The SWAT team must protect a hotel full of civilians after a joint task force mission with the LAPD Gang Division goes wrong, and the city’s most dangerous gang leaders scatter across the building to find an escape. Also, Luca’s efforts to coordinate the team’s mission are complicated when his brother, Terry, a freelance stringer reporter, crosses police lines to shoot footage.

Hondo and the SWAT team race to save Buck, their former unit leader, when he goes off grid and they fear he plans to harm himself. Flashbacks reveal the search for Buck, which coincides with one of the team’s most brutal missions, as each team member receives counseling and discusses the untold mental and emotional difficulties inherent to working in SWAT.