S.W.A.T. Midseason Finale Post Mortem: Jay Harrington Talks Deacon’s Family & Impactful Storytelling

S.W.A.T. had its midseason finale, and it was a big one, especially for Deacon. The episode included a storyline involving him and his son, Matthew, and it grew into a bigger issue than initially thought.

TV Fanatic got to chat with Deacon Kay himself, Jay Harrington, about the storyline on S.W.A.T. Season 6 Episode 8 and the emotional aspects that came along with it. We also chatted about the possibility of it having a deeper impact on the series and what it could all mean for Deacon moving forward. Have a look!

Spoilers ahead for the midseason finale of S.W.A.T. Don’t continue reading if you haven’t watched it!

I wanted to start off by saying that the midseason finale saw a storyline with Deacon and his son that really dug into deeper storylines surrounding the way people see cops.

I’ve noticed that you have done more than a couple of heavy storylines throughout the show about that issue and other issues. How important is it for you to be able to tell a side of the story that many people may not see?

Yeah, that’s been a big, big importance of mine from the beginning. We have the opportunity to tell that story through our own backdrop of the show, so let’s go for it and let’s do it.

When it came about a couple of years ago, they said, “What do you think about for Deacon next season?”

This was two years ago, and I said, “Well, let’s not forget that my kids were home, and my house got shot up by people trying to kill us, that it’s gonna affect them in some way. So whether it’s one of them, both of them, all of them, I don’t know. Let’s not shy away from the trauma that happened,” and they came through.

Kind of going off of that, it’s always interesting to see a storyline kind of come back after a few seasons. Like you said, you’ve been wanting that storyline to have more of an effect. Can we see it getting a deeper impact going forward after what happened?

I pleaded with them, make sure this isn’t it.

There’s also an episode coming up in which we delve into my past when I was in my early 20s. It’s something that an incident occurred and then taught me and gave me my faith. It was really well done.

That sounds really exciting. I’m excited to see how that storyline plays out. How do you think the storyline with Matthew will affect Deacon, both personally and professionally?

It always does, anyway. I get that behavior with my character every day because I get to have him back in my head, “Hey, you got four kids. You gotta stay safe. You got a family.” So it’s always about that character.

Obviously, with Deacon being both a father and a husband, we expect him to have more storylines surrounding that issue, but will we be able to see any happier storylines with the Kays in the future?

There’s one coming down the road with Lila. It’s something going on with her, but it’s not as serious initially. I think I’m going to help with and Annie does it her way, and that actually causes conflict with us, but it’s not life or death.

Husband and wife coming at something, how do we get back to it?

Is there anything that you’re hoping to tell more about either with Deacon or your family, whether it’d be digging deeper into issues or just maybe like one-off episodes?

Yeah, we could turn it into the spin-off Home with the Kids. I just think people identify with our show for so many reasons.

I know that one is that dynamic of family. So anytime at the Kays’ house, it’s always like, “Alright, this is good.”

This brings, “Here’s some heart to our stories.” This is why we care about these characters, because of this.

I couldn’t help but notice that Deacon and Hondo have been spending a little bit more time together now that Hondo is expecting. Can we expect to see more of that dynamic, that fatherly relationship between the two of them?

We were just joking [about that]. It’s like Hondo seems to be coming to me for advice for everything, so it’s nice.

I just love that we’ve come the way we’ve come, with it starting out the way it did and the contact between us that will always sort of probably back in the mind be there.

Now he’s looking for the Wiser. We may be peers, and he may be my boss.

It’s kind of a little role reversal. Going back a bit, you were one of the lucky ones that got to go to Thailand for the season premiere. What was that whole experience like?

That was nuts. I mean, getting there and being in another country and another time zone, it was like we’re the future, 14 hours.

We had people that were amazing, and the crew was amazing.

Just looking at it, it’s such a beautiful country. On film, you can’t buy that kind of scenery.

Do you think this could be an annual thing now, with season premieres starting in a different country?

I think so. In fact, they talked about next time. South America is a popular place.

They also try to spread out who goes on these trips. Unfortunately, actually, a little secret here, it was me, Hondo, and we were supposed to bring Street because David went to Tokyo.

They changed it because Alex [Russell] got his appendix taken out. He was fine, but he couldn’t. It just would have been traveling and all this stuff.

They just had to do a quick rewrite and fix it and make it Tan and fix it all.

We touched on this earlier, but are there any other storylines that you’re hoping to do in the future or maybe revisit?

Like I said, that one is about my past. That’s a big one coming up that I’m looking forward to. When I was young, I met a priest, and he comes back into my life. It’s really, really good.

What other storylines are you hoping to dig more into with the Kay kids? As you said, we’re going to see more of Lila. Are we going to see any of the other kids more?

We’re magically not sure how old they are. Next time you see Samuel, he’s 19 or something. No, it depends. That’s all up to them.

At least we see the kids. There were a couple of people who didn’t have kids because of COVID, so it’s nice to have them back on set.

One more quick question. Do you have any hopes of directing an episode in the future?

It’s funny that you ask. I am directing an episode in March, so I don’t quite know the story because they haven’t even written it, but I do have an idea.

I don’t know if you remember last season, Annie went back to school, and she was helping with this guy who was in jail, Ortiz. Well, we’re gonna come back to that in March. That’s thrilling.

Oh, that sounds really incredible and exciting, and I can’t wait to see that.

Well, thank you.

New episodes of S.W.A.T. return Friday, January 6 at 8/7c on CBS.

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Megan Behnke is a staff writer for TV Fanatic, who you can follow on Twitter.

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