NOTE: this post contains spoilers for Special Ops: Lioness episode 4, "The Choice of Failure."
While Cruz (Laysla De Oliveira) and Aaliyah (Stephanie Nur) continue to get closer, Joe (Zoe Saldana) gets hit on two fronts: her career is threatened and an accident upends her family life.
What happens in Texas doesn't stay in Texas
Joe and her team have tracked Cruz and Aaliyah to the Hamptons in New York, hiring some young college girls to party on a yacht as cover. While they keep an eye on everything, Tucker (LaMonica Garrett) fills Joe in on what happened in Texas. Joe gives Kyle (Thad Luckinbill) a call to get some answers.
Kyle says he has everything under control, but it becomes very clear Kyle does not have things under control at all. He meets with Kaitlyn Meade (Nicole Kidman) and Byron Westfield (Michael Kelly), who show him Border Patrol footage that captured the extraction and clearly shows him. Kyle tries to posture, but Meade and Westfield squeeze him into revealing he used Joe's team for the mission. The only thing that saves him from completely ruining his career is because of the operation, he has a chance to capture five Al Qaeda targets. Meade gives him a stay of execution, but he's on a short leash.
But now Joe's in the fire too. Meade gives her a call, telling her to come in, which instantly signals to her that Kyle gave them up. She tells Meade she's on a mark, so Meade says she'll come to her.
Learning the consequences
Kate (Hannah Love Lainer) rides in a car with friends when they get into a bad accident. Neal is informed of what happened and that Kate is arriving at his hospital. She has a broken leg and some fractured vertebrae, but she is lucky, as one of her friends died.
Neal calls Joe to let her know what happened. Joe says she will get back to Virginia to be there when Kate wakes up from her surgery the next day.
That's not all, however. Another doctor tells Neal that Kate's blood work revealed she is pregnant (she's 14, FYI). Because it's the first trimester, if somehow the fetus survived the trauma from the crash and then the anesthesia from the surgery, the best course of action would still likely be to terminate the pregnancy.
Neal has a very tough talk with Kate. He says she broke her promises to him: not to ride in a car driven by another teenager and the deal they had about sex. He reminds her those are the two things most likely to ruin her life at this age. But he says she doesn't need to apologize. Instead, she needs to learn from the consequences of this, something her friend is not going to get the chance to do.
A night out
Aaliyah is definitely opening up to Cruz. While they swim in the ocean at the beginning of the episode, Aaliyah tells her if she had her choice she would not marry Ehsan (Ray Corasani). (Side note, Joe and her team learn Ehsan is connected to a powerful Middle Eastern family, which makes them wonder why he would be marrying the daughter of a known terrorist.)
The group head out to a bar that night to dance and drink. Joe and her team are waiting outside. Joe wants to have someone get eyes on Cruz in the bar. When no one volunteers she does it herself. Setting up at the bar, Joe is immediately hit on by some dude, but she quickly shoos him away.
Joe's attention gets pulled away from Cruz when Neal calls again. He tells her Kate is pregnant. With this bombshell, Joe fears they've sacrificed their children for their careers and wonders what they should do next. Neal admits he has no solutions, only problems right now. Joe says she'll think about a solution.
Meade arrives, pulling up beside the team's car outside the bar. Tucker knows Meade is there to discuss what happened in Texas.
Cruz comes to the bar to get some water when she is approached by the same guy that hit on Joe. She is more open to flirting with the guy, inviting him to dance. When they come back to the bar to get a drink, the guy drugs Cruz's drink.
A fight breaks out on the dance floor near Aaliyah, so her security team quickly escorts her, Eshan and the rest of their group out. Aaliyah worries about where Cruz is. Unfortunately, the guy used the chaos from the fight to take a drugged Cruz out of the bar. Thankfully, Joe notices something was up and is quickly in pursuit.
She and her team arrive just in time to stop the guy from raping Cruz. They give him a few good kicks to the nuts to dissuade him from doing anything like that again and threaten to kill him if he talks.
Point of no return
Cruz is nursed back to recovery at the team's house. Joe worries she is not cut out for clandestine work — "there's bogies, bandits and marks in this world and nothing else," she warns. Meade echoes those fears.
Cruz protests though, saying she is in Aaliyah's circle. Backing that up is Aaliyah calling her cell phone to check on her. When Cruz mentions Aaliyah and Eshan's wedding is going to take place in Dubai, Joe knows this is an opportunity they've never had before. She believes she can get her to the level they need. Meade says OK.
But that's just the first problem, they still need to discuss Texas. Joe asks if they can do it on their way back to Virginia so she can be there for Kate.
In the car, Meade gives her a moment to reflect on Kate's situation. Joe asks how Meade managed to keep her marriage and raise kids with her career. Meade doesn't answer (judging from what we saw in episode 3 though, theirs may not be the relationship you want to base things on, Joe).
Meade finally gets to Texas, revealing to Joe her team was captured in action by the Border Patrol cameras. This is bound to open a can of worms.
New episodes of Special Ops: Lioness release every Sunday on Paramount Plus.
