Sacrificial Soldiers

**Sacrificial Soldiers** is the first episode of the first season of the Paramount+ espionage thriller *Special Ops: Lioness*. It aired on July 23, 2023, as part of a two-episode premiere.

## Synopsis

Things go awry for Joe and her team during a mission out in the field; Joe is left devastated. Upon her return home, Joe's family life presents it's own challenges. Cruz tries to escape a dangerous situation. Joe must choose a new recruit.

## Plot

Kobane, Syria, an undercover Lioness agent's cover has been blown, forcing her to call for backup whilst hiding underneath an ISIS compound.

At the SOCOM Forward outpost, Joe, Bobby, and Two Cups spot a potential hostile crawling in the dirt towards their base. He seems to be dragging an unidentified object. Joe then gets a call from her plant, Isabel, who reveals her cover was blown after they saw her tattoo of a cross on her ribs from when her brother died, and now she's being hunted. Just as Joe reveals that Isabel's cover has been compromised, the hostile nearing their post detonates a series of explosives, which acts as cover for comrades to make their move. As gunfire erupts, Joe calls in for an aerial attack, which clears the way for her team to move forward.

Bobby takes her team up in a chopper, whilst Joe stays behind at the outpost. Isabel calls back to reveal that the men are nearing her position. Fortunately, so is Bobby's team, though they are met with resistance. Joe reports that her asset is compromised and that she needs further assistance. However, after Isabel is captured and her screams can be heard through the call, Joe has no choice but to call Bobby's team off and then call in another aerial strike, but this time on the compound, killing her asset as well as the terrorists inside, which weighs heavily on Joe.

Four years ago in Oklahoma City, Cruz is making minimum wage working at a local burger shop. She returns home to her abusive boyfriend Edgar, who punches her in the eye after she gets into an altercation with another girl at the house. Cruz is in shock and apologizes for her actions, at which point, Edgar sends Cruz to bed, where she cries herself to sleep.

The following day, Cruz awakens from her sleep, having decided that she will live under Edgar's thumb no longer. She gets dressed, gathers her belongings, and returns to the bedroom, where she hits him with a frying pan twice before fleeing the house on foot, with him giving chase, threatening to kill her. Cruz runs into a shopping plaza screaming for help. Fortunately, she makes her way into the U.S. Marine's signup office, where a recruiting officer scares Edgar away. Now that she's safe, he asks Cruz if she did that to her boyfriend's face. She replies that she cheated and used a frying pan, to which the marine replies that "if you aren't cheating, you aren't trying." Cruz says that she's been at war her whole life, to which the marine replies that she came to the right place.

After sleeping in the park, Cruz goes in for work, though Edgar and his friends waiting outside for her to get off, which doesn't go unnoticed by her manager, who calls the police. With her boyfriend now in cuffs, Cruz claims to have only defended herself against him. She is advised to come down to the station and file a restraining order tomorrow. As for tonight, they recommend she go to a shelter, which she reluctantly does.

Cruz enlists in the Marines. There, she requests to train alongside the men, claiming to be capable of doing 15 pull-ups, the recommended standard for male recruits. Surprisingly, she exceeds expectations and does at least 20, much to her sergeant's satisfaction.

Cruz is taken to see Colonel Dirves after performing exceptionally well on her tests. No woman has ever performed as well as she has. In fact, most men don't. Cruz ran the 800 in high school and threw the javelin, winning state in both. He's aware, but he's confused as to why she didn't go to college, given her accolades. Cruz explains that her mother died junior year and she stopped caring. She hated the world and herself, and treated herself like it. She doesn't know where her father is and only has two brothers. One is dead, and the other is in prison. The colonel asks what does the word marine mean to her, but she doesn't know. He then asks why she is there. Cruz reveals that she was being hunted and pushed through some doors where she was protected by a marine, to which the colonel replies that she does know what being a marine means. It means being strong and protecting the weak, and he hopes this is an endeavor she wishes to pursue, which it is, though it means walking away from her current life and never looking back.

During their debriefing, Joe explains to Deputy Director Westfield and Senior Supervisor Meade that her agent was compromised after her mark walked in on her bathing and saw her cross tattoo beneath her armpit. Westfield questions why Joe didn't check her for tattoos. Joe asked Isabel had tattoos, she said no, and Joe mistakenly trusted her. She decided to call the drone strike only after ISIS members had Isabel in custody. They were more than 40 ISIS members at that location prepared for their assault. Joe's team wouldn't have gotten her in time, and they most likely would've stripped searched Isabel and made a home movie that the CIA certainly doesn't want on the internet. Either way, the agent was dead and Joe chose to protect her team and the sanctity of their operation. Westfield simply responds by telling Joe to make sure she checks her next operative for tattoos. Meade assures Joe that Westfield's debriefing will be even worse. Meade instructs Joe to go to Fort Bragg and make another operative and assures her that the last agent's death wasn't her fault, though Joe still blames herself for the 22-year-old's death, as she had her whole life ahead of her.

Joe returns home unannounced to find Neal making breakfast for Kate and Charlie. She is welcomed with open arms by Neal and Charlie, though Kate seems a bit distant, which results in an awkward dinner, upsetting Joe, who grabs a drink and heads into the backyard, at which point, Kate says that she hates it when Joe is home. Neal joins her outback, where he explains that when Joe calls first, he can update her on what they've been doing, then they aren't ambushed at dinner, and Joe has something to say.

