'Lioness' Season 3 Episode 5 Trailer Breakdown

[Spoiler Alert] The fourth episode of Lioness Season 3 ended with Kaitlyn advising Neal to be prepared for all the possible scenarios that might transpire while extracting Joe. Despite the QRF’s best efforts, they failed to stop Renat and his crew from hitting the skies in a private jet with the aim of transporting her to either Russia or Iran. Joe was one of the top operatives of the CIA, with access to all kinds of confidential information, and that was why the US government couldn’t let the Russians exploit her in any way. Hence, they had a total of three options to salvage this whole situation: firstly, the QRF could locate the plane before it left US airspace, kill or capture the Russian kidnappers, and bring Joe home as safely as possible. Secondly, the plane could leave US airspace, thereby prompting the US government to negotiate with the Russian government and arrive at a deal which would benefit both parties and bring Joe home. And thirdly, either the plane carrying Joe would be shot down so as to prevent any chances of coercion or Joe would be handed over to Iran, where she’d be tried and be given the death penalty. In addition to all that, in the flashback section of the narrative, we saw Joe and his crew going after covert Russian assets on American soil who were working on destabilizing the country. There’s a lot of mystery surrounding why Joe was targeted by the Russians in the first place. Given how she was involved in the Yurimov extraction mission, it was assumed that that was the reason why she was singled out. However, there’s a good possibility that it was Joe’s murder hornet clean-up operation that made her the subject of Russia’s ire. Now, does the teaser for the fifth episode of Lioness Season 3 give us any hints regarding what we’ll get to see this week? Let’s find out.

The teaser for Lioness Season 3 episode 5, suspiciously titled The Idiot Army, begins with Joe giving Cody the go-ahead to move in on a guy who has entered his car. Kyle smashes the window of the car and supposedly captures the dude. It’s obvious that that’s one of the many assets who have been featured in Oleksandra’s list of individuals who have been bribed or threatened to do Russia’s bidding. This is confirmed by a solitary shot of Oleksandra (in the interrogation room), followed by a scene where Kaitlyn, who is in the situation room with Byron and several others, is talking about having access to a list of Russian sources. Given how this narration plays over a scene of Tucker manhandling a semiclad dude, I have a feeling that a major chunk of this episode is going to take place in the past; as in, prior to Joe’s kidnapping. Well, most of the season has revolved around the events of the past, with just a few glimpses of what’s happening in the present. Episode 4 kind of spoiled us by featuring several scenes that are taking place in the present-day section of the narrative. But yeah, with season 5, it seems like we are going back to regular programming, where the focus will primarily remain on the murder hornet operation. With all that said, we do see a shot of the QRF team being led by Tex barging into a room with a bunch of men. Most of the covert Russian assets are solitary creatures, which means that these men are probably a part of the crew that kidnapped Joe or are working with the SVR to move Joe out of the USA. Actually, it seems like Two Cups has allowed himself to get captured by these men so as to expose their location. Alternatively, it’s possible that, after Joe, Two Cups was on the SVR’s list; and since the QRF anticipated that, they weren’t entirely blindsided when Two Cups got kidnapped. Either way, Two Cups is safe and the Russian operatives are not.

Going back to the meeting in the situation room, Byron supposedly addresses Evelyn and says that the American citizens who are working in Russian’s best interests are enemies of the state. This prompts Mullins to ask if their national security is at risk or not, and in response to that, Joe says that there’s no doubt about the fact that the USA’s borders have been breached by Russia. That is by no means an exaggeration. Going by Oleksandra’s dossiers, a lot of people have been turned by the Russians. And I think I should remind you that Oleksandra is one of the handlers that the CIA knows about. There must be several other handlers like her who have thick dossiers of American citizens working as covert Russian operatives. How did the US government and its numerous agencies miss this blatant attempt at a regime change? I don’t know, but there are several hints that members of the Congress or Senators might be involved, because this amount of oversight doesn’t happen without someone helping from the inside. But what’s happened has happened, and now Kaitlyn wants not just justice, but vindictive retribution. This demand is juxtaposed with shots of Joe, Cruz, and Bobby cornering another Russian-American operative, who seems to be a professor. Cruz doesn’t play around with him and straight-up knocks him out. Anyway, while these scenes re-confirm that a lot of the episode will happen in the past, the scenes with Cody, Kyle, Tucker, Grady, and Oleksandra interrogating one of the guys who have been arrested while rescuing Two Cups prove that a fair amount of the episode’s runtime will be dedicated to the QRF catching up to the Russians as they try to move Joe out of the country. It’s interesting to see Oleksandra going from being interrogated in the room to being on the side of the interrogators in a matter of days. Whether or not she is actually helping the Americans is still a big question mark.

So, based on all these snippets, I don’t think we are going to get close to learning which of the three outcomes that Kaitlyn listed out to Neal will come to pass. At this point, anything is possible. But, and at the cost of sounding repetitive, the QRF doesn’t seem to be backing down when it comes to nabbing Russian operatives and grilling them for any crumbs of information regarding Joe. And the thing is that the more time passes, the more aggressive the QRF is going to get. In fact, they might get so vicious that they will make the Russians regret nabbing Joe in the first place, which is definitely one of the objectives of Joe’s team. I know it is too early to tell, but there’s a distinct possibility that we might not see a resolution to the Joe rescue operation by the end of this season, and Taylor Sheridan might just extend that subplot to the next season. At most, I think we are going to learn the actual reason behind Joe’s kidnapping and the American politician or citizen who is really responsible for painting a target on Joe’s back. Yeah, I know that Lioness has a one story per season policy and the main plot and the subplots are usually wrapped by the end of a season so that each season can be viewed on its own. However, with just four more episodes to go, I have a feeling that Sheridan might be changing things up a bit this time. To be clear, I am saying that the flashback narrative will be wrapped up this season and in Season 4, the present-day side of the narrative will take center stage. But those are just my thoughts based on the teaser for episode 5 of Lioness Season 3. If you have any opinions on the same, please, share them via the comments section below.