SWAT season 4 episode 8: Is Erika dead? Assessing the aftermath

We had a feeling that SWAT season 4 episode 8 was going to be emotional the moment that we started to see teases for episode 9. The team may have been losing someone, and the big question was precisely who that someone would be.

In the closing minutes, it all started to become clear: That person was Erika. She died after an injury out in the field, and it came almost out of nowhere. When exiting the scene, it didn’t even look as though she was the one hurt! She was eager to move up the ranks, and her and Chris were even thinking about a future together as roommates. It seemed like she was set up to go places she never had before.

Now, almost suddenly, that is over. Erika’s death will loom large for all of the team as they go over every single part of their mission and what went wrong. It’s also just hard to lose a friend, and someone who still had so much life to give both personally and professionally. Chris will feel this the hardest — that was clear at the end of the episode, where she was first in an understandable sense of denial.

Yet, you can also make an argument that deaths like this are necessary for a show like this to have the stakes that it does. You need to show the dangers of the job, and that each passing mission could be your last. They all know this. SWAT also needed to kill an important enough character to make that statement — Lyndie Greenwood may not have been a series regular, but she did recur as of late and viewers were familiar with her.

This one hurts — and it’s gonna hurt for the next few episodes. Kudos to Greenwood for doing a great job with this role; that’s one of the reasons for the pain now.

Related – When will SWAT return with new episodes?

What did you think about the events of SWAT season 4 episode 8?

Are you shocked by Erika’s death? Be sure to let us know in the comments. (Photo: CBS.)

This article was written by Jessica Carter. Be sure to follow her on Twitter.