Who is behind Joe’s kidnapping? ‘Lioness’ Season 3 Episode 6 ending explained as brutal threat emerges
‘Lioness’ Season 3 Episode 6, titled 'Sugar Land,' finally revealed who kidnapped Joe (played by Zoe Saldaña). However, her team is still unable to pinpoint exactly where she is, as the kidnappers have been moving her to different locations. The episode took an unexpected turn when Operation Treasure led to 37 arrests. Given the drastic developments, Joe and her team believed that whoever had previously attacked her at home was among those arrested. Hence, she told her daughters they would return home. However, she was unaware she would be kidnapped soon after. That was one of the moments shown in the other timeline. In the flash-forward, which is now the present, Kyle McManus (played by Thad Luckinbill), along with Joe’s team and her bosses, has been trying to find Joe.
It had already been six days since Joe was kidnapped. Kyle somehow managed to track down Ukrainian double agent Oleksandra Balakin (played by Elizaveta Neretin). Since she revealed critical information and shared it with Joe’s team, she was granted witness protection. According to Kyle, she could have valuable intelligence, which is why he tracked her down despite her living under a different identity. After learning about Joe’s kidnapping, Oleksandra shared a potential theory about who might have taken her and where she might be kept. According to Oleksandra, Iran might be behind Joe’s kidnapping. “The greater success her operation had, the more motivated Iran would be to act against her,” she said. She added, “Iran’s foreign policy is revenge and perception of strength. If you burn Iran bad enough, Iran is gonna want to burn back.” Based on her theory, Joe’s boss, Kaitlyn Meade (played by Nicole Kidman), tasked her team with searching various locations.
One team, including Tex (played by Jonah Wharton) and Randy (Austin Hebert), went to Texas, hoping to find Joe before she was transferred via international airspace. The two arrived at a Russian safe house, 1117 Hudson. Since the property appeared empty from the outside, the two radioed Army Commander Amber Whalen (played by Dawn Olivieri) and asked for permission to check it out. However, with several safe houses still to search, the commander told them to check the remaining locations first and return to the seemingly empty house afterward. “We’d rather work ‘em over one by one, know they’re clean before we move on,” said Tex. But the commander disagreed. To viewers' surprise, this was the house where Joe was held.
The episode ended by revealing key information about the identity of the person who kidnapped Joe. Babat (played by Kamyar Jahan), an Iranian operative, threatened Joe, saying, “I’m here to take you to your death.” Later, Joe also noticed him ordering his men in Farsi. The situation took a brutal turn when Babat cut off Joe’s toe after she refused to back down and insulted him. Soon after, Babat and his team prepared to move Joe while her team was combing the area.
