Special Ops: Lioness season finale — success or failure

Laysla De Oliveira in Special Ops: Lioness (Image credit: Luke Varley/Paramount+)

NOTE: this post contains spoilers for Special Ops: Lioness season finale, "Gone is the Illusion of Order."

This is what Special Ops: Lioness has been building to, as Cruz (Laysla De Oliveira) goes to Aaliyah's (Stephanie Nur) wedding with the sole purpose of killing Aaliyah's father. What dangers lie in store and what ramifications will the mission, if successful, have? That's what is at the heart of the Special Ops: Lioness season finale.

On her own

Joe (Zoe Saldana), Cruz and the rest of the team land in Barcelona. Joe gives Cruz two beacons hidden in jewelry to signal for extraction when her mission is complete or her cover is blown. Joe wants to know where her head is at. Cruz admits she still has complicated feelings for Aaliyah, but she is focused on her mission. Cruz takes a flight to Mallorca, where she is picked up by Aaliyah's security team.

Meanwhile, Joe and the team take a yacht that'll serve as their base of operations. As they head out of the bay to Mallorca, they lose Cruz's signal, as she enters the dead zone put in place for wedding security. As Kaitlyn (Nicole Kidman) tells Westfield (Michael Kelly) to make clear to the White House, Cruz is truly on her own now.

The situation room

Westfield gives Secretary Mullins (Morgan Freeman), Chief of Staff Mason (Jennifer Ehle) and NSA Advisor Hollar (Bruce McGill) the details in the situation room. He says they can't extract Cruz without a fight. All they can do now is wait and see if it becomes a successful mission or a failure.

Mullins is none too happy, as they all worry about what could happen as a result of this mission — the president is abroad and could be vulnerable, and killing Aaliyah's father could destabilize the Middle East and disrupt the oil market.

They keep an eye on things from satellite images as Cruz arrives at the wedding location. Westfield explains what their options are for killing the target. The simplest one is Cruz using what she can to kill Aaliyah's father. If that doesn't work, she can place a tracker on him so Joe’s team or other US forces can attempt to take him out.

Emotional baggage

Laysla De Oliveira and Stephanie Nur in Special Ops: Lioness (Image credit: Luke Varley/Paramount+)

Immediately after Cruz gets through security, she is taken to Ehsan (Ray Corasani). He knows Cruz and Aaliyah got close in New York, but stresses that once he and Aaliyah are married, she is no longer going to be a part of her life. He threatens to kill Cruz if she tells Aaliyah any of this.

Cruz stands up to him though. The security guard wants to take Cruz back to the airport, but Ehsan makes a comment in Arabic that Aaliyah will keep "her legs closed" on their wedding night if he sends Cruz away. Further poking the bear, Cruz says Aaliyah won't let him do anything no matter what. Ehsan is shocked at how Cruz talks to a man.

Cruz meets up with Aaliyah, who shows her around the island. She details what the ceremony is going to be like and mentions her father is already there. She doesn't register Cruz's interest in her father as anything unusual, but does claim her father is just an oilman, but one who doesn't play the political game of who to sell to. Still, she hopes when she has children that they'll be well-off enough to not work in her father's world. She also hopes she'll be able to love her children (she's currently not a fan of kids), so she'll at least have that instead of just the memory of loving Cruz.

Aaliyah shows Cruz to her room, just across the hall from hers. The two linger at the door before saying goodnight. Once the door is closed, Cruz breaks down.

On the boat, Joe also has an emotional conversation. After waking up with nightmares, Kate (Hannah Love Lanier) calls, upset she missed her friend Holly's funeral while she was in the hospital and didn't get the chance to say goodbye. Joe calms her down. When she talks with Neal (Dave Annable), however, she yells at him for bringing that emotional baggage while she is on a mission. They argue, Neal half-heartedly apologizes and they hang up.

Later, Neal tries to call again, but Joe doesn't answer. He sends a text telling her to be safe and that they all love her. This gets to Joe, who starts to cry. Kaitlyn sees this and demands Joe's phone, reminding her the best way to get back to her family is not to think about them and stay focused on the mission.

Go time

Nicole Kidman in Special Ops: Lioness (Image credit: Luke Varley/Paramount+)

Cruz can't sleep. Neither can Aaliyah, who enters her room and tells Cruz she doesn't want to get married, but knows she doesn't have a say in it. She wants to be comforted by Cruz, but Cruz says Aaliyah doesn't truly know her; Cruz doesn't even know who she is. Aaliyah kisses her anyway, and Cruz briefly gives in, before pulling away saying they can't do this, she can't do this. Cruz goes to get some water.

In the kitchen, Cruz meets Aaliyah's father (Bassem Youssef), who is very charming as he talks to her, even offering her some gelato. However, the situation quickly turns. Ehsan has been trying to dig up dirt on Cruz since they're meeting and he eventually finds a picture of her with her real name and figures out she is a Marine. Ehsan bursts into the kitchen revealing this and Cruz reacts. She grabs a knife and kills Ehsan, then stabs Aaliyah's father multiple times and slits his throat. She activates her beacon and starts to run.

Immediately Joe and her team head for the island. Cruz is being chased by armed guards through the compound. She gets pinned down, but Joe and the team get to her just in time, clearing the scene by killing all the guards.

On the boat, Cruz punches Joe and the two have to be separated. Kaitlyn has Cruz confirm she killed the target, which is then relayed to the situation room. Mullins and company aren't happy, worried this will set relations back 40 years with the Middle East. Westfield retorts if they didn't want him dead then he shouldn't have been on their kill list.

The team heads safely away from the island, but Joe and Cruz go to settle things on the deck. Cruz is conflicted over what she did. Joe tells her her action saved lives, but Cruz believes all that'll change is oil prices and she actually may have inspired future generations of terrorists. She tells Joe she quits.

Returning home

It's early morning when Kaitlyn gets home, but Errol (Martin Donovan) is already tracking pre-trading oil numbers. Kaitlyn says she's curious about how there is all this trading before and after the stock market bells have rung. Errol says the real question she needs to ask is who rings the bell?

When Joe arrives home, Neal is already awake. They embrace as she reflects that this mission was a particularly hard one.

All episodes of Special Ops: Lioness are available to stream on Paramount Plus.

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Michael Balderston is a DC-based entertainment and assistant managing editor for What to Watch, who has previously written about the TV and movies with TV Technology, Awards Circuit and regional publications. Spending most of his time watching new movies at the theater or classics on TCM, some of Michael's favorite movies include Casablanca, Moulin Rouge!, Silence of the Lambs, Children of Men, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and Star Wars. On the TV side he enjoys Only Murders in the Building, Yellowstone, The Boys, Game of Thrones and is always up for a Seinfeld rerun. Follow on Letterboxd.