The political thriller is officially off and running with its double-episode premiere — and for Joe, that means being thrown right back into the fire in Lioness Season 2 Episode 1.

Paramount might as well be renamed Taylor Sheridan Network this fall with the release of the creator Landmann, Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2and Lioness season 2 a few weeks apart.

However, it is the latter that interests us here. The elite all-female team is back for another round of life-threatening missions, with Nicole Kidman and Morgan Freeman overseeing the action safely from the comfort of the underground boardroom.

Zoe Saldaña is once again leading the charge…but what’s in store for Joe? Here’s everything that happened in Lioness Season 2 Episode 1. Obviously, spoilers ahead.

Lioness Season 2 Episode 1: Joe is thrown back into the deep end

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We open Lioness Season 2 Episode 1 in an unknown house in the middle of the night. Before we can blink, armed soldiers raid the place, killing everyone in sight – except for one woman who managed to escape through the back door. She is soon tackled in a nearby field and hit in the back of a car without explanation.

Cut to Joe trying unsuccessfully to make breakfast for her husband and children. When Errol (Martin Donovan) suggests going to Waffle House, Joe sees something horrifying: a US congresswoman has been kidnapped and disappeared without a trace. Sighing, she knows what’s coming next.

Sure enough, Kaitlyn (Kidman) is on the phone, and Joe is pulled into another secret CIA meeting to discuss who might be behind it. Edward (Freeman) drives up with information that our congressman has a live tracker on her, suggesting she crossed the border into Mexico.

Attention is turning to who might be behind the kidnapping, and while there is no confirmation, thoughts are quickly shifting from Russia to China. Who do they control, or at least work alongside? Mexican drug cartel Los Tigres, who are likely to be the boots on the ground holding her captive.

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Of course, Joe is sent to the border with Kyle (Thad Luckinbill), who was the first agent on the scene at the congresswoman’s house. There, the pair are joined by an unlikely new member of the crew – Cody, who is played by Sheridan himself.

Cody runs this operation, with Joe getting pretty clear instructions before it’s dispatched. It’s her job to find a target to bring them closer to the cartel. From there, a second team will support them with extraction, while a third team will survey anything they can find that will gather information.

Soon enough, our convoy heads deeper into the Mexican desert when they encounter three men (who may be minor cartel members, this is unclear) with Joe acting as a distraction while Cody and Kyle pulls them out. The group is dressed and turned on, heading out to intercept the cartel truck.

The kidnapping of our congresswoman has repercussions

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It’s not long before they find the cartel, speeding down the roads of Mexico with the US congressman in the back of the truck. Joe and Co. they manage to run their truck off the road, engaging in an epic shootout that leaves all the other people dead. Joe gets the congresswoman to safety in their truck and our soldiers flee the scene.

Cody is asked by their superiors if the scene was successfully blocked. He answers yes, after killing everyone present except the congresswoman. However, what they don’t know is that the cartel had their “eyes in the sky” the whole time and sent in the military and police to take out Joe, Kyle and Cody.

It is important to remember something that was said in the previous council meeting at this point – because of the formal treaty between the US and Mexico, US officials were not technical allowed to breach the border with any kind of violent action, otherwise it would be seen as an act of aggression. This explains why a Leo was drawn to close the deal.

Well…that’s kind of the way it is now that they’ve been found out.

Before they know it, legions of military and police vehicles are upon them like an eruption. Their truck successfully ejects the first round during the move, pinning the congresswoman to the floor for her own safety. But after that, it’s too much to handle.

A fiery finish leads to inner turmoil

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Surrounded by too many enemies, Kyle decides to throw Thelma and Louise the truck off a nearby cliff, throwing the car into a lake. Joe is able to pick up the congressman and swim to safety, with CIA help arriving in time to fight off the military soldiers who were able to track his rogue move.

Once the action has died down, Lioness Season 2 Episode 1 shifts into a more emotional gear. The congresswoman asks Joe what the fallout was at home, with Joe having to explain that her entire family was killed. In distress, the congressman suggests that he wants Joe to personally make sure that whoever was directly responsible is killed for their actions – even though he knows that he cannot publicly show any form of vengeance.

Joe and Kyle get into a huge argument about Kyle’s spontaneous plans, with Joe convinced that they could have been killed by his decisions. This isn’t the first time they’ve disagreed in this episode, with the pair on icy terms when they first reunited in Mexico.

In tears, Joe calls his family, angry at both her and her work for being cut off from them again. The girls engage her in mundane news (they have “pizookie” dinner, which is a pizza-sized cookie), while Errol is relieved to be alive.

Eldest daughter Kate (Hannah Love Lanier) catches the congresswoman’s rescue on the news after Errol tries to stop her, putting two and two together that the fuzzy rescuer is her mother.

The first two episodes of Lioness Season 2 are available to stream now, airing weekly after. You can also check everything out on The Costner-Sheridan feudTHE best yellowstone episodes of all time, the timeline of Yellowstone spin-offsand many others Streaming TV Shows this month.