‘Lioness’ Star Dave Annable Teases Big Decision Ahead for Neal (Exclusive)

Sunday’s (August 23) new episode of Lioness continued to show the intimate dangers faced by Joe (Zoe Saldaña) and her family in both the past and present timelines of Season 3.

First, in a flashback sequence, she and Neal (Dave Annable) are stowed away in a safe house with the daughters, and Neal is fed up. He’s skipped work to help the girls with homeschooling because he doesn’t have faith in Joe’s team to keep them safe in transport after the near-accident on the highway last time.

Joe wants him to train with a gun just in case, but he refuses. Though their argument is intense, he doesn’t let her leave without clarifying that he’s not angry with her — he’s scared, and he’s disheartened by what the world’s become. She kindly assures him that there have been political assassinations for millennia, so it’s always been this way.

Neal’s perspective, actor Dave Annable explains to TV Insider, is, “What’s the line? That’s awesome that you can have duty and service first, but at what point are we endangering our own family?” As for why he needed to have that tender exchange to explain his fears, he said, “I think it was really poignant, and I think he’s getting to a place where there’s no filter. I don’t want to say he’s losing support, but maybe his own drive and intentions are coming through. I think he’s very vulnerable, and I think this is, for anyone, an extremely difficult situation to be the plus-one in, and he’s speaking his mind.”

Lauren “Lo” Smith / Paramount+

Later in the episode, the action returns to the present as Kaitlyn (Nicole Kidman) shows up at Neal’s doorstep, five days after Blackjack Raven, and presents him with the hard facts of their situation — that the team has been a step behind her captors so far, and they’re running out of time. Kaitlyn informs him there are three possibilities for what’s next: They manage to pull off a rescue in time; they are able to make some kind of diplomatic trade for her return; or she doesn’t come back ever again. Kaitlyn warns him to prepare himself for the third option, saying, “Relief will be your reward” if it goes the other way, but Neal’s optimism sneaks through when he asks what she really thinks is the likeliest outcome.

“He’s educated enough, especially coming from the medical field of like, ‘Hey, here’s all the worst-case scenarios,’ and I think he was trying to cut through that and say, ‘Give me what’s happening. What do you think? Is she going to be OK?’” Annable says. The fact that he doesn’t hear what he wants to from her, “doesn’t really sew anything up for Neal.”

At this point in the story, then, Neal has now seen his family endangered twice as a result of Joe’s job, and she’s made it clear to everyone that even if she quit, there would be no safety from it — plus, she has no intention of doing so in the first place.

Annable teases a big decision for Neal in the back half of the season. “The rest of the season is going to be Neal really struggling with how to deal with the new war coming home and Joe’s life, and at what point does he make the kids the priority and maybe take them away from that situation?”

Lioness, Sundays, Paramount+