by Johnny Loftus for Decider
As Special Ops: Lioness enters season finale mode with “Gone is the Illusion of Order” (Episode 8) – The Sheridan-O-Verse is replete with portentous episode titles – let’s get back with the QRF crew, who we instantly bonded with way back in Episode 1. Inspecting the luxury vessel that will serve as their forward operating post for the Majorca op, Tucker orients himself on the bridge while Two Cups stows the lines and Bobby checks the berths to ensure all of their weapons and other gear made the trip to Spain. The fortitude of this group has never wavered. We don’t know if any of them have wives, husbands, children; we don’t know if any of them are also processing the separation from a gravely injured loved one. We don’t even know if one of them misses their pet doodle Smuckers. Lioness has only presented them in one dimension. Collectively, they’re a device. Press pause, the device waits. Press play, it goes. And as Cruz’s signal cuts out once Aaliyah Amrohi’s security detail drives her into the lavish wedding compound, Joe and her QRF team are on pause below decks. Geared up, armed up, and ready to come running (well, swimming, then running) should Cruz’s double-secret backup beacon indicate that she has Geronimo. If Aaliyah’s father actually attends the wedding, if she gets close enough to acquire her target, if she neutralizes him, and if she reaches the beachfront extraction point, Joe and the team will be there to pull her out. Because that’s what they do. But that’s also a lot of ifs.
So we don’t know if Two Cups misses his dog. And we might not ever know. Paramount has issued no intel on a Lioness renewal order, and there are real world problems to be dealt with first, such as paying actors and writers fairly and settling the strike. But in the meantime, all Joe can do is stew on the yacht. The White House situation room is a web of chaotic tension, with Secretary of State Mullins and his grip of unnamed officials (farewell Jennifer Ehle and Bruce McGill, maybe we’ll see you in the next Taylor Sheridan joint) considering moving to DEFCON 3 as a response to the evolving situation in Majorca. In that room, it’s Deputy Director Byron Westfield’s job to tamp down the vibe. The CIA’s Marine is on the scene. She’s already there, inside the vast Moorish palace, and satellite imagery has identified that Amrohi is indeed on site. Allow her the opportunity to improvise a weapon and make the hit, Westfield urges the higher-ups. Give her that chance before you blow the place up with a missile. And when he calls Meade on the yacht to touch base, we get the most overt connection yet between Amrohi’s terrorist bankroll and 9/11. “22 years we’ve been trying to get this guy,” Meade says. The Agency would like to save its asset inside if possible. But they also want credit for knocking the Ace of Spades off of the US Government’s kill list. Why should a Tomahawk get all that juice?
It’s DEFCON 3 at Joe’s house in Virginia, too. Kate is experiencing night terrors, lasting trauma and flashbacks to the car accident, and in a brief exchange before she’s gotta shut her phone down, Joe and Neil argue about the same old thing. He’s there, going gray with stress, while she’s…on a boat 4,300 miles away, unable to contribute to parenting and their marriage because she’s wearing a helmet and tactical vest and preparing to engage in a gunfight with a bunch of Saudi security guys. Meade takes her phone away. It’s Joe’s supervisor’s turn to be the stern parent. “You will never get back to them if you keep thinking about them. You know better than that.”
Read the rest of the recap, HERE.