Ramiro Vasquez. Vasquez was known for his racketeering. He leans on business to make him in protection fees and so the team assumed that one of Vasquez’s victims was fighting back. They didn’t learn until much later how right they were.
The shooter wasn’t some business owner. It was Vasquez’s eldest daughter Eme. Eme was shooting at her father to keep him away and the bruises on her younger sister helped complete the picture. The two girls were just trying to protect themselves. Eme put down the gun the moment SWAT revealed who they were and that they could take both girls to safety. Vasquez on the other hand proved to be a problem.
He refused to reveal what really happened to make his daughter grab a gun. He was claiming that she lost her mind and that she stared at him for no reason. Only SWAT ran the gun when they collected it from Eme. The gun came back as being used on Angela Roberts. She was murdered in what appeared to be a home invasion and so that led to more questions.
Like, why did Vasquez kill Roberts? Roberts was a feature reporter with an in-depth magazine and her latest article about the abuse of native women has won critical acclaim. She was going places. She was also well-loved and so it’s odd that she would be targeted. Her home was ransacked. She never got the chance to call for help and it was clear that a crew had been through. A group of men were in her home.
It didn’t sound like Vasquez was an abuser. He likes to be one on one with his victims and so the team tried asking their suspect about Roberts. He turned out to be vague. He made it out that whatever he did was just beginning and so the team had the resident therapist ask the children. Eme recalls three men coming to the house the day after the murder.
Eme also said that the men and her father were all looking at pictures together. Pictures of people. It seems the reporter wasn’t the only one they were targeting and she was killed because she was working on something. She was writing an article with the help of four Guatemalan immigrants. Vasquez was Guatemalan himself. He served in the military there and the military in that country tends to be just as corrupt as the government itself.
Roberts was writing an article that must have upset people. Vasquez and his crew targeted her and they also were looking with the four immigrants she was working with. The team stopped by an immigrant waystation. The waystations were for people on the move to get supplies without having to turn to the government and the man who runs the place was himself Guatemalan.
Oscar DeLeon ran one of the waystations. He claims he hasn’t seen those four people they have pictures of and the team didn’t necessarily believe him. They understand that men like Oscar have dealt with corrupt government all their lives. They didn’t trust people in authority and Oscar has dealt with corrupt cops even in the United States. He didn’t want to help Deacon or Tan when they approached him.
They had had to convince him that they were just trying to keep everyone alive and even then he wasn’t able to help them because he hadn’t seen any of them. The team had to wait for news. They were later notified about a shooting that went down in Little Guatemala and so they went there to find men shooting at one of the immigrants they were looking for.
It turns out the people they were looking for had helped with an article. They were farmers and doctors who took video of the military violently putting down a protest in Guatemala. The military did this because the farers had bought the mine that was poisoning their farms and they had closed it down.
Only the mine was profitable. Those in power didn’t like that it was closed and that’s why they sent in the military. The people who took the videos were forced to flee to the United States. They were afraid of repercussions and so they wanted to hand over their evidence to an American reporter. She would have written about their stories. She would detail what happened with the mine and this was a problem. There was an aid package to Guatemala that was pending congress approval.
The article could have potentially swayed members of congress into vetoing the aide package. This is why they sent people to kill the article and everyone attached to it. Ricky told the team everything. He also said his three other friends are still in hiding and that they were all using burners that Roberts bought them.
The team traced the burners and they found both Edwin and Marta. Their fourth and final activist was still out. Carlos had apparently figured out who betrayed Roberts to the Guatemalan government. It was her boss and editor. Garrett has a gambling problem. He needed money and so he warned people in advance. If they paid him, he’d kill the story, and if not he published.
Carlos wanted revenge for Roberts. He hunted Garrett down and he was going to kill him, but he had been followed. The men trying to kill him found Carlos with Garrett and had tried to kill the both of them. SWAT was forced to step in. They were called in when gunshots were going down and they were able to save both Carlos and Garrett. They also arrested their shooter. The shooter and even Vasquez were not talking.
They were more afraid of whoever hired them than they were of the American justice system. The men involved in the conspiracy were all keeping and quiet and they will happily go to jail rather than talk. Even Garrett wasn’t talking. The man was almost killed and he was now scared. And so it’s a good thing someone reached out to reach to news to media to reveal the activists’ stories.
Oscar had proved he was willing to help any way he can. He made sure that the article got published and that the story of what happened got out there. The aid package to Guatemala was as dead as it can be.
Hondo also returned home to find his father wasn’t feeling well and that he was waiting on test results about his cancer.
Cast
Main
- Shemar Moore - Daniel Harrelson
- Alex Russell - Jim Street
- Lina Esco - Christina Alonso
- Kenny Johnson - Dominic Luca
- David Lim - Victor Tan
- Patrick St. Esprit - Robert Hicks
- Jay Harrington - David Kay
Recurring
- Obba Babatundé - Daniel Harrelson Sr.
- DeShae Frost - Darryl Henderson
- April Parker Jones - Winnie Harrelson
Guest
- Gabriel Ellis - Ramiro Vazquez
- Leslie Ramos - Emeline "Eme" Vazquez
- Leidy Ramos - Nimla Vazquez
- Eva La Dare - Joan
- Randy Gonzalez - Carlos
- Cosima Cabrera - Marta
- Johnny Rey Diaz - Ricky
- Remy Ortiz - Edwin
- Colby French - Sam
- Jaime Paul Gomez - Oscar DeLeon
- Heather McPhaul - Melinda
- Nicole Pulliam - Sheila
- Lucia Ramos - Anna Sanchez
- Colby French - Sam Garrett
Gallery
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Trivia
- Luca returns from Germany during his field trip.
- LAPD rescues the girls and Eme who refuse to shoot Ramiro.
- Jim is using the cellphone and calling his mom (Karen Street).
Quotes
- Hondo: Damn, that's a face
- Darryl: It's nothing
- Hondo: Why don't we try that again.
- Darryl: I got that meeting this afternoon with my lawyer to prep for my next custody hearing.
- Hondo: Something go wrong?
- Darryl: Your pops was supposed to driving me, but now he's saying that something came up and now he can't. And I called and asked my dad to take me, and...
- Hondo: I'm guessing he couldn't step in.
- Darryl: He's got a thing with his parole officer. But I'm gonna go check the bus schedules. 'Cause that's my job as a father, right? To come through when it's clutch?
- Hondo: Hey. What aren't you telling me, D?
- Darryl: This is, like, the third time this week that your pops has bagged on me.
- Hondo: Look, when Winnie moving back here and all his doctors business, Pop's just got a lot of going on. Maybe some wires got crossed up.