Summary<\/p>\n
The ending of\u00a0Lioness\u00a0Season 3 very much takes its time in a near feature-length finale that doesn\u2019t reveal the Big Bad until the closing scenes. But can simple revenge really be all that\u2019s going on here?<\/p>\n
A feature-length finale feels just about right for Season 3 of\u00a0Lioness<\/a>. After everything it has put Joe \u2014 and by extension the audience \u2014 through, we needed plenty of time to unravel the remainder of the conspiracy and linger in its implications. This isn\u2019t the typical bombastic ending you\u2019d expect from a Taylor Sheridan show<\/a>. Instead, it\u2019s a patient, dour, bracingly serious hour-and-a-bit of grown-up political espionage and character drama, or at least it\u2019s that first and foremost.\u00a0<\/p>\n It also builds to what, by all accounts, is a disappointing conclusion, or at least one less twisty and conspiratorial than I was expecting. I entered the finale looking for every small clue and detail in every margin, building up theories about who might really be responsible, and the implications it might have for Joe and her family. But it turns out straight-up revenge is the real answer. It\u2019s a bit less interesting than I necessarily wanted, but at least it\u2019s on-brand.\u00a0<\/p>\n Implications<\/p>\n \u201cThe Unravelling\u201d seems to begin with a stroke of good fortune, at the very least. Basic surveillance turns up a lobbyist named Dimitri Sokolov with a focus on energy exploration in Africa who fits the double-agent bill. Byron asks Errol Meade about him, and you can see that Kaitlyn doesn\u2019t like the cosy chit-chat, only lending validity to the suspicion that she might be playing both sides<\/a>. But she ends up with Sokolov\u2019s file either way, since that\u2019s the position she\u2019s in, and puts Kyle on him.<\/p>\n Oleksandra, meanwhile, finds CIA agents in her home with intentions to \u201crelocate\u201d her, and tries to flee, only making\u00a0herself\u00a0look guilty, which is very much what was implied by the previous episode<\/a>. So, you can see what the finale is doing here. We\u2019re proceeding along the lines we intended, focusing on the suspects that make the most sense, but it isn\u2019t as if the broader political picture has become any less fraught in the meantime. Errol sees Kaitlyn lurking. And so do we.\u00a0<\/p>\n As it happens, we needn\u2019t worry too much about it. Oleksandra\u2019s corpse is later, unceremoniously found by a jogger\u2019s dog, right after Joe had independently determined that Ukraine weren\u2019t responsible for the operation. It\u2019s the cost of doing business. Kaitlyn is made to look suspicious all throughout, but nothing ever comes of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n Making Moves<\/p>\n The U.S.\u2019s play is to release Yurimov, which is seen to be doing the Russian state a favour \u2014 that\u2019s how Byron and Edwin present it to Max over breakfast, anyway \u2014 to \u201ccool things down\u201d. Joe doesn\u2019t love that justification, though. As far as she sees it, they\u2019re releasing the only person who can fill in the gaps of what she went through and why. There\u2019s no wonder she isn\u2019t ready to talk about her future<\/a>, which Kaitlyn is pushing for. As far as she\u2019s concerned, the mission isn\u2019t over. The fact that Edwin has the same sixth sense should say a lot. However things might appear, how they actually\u00a0are\u00a0is another matter.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hence, Sokolov. When Kyle follows him to a diner, he witnesses him meet with a contact, but can\u2019t overhear what they\u2019re saying, which is perhaps just as well, since they\u2019re talking about a mole. Joe is monitoring the same feed, though, and recognises the other interlocutor as one of her abductors, Renat, so the decision is immediately made to snatch them both. Renat executes Sokolov when he realises he\u2019s rumbled; Kyle and the gang open fire, and several people, including what later turns out to be an African diplomat and her security detail, and two of Kyle\u2019s guys, Randy and Tex, get shot. Joe, watching from her plane, realises immediately that her lust for revenge prompted her to make the wrong decision and got people killed. Perhaps she should think about that desk job, after all.\u00a0<\/p>\n Friends In Low Places<\/p>\n Joe, Cruz, Josephina, Bobby, and Two Cups are on escort duties. It\u2019s their job to take Yurimov from Guantanamo Bay to wherever he\u2019s going, as per the U.S. government\u2019s promises. Again, though, there\u2019s sleight of hand afoot. One of the other prisoners, seemingly unrelated to anything, recognises Joe: \u201cSkin is black, but last name is Irish\u201d, or at least that\u2019s how she was shopped by the Russian SVR \u2014 namely, Renat \u2014 to drum up the personnel for the kidnapping.\u00a0<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t go unnoticed \u2014 at least not by me \u2014 that Kaitlyn is waiting at the hospital for Randy and Tex to wake up so she can debrief them before anyone else has a word, nor that she instructs Joe to report directly to her before anyone else with what she has learned at Gitmo. On the plane ride back, Joe has a conversation with Yurimov that implies the same thing that the rest of the finale has been suggesting. Russia aren\u2019t the bad guys here, or at least not in the way everyone thinks. These are the rules that the Iranians play by. And if Iran has a reason to seek vengeance against Joe, or to fear her, which we know they do, then the mystery is seemingly solved.<\/p>\n Or is it?<\/p>\n Revenge Is Sweet<\/p>\n When Kaitlyn debriefs Joe\u2019s new Gitmo friend, he lays out the facts. Sokolov was a broker of deals who worked for Renat. Renat sold the capture mission of the HVT (Joe), and as per the mission\u2019s parameters, she was to be handed off to the KSS, or Kata\u2019ib Sayyid al-Shuhada (Battalions of the Masters of Martyrs), an Iran-backed Iraqi Shiite paramilitary group. They earn their money, apparently, but only if the job abides by their beliefs. Given Joe\u2019s status in the Middle East, snatching her definitely did.\u00a0<\/p>\n The big question, then, is who hired the KSS? Initially, it seems like\u00a0Lioness\u00a0Season 3 isn\u2019t going to answer it. We\u2019re left to assume it was probably the Iranian state, but then Kaitlyn forces Joe to go home to an empty, for-sale house, since Neal and the kids have peaced out<\/a>, evidently having had enough of Joe\u2019s refusal to understand work-life balance. That\u2019s a sad scene, and Zoe Saldana\u2019s great in it, but it hardly qualifies as a resolution.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s only in the ending\u2019s final scene that we discover who the real Big Bad is \u2014 Aaliyah Amrohi from all the way back in Season 1. She\u2019s determined to kidnap Joe and take her out of the U.S. to draw the rest of the Lionesses \u2014 including, one assumes, Cruz \u2014 into the open. It is a revenge play after all. And since Joe now has no reason to stop working, she\u2019ll be more susceptible to it than ever.<\/p>\n