Special Ops Lioness had an inconclusive conclusion but was consistent with its trajectory. On the one hand, a team is trained and driven by a Western ideology, but in command, things are grayer. After everything he’s been through and is facing, the mission given to Cruz (Laysla DeOliveira) would have to be aborted for economic reasons, but neither Kailyn (Nicole Kidman) nor Joe (Zoe Saldaña) want to accept that 20 years of work, with an agent infiltrated with perfection, are put aside because White House executives have changed their minds. Cruz goes all the way out of a sense of responsibility for the work and the team, less so because she watched 8 hours of torture on the flight to Spain.

With incredible locations and cast, the Paramount Plus series promises a good future, even with the ties more than loose along the way. The men are portrayed as fearsome, the women hardened by physical and psychological abuse, and that on both sides. The love story between Aalyiah (Stephanie Nur) is tragic, but it doesn’t really seem to be over. But let’s go back to the beginning.

The White House advised that Operation Lioness be aborted because taking Aalyiah’s father out of business would destabilize the price of oil. But once a Marine has a kill order, apparently, there’s no going back. It was too late, they warned, but was it? We know that Cruz asked to leave and it was possible to obey right there. Joe and Kailyn deliberately forged ahead, ignoring orders, requests, and signals. The consequences will come in the second season if they follow this mission.

Everything happens as predicted in the dreams: Cruz enters enemy territory (a fortress in Mallorca), she is not identified and I happen to have access to the target – Asmar Amrohi – in a casual way. Even the timing in which she is unmasked (after Aaliyah’s fiance, Ehsan (Ray Corasani) suspects what is going on between them makes a more effective Google: search Cruz’s life on social networks and in two clicks see her in the uniform from Marine) is perfect because she is alone with Asmar and is a killing machine, especially with abusive men. In two minutes, barefoot and unarmed, she manages to eliminate the two attackers and flee through the gardens, facing an army of security guards who miss EVERY shot, even from a machine gun. The rescue team enters and in a few seconds eliminates the security guards and saves Cruz. Success and party? More or less.

On the boat, Cruz goes after Joe (who is in crisis for the first time after leaving his family to participate in a suicide mission), and the two face each other. Cruz resigns and throws the hypocrisy and futility of using violence to contain terrorism in her boss’s face. Now Aalyiah, who is a good person, has more than personal motivation to create new antagonists against the United States, thanks to the personal trauma of having seen her girlfriend kill her father and fiancé on the eve of her wedding. They destroyed the soul and life of a good person without even pleasing the Government for the mission.

On the way home, Kailyn meets her husband (who at any time of the day, even working remotely, is wearing a suit and tie!), and the two exchange those coded words in a relationship that is more than toxic. Who really runs the world economy? We’ll have to wait over a year to hear Taylor Sheridan‘s version and that’s if there’s even a second season of Special Ops Lioness. With the costs of renting and all-star casting (having Jenniffer Ehle and Morgan Freeman in cameos can’t have come cheap, not to mention Nicole Kidman), it seems unlikely in today’s entertainment landscape. We’ll have to wait.

Overall, the series is yet another Sheridan hit, paving the way for a second franchise beyond Yellowstone. Good performances, good situations, and a satisfactory delivery for the audience that enjoys suspense and action. A convincing, effective female cast with the potential for more. I’m rooting for the sequel.

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