Special Ops: Lioness season 2 finale ending explained - Does Joe and the Lioness team come out of the attack alive?

Tension is running high for the Lioness team in Special Ops: Lioness season 2 finale, which dropped on Paramount+ on Sunday, December 8, to conclude the second season of the American spy thriller series. In the latest episode, two teams are in for the most nerve-racking missions of their lives.

Joe and most of the Lioness, including Cruz, Josie, Bobby, Two Cups, and Tucker, were in Iraq for Operation Sky Hawke. Meanwhile, Kaitlyn, Byron, and Kyle went with Pablo Carrillo to Mexico to meet his brother, the Los Tigres leader, and start an alliance.

Both missions turned bloody, but what happened in Iraq placed the lives of Joe and the Lioness team in grave danger as they were literally fighting for their lives.

At one point, they didn't think that they would survive after well-armed and well-trained enemy soldiers surrounded them, but Joe and the rest of the Lioness came out of the attack alive in the end.

Disclaimer: This article contains major spoilers for Special Ops: Lioness season 2 finale. Reader's discretion is advised.

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Special Ops: Lioness season 2 finale sees Joe and the Lioness barely survive the attack in Iraq

Joe is fighting in Iraq in Special Ops: Lioness season 2 finale (Image via Paramount+)

Special Ops: Lioness season 2 finale saw Operation Sky Hawk succeed. Joe and the Lioness team made it out of the attack in Iraq alive, but only barely. Most of them sustained injuries during the gunfight with the enemy soldiers, but thankfully, there were no fatal injuries, and everyone is set to return to the US well and alive.

Operation Sky Hawk was a go early in Special Ops: Lioness season 2 finale, with the strike mission starting with Captain Josephina, aka Josie, flying the helicopter with Cruz as her gunner. They tried to fly behind the enemy vehicles in convoy, carrying the two assets undetected.

Cruz then started firing against the vehicles, and it looked like they would succeed until an enemy soldier fired and managed to clip the helicopter. Josie and Cruz crashed but were kept alive by a sniper from a distance.

When news of the crash came at the base, Joe, who was just out of surgery in Lioness season 2 episode 7, was forced to go with the rest of the team to rescue Josie and Cruz.

When they arrived at the crash site, however, a new set of enemy vehicles with more soldiers arrived. They took cover, but they were clearly outnumbered.

The Lioness team was surrounded by enemies in the Special Ops: Lioness season 2 finale (Image via Paramount+)

No one in the Lioness team can be called a coward, and how they continued to fight until the very end despite being surrounded by enemy soldiers was a testament to their bravery and grit.

For one, Tucker was the gunner during the mission, and he was ready to sacrifice himself to cover the entire team as they ran for cover. Thankfully, he also survived the attack.

At the base, after the attack, almost everyone in the team was bloody, so they were tended to by the medics and doctors. Cruz didn't appear to be injured at the end of the Special Ops: Lioness season 2 finale, but Josie had already sustained injury from the helicopter crash.

Bobby, Tucker, and Two Cups also appeared bloody but still safe and alive.

Ironically, Joe, who went into the mission still beaten up from the surgery, comes out of the gunfight unscathed.

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Joe is having second thoughts about coming out of the attack alive in Special Ops: Lioness season 2 finale

Joe in the Special Ops: Lioness season 2 finale (Image via Paramount+)

Operation Sky Hawk in the Special Ops: Lioness season 2 finale was filled with nerve-racking moments.

With it being the last episode and the conclusion of the Lioness' story in the second season, the series packed the final episode with tense and thrilling scenes that would have the viewers asking if the team would survive.

Even Joe, at some point, had a plan B in case the mission goes sideways and the enemy soldiers are about to catch them.

During the gunfight, it looked like the Lioness would lose. Someone yelled that they ran out of ammo, another one was shot and fell while fighting the enemy, and someone else got clipped by an enemy soldier's bullet.

With still a lot of soldiers to fight against, Joe asked Josie if she had her pistol with her, to which Josie said yes.

The next scene ups the tension and the question of whether the attack is even survivable for one of the US's most elite teams. Joe told Josie to save the bullets on her pistol for them—she wanted Josie to kill them before the enemies could get to them.

It appeared that Joe was not sure if their mission would be successful. The moment she sensed that they were outnumbered, she put in place a plan so the enemy wouldn't have the chance to capture and torture any of them.

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Special Ops: Lioness season 2 finale title meaning explored

Joe returns home to Neal (Image via Paramount+)

The Special Ops: Lioness season 2 finale is titled The Compass Points Home, which implies the Lioness team's goal—finish the strike mission in Iraq so they can go home. That has always been the plan.

Home could also refer to the ongoing struggle for the favorite Lioness hero, Joe McNamara, who has been having problems at home, especially with her husband, Neal. After her injury in Lioness season 2 episode 6, and her surgery, there's been tension between the two.

While Neal supported Joe's work and her oath to the country, he also wanted her safe. Meanwhile, Joe isn't someone to slow down, especially if there's a critical mission in the midst.

That said, Joe's compass still pointed at home, as, after the mission in Iraq, she and Neal make up. Neal was waiting for her at the steps in front of their home when she arrived and he told her that he wasn't sure if she would return.

Joe replied that she wasn't sure that she still had a home to return to, to which Neal clarified that she always has a home before sharing an embrace.

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Change in Los Tigres cartel hierarchy in Special Ops: Lioness season 2 finale

Pablo Carrillo is the new Los Tigres cartel leader (Image via Paramount+)

While Joe and the rest of the team are fighting for their lives in Iraq in the Special Ops: Lioness season 2 finale, Kaitlyn and Byron, along with Kyle, try to convince Pablo Carrillo to work with the CIA. They offered him both freedom and protection in the US.

They are not trying to end the Mexican cartel business; they only want him in their corner and provide intel about enemy nations if the need arises.

The Special Ops: Lioness season 2 finale also saw them join Carrillo in Mexico to see the Los Tigres leader, his brother Alvaro.

However, the meeting went bloody when Pablo pulled the trigger on him. Alvaro was caught unaware, and he died before he could even react to the betrayal.

Los Tigres now have a new leader, and Kaitlyn and Byron went back to the US with the hostage. That said, Byron was a bit shaken from the killing as the episode ended with him throwing up on the plane home.

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Catch the Special Ops: Lioness season 2 finale, including the first nine episodes of season 2 on Paramount+. The complete installment of Lioness season 1 can also be watched on the platform with a subscription.