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| S.W.A.T Exiles Episode 3 Recap. |
S.W.A.T. Exiles Episode 3, pushes Hondo Harrelson further into the uncomfortable job of leading a team he never asked for while quietly exposing the person he may trust most. What begins as a routine gang investigation quickly turns into a dangerous test of the young officers, with Hondo using the case to decide who has the judgement needed to become his Scout. The irony is that his eventual choice puts Malik, the team’s secret mole, in exactly the position he should never have been given.
After being pushed out of the LAPD following the scandal that damaged his career, Hondo is now running a newly assembled group of officers whose biggest problem may be that they have almost as little faith in each other as he does. Angela Pike wastes no time putting them to work, ordering the team to serve a warrant connected to a shooting at a dance club that left several people dead, including gang leader Kim.
Kim's death changes the balance between two rival gangs. His opponent, Monty, had previously stayed away from the weapons trade because of an agreement between the groups. With Kim gone, however, that arrangement is suddenly worth about as much as a forgotten parking ticket. Hondo and the team are sent to search a textile warehouse believed to be connected to an arms shipment.
The operation also gives Hondo a chance to test potential Scouts. Because the new unit has not settled on one person to handle the tactical view of an operation, Jude gets the first opportunity. It does not go particularly well. His communication breaks down during the warehouse sweep and his disagreement with Cassidy nearly results in friendly fire, which is about as convincing an audition for Scout as falling asleep during the interview.
The warehouse itself offers little. No weapons are found and the team leaves without the evidence it wanted. Monty, meanwhile, reaches his own conclusion about Kim's death. He believes Kim's people may eventually come after him, so he starts considering weapons for protection rather than simply staying out of the arms business. His son Andrea, a lawyer, is far less comfortable with the direction his father is taking.
Jude's poor performance removes him from the Scout competition, leaving the others with something to prove. Ethan takes matters into his own hands and hacks into records connected to Monty's textile operation. The information points towards a suspicious shipment that could involve illegal weapons, giving Hondo another chance to evaluate his team.
This time, Sammy takes the Scout position and puts together an ambush designed to catch Monty and his men when the shipment arrives. On paper, it is a much stronger operation. In practice, the situation becomes considerably messier when the shipment contains not only weapons but armed attackers sent to kill Monty.
The resulting gunfight leaves six people dead and Monty badly wounded. With the attackers dead, there is no one left for Hondo's team to question, and Sammy's handling of the situation does not impress him. Malik also makes a questionable decision by putting Monty's safety ahead of established team procedure. Hondo therefore decides Sammy has not earned the Scout role either.
Sammy's work with a weapons company later creates another headache. Her involvement helps secure better resources for the team, but Hondo remains irritated by the way she went about it. By now, the younger officers are becoming increasingly fed up with his constant criticism. They decide to spend some time together away from work, with Ethan hosting the group at his surprisingly luxurious apartment.
The evening reveals another side of the team. Ethan turns out to come from serious money, while Jude admits that he stole the team's personnel files from Hondo's office. Naturally, nobody considers this a particularly healthy approach to workplace bonding, but it gives them access to the information Hondo has been using to judge them.
Sammy discovers that Jude's file is heavily classified because of an undercover operation that ended with one person dead. Jude himself is unsure whether he was responsible for what happened, adding another layer to the doubts surrounding his past.
Away from the team's internal drama, Hondo becomes increasingly suspicious of Pike. Her hostility towards the unit strengthens his belief that the department may have created the team expecting it to fail, with Hondo eventually taking the blame. Rather than simply accepting that possibility, he asks an old contact to investigate Pike's background and activities within LAPD management.
The gang investigation also takes a darker turn. Hondo begins to believe the shooting involving Kim and the attack on Monty could have been connected to the same person. He tracks down Kim's son and starts piecing together what happened on the night of the nightclub shooting. His questions eventually point towards Andrea, who appears to have a much stronger motive than first expected.
The team's third major operation takes them to the hospital where Monty is recovering. This time, Malik is chosen as Scout. Unfortunately, Andrea is already inside the building. Disguised as a medical worker, he manages to get his father away from the main treatment area and into an isolated ward.
Andrea's plan is not simply revenge. He wants to kill Monty and take control of the gang himself, believing he can become his father's successor and reshape the organisation according to his own ideas. For all the family therapy this situation clearly needed, nobody seems to have booked an appointment.
Hondo's team eventually tracks Andrea down before he can finish the attack. As Monty is held hostage, Malik initially tries to persuade Andrea to surrender. When the situation reaches breaking point, however, Malik makes the decision Hondo has been looking for throughout the episode. He orders Jude to take the shot.
Jude fires, saving Monty's life but killing Andrea. The decision demonstrates that Malik can remain focused under extreme pressure and make a difficult tactical call when there is no easy option. Hondo sees precisely what he wanted to see in his Scout: judgement, adaptability and the ability to act decisively when the situation collapses.
The problem, of course, is that Malik is secretly working against Hondo. His selection is therefore one of the episode's biggest twists. Hondo believes he has finally found someone he can rely on, while the audience knows he has effectively handed additional authority to the person positioned to undermine him from inside the team.
My take on the episode is that “Take the Shot” works best when it treats Hondo's leadership problem as something more complicated than simply finding the most capable officer. Jude fails because he cannot communicate properly under pressure, Sammy has a strong tactical plan but struggles when events move beyond it, while Malik succeeds because he can make a brutal decision when everything goes sideways. That makes Hondo's choice understandable, even if the audience can see the enormous problem coming from a mile away.
The episode also gives the younger agents more personality outside their jobs, particularly through the stolen files and Ethan's absurdly wealthy home. The whole thing has a slightly dark workplace-comedy edge beneath the police drama, which keeps the conspiracy plot from becoming too heavy. The biggest hook is easily Malik's promotion: Hondo thinks he has finally found his dependable right-hand man, while viewers know he has just made his own life considerably harder.
By the end of S.W.A.T. Exiles Episode 3, Hondo has chosen his Scout, but the decision may create an even bigger problem than the one he was trying to solve. Malik now has greater access to the team's operations, while Hondo continues investigating Pike and the wider conspiracy without realising the threat sitting directly beside him. What did you make of Malik's promotion, and do you think Hondo will eventually uncover what he is really doing?