Later that night, Joe takes a shower and joins Neal in bed. He asks if she's seeing anyone else. She says "No. Not really." He admits he is, but only just to feel something in her absence. Joe admits to the same. She also says that he was right about her calling first. It makes it easier when everyone knows their role, though she won't be staying long, and so they make the most of their time together and begin kissing.

Joe is in need of a new operative. Jack gives her Cruz' file. Her father is Syrian and mother from Jalisco. She can speak Arabic and did two tours in Afghanistan in addition to being Force Recon before they got her. Joe has no need for a door kicker, but Jack insists that Cruz has the brains to match her brawn. Still, Joe doesn't like her assets being picked for her, so Jack invites Joe to see Cruz in action as she spars with Seargent Hastings in the pit, getting the better of him throughout most of their exchange.

Joe arranges a sit down with Cruz to discuss the Lioness program, which started with a need for female soldiers to frisk and interrogate female insurgents, but it has evolved. What they do now is locate the wives, girlfriends, and daughters of high value targets and put an operative close to them. The operative is to gain their trust and lead them to the target, who they then kill. Some may consider that cruel and outside the lines of just, but Cruz replies that "If you ain't cheating, you ain't trying." Joe asks if she has any tattoos and orders her to get completely undressed to prove it. Joe notices the cigarette burns on her arms and the welts on her back from an extension cord. Scarring aside, Joe is satisfied and tells Cruz to get packed.

After boarding their private jet, Joe updates Cruz on their target, Asmar Ali Amrohi, who is an Iranian militia leader. Cruz's mark is the man's daughter, who they will find in Kuwait. Cruz tries to inquire about Joe's personal life, but Joe reminds her that they're not friends. Cruz would like to know her, given that she's the person responsible for saving her if her cover is blown. However, if Cruz's cover is blown, only she can save herself. And then they can come get her. That much, Cruz can trust Joe to do.

Before long, Joe and Cruz arrive at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait City, where Joe takes Cruz to her dorm. Joe then joins the rest of the team, Bobby, Two Cups, Tex, Randy, and Tucker, who she introduces to Cruz. Two Cups' name is derived from a trip they took to Thailand, where he drank two cups of something and tried to have sex with anything in sight. As for Tex, he's actually from New Jersey, but when he shaves his beard, he looks like Matt Dillon, who starred in the film *Tex*. On a more serious note, Amrohi's family keeps an apartment nearby, and they have eyes on it, but they're unsure where he stays, which is what they need Cruz to answer. Randy then hands her a beer and says that he doesn't trust anyone who doesn't get drunk with him. And so, Cruz downs a bottle of bear without much hesitation or resistance.

The following morning, Cruz is hungover from a long night of drinking with the team, but she isn't afforded a chance to rest, as Joe enters her room and informs her that Amrohi's daughter is on the move. After puking in the toilet, Cruz gets dressed and hops in an SUV with Joe, where they go over her cover. Cruz begins to panic as she's thrown in to a situation that she feels as though she's not informed enough on, not knowing much about the girl, but that's precisely the point, Joe explains, so as to not say something the girl hasn't told her yet. Cruz is blind on purpose. Joe gets out first and tells Cruz not to look at her or follow her. Moments later, Cruz exits the SUV and heads inside the Louis Vuitton store, where she bumps into Amrohi's daughter shopping, though she doesn't actually intend to buy any jewelry as it means nothing, unless it is given to her. Cruz jokes that if you wait for an American man to give you jewelry, you'll never have any. She then asks if Cruz has any family in the area. She claims to be staying with her uncle and looking for a husband. With her face, Amrohi's daughter says it won't take Cruz long, but American girls have no subtly when it comes to make-up. So she offers to take Cruz to a store nearby. When Amrohi's daughter asks her name, Cruz freezes but then says her name, to which Amrohi's daughter introduces herself as Aaliyah.

Followed by a security detail, the two ladies exit the Louis Vuitton store. Joe maintains view of them from a distance and reports that Cruz is in.

## Cast

* Laysla De Oliveira as Cruz Manuelos
* Dave Annable as Neal McNamara
* Jill Wagner as Bobby
* LaMonica Garrett as Tucker
* James Jordan as Two Cups
* Austin Hébert as Randy
* Jonah Wharton as Tex
* Stephanie Nur as Aaliyah
* Hannah Love Lanier as Kate McNamara
* Nicole Kidman as Kaitlyn Meade
* Celestina Harris as Charlie McNamara
* Graham Shiels as Drill Sergeant
* Ariella Ezekiel as Isabel
* Ethan Jones Romero as Edgar
* Stevie Ray Dallimore as Colonel Dirves
* Daniel Abeles as Captain Hansmuth

Co-starring* Ramon Nuñez as Cherub's Boyfriend
* Mikaela Secada as Cherub
* Pascal Arquimedes as Punk
* Anthony Ruiz as Manager of Tast E Burger
* Martin Fisher as Recruiting Marine
* Gabe Bowling as Police Officer
* Aaron Matthews as Sergeant Hastings
* Colt Bauder as Guard
* Travis Roberts as Driver