Does Joe die? ‘Lioness’ Season 3 Episode 4 ending explained as rescue mission takes a dangerous turn
‘Lioness’ Season 3 Episode 4 featured the second rescue attempt by Joe’s (played by Zoe Saldaña) team. However, they were racing against the clock. While her team and her bosses did everything they could, including executing Russian intelligence operatives, Joe remains in danger. The recently released episode saw the Russian kidnappers moving Joe from a safe house to an airplane hangar. During her team's rescue mission, Kyle McManus (played by Thad Luckinbill) killed an operative and secured the plane’s tail number. It was revealed that the plane had been used to transport Joe and was already in the air. However, by the end of the episode, Joe remained in captivity.
Witnessing the circumstances of Joe’s captivity and realizing that bringing her home might not be easy, her boss Kaitlyn Meade (played by Nicole Kidman) went to see Joe’s husband, Neal (played by Dave Annable). She told him there were three possible scenarios: “One, we beat the clock, and she’s home in a few days. Two, the clock wins, and this could take time. Months. Longer.” She added, “She doesn’t come back with three. Prepare for the third. That way, if it doesn’t come true, relief will be your reward.” Hearing this, Neal was moved to tears as Kaitlyn left with a heavy heart.
After the failed rescue mission, Joe’s teammates spoke to Kaitlyn. Everyone was furious that they had missed Joe by just a few minutes. Notably, the team was also unhappy that Kyle had killed a Russian operative. As they told Kaitlyn about the incident, Kyle said, “Let me explain what happens when they get her to a secure location. They either torture the name of every case officer, every safe house, every operation, every asset, or they drop her off in Tehran where she’s paraded around until she’s tried and stoned to death, or hung, or shot.” As if that was not enough, Kyle added, “Or worse still, Iran holds her over to Hezbollah, which paralyzes us in the region because now they have a female U.S. citizen convicted of Iranian war crimes. I treated this like war. It is war.”
After learning that Joe might be in the air, Kaitlyn gave Army Commander Amber Whalen (played by Dawn Olivieri) unexpected orders. Kaitlyn learned that Joe might be in a Challenger 300 aircraft flying with a disabled transponder. It meant it couldn’t be tracked. Kaitlyn told the commander, “If located in U.S. airspace, our jets maneuver to force landing. If found in international airspace, they are to engage.” This meant that if the aircraft left U.S. airspace, the rescue mission would take a dangerous turn, as they were to shoot it down, with Joe still on board. While Joe’s destination and fate both remain unknown, upcoming episodes of ‘Lioness’ Season 3 promise to be even more exciting, unexpected, and dangerous.
