In the dead of night, men in tactical gear stealthily enter a house, guns drawn. When a man wanders out into the hall they quickly kill him, as well as his young son when he opens the door. They continue to search the house for their real target, US Congresswoman Hernandez (Czarina Mireles). Having heard the noise, she tries to make a run for it but is ultimately captured and taken off into the night. This is how Lioness season 2 gets things rolling.
- Also read: Lioness season 1 ending explained
This issue quickly comes to the attention of Joe (Zoe Saldana), who sees a news alert that details Hernandez was pushing for legislation that would allow the US military to be deployed on US soil to battle illegal immigration. Zoe knows her extended and peaceful time with her family is over, but she doesn't know how messy of a situation she is about to dive into.
Read on for our full recap of Lioness season 2 episode 1, “Beware the Old Soldier.”
The situation
Kyle (Thad Luckinbill) arrives at Hernandez’s home to assess the situation. He learns the congresswoman was able to get a tracker on herself before being taken, so they know she is being held just over the border in Mexico. However, the US can’t just storm in and get her.
That’s why Kaitlyn (Nicole Kidman) is called into the White House to go over the situation and how her and Joe’s team can assist. As she leaves, her husband Errol (Martin Donovan) tells her to be careful, a Mexican cartel wouldn’t kidnap a congresswoman on their own, telling her to look at Mexico’s oil exports.
At the White House, Kaitlyn meets with Bryon (Michael Kelly), who gets her up to speed on the info Kyle shared before they’re brought in to meet with Secretary of State Mullins (Morgan Freeman) and his team (Jennifer Ehle as Mason, Bruce McGill as Hollar). The administration wants a visible, “messy” operation, but one that falls on the CIA and Kaitlyn’s team. The reason this can’t be an official military operation is because they believe the criminal organization behind the kidnapping did so with the backing of the Mexican government, which must have been pressured by an outside force, likely China. Byron notes that a US military operation would weaken their stance and ability to punish China if they invade Taiwan.
Joe arrives in the situation room, where she is told what her part in all this is going to be. The administration wants to deploy a lioness or two to get “trophies,” specifically ahead of the upcoming political conventions for a presidential election. Their target is the leader of the Los Tigres cartel. They want him dead and intel on his connections to the Mexican government. Joe notes that lionesses’ jobs aren’t to gather intel, but to hit hard targets, but she gets no sympathy from Mullins or Byron, told just to do her job.
But first, Joe must head down to Texas to assist in the rescue of Congresswoman Hernandez with Kyle and a bunch of freelance soldiers known as “gray men.” Before she leaves she calls her husband Neal (Dave Annable) to tell him she loves him and their girls. Neal realizes that she must be going on a very dangerous mission.
All Hell breaks loose
Joe meets up with Kyle and their team of gray men in Texas, which includes Cody (Lioness creator and director for his episode Taylor Sheridan), someone Joe has worked with in the past. When she jokes that he’s getting a little old for this line of work, he reminds her “beware the old soldier, he’s old for a reason.”
They get through the Mexico border with no issue, but when they pull over to gear up they’re approached by a group of Mexicans who pull guns and attempt to rob them. Unfortunately for the Mexicans they don’t know who they’re dealing with and are quickly dispatched. Once team is ready to go, they see the congresswoman is being moved and head to intercept her.
Smashing into the car driving the congresswoman, Joe and her team kill all of the enemies and rescue Hernandez. The problem is that their planned exit route is now blocked by Mexican forces, so they have to find another way back to US soil. Adding to it all, Mexican authorities are aware of their attack and are coming after them.
As they are forced to engage with the Mexican forces, they’re told to head toward a river to make their escape. But first, they have to take care of the caravan of opposing forces. So Cody stops the car and the team opens fire. Once that is taken care of they head back off.
Nearing the exit point, they’re told the road to the river includes a big drop-off directly into a deep section of the river. There is an easier crossing point, but it would run them directly into more approaching Mexican forces. So they have no choice but to drive into the river. Unfortunately, once they do, they’re pinned down by the Mexican forces firing at them from the ridge. They’re saved though when air support arrives and drives the Mexicans back. This allows Joe and the team to swim for the US border.
Paying the price
Safely back on US soil (though just barely, as they regroup on the other side of the river), Hernandez asks Joe what happens next. “Now we play offense,” she tells the congresswoman. Hernandez has a favor to ask, but Joe knows what it is without her saying it. She tells the congresswoman her team doesn’t do courtrooms, they’re goal is to kill whoever is responsible for this incident.
Joe then talks with Cody, apologizing that one of his team members was killed (apparently when the car crashed into the river). She asks if he is sticking around for the rest of the mission. He says no, but if the situation gets “f**ked” again then he may come and help out. Too bad for Joe, who is not looking forward to having to work with Kyle on the mission moving forward.
Stressing her point, she punches Kyle for leading them into the situation without a plan and almost getting them all killed. But Kyle says it worked, they got the congresswoman. When Joe brings up that they lost one of their team members Kyle reminds her that is the price they all signed up for. Joe makes it clear that if they’re going to work together, he can’t do this cowboy crap with her team.
With that addressed, Joe calls Neal. He was watching the news coverage but tried to hide it from their daughters, Kate (Hannah Love Lanier) and Charlie (Celestina Harris), though Kate does take more of a note of it. As she talks with her family, Joe struggles to hold back the tears after such an overwhelming experience, but she tells them she's fine and that she loves them. Once done, Joe wades into the river a bit, catching her breath from everything that happened and trying to ready herself for what’s to come.
New episodes of Lioness season 2 premiere Sundays on Paramount Plus in the US, Mondays in the UK.
