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S.W.A.T‘s spinoff introduced a shocking twist that is about to get exposed — and it will only get more messy from here.
During the Friday, October 16, episode of the Starz series, Hondo (Shemar Moore) realized that Malik (Adain Bradley) was the mole on his team. Malik, meanwhile, wasn’t aware that his boss was onto him, which hinted at a larger moment later in the season.
“If anybody’s watched the mothership show, you guys know that Hondo doesn’t play,” Bradley, 28, exclusively told Us. “Trying not to spoil it, but there will be conflict.”
Bradley hinted there could be “some physical conflict,” adding, “Maybe the fans don’t have to wait too long after episode 4, you might get to see something really soon. It will all come to a head very, very soon.”
Despite the divide between Hondo and Malik, Bradley didn’t rule out them working out their issues.
“There is a a way that Malik and Hondo may figure out a way to coexist,” he continued. “Then we’ll see if that comes to fruition by the end of the season.”
S.W.A.T., which premiered on CBS in 2017, followed a police Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team named Twenty Squad that operated in Los Angeles. The procedural faced its fair share of battles to remain on the air when CBS picked S.W.A.T. up for a seventh and final season. The network ultimately reversed that decision due to strong ratings in addition to viewer demand and S.W.A.T. returned for season 8.
But the celebration didn’t last long — the network canceled the show for a second time in March 2025. S.W.A.T seemingly came to an end two months later when the series finale aired on CBS. Days later, however, Sony Pictures Television picked up a spinoff titled S.W.A.T. Exiles which stars Moore, who publicly campaigned for the show’s comeback, and a new SWAT unit.
“I had a conversation with the writing before I got the job about my character. He is a former marine who lives life very black and white. He is morally just. That’s what I received and then a couple of weeks before I got the first script, I got a call,” Bradley recalled. “I will say to the audience that Malik thinks that life is very black and white. That’s the only way that he’s lived his life and Hondo is trying to teach him that that life exists more in the gray.”
He continued: “You see that evolve throughout the season. Obviously, we get the reveal in episode 4 that everybody knows that he is the mole and he’s been working with the mayor’s office. But even that arc continues throughout the rest of the season. So we have full circle moments and I think I think fans are really going to resonate with his arc. We get there.”
Bradley is excited to keep exploring his character.
“This is a bit more of a character-driven show than the mothership. You get to see everybody’s perspective. At the end of the day, I think audiences may be stuck between a rock and a hard place with Malik,” he noted. “And whilst there is conflict and there is angst within the team, you do get to see his perspective,. And you do get to see his side.”
He concluded: “I think the audience will be split but you do get to see it. I’m just excited that I got the opportunity to kind of show another side of Malik that you don’t see up until that kind of inflection point.”
S.W.A.T: Exiles airs on Starz Fridays at 10 p.m. ET. New episodes stream the next day on the Starz app.
