SEAL Team interview: Max Thieriot on Jason, Ray moments, season 5 hopes
For Ray Perry, those strings are more apparent than anywhere else. He’s still reeling from his traumatic capture and time away from his friends and family, and we saw that courtesy of the incident with his neighbor. It was also clear in the closing seconds that he isn’t quite ready to open up, whether it be to Jason or anyone else. There is this fear that he’ll unravel completely on the inside and with that, never be able to recover or be the same person again.
In order to break down some of the night’s biggest moments we turned to star (and director of “Rearview Mirror”) Max Thieriot, who also looks ahead to the possibility of a season 5. If you want to read part 1 of this interview, you can do so over here.
CarterMatt – There were two scenes that really stood out to be in this episode. The first was when Ray had that confrontation with his neighbor — there’s the moment itself, but then you take that second after and allow everyone to react. How important was that space and that silence within there?
Max Thieriot – So important. That was one of the biggest things and it’s such an important moment for me — I don’t like for everything to be completely on-the-nose and I want the suspense to build for the audience as it’s building right on-screen. If you rush those things, you don’t allow the viewers to experience it in waves. That’s why I wanted the audience to feel like Ray in that moment, where at the end of the scene he looks around and realizes ‘what have I done? Look at my wife, look at my daughter. That’s my neighbor Joe, who I just drank a beer with the other day. What am I doing?’ That’s the backstory in my head.
I want the audience to feel that same shame and that same guilt. That’s some of the stuff that Ray is going through in this entire episode. He has a lot of survivor’s remorse. He doesn’t know how to deal with what’s happening — he always felt like he was the guy who had everything in control, and he’s facing the shame of realizing that he doesn’t and doesn’t want to tell anybody that because it’s breaking him on the inside.
He’s seen the doctors for the trauma and he’s done all of these things that he’s supposed to do and he’s had this training. Yet, on the inside he’s questioning himself and wondering ‘why I am not getting better?’.
Did you view the scene at the end of the episode almost as a sequel, where Ray stayed silent on what he’s going through while Jason walked away?
Totally. A lot of this story is about guys figuring out if they’re able to operate, while also doing things on the home front. For Jason, he thought he was taking care of his team, and I think he’s made aware [through Theo] of ‘you’ve never seen the other side of this.’ Throughout this episode, he’s trying to constantly sheepdog his guys and making sure that they’re good. At the end, he has this realization that he doesn’t even know what’s going on with his best friend. So, he goes to talk with him, and that’s when he realizes that he is screwing up. He’s not doing as good of a job as he thought he was.
That moment is Jason feeling the isolation, feeling alone from his team. Right when you think that Bravo is this stable working unit, each guy is feeling isolated.
As we build towards the end of this season, do you think that the story will make viewers more enthusiastic about getting a season 5? Is that something that you’re hoping for?
Yea, and I can tell you that the last five episodes are a big ramp-up. They are an awesome buildup, and the end of episode 12 is just a taste of what’s to come.
I think we end on a really good note. It was obviously difficult for us in this time to film, but I think we overcame a lot of the hurdles and challenges. We have a lot more that we can do; I’d love to see another season and what we can come up with. That’s above my pay grade, and as they say in SEAL Team, ‘three-foot world.’
Related News – Check out some more news on SEAL Team, including details all about the next episode
What do you want to see on SEAL Team through the remainder of season 4?
Be sure to share right now in the attached comments! After you do that, stick around to get some other updates. (Photo: CBS.)