The seventh episode of Paramount’s Special Ops: Lioness has been released, and it shows us a side of Cruz that’s never been seen before. In the previous episode, after squealing with joy that Aaliyah’s wedding destination had been set for Mallorca, the two women kissed briefly before breaking apart. The episode follows the aftermath of that escapade and the impacts it had on the women, while the higher-ups plan ways to eliminate Aaliyah’s father, Amrohi, the banker to the terrorists.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens In The Dress Store?
The plans on how to take out Amrohi are underway in full swing at CIA HQ in Langley as Kaitlyn, Joe, and deputy Chief Byron discuss ways the mission could go smoothly. After a lot of military jargon, the resounding conclusion drawn from everything is that a destroyer needs to be brought close to the port of Mallorca in case a missile strike needs to be carried out to take out Amrohi. While the country’s intelligence decides people’s fates inside a room, Aaliyah and Cruz are going on a drive through the streets of New York. However, even inside the car, being chauffeured around by her personal bodyguard, Aaliyah doesn’t feel safe, and she tells Cruz how the rich are targets of the poor, when ironically, her father is the chief banker to the world’s terrorists. Aaliyah takes Cruz into a high-end dress store, where the women pop champagne bottles and discuss the kisses they exchanged in the morning before getting a little more intimate. However, when they’re interrupted, the women book a suite in a hotel and begin a very passionate lovemaking session.
How Does Joe Reason With Cruz?
Listening to every sharp breath the women draw, Kyle has been placed two floors below to keep tabs on them. Three hours later, with Aaliyah sleeping, Cruz gets off the bed and goes into the bathroom to send a text to Joe saying that she wants to meet her. As she’s heading towards the door, Aaliyah comes to her and asks why she’s leaving. Her newest best friend replies that, together, they have no future. Two floors down, she enters Kyle’s room, followed by Joe a few moments later. Cruz confirms our suspicions and divulges that she’s in love with Aaliyah, and she’s not trained for a situation where she needs to sleep with a woman who’s the first to ever care for her and then kill the woman’s father. Joe reminds her of the reason Cruz chose the life of a mariner and how evil Aaliyah’s father is. Joe questions her recruit about whether she’d do anything to Osama Bin Laden’s son to kill his father, and Cruz realizes the responsibility she has. Moreover, Joe shatters the young Lioness’s belief that Aaliyah might also be in love with Cruz by saying that Cruz is nothing more than a last hurrah for her before she’s forced to take on the role of babymaker and baby raiser after marriage.
Why Does Cruz Disconnect Her Transmitter?
Cruz goes back into the room and tells Aaliyah she can’t go through with her marriage because she’s in love with her, and then proceeds to turn off the transmitter. As Joe and Kyle go into panic mode, believing that Cruz is outing herself, the Lioness learns from Aaliyah that her father won’t even be there in Mallorca because it’s too risky for him. However, she pleads with Cruz to come to the ceremony, because without her, there’ll be just 500 people and nobody Aaliyah can call her friend. It’s all but proven that Aaliyah loves Cruz more than all the riches she’s ever had or the husband she’s going to have. She hands Cruz an invite to her wedding, as she’s to leave for Riyadh before the marriage, and Cruz turns on the transmitter before leaving the suite to meet Joe, waiting for her.
At the operations base, Cruz is interrogated by Kaitlyn and Joe, who demand to know what Aaliyah said to their lioness. Cruz breaks down, saying that Amrohi won’t be at the wedding, but Joe quickly concludes that to be a lie and suggests that’s what Aaliyah has been trained to respond to about her father. Additionally, Cruz hands her bosses the invitation that Aaliyah gave her and adds that she’d confirmed to the bride that she’d meet Aaliyah in Mallorca. Joe sends Cruz to shower and get some sleep before they leave at 3 p.m. for their destination. Joe asks for leave from Kaitlyn because her daughter Kate comes home that morning.
How Does Joe Handle Her Family Life?
Neal and Joe help Kate out of the car as her leg is trapped in a cast and take her home. Kate tells her mother that for a week or so, she needs to be taken to the bathroom and showered by her mother, and Joe asks for some privacy with her daughter. She says that she needs to leave because she needs to save lives, but Kate says being taken to the bathroom and being showered isn’t something a 14-year-old girl should rely on her father for, even if he’s a doctor. Joe responds that they’ll organize for a nurse for the week, but it’s absolutely necessary that she leave, and it’s something she might not even return from. The mother and daughter make a promise to not divulge the things she discussed about her work to anyone else, and before Joe leaves the room, Kate tells her that she loves her mother—a beautiful change from I hate you. Joe goes upstairs with tears in her eyes and tells her husband that this is the last time she’s working a job like this, and she’s already made up her mind that she’ll be asking for a desk job. Joe, as a mother, wife, and first and foremost, a woman, can no longer keep pushing people to their deaths because there’s a country to save while ignoring her children, her marriage, and her life. As the couple embraces, Kaitlyn comes into her husband Errol’s office, and he gives her a lot of jargon about the oil business. If the makers had simplified a little of the oil businessmen’s jargon for the common people who’d be watching the show, the character of Errol could’ve been totally unnecessary.
Why Does Joe Make Cruz Watch The Videos?
As Joe, Kaitlyn, Cruz, and the rest of Joe’s team board the plane, Joe hands the Lioness a laptop with a list of videos detailing every terrorist attack Amrohi has been linked to to date. She warns Cruz that anything she can watch on an 8-hour flight will fall short of the list of depravities and terrorism that the father of the woman Cruz is in love with has funded. As Randy, Two-Cups, and the other members of Joe’s team get busy with the food, Cruz plugs in her earphones to begin the playlist. With each video, her jaw clenches tighter and tighter, and her expression becomes sterner as she learns how much pain and terror Aaliyah’s father is linked to. With the plane taking off, Bobby, Kaitlyn, and Joe discuss how they’re going to carry out the mission, and by the looks of things, the next episode is about to be an explosive one, both literally and metaphorically.
How Does The Episode End?
Cruz has been trained to infiltrate and kill terrorists or break the necks of assaulters in hand-to-hand combat, but what she’s not trained for is kindness and genuine love. Aaliyah showered her with more love than Cruz knew was possible for a human to have, and after they got intimate, Cruz was in love. Joe realized that the Lioness she recruited had now resigned herself to being a mewling kitten who couldn’t stop crying, torn between guilt and duty. That’s why she played the videos for Cruz to remind her why she’d need to be embedded with Aaliyah so that Amrohi could be eliminated. Based on Cruz’s expressions, the plan worked, and she might’ve remembered her duty. However, once her secret is exposed, it’s certain that both Aaliyah and Cruz will suffer devastating heartbreak.
