Hondo and Chris go undercover to infiltrate and take back a cruise ship that's under siege by drug smugglers who will execute passengers if they detect police on board. Also, Street enters the SWAT Training Academy and finds the competition fiercer than he expected, with the applicants all vying for the one SWAT position available for the year.

The SWAT team hunts for a band of criminals re-enacting the crimes of the infamous Symbionese Liberation Army, whose decades-old offenses made local and national news. Seeking expertise on the original crime spree in the 1970s, Luca and his father, Carl Luca, review the files of Luca's late grandfather who worked for SWAT during the era of the original crimes. Also, Hondo experiences discrimination from a fellow officer during a SWAT training seminar for local law enforcement in Arizona.