'Lioness' Season 3 finale by Taylor Sheridan shocked Zoe Saldaña - USA Today
Spoiler alert! This story discusses details from the “Lioness” Season 3 finale, now streaming on Paramount+.
The biggest surprise in the Sunday, Sept. 20, Season 3 finale of “Lioness” came in the closing moments, with the stunning return of Aaliyah Amrohi (Stephanie Nur), the OG Season 1 target.
Seemingly forgotten, Aaliyah returned and was shockingly revealed to be behind attempts to kidnap and torture CIA operative Joe McNamara (Zoe Saldaña).
Even executive producer and star Saldaña was shocked to see Aaliyah appear in creator Taylor Sheridan's finale script during filming of the eight-episode season.
"OK, I'm just going to say one thing: Taylor is such a bleep, bleep. He's such an MF for this," Saldaña tells USA TODAY. She was smiling, but not meaning “Master Facilitator” with the term.
"He's writing so many shows at once. He has so many characters living in real time in his mind and heart. ... He was turning in scripts a week before we were needing to shoot them. So we found out in real time that [Aaliyah] was in that [finale]. I think we were shooting Episode 6 when [Sheridan] turned in Episodes 7 and 8 with that big reveal."
"All paths led to Aaliyah," Saldaña adds. "I love it."
Onscreen, there are huge implications to Aaliyah emerging as the nefarious force behind the attempts to kidnap Joe. Season 3 has been filled with false leads, Joe having a toe removed, and multiple deaths.
Aaliyah was Joe's first major target in Season 1, when the CIA Lioness program sent Marine Cruz Manuelos (Laysla De Oliveira) undercover to befriend her and infiltrate her family. The mission culminated with Cruz killing Aaliyah's fiancé, Ehsan, and her father, terrorist financier Asmar Ali Amrohi, on the eve of Aaliyah's wedding.
"There's so much rage and hate in this woman's heart. She was betrayed on so many levels. It changed her life forever," Saldaña says. "So it makes sense. There's a thing about the ghosts that people like this have to live with because they alter the course of so many people's lives. You can't imagine that they're not going to come back to haunt you one day."
It's also telling that Aaliyah is going after Joe, the unseen architect of the Season 1 operation. Emerging from a bath in the finale, Aaliyah orders yet another kidnapping attempt, knowing Joe's team – including Cruz and Two Cups (James Jordan) – will try to come to her rescue. Even Kaitlyn Meade (Nicole Kidman), Joe’s CIA supervisor, will join the fight or be a target. It is a pulpy TV drama.
"This is a smart woman that has sat with her rage and grief, and her heart is made of ash now," Saldaña says. "She's done her homework. She's going after the village. Taylor could have kept it small and had Aaliyah cast vengeance on Cruz. But Aaliyah has gone back to the Lioness program, and she wants to dismantle the queens, which are Kaitlyn and Joe. She's a smart antagonist."
Joe's other major finale gut punch came at home, where she discovered that her husband, Neal (Dave Annable), had moved out, making good on his threat to leave as Joe's dangerous CIA life continued to consume their marriage and even endanger their family.
The scenes of Joe coming home to an empty house were tough.
"There was something in the kitchen I wanted to do. I wanted to fix one of her daughter's paintings on the wall that was a little crooked," says Saldaña, the mother of three sons, whom she shares with husband Marco Perego-Saldaña. "Even after she's been defeated, you still go back and fix the frame that's crooked. Her family leaving is still devastating for Joe."
Still, Saldaña does not believe Joe's marriage to Neal, the oncologist who holds the family together when Joe is in action, is over.
"They are doves; they mate for life," Saldaña says. "Joe never turned a mission because she knew that she could always come home. She got complacent there. I would love for Taylor to allow Joe to explore that in Season 4. God, I hope it's not the end for them."
Season 4 has not been officially greenlit by Paramount+, but it's just a matter of time.
"I never believe it until the lawyers are calling me, like, 'OK, you have been summoned,'" Saldaña says. "I would love to be summoned one final time because these characters are worth it. And I hope we move fast on it."
And no, that doesn't mean that Season 4 will be the last "Lioness," even if it looks to be an arch-season.
"I always think that the season I'm shooting is going to be the final season with Taylor," Saldaña says. "Whenever he feels out that he's out of runway for Joe, and inherently for Kyle, that will be the final saga. But maybe he's just getting started."
