When three gangs stage a riot and seize control of an Los Angeles prison, Hondo and 20 Squad are sent in to retake the prison and save civilian hostages, only to find something much bigger in the works. At the same time, Hicks and Cortez face a quandry when Deacon's wife Annie suffers a stroke at the office.
Tropes
- A Day in the Limelight: For Hicks.
- Batman Gambit: Gunnar Cade triggered a prison riot, figuring S.W.A.T. would deal with the obvious rioters first, giving him and his crew enough time to break into maximum security and kill an informant whose testimony would put Cade's meth-dealing compatriots out of business.
- Big Bad: Gunnar Cade, leader of the "Nazi Eagles" white supremacists and a meth dealer.
- Big Damn Heroes: Mumford and his team arrive in the nick of time to rescue Chris and Deacon from a trap.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: The prison's owner initially seems like a good guy, doing all he can to help S.W.A.T. figure out what's going on in there, but as they dig deeper, they discover he's been cutting corners with security guard training, using prisoners as sweat shop labour and cramming them into cells not meant to hold so many, effectively causing tensions to boil that Gunnar Cade exploited to start the riot. Both Hondo and Cortez threaten to report his corrupt practices to the Board of Prisons, the Los Angeles City Council and even the F.B.I. afterwards.
- Break Them by Talking: How Street gets the rioting cartel prisoners to surrender when he, Tan and Rocker are in a Mexican Standoff: as Street points out, the prisoners don't have enough guns or bullet-proof vests for all of them, S.W.A.T. is firing armour piercing bullets the prisoners' vests won't protect them from, and bulletproof vests don't protect you from a bullet to the head. The cartel prisoners surrender without a fight.
- Casual Danger Dialogue: Hondo and Sister Carmelita, being friends who do prison outreach work together, exchange a bit of this while Deacon and Luca are patching up her stab wound.
- Defector from Decadence: J.R. Coltrane, one of Cade's underlings. He reveals to Hondo and Luca that he is trying to turn his back on his white supremacist past, thanks to the help of Sister Carmelita, was trying to get meds to treat her stab wound when S.W.A.T. caught him, and is able to decipher a message that helps Hondo figure out what Cade's actual plan is.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Gunnar Cade is an unrepentant racist and meth dealer with no qualms about killing and using women as human shields, but he takes offence at the insinuation he's a rapist.Gunnar Cade: J.R., please tell the sister I'd never violate her. She's not my type. [he stabs Sister Carmelita] And before you call me a racist, I just want you to know it's not because of that. I also hate Catholics.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Gunnar Cade, courtesy of being played by Gideon Emery.
- Freudian Slip: While speaking to a doctor about Annie's condition, Hicks accidentally calls her by his own wife's name, Barbara (it's implied she died of a brain tumour, hence why it's on his mind).
- Oh, Crap!: Hicks when he realises Annie is having a stroke.
- Pet the Dog: Deacon gives some support to a young prison guard struggling to deal with having killed a rioter in self-defence.
- Hicks also supports Deacon when he gets to hospital, telling him not to beat himself up over what he could have done had he known sooner.
- The whole team rallies to support Deacon and his kids at the hospital while Annie is in surgery.
- Prison Riot: The central premise of the episode.
- The Snack Is More Interesting: Street and Tan find a small group of prisoners who used the riot to simply help themselves to ice cream from the prison canteen and watch the tv show they wanted to see without interruption.
- Spot the Imposter: How Cortez realises Cade has managed to escape the prison disguised as a guard; there were only six prison guards listed.
- Suicide by Cop: Having realised his disguise is blown, Cade tries to pull a gun to kill Cortez and is promptly gunned down by her and a half dozen L.A.P.D. cops.
- Threat Backfire: Gunnar Cade shrugs off the prison warden's efforts to convince him to stand down.Warden: Cade, stop this. You don't want to end up in more hot water.Gunnar Cade: Warden, I'm serving three life sentences. Water can't get any hotter.
- Wardens Are Evil: Subverted: the prison warden tries to convince the rioters to let their civilian hostages go. He ends up being murdered by Cade to send a message to S.W.A.T. not to interfere.
- Would Hit a Girl: Gunnar Cade has no problem with stabbing Sister Carmelita, or with using her as a Human Shield.
