Did Lioness Josie Survive Her Modified, Season-Ending Mission? — Grade Season 2 and the Finale
The following contains spoilers from the Season 2 finale of Lioness, now streaming on Paramount+.
As foretold by cast member and EP Jill Wagner, the Lioness Season 2 finale was a gnarly nail biter.
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The eighth and final episode of Season 2 largely revolved around the Lioness team’s modified mission, which was now to keep two Chinese nuclear scientists, traveling in a Turkish military convoy, from reaching the Isfahan nuclear base in Iran.
Meanwhile in San Jose, Costa Rica, Byron and Kaitlyn convinced Josie’s father Pablo to work with them, in trade for being allowed to run his brother Alvaro’s business from the States but with the security he might enjoy in Mexico. Pablo thus arranged a meet-up with his brother at Alvaro’s well-guarded compound. After he, Kaitlyn and Kyle barely got past the private contractors running security, Byron slipped Parblo a pistol with which to execute his sibling with a bullet up into his skull. Afterward on their jet back, Byron wretched — partly in reaction to the cold-blooded killing, but more so because for all their effort, “so little” will change.
Back in Iran, the plan was for Josie and door gunner Cruz, in a helo, to interdict the Turkish convoy, with Cody (played by series creator Taylor Sheridan) and… the other Cody (?)… providing sniper cover from the ground. Josie made two solid, explosive passes at the convoy, but her bird could not avoid getting clipped by enemy fire. As a result, the helo dove into a crash that left Josie not only dazed, but with a very broken left leg.
Getting word of the downed bird, Joe and the QRF team made tracks for the crash site, where they and the Codys expended lotsa bullets, trading gunfire with the arriving Iranian forces. Cruz meanwhile helped Josie hobble to slightly higher ground, where they and the rest of the outmanned, outgunned QRF team set up behind some boulders. With CAS (close air support) and the two Delta teams still many minutes out, Joe & Co. did all they could to pick off baddies one by one — though as more and more combatant troops poured out of arriving transports, the QRF started taking hits.
Tucker took a bullet to the leg. Bobby, a ricochet grazing her face. Tex, in the belly. Two Cups also got hit. Things looked dire, so Joe confirmed that Josie still had a pistol on her, and said that she was to use it on Joe, and others, before they could be captured/tortured.
As the bleak end looked more and more to be nigh, Josie let loose a loud wail and Joe whispered a “love you” to her far-away family. But then the high-pitched whooshing of CAS pierced the air, and the arriving bird pelted the ground below with missile after missile, plus thousands of rail gun rounds, until the threat had been thoroughly neutralized.
Regrouping later at the hangar, medics took stock of the wounded — several arterial GSWs, a fractured tib-fib for Josie, and such. But it seems like everyone would make it out of this alive.
Assessing the team’s very near-miss, Cruz told Joe, “If I had a family, kids? I would have sent a missile” — to avoid the chance for further suffering, I assume she meant. To which Joe shook her head: “No. You wouldn’t.”
Joe stood and regarded the injured all around her. Some time later, we saw her get dropped off outside her home, looking understandably weary. And maybe a bit afraid of the welcome waiting for her, given the last words exchanged with Neal.
But there Neal was, at the top of the walk to greet her: “Wasn’t sure you were coming home.”
“I wasn’t sure I still had one to come home to…,” Joe responded.
“Joe, you always have one to come home to,” Neal assured his wife, as the two slipped inside the font door and their excited daughters greeted Mom.
Want scoop on Lioness, or for any other TV show ? Shoot an email to [email protected], and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line!
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