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Special Ops: Lioness season 2 episode 5 dropped on Paramount+ on Sunday, November 17, 2024. The latest episode of the American spy thriller gives a glimpse of how their previous mission affected Joe and the rest of the team. Previously, in the show, Joe and her team played ball with the DEA, ending with them doing a raid per the DEA agent's intel.
They were supposed to find contraband inside the building, but when they got there, a horrifying scene awaited them. Hundreds of children and young women were held hostage in the warehouse, but Joe and the Lioness program can't do anything to save everyone. That said, Joe put a tracker on one of the girls before they left.
She used that tracker to find the Mexican traffickers in Special Ops: Lioness season 2 episode 5, but the mission ends in a darker tone. As Joe approaches the children at the border interception to bring them to safety, one of the traffickers blows up the entire group, stunning Joe to silence. Joe and the rest of the Lioness appear unharmed, but some of the group, including the children, are gone.
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Disclaimer: This article contains major spoilers for Special Ops: Lioness season 2 episode 5. Reader's discretion is advised.
What happened when Joe and the team intercepted the Mexican traffickers at the border?
After the warehouse raid in Special Ops: Lioness season 2 episode 4, the morale within the team Lioness is at an all-time low. Everyone is grappling with the consequence of leaving the hundreds of children behind. It was a tense moment for everyone after the mission, with Cruz questioning how Joe handled what they found inside the warehouse.
Meanwhile, Joe is laying it into the Mexican DEA agent for having the wrong intel. The question about the children's fate hangs over the Lioness team's heads, but nobody has the answer. Joe, as a mother, also feels guilty about the decision to leave the children behind. She calls Kaitlyn, telling her she wants to rescue them, but Kaitlyn tells her it's the opposite of what they set out to do.
They have to continue the facade that the rival cartel did the raid and not the CIA. Back with the team, Joe is forced to make the decision and have everyone head back to Dallas, which none of them wanted. She reminds them that it "isn't a democracy." However, before they leave for Dallas, Joe has a plan, and she pulls Bobby off to one side to tell her all about it.
Joe tasks Bobby to follow where the kids are crossing at the border via the tracker she put in the shoes of one of the children. They plan to monitor it without violating restrictions. Joe goes to Dallas with Cruz and Josephina for another mission, but soon after, she returns to El Paso to join the rest of the Lioness team during the border interception.
With extra soldiers, they go on to intercept the Mexican smugglers at the border. They go against a couple of snipers, armed men, and armed drones, leaving casualties on both sides. As the team Lioness approaches the children to bring them to safety, Joe steps in front to tell them that they are the police.
However, one of the men emerges from the group and blows himself up. The magnitude of the explosion is seen from a sniper's heat sensor. The Lioness team, especially Joe, who is near the group, appears to be unharmed.
As she emerges from her cover during the explosion, Joe sees the aftermath—the group, including the children, doesn't appear to be there anymore. Joe's expression before Special Ops: Lioness season 2 episode 5 closes tells viewers that she wasn't expecting the suicide bombing at all.
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Special Ops: Lioness season 2 episode 5 Josephina second-guesses her mission
Early in Special Ops: Lioness season 2 episode 5, after the team went back to base after the warehouse raid, Josephina is starting to second-guess selling her father out for the sake of the mission. She even suggests to Joe to have her court-marshaled so she can testify against her.
However, Joe isn't one to back down and tells Josephina how things are going to go—the new Lioness has no choice because it was what she signed up for. They are heading back to Dallas so she can bring them closer to her father, her uncle, and hopefully to the cartel.
Josephina doesn't want to go, but with Cruz's encouragement, she ends up going. On their way to Dallas, Cruz convinces Joe to give Josephina an option to save her family because she's conflicted. Understanding the precarious situation that Josephina is in, Joe tells the new Lioness that she can urge her father to work with the CIA.
Josephina's new mission is to convince her father to cooperate, and he and his family will be protected, and they can even continue living their lavish lifestyle. However, if her father won't cooperate, he will be a target for the team. It doesn't make things easy for Josephina, and she spends the drive home crying and hyperventilating.
As seen at the end of Special Ops: Lioness season 2 episode 5, Josephina doesn't have the best relationship with her father. She tells Cruz that she loved who her father was before, implying that their relationship changed after she knew about his connection to the cartel.
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How did Cruz convince Josephina to continue with her mission in Special Ops: Lioness season 2 episode 5?
Josephina is a capable and dedicated soldier, but it's understandably hard for a daughter to lay a trap for her father. This is something Cruz understands from her experience in Lioness season 1. It is also something she implies during a talk with Josephina to convince her to continue with the mission in Special Ops: Lioness season 2 episode 5.
Cruz made Josephina understand that there are three types of people—the saints, the evil, and the sheep, aka the followers. She asks Josephina if her father is a saint or a sheep, to both of which she says no. In a way, Cruz makes her understand that her father is evil.
That said, Cruz has no faith that Josephina can pull the mission off, something that she tells Joe at the near-end of the espionage thriller show's season 2 episode 5. A reluctant asset is dangerous, which is why she came up with the plan to have Joe present Josephina with a way to help her father get out of the mess, to make her feel motivated.
Catch Special Ops: Lioness season 2 episode 5 streaming on Paramount+, with new episodes released on Sundays. Previous episodes of Lioness season 2 and the complete episodes of the first season are also available to watch on Paramount+ with a subscription.
