REVIEW: ‘Lioness’ Season 3 Episode 1 — “The Spider And The Fly”

Lioness Season 3 Episode 1 asks the question: What happens when the person running the mission becomes the target? The answer is a pulse-pounding premiere that will raise the stakes for Joe McNamara like never before. 

Lioness Season 3 Episode 1 premieres on the hit Paramount+ military espionage drama series. It is written and created by Taylor Sheridan and executive produced by Sheridan, David Glasser, Zoe Saldaña, Nicole Kidman, Ron Burkle, Bob Yari, Keith Cox, and produced by Paramount Television Studios and 101 Studios.

Lioness stars Oscar winner Saldaña, Laysla De Oliveira, Genesis Rodriguez, Dave Annable, Jill Wagner, LaMonica Garrett, James Jordan, Austin Hébert, Jonah Wharton, Hannah Love Lanier, Thad Luckinbill, Ian Bohen, Michael Kelly, alongside fellow Oscar winners Morgan Freeman and Kidman.

In Lioness Season 3, Joe’s worlds collide as she takes on her most personal assignment yet. Hidden networks, foreign operatives, and personal betrayals come together as the fine line between Joe’s duty and home starts to blur, and unseen forces begin to circle her world. Patterns are starting to appear where they should not, names vanish, and paths rearrange. Guided by her commanding officer, Kaitlyn and Westfield, Joe confronts enemies operating in the shadows, leaving her to reckon with a war that now trespasses into every part of her life.

In previous seasons, Lioness has always blended high stakes of covert operations and personal drama. But this episode sets the season up to shift the focus a bit more inward, putting the series’ main protagonist in unfamiliar territory and forcing her to face a threat that can no longer be kept at a distance.

In Lioness Season 3 Episode 1, Joe is forced to wade into unfamiliar territory when the threat comes home.

Throughout the series, Joe’s nature and demanding career have always put some strain on her relationships. This makes her feel that, at times, she needs to choose between her duty and her loved ones. However, her home and family have always represented a safe place to return to and a temporary refuge from the high-stakes, life-and-death decisions she has to make in the field. This season snatches the illusion of Joe having that refuge away immediately in Lioness Season 3 Episode 1. 

Lioness Season 3 Episode 1 places greater emphasis on what happens when the dangers of covert operations begin to invade the spaces we once thought were safe and far from global threats. Watching Joe’s boundary between her home and work crumble provides some of the most dramatic and action-packed moments. Instead of Joe typically being at the helm and leading through dire situations, the episode makes her and the threats against her family a more active part of the show’s tension.

Lioness Season 3 Episode 1 takes the show into some very unpredictable territory. For the first time, Joe is not the one orchestrating the mission and giving all the orders; she instead essentially becomes the mission itself, an interesting reversal for the show with its lead characters. This episode puts Joe back in the role of a Lioness operative, rather than in charge of Lioness operatives and navigating dangerous situations in the field.

But Lioness Season 3 Episode 1 quickly takes away some of Joe’s control as she is forced to answer to commanding officers she typically wouldn’t bother reporting to, let alone respect, thus putting her and her entire unit under a different chain of command.

The build-up of tension throughout the episode is a masterclass.

The narrative decision seamlessly transforms the audience’s connection with Joe. Instead of seeing her as the confident leader who guides her unit through danger, we watch her in Lioness Season 3 Episode 1 being forced to navigate the dire situation alone. Saladaña’s character and performance have been the show’s biggest emotional anchor, as she portrays her with unyielding confidence and the right amount of vulnerability.

Episode 1 starts the season off on a strong and surprising foot, putting more cracks in Joe’s hard exterior and sense of security. The choice to put Joe in a different position this season is a great reminder that beneath her role as an elite espionage operator is a woman who has a breaking point as she continues to try to balance her duty and her family.

Taylor Sheridan truly understands how to build up the tension in Lioness Season 3 Episode 1, striking an excellent balance between action and dialogue. The episode’s pacing does not stay in one place for too long as the action and pulse-pounding missions keep audiences on the edge of their seats. Meanwhile, Episode 1’s quieter conversations and moments reveal pieces of a larger mystery to come this season. The show’s action remains fairly grounded throughout the episode, choosing more tactical realism over top-tier spectacle.

Lioness truly understands that its high-stakes action moments mean very little without emotional investment. Every mission and covert operation carries significant weight because the audience understands what is at stake for the show’s characters personally. In Lioness Season 3 Episode 1, we open with Joe at home, seemingly having found a new balance following her near-death experience last season. She is more present with her husband and daughters, coming home more frequently, and it seems she is ready to make this her everyday life.  

The balance between action and more intimate moments is felt throughout.

Unfortunately, Joe’s job is never done, and her brief moment of normalcy with her family is gone in a flash as soon as she becomes a target for a new overseas threat. Lioness Season 3 Episode 1 does not reveal much about this new threat or exactly why they want Joe, but it does lay the groundwork through flashbacks that suggest Joe’s prior missions might have brought the dangers of her job right to her front door.

Previously, Joe’s home represented an untouchable oasis from the dark side of her work. However, given the dangerous situations and powerful opponents she faces on a daily basis, it makes sense that the dangers of her job would eventually make her a target too. This narrative shift this season helps Lioness make military and black-ops work feel more consequential, less like an entertaining spectacle.

One conversation that inevitably will surround the show this episode, as it has in past seasons, is whether the series functions as military propaganda. In the past, many critics have noted how the show glorifies American intelligence agencies and their shadowy military operations to protect the country. This is a fair critique, given today’s geopolitical climate, and there have been plenty of other shows and films in the entertainment world that use entertaining storytelling to propagandize certain aspects of our government’s questionable operations.

Lioness Season 3 Episode 1, however, shows characters openly questioning the necessity of their missions and challenging their country’s military presence in the ongoing war and other conflicts. While these moments do not dominate the episode, they do complicate the idea that the series exists only to celebrate America’s intervention in foreign affairs.

What once felt untouchable is no longer, and it sets up the stakes for the rest of Lioness Season 3.

It is refreshing to see how the show does not frame every mission as necessary and justified; it allows room for internal disagreement and skepticism. Given today’s events and ongoing conflicts, it can be difficult to fully separate fictional depictions of espionage and military operations from the broader cultural narratives they may reinforce.

Sheridan uses war, espionage, and secret operations as their storytelling structure to explore themes of sacrifice, identity, and the cost of duty. While I personally don’t think Lioness crosses into outright military propaganda, audiences should not ignore the broader conversations about propaganda. In all honesty, both ideas can be true at the same time: the show remains a compelling fictional watch, yet it still exists in a genre that raises questions and concerns about how government institutions and operations are portrayed.

Viewers should be prepared to see some very intense graphic moments in Lioness Season 3 Episode 1, especially as it pertains to animals. For example, in one scene, the American black ops team uses German shepherds to raid an enemy base. During the raid, the dogs bite and rip out the throats of enemy soldiers. Likewise, one of the enemy soldiers stabs a dog in return. While the moments are not exactly overkill, they do highlight the more brutal nature that some military black operations take to accomplish their missions. 

Lioness Season 3 Episode 1 packs quite the punch, raising the action, drama, and stakes to new heights. The season premiere is a strong return that instantly raises the stakes while also laying the groundwork for what may be the most intense season yet. The action remains sharp, with a few grotesque moments. Performances and growing tensions continue to make this show worth watching, and its unpredictable narrative choices give it renewed momentum.

Lioness Season 3 Episode 1 is streaming now, exclusively on Paramount+, with new episodes releasing weekly on Sundays.