'Lioness' Season 2 Finale Episode 8 Recap: Is Alvaro Carrillo Dead?

In Lioness season 2, we saw that, for the first time, a cartel had dared to enter the US border and abduct a congresswoman. The family of the congresswoman was killed, and she was taken to Mexico and held captive there. It didn’t take Byron and his entire team long to figure out that the intention of the cartel was not just to kidnap the congresswoman. They had ulterior motives, and soon, it came to be known that China was backing them and giving them all sorts of support and resources that they needed. A man named Alvaro Carrillo was the head of the Los Tigres Cartel, and he was the one who was working closely with the Chinese. Alvaro’s brother, Pablo, was living in the US, and he had a rather opulent lifestyle. Pablo had a daughter who served in the army, and Joe was asked to choose her as the Lioness for her mission. Joe was not in favor of choosing somebody as inexperienced as Josephina for the job. Joe’s team didn’t have time to train the asset, and that’s why they wanted somebody who had more experience with such covert operations. Joe was told that she would have to make do with the resources she was being provided. Many hurdles came in front of Joe and the team, and they made sure that they not only overcame them but led by example. So, let’s find out what happened in the season 2 finale; if the CIA was able to catch Alvaro, Joe and her team could carry out their mission in Iran successfully.

Spoiler Alert

How did Edwin Mullins manage things at his end?

A true leader is somebody who shares his success but takes the blame for the defeat on himself. Edwin Mullins showed that kind of magnanimity in the Lioness season 2 finale. We had seen that the man went to Byron to meet him at his place. When a senior officer like Edwin arrives at your home to have a chat with you personally, then you know that something big and unprecedented is about to happen. Edwin told Byron to teach their enemies a lesson. We saw that he gave the example of the 43rd president of the United States of America and how the people made sure that he came back for his second term solely because of how he led from the front and took charge of things with authority during the 9/11 attacks. Edwin wanted to be that man for his own country. He knew the consequences of the mission failing. He knew that he would have a hard time convincing his colleagues to be on board and allow the CIA special activities team to enter the Iranian border and open fire on the two Chinese nuclear scientists.

Edwin called his colleagues and informed them about what Joe and her team were going to do on the Iran-Iraq border. He told them that the two Chinese scientists were going to use their skills to enrich and enhance Iran’s nuclear capabilities. The first thing that Edwin’s colleagues asked was if he had informed the president about it, and they were literally horrified when he said that he was playing close to the chest for this one. They told Edwin that he was literally digging a grave for himself, but the latter somehow managed to convince them. He told them that in case the mission failed, then he would make sure that all the blame fell on him. Edwin was nervous, and he knew that he had taken a huge risk. But he also knew that that was the best course of action, and if everything went down well, then they would eliminate the threat to national security. 

How Did Byron eliminate Alvaro Carrillo?

Byron met Pablo Carrillo for the first time in the Lioness Season 2 finale. The moment Pablo saw Byron, he knew that he was an important man. Byron made himself very clear, and both he and Kaitlyn spoke quite bluntly to Pablo. Byron and Kaitlyn were experienced diplomats, and they knew that if they were asking Pablo to trust them, then they should make him also feel that he could put his faith in them. So, Byron, without wasting any time, told Pablo that he shouldn’t waste his time questioning their credibility or what things they were capable of doing. He told them that they didn’t need a warrant to arrest him or initiate any legal proceedings against him. They said that his brother Alvaro had conspired with an enemy state, i.e., the Chinese, and now the entire Los Tigres Cartel was a threat to the USA’s security. The offer was very simple: cut ties with the enemies and do whatever you want on US soil. Pablo asked them how their organization would do business on US soil when they got immunity in Mexico. He told them that no matter what they did on Mexican soil, they never had to face any legal ramifications. That’s when Byron told him that he would give him all those privileges in the US, too, and that no harm would come to his family. Byron made it explicitly clear that the offer extended to only him and his family except for his brother, Alvaro.

Now, Pablo had a choice: either he rotted in the US prison, or he helped the CIA to eliminate his brother and then came to the US and led a peaceful life. Pablo loved his brother, but he was not ready to make such a huge sacrifice for him. Also, the incentive of carrying out every activity that he did in Mexico was way too great. The hassle of crossing borders, negotiating with law enforcement authorities, and dealing with all the other conflicts was going to cease if he started operating on US soil. Pablo took the offer, and together, Byron, Kaitlyn, Kyle, and the rest of the team went to meet Alvaro, pretending to make things right for him. Pablo shot his brother and announced that he was the new kingpin of the cartel. The Chinese guy, who was negotiating with the cartel, was also taken into custody and possibly brought back to the United States of America. On the way back, Byron vomited on the plane, and it was a testament to the fact that one never got used to seeing that brutality. Obviously, somebody as experienced as Byron knew how to deal with his emotions, but at times, it all became too much to handle. 

What happened to Joe and her team in Iran?

Joe and her team finally arrived at the border convergence of Turkey, Iran, and Iraq. They were briefed about the mission, the kind of enemy they were facing, the estimated time in which the backup would arrive in case things didn’t go the way they had planned, and finally, the risks that were involved in the mission. Joe made it very clear that if their first attack didn’t go as planned, then she would go on the battlefield together with her colleagues. Bobby asked her not to do so as she was not in the best physical condition, but Joe was stubborn, and she was not going to listen to anybody. Generally, a 4-member team went inside an Apache, and the commander at the army base was hellbent on assigning a crew to Josephina. But Joe intervened, and she told him that only Cruz would accompany her. Josephina flew together with Cruz, and they attacked the convoy that was taking the two nuclear scientists. They were able to destroy a couple of vehicles, but then a tank shot the helicopter down. Josephina and Cruz were alive, but they were gravely injured. Josephina couldn’t move because her left leg was not in good condition. The snipers, camouflaging at a distance, took charge of things till the time Josephina and Cruz went and hid behind a rock. The Iranian force was informed about the attack, and they left from their base in full force. Joe’s team also arrived just in time, but the enemy outnumbered them, and they were heavily armed too. Joe and her team literally put their lives at risk, and they fought valiantly. There came a time in the Lioness season 2 finale when it felt like nobody would be able to get out of there alive. 

But the US CAS team was on time, and the fighter jets bombarded the Iranian tanks. The mission was successfully executed, but everybody knew that it was just sheer luck, and things could have gone either way. Joe cried at the end because she knew that she had literally touched death and come back. At that moment, when shots were being fired from both ends, she closed her eyes and remembered her family. She told herself that she was not going back alive. Cruz came and told Joe at the end that if she had a family, she would have never risked her life like that. But Joe told her with a lot of confidence that she was wrong and that she would have done the exact same thing. Joe broke down in the end because she experienced the feeling of everything ending in just a singular moment. At that moment, she didn’t take her life for granted. Those seconds she spent on the battlefield were like a millennium, and I don’t think that she would forget about it for the rest of her life. 

Well, I don’t think that Joe is going to go anywhere, but obviously after what she experienced in Iran, she would have a change of perspective. Neal still wants her to take a desk job, but I don’t think Joe is capable of doing that. As far as Cruz and Josephina are concerned, I wouldn’t be surprised if they actually start dating each other in the future. The highlight for me personally of season 2 was how people like Byron and Edwin took responsibility when the time came. Edwin really trusted his team because otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to make the decision to go ahead with the mission without informing the president. I believe in the future, too, the United Nations of America will need such loyal, patriotic, and fearless soldiers to defend the state and its institutions.

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