SWAT Season 7 certainly set a few storylines up to end. Deacon was set to retire until the final moments of what was supposed to be the series finale. CBS U-turned and granted the series an eighth season, and now there will be more to the story.
Throughout the past seven seasons, Deacon’s work has always come before Annie’s. That made sense when Annie was a stay at home mom, but then she went back to work. Deacon’s job still came first, which considering the line of work that he was in, that wasn’t too surprising.
It came to a head in Season 7, though. Annie couldn’t just drop everything and run to her daughter in the way she used to do. The two needed to find a better balance, and it came down to Deacon offering to retire from SWAT. It was clear he didn’t really want to, but he felt it best for his home life.
Deacon will need to find a balance in SWAT Season 8
At the end of the Season 7 finale, Deacon admitted that he didn’t actually want to retire. Annie got it, and so, we’ll see Deacon back with the team in full in the eighth season.
This means we’ll need to see him find a way to balance everything. The best way to do that is for Deacon and Annie to hire someone to help with the childcare. They need some sort of backup when neither of them can make it to the school to deal with situations. There’s nothing wrong with this, but neither of them wanted that for the longest time. Sometimes, sacrifices need to be made to have everything you want.
I also want to see him continue to grow in his career. He has consistently been the clear-headed second-in-command to Hondo. Everyone turns to him for advice, and I hope to see that continue. There are going to be some newbies join the team this season, so we definitely need to see him mentor more in the way he has with Tan, Powell, and others.