“Lioness” Season 3 Episode 7, “Kiss the Girls,” begins with Joe’s situation looking worse than ever. She has been captured and is being moved toward the Iranian border, with almost no chance of making it out alive if the team fails to reach her in time. The longer she remains in enemy hands, the more dangerous the situation becomes, especially with the possibility that her own government could be forced to eliminate her to prevent a larger international crisis.
Fortunately, Joe does not remain captive for long. After the team takes away the Iranian group’s main escape route, Babat is forced to move Joe through the back roads of Texas. It gives the QRF and local authorities a chance to track the convoy, they prepare to intercept the vehicles while Joe is ordered to stay quiet inside.
As expected, Joe refuses to simply sit there and wait. She manages to get herself out of the vehicle during the confrontation, but she still needs help getting completely clear. The QRF helicopter arrives at just the right moment, allowing Joe to finally escape. The victory, however, comes with an emotional cost.
Once she is safe, Joe completely breaks down. She collapses into Cruz’s arms, crying after everything she has endured. It is a side of Joe that we rarely see, and the rescue makes it clear that although she survived physically, the experience has left a serious mark on her.
As Joe is back in their hands, Kaitlyn and Byron can finally focus on the bigger mystery behind the entire operation. There are too many players involved for this to be a simple Iranian or Russian operation. Belarusian operatives, Ukrainian connections, Chinese interests and compromised American officials all seem to be connected somehow.
The investigation leads Kaitlyn and Byron toward Ukraine; they realize that Ukraine may be the only country that could benefit if the operation succeeds without facing serious consequences if it fails. There was also information coming from inside U.S. intelligence, and a Ukrainian agent who had been flipped was recently placed into witness protection. During that period, she was essentially outside the reach of American monitoring.
It makes Oleksandra increasingly suspicious. The theory is that she may have been orchestrating a much larger plan designed to create tension between the United States and Russia while pushing the situation in a direction that ultimately benefits Ukraine. Nothing has been proven yet, but the pieces are beginning to fit together, making Oleksandra look less like a simple player in the conflict and more like someone who could have been manipulating events from the beginning.
Meanwhile, the aftermath of Joe’s kidnapping follows her home. Neal and the children have been left confused and worried because they know something serious happened, even though they have not been given the full story. Kaitlyn tells them Joe will be home, but there is little comfort in promises when everyone knows how dangerous her job can be.
Joe finally returns, but coming home does not feel normal anymore even when she is sitting outside the house, she struggles to walk through the door. Instead, she chooses to return to work. The place that should have been her sanctuary no longer feels safe, and the trauma of what happened to her is clearly still fresh.
Joe may have survived the mission, but Episode 7 makes it clear that surviving and recovering are two very different things. As the larger conspiracy still unfolds and Oleksandra now looking increasingly suspicious, the season heads toward its finale with Joe's personal life and the international crisis hanging in the balance.
Read more: Lioness Premiere
