While attempting to arrest a known leader of a human-trafficking ring, the entire team runs into complications caused by an earthquake.
Hondo meets Nia Wells, a Deputy District Attorney in the process of getting divorced, at a hotel bar and spends the night with her but, when he goes to check on her at the hospital after the quake, he discovers her soon-to-be ex-husband at her bedside.
Further details from the Riverhill specifies that Hondo shot one of the shooters, and that one of Deacon's children was named after a student he stayed in contact with during the shooting before she perished protecting a group of her peers.
While she and Chris infiltrate the cartel in Mexico, Hondo and his team track down the leader's butcher, who is torturing Cruz in an undisclosed location.
Meanwhile, Hondo engages in small home renovation projects, which worries his mother, Charice, that he has something that is causing him emotional strain.
However, her investigation and tactics clash with the police's and her boss downgrades SWAT to sweep prior suspects' residences.
The S.W.A.T team once again squares off against The Emancipators when they hold a live-stream kangaroo court to publicly execute city politicians.
Hondo helps Daryl with his recovery, and Street finds his mother under the influence of drugs again, leading him to call in her parole officer to send her back to prison.