Lioness Recap: Captain Carrillo Is Full of Surprises — Can She Be Trusted?
This week on Paramount+’s Lioness, Captain Josephina “Josie” Carrillo reported to Fort Bliss to begin her training as this season’s titular asset. In the end, did she surprise Joe and the QRF team more with her skills, or her secrets?
Josie’s welcome to Fort Bliss was not warm. At all. Meeting Josie on the tarmac, Bobby denied the Army captain a salute, then made clear she was no Uber driver. When Josie arrived at the makeshift barracks, no one said boo to her let alone gave her the 10-cent tour. When she asked how long this “awkward bulls–t” period would last, Tex explained that they want/need to know nothing about her, save for her cover.
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Josie’s actual training was three-fold. A helicopter pilot, she has no experience clearing a room, so Kyle led her to a training barn where Tracer and Bobby demonstrated such tactics. When Josie ran the course with Tracer, she learned how to dart into the far side of a room to distract the shooter just around the corner, and also how to aim (“point with your knuckle”) with her gun turned upside down.
During shooting range practice, Bobby, Tex et al drummed up all kinds of loud noises to test Josie’s focus; she whiffed on Round 1, but once she realized the game afoot (“All I needed was permission to ignore [Bobby]”), she hit the target quite effectively.
Next up, Joe arrived in time to see Josie operate in a simulator — VR goggles that deposited her in a rundown (and impossibly lifelike?) neighborhood. Josie with catlike reflexes squeezed off some impressive shots (while also sparing mild-mannered passers-by), but ultimately failed/”died” after ordering a man to “let go!” of the teenage girl he had at gunpoint. The secret, Joe explained afterwards, is to “shoot the girl yourself,” then take down the bad guy.
Back in the hangar, Joe began prepping Josie for her actual mission, explaining that she is to return “home” to Dallas. Josie begged off, saying that she and her parents “don’t have that type of relationship.” Joe questioned that, noting that Mexican families, after all, are usually so close. Why isn’t Josie’s? Met with silence, Joe deduced, “Because you know” what her father and uncle do — and always have. “What else do you know that you f–king forgot to tell me!?”
Joe waved Kyle to come over, and clued him in on the fact that their asset knows full well what her family is involved in. Joe badgered Josie further about whether she in fact has ever met her uncle in Mexico. Kyle joined, in, barking something at her in Spanish. When Josie replied in kind, yet another lie was revealed.
“Congratulations Joe. You recruited a mole,” Kyle sniffed. Joe asked Bobby and Tucker to come over and hold Josie until the MPs arrive. “Your father is a lawyer? You don’t speak Spanish? You think we’re f–king amateurs?” bellowed Joe. “We do this for a living!”
Josie denied signing on as Lioness to secretly “protect” her family, and reiterated that she loves her country. “You love it enough to put your father in prison?” asked Joe. To destroy everyone she loves, and everything they built?
Joe shoved Josie’s cell phone in front of her: “You get one chance and one chance only.” Josie dialed a number, and we heard her father answer, in Spanish. He asks if she is doing well, and through tears Josie answers — truthfully, on multiple levels — “No.”
Elsewhere in Episode 3 — and just as compelling, if you ask me — was Kaitlyn and Bryon’s storyline, inside and out of the situation room. It turns out that the congresswoman’s kidnapping (and murder of her family) by the cartel didn’t move the needle that much among D.C. power players, at least not as much if the victim had been from (ahem) “the other party.” Kaitlyn and Bryon argue to Mullins & Co. that the kidnapping was not meant to succeed and in fact was a “probe,” to gauge U.S. response. (Bryon likens it to how the United States’ lack of response to al-Qaeda’s 2000 bombing of the USS Cole “led to” 9/11.) Even, so, they’re lacking Senate support for their new op, so Kaitlyn (with a hefty assist from husband Errol) and Bryon set out to win over a select few on-the-fence politicians.
Want scoop on Lioness, or for any other TV show ? Shoot an email to [email protected], and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line!
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