After the chaos that was the rescue mission in Mexico, Joe (Zoe Saldana) is back in the states at the start of Lioness season 2 episode 2 to meet with Kaitlyn (Nicole Kidman) and other military officers. They have lined up three potential Lioness candidates, but Joe isn’t having any of it. She runs the operation and she picks her assets. When they need the military she’ll give them a call.
Joe stresses with Kaitlyn that she needs to figure out the way in before they identify a Lioness, as her skillset needs to support the mission, not the other way around. So Joe needs some time to do that. Kaitlyn gives her time, then she’ll meet her at Fort Bliss, reminding Joe that everyone is watching how this mission unfolds.
Who will be Joe’s next Lioness? Read on to find out with our Lioness season 2 episode 2 recap.
Family time
Before Joe dives into the mission, she returns home for a little bit. She first runs into Charlie (Celestina Harris), who is selling lemonade and some art with a friend. When a customer buys Charlie’s art and invites her to see how she is going to hang them up in her van, Joe’s alarm blares and she goes into CIA mode, drawing her gun and approaching the van. Thankfully, the customer is just showing Charlie how her art work will look in her van. Joe gives Charlie a reminder to not run off with strangers.
Back at her house, Kate (Hannah Love Lanier) quickly tells her mom that she saw her on the news with the Mexico incident and asks why this is the job she picked. Joe says her grandfather immigrated from the Dominican Republic and quickly joined the army when he was 17 after Pearl Harbor. Later, his son (Joe’s father) asked why he risked his life for a country that he barely knew at that point. He said he didn’t want to learn German or Japanese after he had just learned English. Kate laughs, but to Joe it isn’t a joke. She has the same feeling; she doesn’t want her daughters to have to learn Chinese or Russian.
Joe then catches up with Neal (Dave Annable), telling him that her next job will keep her closer to home. With that being the case, Neal wonders if they can break their rule about not talking about her work, as it’s very possible that her work may end up on the news again. She just tells him not to watch the news.
After gearing up, Joe says goodbye to her family and that she loves them. Kate can’t help but cry after she leaves, worried about what her mom is getting into.
Team meeting
Joe and Kaitlyn rendezvous with their team at Fort Bliss, which includes Kyle (Thad Luckinbill), Cody (Taylor Sheridan) and, for some comedic relief, Bobby’s (Jill Wagner) last boyfriend before she came out as gay.
Kyle delivers a brief, detailing Alvaro Carrillo, the leader of the Los Tigres cartel, and his brother, Pablo Carrillo, an immigration attorney and former US soldier who has a $3.5 million house on a $110,000 a year salary. Kyle also notes Pablo’s daughter, Captain Josephina Carrillo (Genesis Rodriguez), is a helicopter pilot in the US army. Kyle clearly thinks Josephina should be Joe’s next Lioness. Joe notes they couldn’t hide Josephina’s past, but Kyle thinks they should be steering into that.
Joe thinks about it. If they have her dishonorably discharged her background as a pilot could be appealing to Alvaro for delivering helicopter loads into the US. Bobby asks why not just have Josephina kill Alvaro? Joe explains because he’s not the target, they’re really looking for the Chinese agent that is pulling the strings.
Kaitlyn calls Byron (Michael Kelly) and lays out the idea. As they figure it out, Joe has to confirm the asset will join the Lioness program. To do that they have to speak with her. The problem with that is she is currently deployed in Iraq.
Is it worth the risk?
Byron and Kaitlyn meet with Mullins (Morgan Freeman), Hollar (Bruce McGill) and Mason (Jennifer Ehle) to discuss their plan. They detail Josephina’s strong service record and her more than 800 kills (numbers tend to rack up flying an Apache). Mullins asks why she hasn’t been promoted. Kaitlyn believes she is still a captain so she can stay in the action.
They then go into the plan. They can’t fake Josephina’s discharge, so her military career would be over, but Byron notes that could either go into witness protection or join the CIA if she wanted to continue to serve after the mission. She’d then go home where they expect her uncle would seek her out for her pilot skills so she can do runs for him and where hopefully her position as a family member will give her access that no one else can get. She doesn’t need to be trained to kill a target, as she can simply fly the operators that would eliminate their target; Byron calls her a Trojan horse.
So what are the risks? The big one is interference from the cartels, DEA and Homeland Security. The preference is she’s discovered by the cartel, who would just kill her. If she’s caught by US agencies, it would lead to a public prosecution, exposing this was a CIA operation and let China know that the US engaged in an act of war. So Kaitlyn points out that if Josephina were engaged by the DEA, she would return in kind. They chase her, she runs. They fire, she fires back.
After Mullins and his team have a brief discussion, they give them the go ahead. But Mullins is sure to remind Byron that the buck stops within him, so don’t get caught.
The interview
Joe is already in Iraq when Kaitlyn says they’re a go, so now she needs to close Josephina. On their way to base, Joe’s escort drives over a road mine and the convoy is attacked by a group of Iraqi militants. Pinned down, Joe orders in some backup, which quickly comes in the form of a helicopter that quickly eliminates the opposing forces (two episodes and two major firefights for Joe; rough go to start the season).
Back at base, Joe goes to talk with the helicopter pilot, Josephina. However, Josephina comes out hot, blaming Joe for making a mess of the situation. Joe doesn’t take being yelled at well, and the two get in a fist fight. When Josephina’s commanding officer breaks it up, Joe asserts that she is in charge and demands that Josephina meet with her in 10 minutes.
Joe asks how well Josephina knows her uncle? But the soldier denies she has an uncle. Joe asks her how her Spanish is? Josephina doesn’t speak Spanish. Her father’s house? Josephina doesn’t know anything about that. Josephina then asks what Joe wants with her. “Do you love your country,” Joe asks?
Joe reveals she’s CIA and has been tasked with finding the men behind the kidnapping of Congresswoman Hernandez. Josephina puts together Joe’s part of the Lioness program. She tells Joe that she’s a soldier, not an assassin, and she’s never met anyone that has come out of the Lioness program alive. Joe just continues asking if Josephina loves her country, wanting a simple yes or no answer. After a few attempts to deflect, Josephina, through tears, finally says yes, seemingly submitting to joining Joe for this mission.
Joe then asks if Josephina has any tattoos. She says no. But Joe wants her to prove it to her, closing the door to the room as the episode ends.
New episodes of Lioness premiere Sundays exclusively on Paramount Plus.
