Lioness Season 2, Episode 7 Recap

Need a little more screaming in your life after discussing politics over Thanksgiving dinner? No show reaches higher decibels than Lioness. When a character isn’t yelling at the top of their lungs, they’re running home-invasion drills set to heavy-metal music. This season? The plot is as messy as mashed potatoes and gravy.

The kidnapping of a congresswoman over the U.S.–Mexico border in the premiere quickly transformed into a plot about China’s plan to invade Taiwan. Joe’s (Zoe Saldaña) Lioness team assembled with a new operative named Carrillo (Genesis Rodriguez), but nothing has gone according to plan. If I have this all figured out, the CIA believes that the Chinese agent is hiding somewhere within the Los Tigres cartel in Mexico. The group is run by Carrillo’s uncle, which is why she’s recruited to help Trojan-horse Joe’s team into the country for the kill.

There are just two episodes left this season (including this one!), and we are no closer to reaching that goal than we were nearly two months ago. Sadly, Lioness season 2 is only more confusing this week. As Secretary of State Morgan Freeman continues to investigate the suicide bombing at the border, CIA Deputy Director Byron Westfield (Michael Kelly) explains that he believes Iranian counterintelligence is working “through a proxy, at the behest of Chinese intelligence.” Umm … what?

According to Westfield, their plan is to destabilize the border and influence the U.S. elections. Plus, the CIA received information from Jordan and Mossad that two Chinese nuclear scientists are stationed in Hakkari, Turkey, with plans to travel to Taiwan within the week.

The new threat is World War III. So after a weird speech about how George W. Bush shepherded us into the future post-9/11, it’s time for Freeman and Westfield to mobilize. “We’re not the only country with open borders,” Freeman says. “Maybe it’s time we reminded our adversaries of that.” The mission has nuclear implications now.

ParamountWhy is the Lioness team still interrogating these people?

It’s perfect timing, because Joe is finally awake in the hospital. After surviving a shot to the liver, she’s now writhing around in the hospital bed like she’s possessed by the devil. “There’s a fair amount of wildcat in this one coming out of anesthesia,” the doctor jokes. He wants her to spend the next week taking it easy. That ain’t happening. “All I’m saying is that if the devil is showing aces, think it through before playing your hand,” the doctor says. “You know what I mean?”

I’m not sure if Joe and her husband (Dave Annable) have ever discussed what would happen if she died in action. Now that they were forced into this position, he reveals that he won’t ever forgive her. “You can’t fucking guilt me,” she tells him. Joe almost dies every episode. Neal is fed up, and he throws his phone at the wall when she calls him again later in the episode to tell her family that she’s going on another suicide mission. “When you come home and decide to make you children a fucking priority like they deserve to be, then you can kiss them yourself.”

ParamountKidman, still serving amid all this wackiness.

Meanwhile, Kaitlyn continues to interrogate all our hostages: Josephina’s father, Pablo Carrillo; DEA agent Gutierrez; and his undercover maid. We do not have time for this if the threat has escalated to World War III. If you ask me, all these resources and man power desperately need to be elsewhere. What can these people tell us anymore? “All I’ve tried to do is help you!” Gutierrez screams as loudly as his raspy voice will take him. “And then you guys come in and think you’re going to solve the whole fucking problem.” Just like last episode, Gutierrez is a “fucking boy scout.”

Somehow, we need to redirect all this effort to find two Chinese nuclear scientists in Turkey. Most likely, Joe’s team will just put Alvaro Carrillo in the ground and call it a day. There’s no mission, currently.

The next morning, Joe attends a meeting with Kaitlyn and Byron instead of resting up. The briefing is led by a new CIA intelligence officer played by Dawn Olivieri. It’s the first time a Chinese agent is named, as well as the third time that Olivieri has appeared in a Taylor Sheridan series. First a Dutton in 1883, most recently a Dutton killer in Yellowstone, and now in Lioness. If these two Chinese scientists are our targets now, we need a new plan. The CIA needs a strike team and a helicopter pilot in Iran. Luckily, the CIA forced a pilot upon our Lioness team.

The finale is next week, but season 2 couldn’t feel farther from an ending. This is what we’ve been heading to for the past six episodes? Who knows? It’s possible that this plot will carry over into a potential third season. Hell, maybe America just needs a win wherever it can find it.