Is Jay Harrington Leaving SWAT? What Happened to Deacon?
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S.W.A.T. seemingly said goodbye to Deacon in the eighth episode of Season 7, but we doubt that’s the last we’ll see of him. Keep reading to see if Jay Harrington is leaving S.W.A.T.
CBS’ S.W.A.T. is a police procedural drama that follows Sergeant II Daniel “Hondo” Harelson (played by The Young and the Restless alum Shemar Moore), a former marine who’s hired to lead a new “last stop” Special Weapons and Tactics unit of the Los Angeles Police Department. The series is based on the 1975 series and the 2003 movie of the same name. Rounding out the cast is Kenny Johnson as Dominique Luca, Alex Russell as Jim Street, Jay Harrington as David “Deacon” Kay, David Lim as Victor Tan, Patrick St. Esprit as Robert Hicks, Anna Enger Ritch as Zoe Powell and Rochelle Aytes as Nichelle Carmichael.
The series was abruptly canceled by CBS in May 2023, but the network quickly reversed its decision and ordered a seventh and final season. Luck struck again in April 2024 and the show was surprisingly picked up for Season 8. While fans are thrilled about the news, several major characters have already been written off and it’s unclear if they will be written back in when the show returns. One of these characters is S.W.A.T. veteran and fan favorite David “Deacon” Kay (Harrington), who turned in his resignation during Episode 8. His departure came shortly after Jim Street (Russell) transferred to the Long Beach Police Department and Dominique Luca (Johnson) was forced into early retirement due to an injury.
Now that S.W.A.T. is officially coming back for 22 more episodes, fans are wondering what Jay Harrington’s future on the show is and if Deacon will actually follow through on retiring. Keep reading to see if Jay Harrington is leaving S.W.A.T.
Is Jay Harrington leaving S.W.A.T.?
Is Jay Harrington leaving S.W.A.T.? Most likely, no. Although the show set up Deacon’s permanent exit in “Family Man,” Harrington has hinted that he will be back for Season 8.
Moore revealed that S.W.A.T. had escaped cancellation yet again on Instagram, sharing a video of himself telling the cast and crew the exciting news. In the clip, Harrington could be seen celebrating alongside his co-stars. The actor shared his own post as well, captioning a press release: “SEASON 8 is official!!!
can’t thank @swatcbs fans enough!!! 22 more episodes coming your way…let’s roll 👊🏼👊🏼👊🏼.” This seemingly confirmed that Harrington will be back for Season 8, but fans still have questions about Deacon’s status on 20-squad.
“I hope Deacon ain’t retiring after all….. Please stay with us 😍,” one fan wrote. A second fan chimed in: “So Deacon is going to get a nanny and NOT retire right?? 🙏🙏.” Another fan commented, “Gotta keep Jay! He’s my eye candy….. ❤️.”
Harrington also seemed to confirm that he wasn’t leaving S.W.A.T. in an interview with TV Insider before the Season 7 finale in May 2024. “He definitely has some mixed feelings [about retiring] because he shows up just to offer some advice based on a contact that he’d made with his other job, but he finds himself back at work witnessing some kind of arguments with the team members and just stuff where he would’ve certainly stepped in in the past but knows it’s not really his place anymore,” Harrington said. “And there’s a couple moments of being, I don’t know, a fish out of water in a sense and uncomfortable being back at the headquarters. So that’s going to play a lot into—I know a lot of people are thinking the way the story has gone is I’m done and I’m gone.”
During Season 7, viewers learned that Deacon and his wife were struggling with childcare since Annie had returned to work. After putting his career first for many years, Deacon decided to retire so that he could be at home more. ““S.W.A.T. has been the priority in my life for a long time,” he told Hondo. “It’s time to make a change.”
Although Harrington hasn’t been officially confirmed for Season 8 and it’s unclear how he will be written back in, Moore previously hinted that we might see Deacon, Street and Luca again. “Nobody DIED!!! They can always come back!!!” he wrote on Instagram prior to the show’s renewal. He added: “Doesn’t mean they will… but ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE WITH NUMBERS!!! Think about it!!”
We probably won’t be seeing them in the Season 7 finale, though. In an April 2024 interview with TV Insider, Moore revealed that “absolutely nothing” has changed about the final episode. “When you get up to the finale, you’ll see when you watch it, you’ll go, oh, this was their way of saying goodbye. But it was also our way of saying we could still keep going. We said, this will either be our goodbye or this will be our new beginning,” he explained.
S.W.A.T. Season 7 airs on Fridays on CBS at 8/7c and streams on Paramount+.
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