Christina “Chris” Alonso from S.W.A.T. left the series because the actress, Lina Esco, made “one of the most difficult decisions” to explore other creative endeavours.
One of CBS’ latest flagship series is the procedural crime drama, S.W.A.T., which returned for its most current season, season six, in October 2022, with two episodes which have now premiered.
But the new season unfortunately started without original cast member, Lina Esco. Since the premiere of the crime procedural drama, Esco, who was the team’s sniper, Christina “Chris” Alonso, has been a fan-favourite character.
However, before season five, the actress decided to leave the role, dedicating season five to giving the character a fitting send-off before she left to explore other creative endeavours as an actress and director.
The significance of Christina “Chris’ Alonso on S.W.A.T.
Christina “Chris” Alonso arguably became a fan-favourite character due to what her character represented in the world of the story.
This is as Esco identifies as bisexual in real life, and with art often imitating life, the character of Chris would also identify as bisexual.
This coupled with the fact that Esco is a woman of colour with a political conscience as seen with her directorial debut with the 2014 film, which she also starred in titled Free The Nipple, Esco’s character pushed the needle forward in terms of a diverse representation on mainstream crime procedural dramas, particularly in terms of sexual orientation.
Why did Chris leave S.W.A.T?
In the story, season five of S.W.A.T. was partly written to give Christina “Chris” Alonso, the sniper of the team, a proper send-off.
Therefore, we see the character look into and finally decide to step in for Mama Pina by running the local safe house for immigrant women.
After she followed her heart, the season five finale was an action-packed tear-jerker as it showed Chris’ last days on the job, which ended with her having one last round of drinks with her team.
The fact that S.W.A.T. gave the actress such a touching and comprehensive send-off indicates that there was no bad blood between Esco and the production.
Seemingly, the decision to write out the character was because of Esco’s decision to pursue other creative endeavours, as the series had given her room to start exploring her other interests.
Esco has featured in other acting roles since joining the cast of the procedural series including 2018’s film, Can’t Have You, and Full-Dress in 2019 in the role of Casey.
Moreover, she was also given the opportunity to flex her directorial muscle since her directorial debut in 2013 with Free The Nipple as she directed one of the episodes in season five.
As such, Esco looked to exercise these muscles outside of the context of the crime procedural drama.
Lina Esco on Chris leaving S.W.A.T.
Season five of S.W.A.T. concluded its 22-episode run in May 2022 after it first premiered on CBS in October 2021.
Following the season finale, Lina Esco, who played Christina Alonso since the inception of the series, took to Twitter to share her final word on her experience as she decided to leave the series to explore “new creative endeavours”.
Moreover, she spoke about her experience working on the series by writing in part, “Bringing to life a strong, smart, bisexual character like Chris Alonso has been both a pleasure and a powerful opportunity to increase visibility for diverse women everywhere”.
S.W.A.T. bids farewell to Christina “Chris” Alonso
Seeing as CBS’ S.W.A.T. used season five to give Lina Esco as Christina ‘Chris” Alonso a fitting send-off, it highlighted that there was no bad blood between the actress and the series.
This was emphasised by the touching final word after the season finale in which Chris got her happy-ending.
Showrunners, Shawn Ryan and Andrew Dettmann, released a statement of their own bidding farewell to Esco as Chris, stating in part, “What Lina brought to the show, and what Chris represented to our audience, are hard to replace. We’ll miss Chris, but we’ll especially miss Lina, as we wish her the best of luck with everything she chooses to do next”.
What is Lina Esco doing after leaving S.W.A.T?
Currently, it seems that Lina Esco is enjoying her time away from the screen as she is not touted to play any role as of October 2022, nor has she confirmed any directorial endeavour for anytime soon.
But she does continue to travel, like in September 2022, when she joined a whale expedition where she and her friends followed hunchback whales, including a mother and a young calf, for six days.
The actress and director took to Instagram to share a snippet of the footage they took during their expedition.