‘Lioness’ Ep. 7: Does This Picture Spoil How It Ends? [PREVIEW]

Typically, pictures shared ahead of any episode of Lioness are pretty innocuous. This batch seems to have said too much.

A new trailer for the penultimate episode of Season 3 also teases a huge gunfight between several law enforcement agencies and Babat's motorcade. It's the sort of scene you'd expect from the finale.

• Ep. 7 of Lioness is called "Kiss the Girls." It premieres on Paramount+ this Sunday (Sept. 13).
• Pictures from the episode (seen below) are mostly closeups of various cast members.
• Season 3 of Lioness is eight episodes long, with the finale streaming on Sept. 20.

Spoilers coming, so if you've not yet watched the first six episodes of Season 3 of Lioness, be warned. There's also a theory that just makes too much sense to be wrong.

Lioness, Season 3 Episode 6 Recap

One of two timelines driving Season 3 of Lioness appears to be nearing a conclusion. The government's roundup of all foreign operatives working to advance communist goals is complete, with dozens of arrests, several U.S. officials resigning and one suicide that Cruz and Tucker were there to witness.

Joe tells her family they can return home and everyone prepares to celebrate a job well done. We still don't know how the agents identified Joe, but the country is more secure when the dust settles. It was probably the Russians anyways, right?

Except it wasn't. Apparently the Russians are too afraid of going to war with the U.S. and they weren't the ones targeting a senior case officer. This means the mission to capture Yurimov in Ep. 1 was subterfuge. What's playing out is more personal.

Kyle (played by longtime Young and the Restless star Thad Luckinbill) locates the Urkanian double agent who provided information necessary to tumble these dominoes. Her name is Oleksandra Balakin but she now goes by Paige Weaver and lives in witness protection in Tulsa, Okla.

The meeting takes place in present day, six days after Joe's abduction. Balakin disputes the government's working theory that the Russians are behind all of this and wonders if Joe had upset any Iranians. Kyle can't bluff.

Joe has indeed upset Iran. At the end of last season, she led a team that bombed a motorcade carrying Chinese scientists through Iran to assist with the country's nuclear program. Is that enough motive for what comes next?

The final 15 minutes of Episode 6 of Lioness are brutal. An Iranian named Babat emerges as the true leader of the operation and he begins to abuse Joe in preparation for her extraction. His speech (watch actor Kamyar Jahan's audition tape on his Instagram) is chilling.

At the end of the scene, Babat scrapes his knife down Joe's body and cuts off her pinky toe just to hear her scream. Then they all pack into a pair of black SUVs and drive out of the Houston neighborhood they were hiding in.

Lioness, Season 3 Episode 7 Preview

The trailer shared after last week's episode indicates that Babat and his men don't get far. There is an intense gunfight and Joe's team arrives via helicopter. I have a bit of a morbid theory about what happens to one key member of the QRF that you can watch the above video for.

Let's just say it's not clear everyone gets to go home.

Joe is only seen in the back of the SUV but another picture shared by paramount shows her alone in a luxury vehicle, wearing civilian clothes.

At first glance it looks like a moment from the flashbacks, but Joe didn't have a scar over her left eye in the flashbacks.

That picture of modern day Joe, which means she survives the abduction.

Somehow knowing this does nothing to lessen the inevitable anxiety of each new episode. The drama is merciless but the parallels between who they're fighting and who the real U.S. if fighting at the moment really turn up the heat.