Special Ops: Lioness – Season 1 Episode 5 “Truth is the Shrewdest Lie” Recap & Review

Truth is the Shrewdest Lie

Episode 5 of Special Ops: Lioness begins with Cruz waking up in a CIA safe house. She has finally gathered her senses, contrary to what we thought in the dying moments of episode 4. Tucker briefs her about what really happened since Cruz has no clue about the night. Her voice has a sense of apprehension and terror as she asks about her missing underwear. But Tucker assures her that Cruz was not violated.

Meanwhile, Joe and Kaitlyn reach the hospital to see Kate. The latter gives Joe a couple of hours to be with Kate, beyond which she must get back to her professional duties.

Kate’s pregnancy has been rejected by her body, meaning they don’t have to make a decision on abortion. Things are still dicey as far as recovery is concerned. They don’t have assurances that Kate will be back to normal anytime soon. Joe emotionally confronts Kate about her life choices. It is arguably the best moment of the series as Joe pleads with Kate not to “take out her anger with Joe on herself.” The CIA vet is completely vulnerable as she confesses she hasn’t done her bit as a mother, among other things. This might turn out to be a turning point in their relationship and let’s hope that materializes.

While Kaitlyn and Joe ride together in the car, the latter briefly advises Joe to “not turn out like Errol and her marriage,” even suggesting Joe might be better as a station chief somewhere. She takes Joe to Langley, CIA HQ, for a meeting with Deputy Director Byron Westfield. Kyle is there too and Byron clearly establishes that they broke the CIA’s rules of engagement with their unsanctioned illegal operation.

But despite the “grey area,” the intel about Al-Qaeda operatives is actionable. Joe’s team has already landed in San Antonio to nab them. Kyle will take the lead and Joe will run the tactical side of things. Westfield isn’t done with Joe, though. He sounds out a warning: no deployment of CIA assets without his express permission. To ensure something like this doesn’t happen again, Kaitlyn will personally oversee this mission.

During the briefing, Joe’s team expresses their discomfort with the fact that they cannot return fire if fired upon. But Kaitlyn lays down the law clearly: “Only capture, and not kill.” The stakes for this mission are high, considering that the team watches the terrorists arming bombs in anticipation of deploying them soon. There is a high possibility that the bombs will have to be discarded without disarming them because it won’t be possible. This could mean casualties on their side. Since the team isn’t large enough, Cruz and Joe will join the others in the field.

The mission schematics change at the final instance when Joe’s team is allowed to kill the subjects (due to the bombs). Although they do it successfully, one of the subjects activates his suicide bomb vest, which means that it will go off. The police are told to evacuate the neighbourhood and a bomb squad is sent to take control of the site. It turns out that the mission was not kept under wraps at all as the media got wind of the operation and who the targets were.

Errol shows Kaitlyn – when she comes home – the news piece about the mission. She indicates that this will happen again with Mexican cartels sending people over the border again. Kaitlyn also declares that she is inviting their daughters for dinner that week, something that she might have been inspired to do due to what happened with Joe. We see Joe going to the hospital and to Kate and Neal, who informs her that their daughter has been administered morphine for the pain.

At the safe house, Cruz opens her phone and realizes Aaliyah has been trying to get in touch. When she calls her, Aaliyah asks Cruz to FaceTime her, indicating how tense she has been about their friendship. It is quite clear that they are attracted to each other.

The episode ends with a genius scene which shows Joe walking toward Neal in the hospital lobby with the news about the mission on the telly. But her stride is interrupted by a phone call and she turns the other way to attend it. 

The Episode Review

The final few minutes of episode 5 truly show why Sheridan is such a great storyteller. Without doing all the fanciful things narrators do these days, he simply took a few seconds and one single mid-shot to showcase the tectonic irreconcilability between Neal and Joe. And perhaps between what she does and her personal life. The spillover effect also saw Kaitlyn introspect and reevaluate priorities. 

Joe’s scene with Kate was Saldana’s finest moment as the character in the series. Although she has been spotless as the hardened CIA, Saldana really dug deep and found her character’s internal torment. Emotional solidarity with a character is a timeless way of pulling the viewer in and disarming them. The turnaround when hard characters show vulnerability makes a great connection and that is exactly what happened here.

Special Ops: Lioness has definitely taken the shape to be a show beyond special military operations and about the people behind them. Sheridan’s new project has the legs to be yet another success for Paramount Plus and the prodigal creator himself.