Aahana Swrup
In season 3 of ‘Lioness,’ Joe McNamara faces a fraught situation when enemy operators kidnap her just a few streets away from her home. As a result, even after she has been rescued in episode 8, her homecoming isn’t entirely complete. The CIA Agent refuses to ease up and put her guard down until the perpetrators behind her capture and ensuing torture have been caught. However, the combination of fear and anger leads her to make some unwise decisions that ultimately prove to have a heavy toll. Meanwhile, Meade, Westfield, and Mullins make choices of their own in an attempt to undo the damage of the past few weeks. In the aftermath, the fallout that remains promises to determine the future of the black ops team and their leader. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Joe Jumps the Gun, Which Results in a Bistro Shootout
In the aftermath of Joe’s retrieval, identification and demolition of the group responsible for her abduction becomes the number one priority for the agency’s higher-ups. As a result, when NASA’s surveillance picks up strange activity regarding an individual named Dmitri Sokolov, Westfield, and subsequently Meade, are immediately notified. Once the man is established as a person of interest, Kyle is ordered to tail him alongside Tex and Two Cups. This takes the agents to a Bistro where the mark seems to be meeting up with another stranger. Once his information is shared with Joe, who is en route to Guantanamo Bay, she instantly recognizes him as one of the men involved in her abduction. As a result, she swiftly gives her men the order to surpass surveillance and engage with Dmitri.
The moment Tex and Two Cups go into the bistro with the intention of apprehending Dmitri, things take a sharp turn. The latter realizes that he has been surrounded. In turn, his immediate response is to terminate the contact he was meeting. Once shots are fired, it alerts the security detail of one of the customers, who just so happens to be a diplomat from an African nation. Consequently, a firefight breaks out between CIA Agents, their target, and the inconvenient civilians. In the end, Dmitri and the guards end up dead, with both Tex and Two Cups sustaining bullet wounds. Ultimately, the mission’s negative fallout far outweighs any positive, creating feelings of guilt for Joe.
Yurimov is Returned to Russia
Meade and Westfield believe Oleksa, the Ukrainian double agent, to be behind the entire charade that led to Joe’s kidnapping. For the same reason, restoring some level of diplomacy with the Russians becomes a top priority item on their agenda. Since Yurimov’s capture had jump-started this entire thing, they decided that his return would be the smartest move in their arsenal. Despite being Putin’s right-hand man, he isn’t exactly someone from whom they can extract reliable and actionable intel. As such, his return promises to be the easiest way to smooth out the recent tensions between the nations. Thus, Mullins and Westfield find themselves across a breakfast table from Russian diplomat Maxim Petrov.
Meanwhile, Joe and her team fly out to Guantanamo Bay to retrieve Yurimov from detention. However, something strange happens on the visit. One of the other prisoners, Alex, successfully catches the CIA Agent’s attention when he reveals that he knows her name. In fact, he shares that her profile was passed around in gun-for-hire circles to recruit muscle for the abduction. Nonetheless, Alex had turned down the offer despite its lucrative reward because he knew it was an impossible task. Now he uses this information to negotiate his detention out of Gitmo. Furthermore, it finally gives Joe and her team a clearer idea of who is most likely to be behind the entire operation.
Lioness Season 3 Ending: Who Kidnapped Joe? Why?
Joe’s abduction wasn’t just a personal slight on the CIA Agent but also a matter of national security. She was kidnapped from the street in broad daylight on her way to work. In fact, days ago, hostile operatives had shown up at her door to attempt an abduction that was ultimately foiled. This means that somehow the personal information of a CIA special ops Agent had ended up in the hands of the wrong people. Therefore, even after she has been rescued and returned to safety, unmasking these individuals becomes critical. Everyone has their own theories on the matter. In fact, Westfield and Meade’s conclusion resulted in the execution of Oleksa, who was suspected of having orchestrated the abduction in an effort to worsen US-Russian relations.
