The mission against the Carillos is officially underway in Lioness season 2 episode 3, as Joe (Zoe Saldana) and Kaitlyn (Nicole Kidman) oversee their team planting a device in the Carrillo home that gets them access to footage (not the bedrooms and bathrooms, Kaitlyn points out, but it’s a start).
Joe has an issue though with their new Lioness Josephina Carrillo (Genesis Rodriguez), as she doesn’t trust her. She’s skeptical that a second-generation Mexican doesn’t have close ties to her family, doesn’t speak Spanish and hasn’t been to Mexico. Kaitlyn suggests Joe treat Josephina like an agent she is trying to flip, reminding her that she can never trust any of the people they recruit to the Lioness program.
Read on for our full breakdown of what happened in Lioness season 2 episode 3.
Planting the seed
Joe gets some more time back home with her family before heading down to Fort Bliss. Though when she gets there no one appears to be home. This makes her nervous. She searches the house, calling for Neal (Dave Annable), only to find him in the bath with headphones on. He jokes about how nervous she is, asking if they need to be worried about kidnapping; it’s only when he doesn’t get a straight denial that he begins to think it may be a real possibility. She acknowledges their target operates in the US and does do kidnappings, but says their family should be fine.
After Joe and Neal move from the bath to the bedroom, only to have Kate (Hannah Love Lanier) walk in on them, Joe gets a call from Kaitlyn to turn on the news. The story about Josephina being court-martialed following a friendly fire incident airs. Neal believes the story to be real, but Joe tells him not to believe everything he sees on the news. Her family time is up, she is heading back to work the next day.
However, the administration still has some concerns over the plan. Mullins (Morgan Freeman), Hollar (Bruce McGill) and Mason (Jennifer Ehle) meet with Byron (Michael Kelly) and Kaitlyn, saying the kidnapping of the congresswoman did little to convince the politicians to support broader action, as they all remain divided. But Kaitlyn and Byron note this wasn’t just a kidnapping, it was a probe; America’s enemies (in this case China) seeing what the US’s reaction would be to this situation and then planning their next move accordingly. Byron and Kaitlyn now need to convince some senators that this is the case in order to get full backing.
Wining and dining
Kaitlyn brings Errol (Martin Donovan) along for her dinner with a Democratic senator, hoping that his economic knowledge can help add some additional layers to her argument. The senator expresses her concern that Republicans are going to use the kidnapping as a bulldozer for their border agenda. Kaitlyn doesn’t doubt that, but it would be much worse for the Democrats if there’s another attack on US soil before the presidential election, just six weeks away; voters would likely run to Republicans in that event. Kaitlyn explains how the kidnapping was a probe and shares that it is China, not Mexico, pulling the strings, hoping to open a new trade route with Mexico while shutting the one with the US down. Errol chimes in with his notes that if the US suffers another 9/11-like event, they’ll have an economic crash worse than 1929.
Having made her pitch, Kaitlyn meets up with Byron at the bar, then shortly after by Mason. They were successful in convincing the politicians and now have full access to their “war chest” to fund the mission.
Awkward introductions
Josephina is flown into Fort Bliss and picked up by Bobby (Jill Wagner). Right away, she is shown that working with the CIA is not going to be like her time in the army. Things get no better when she meets the rest of the team, who basically ignore her. She asks what they have to do to get past the awkwardness? But the team says nothing, they don’t want to know anything about her aside from her cover, and she doesn’t need to know anything about them.
The next morning Josephina gets a rude awakening to the team’s living arrangements, as they all share a single latrine. She’s apparently shy about showing herself naked, but Tucker (LaMonica Garrett) tells her where she can get some privacy.
She doesn’t have much time for that though, as Kyle (Thad Luckinbill) arrives and tells her he wants to see what she's made of. He has her observe the team run a drill where he says they rely on “s**t hits the fan tactics.” One watch and then it’s her turn. But first, she gets a lesson in shooting, with her taking target practice as everyone else makes noise and yells at her, noting there is no such thing as a “peaceful gunfight.” She then does the house drill, complete with loud noises and strobe lights to distract her, she hesitates in certain situations but ultimately completes the drill as instructed.
Joe arrives and asks Kyle how Josephina is doing? He says she doesn’t know anything, but she learns quickly, follows directions and does what she’s told without asking too many questions. A good place to start. Next Joe wants to have her run through the simulator.
Pushing for the truth
Wearing a VR headset, Josephina is put through a simulated situation where she has to take out a number of enemies on a Mexican street. She comes upon a man holding a young woman hostage. She yells at the man (a simulation, mind you) to let the woman go, but instead, the man shoots at Josephina, ending the simulation.
Joe scolds her for her performance, telling her they're not a hostage rescue team, they’re a kill team; eliminating their target is their only mission and any obstacle to that must be overcome. Josephina asks how Joe would suggest she overcome a 16-year-old girl with a gun to her head? Shoot the girl yourself and then the enemy, Joe answers. Josephina says that’s murder, but Joe corrects her, it’s survival.
Joe needs more time to train Josephina, but Kyle points out that they don’t have it, she has to be embedded soon. It’s time for Joe to get tough with her.
She tells Josephina the next part of her mission is going to have her go home to her parents. When Josephina argues she doesn’t have a close relationship with her family, Joe rips into her on that. She doesn’t believe she’s oblivious to her father’s cartel connections and wants to know what else Josephina failed to tell her. Kyle and the rest of the team come over to add to the intimidation factor. When they speak Spanish to her, Josephina breaks and reveals she can indeed speak Spanish. They now claim Josephina is a mole and will have military police take her.
Josephina pleads her case, saying she stayed away from her family because she didn’t want to know their business. But Joe is confident she does know about it and that she could just be protecting her family. Josephina says she joined the Lioness program because she loves her country. Enough to put her father and other members of her family in jail, Joe asks?
Joe gives Josephina one chance, putting her phone in front of her. Through tears, Josephina picks up the phone and calls her dad.
New episodes of Lioness season 2 premiere Sundays exclusively on Paramount Plus.
