Secrets just kept getting in the way.

Very little ended up staying hidden on SEAL Team Season 4 Episode 9.

Still, it took quite a while for everyone to get onto the same page when it came to the mission.

Ray made the mistake of obscuring Kassen's identity from everybody for fear it would affect the mission.

It did, but in a good way.

Ray tried to send Bravo home, but once he got actionable intel on Kassen, he realized that he needed to bring back Bravo.

Since Davis had already spilled the tea to Jason by then, there was no more treating this as just another mission.

There was no keeping Ray's special interest in this high-value target secret after that. It was just a matter of how slowly the news would trickle out to everyone else.

Ray attempted to deny and pull rank on Jason, but that wasn't going to work with these two brothers.

Ray finally admitted to Jason how much his captivity was still weighing on him, to the point that he started this mission early to get away from all the people that were worrying about him.

He could blow off Mina's questions about his past with impunity since they would be working together for only a short time.

There were still drones out there with a couple of jetliners' names on them, so no one could really personalize this mission.

Getting vengeance for Ray would turn out to be a bonus. And wasn't it a very short time after Ray told Jason to keep it to himself that Jason slipped and Ray had to spit out who Kassen was to him to all of Bravo? Why did Ray even bother keeping attempting to keep that to himself?

Fortunately, Jason got Ray to appreciate the therapeutic value of taking down his torturer. From that point on, Ray was going to follow Jason's lead; protocol be damned.

Which was just as well since Jason was having serious problems following Ray's orders. He also seems to have an inability to follow Lt. Soto's orders as well.

Might that arrest by NCIS have something to do with his resistance to following orders? Probably.

That started with taking down Kassen's lieutenant rather than tailing him back to Kassen's hideout. Granted, all they had to show for that very public attack was a cell phone, but at least it revealed the abandoned airbase where Kassen likely was.

That first hideout yielded the drones, so blowing those up accomplished their primary mission.

They could have walked away then with Kassen in the wind. But no, Jason goaded Ray to continue pursuing Kassen to another hiding place.

Conveniently, Ray happens to walk into exactly the right building by himself and discover Kassen with a jammed gun. At least he got the catharsis that he had been needing.

Sonny ended up paying for that, getting shot in the arm. But that's Sonny's role, isn't it, taking stray, ill-timed bullets?

Jason and Ray weren't the only Bravo team members dealing with their emotions.

Sonny's getting shot allowed him to be stuck in one place long enough to do some thinking, using the term loosely.

Up until then, his situation with Hannah just kept bouncing around in his brain, a distraction he didn't need on the battlefield.

He did try to tell Jason on SEAL Team Season 4 Episode 8, but Jason was so hyped up about his return to Bravo that he pretty much told Sonny to run some dirt on it.

Not the subtle guidance Sonny needed but the type of advice he could get behind: Putting it off.

But Sonny's squirrelly behavior was setting off alarm bells for Davis. She was about to derail her rising career with a lateral move just so she and Sonny could go public with their relationship. And he had gone back to monosyllabic grunts.

Instead of talking to Davis as he should have, Sonny chose to reveal his secret to Clay, who made sure to point out the error of his ways.

At least in his hospital bed, Sonny was able to string together some heart-warming sentiment to keep his relationship with Davis from falling apart.

Oh, well. Davis knew into what she was getting. Sonny's big-hearted and loyal but will never be a rocket scientist. She'll be the brains of that couple.

It took Clay zero time to forget his place.

Shortly after he was volunteering to be a sled dog, Clay was second-guessing everyone.

First, he was pounding on Sonny for his poor handling of the Hannah situation. Next, he was questioning Ray about why he was following Jason's lead. Finally, he blamed Jason for getting Sonny shot (Sonny got shot because he's a big target).

That Clay was mostly correct didn't matter. Being Bravo Six means keeping your thoughts to yourself unless asked, and maybe not even then. Otherwise, you end up apologizing with regularity.

He almost managed to send Stella running to the door when he told her he wanted what Ray and Naima had: the house, the kids, the white picket fence. Maybe that was the real reason why she left the bar shortly thereafter.

To revisit Ray's struggles, watch SEAL Team online.

Which Bravo team member was most wrong?

Why does Davis put up with Sonny?

Did Clay scare off Stella?

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Dale McGarrigle is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on X.