Nevertheless, this theory turns out to be wrong. Yurimov confirms the same on the plane ride out of Guantanamo Bay. Alex, a Wagner contractor, later reveals the reality of the situation. As it turns out, prior to the abduction, there had been a bounty being passed around in contractor circles. Like many other mercenaries, Alex was also offered the job, but he ended up turning it down. Still, he knows the details of the operation. After the abduction, the kidnappers were supposed to hand Joe off to the KSS, an Iran-backed paramilitary group. This means that her kidnapping was sanctioned as part of a revenge plot with roots in the Middle East. Given her history in the area, the idea isn’t entirely surprising.
For now, this is all the information that Joe is able to piece together. Meanwhile, things unravel on the other side of the world at Doha, Qatar, where the benefactor behind the operation plans her next moves. As it turns out, this mysterious aggressor is indeed after revenge. However, Joe isn’t her only target. Even though it would be easier for her operatives to simply kill the CIA Agent in the States, she wants her enemy brought into her own territory so that her Lioness team would have no choice but to follow. Thus, the mastermind behind the kidnapping plan is actually setting up a much bigger trap than Meade and the others realize. Furthermore, in the wake of her latest failure, she is prepared to go after the mark once again.
Does Joe Return to Her Family? Did Neal and the Kids Leave?
Even after Joe escapes from the clutches of her kidnappers, she chooses not to return home right away. In fact, she makes it all the way to her house before she makes the decision to walk away from her family. In light of the recent events, the CIA agents are fearful that the dangers of her job will once again follow her home. Only this time, she won’t be able to protect her family from it. For the same reason, she decides to put off a reunion until she has killed the people responsible for endangering her life in the first place. Nonetheless, in doing so, she puts Neal in an incredibly hurtful position. All this time, despite the dangers of the job, he has been able to hold on to the reality of Joe’s love for her family.
Yet, when Joe lets her fear overpower this love, she weakens the trust that Neal and their daughters have put into her. Her eldest, Kate, has already made it clear that she doesn’t want her mother to put her life in danger in this way anymore. Furthermore, even though her father keeps her in the dark during Joe’s disappearance, she knows better than to believe any lies about her work trip. Thus, when Joe leaves her family high and dry yet again, without any explanation, they make a choice. They can’t continue living under the fear and uncertainty that comes along with the life of a CIA Agent. For the same reason, they decide to leave and live a grounded, mundane life away from Joe. In the end, the protagonist is left all alone in her home, as the price of the job finally piles up and ends up costing her Neal and the girls.
Why Do They Return Yurimov to Russia?
Yurimov’s capture from the warzone in Ukraine had been a significant operation for the Lionesses. They had inserted themselves at a border that didn’t explicitly concern them, killed numerous soldiers on the other side, and risked their lives to retrieve a strong political figure. Therefore, in the end, when the Agency heads make the decision to return the Russian agent to the foreign nation, it seems like they’re walking back on their decisions. Even so, Yurimov’s return proves to be the only remaining diplomatic option. After Joe’s retrieval, Errol lets Kaitlyn know that agencies have hired him to come up with a report for the incident.
They want him to make an educated guess about who could be behind the operation. According to the data, Oleksa appeared to be the prime suspect in the case. She’s the reason that the CIA intervened with Yurimov’s capture, which only preceded Joe’s abduction by a few days. On the other hand, Ukraine stands to gain the most from the entire scheme, especially as it’s conducted at the hands of Russian contractors. Therefore, Errol’s theory remains that the former double agent wanted to give the US a reason to attack Russia as a way to weaken Ukraine’s enemy.
If this report is eventually published, as it will, it promises to cause a lot of diplomatic chaos. Furthermore, Yurimov’s disappearance already has the Russians on edge. Therefore, Meade and Westfield conclude that Yurimov’s return would be the best way to soothe the Russians and bring the international relations between the two nations to a simmer. The act of his return at the hands of the US would be enough of a showcase of goodwill to ensure that no feelings of retribution would remain. The entire thing can be played off as an act of national security amidst an unraveling war. As such, in the end, the Russian agent gets to go back to his own nation.
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