What To Know
- The latest episode of Lioness saw things get deadly after Joe’s abduction.
- Here, Thad Luckinbill breaks down his character’s big decision.
The fallout from Joe’s (Zoe Saldaña) kidnapping continued in the latest episode of Lioness — with deadly consequences. Warning: Spoilers for Lioness Season 3 Episode 4, “Murder Hornets,” ahead!
The episode begins with Joe in captivity, being tortured by her Russian captor before she’s dragged kicking and screaming onto a plane.
Kaitlyn (Nicole Kidman) and Byron (Michael Kelly) then huddle with Edwin Mullen (Morgan Freeman) to discuss both strategy and the worst-case scenario. If Joe is kidnapped by Russians, they can extract intel from her about the Lioness program, which would cause feather-ruffling with allies based on their past activities; but what would really be a problem is if they turn her over to Iran, which will make a spectacle of her inevitable trial and execution.
Two Cups (James Jordan) and Bobby (Jill Wagner) track down Joe’s location at the hangar, and Kyle (Thad Luckinbill) devises a circuitous route to access it without alerting those inside. Unfortunately, what they find is not Joe but two lackeys left behind after the plane’s departure.
This is when things get ugly. Though Bobby wants to bring them in for official questioning, Kyle has his own unconventional methods. After the first new hostage proves unhelpful, he shoots him point-blank and moves on to the other, who provides the tail number of the jet and is rewarded with his life as a result.
From there, it’s a race to find the jet for the others, while Bobby immediately informs Kaitlyn of Kyle’s illegal act. Kyle defends himself by insisting no police are going to be called on this and the consequences of Joe’s capture are too consequential for Israel (if she’s nabbed by Iran) to let any stone go unturned. Ostensibly, Kate reprimands Kyle, but after the others are dismissed, she entrusts him with the job of bringing back Oleksandra (Elizaveta Neretin) for potential intel.
Kyle’s actions are just the latest example of the character going rogue throughout Lioness, and it’s also another indication that the once-fringe member of the team is becoming a central component. To unpack his deadly decision and more, TV Insider caught up with Thad Luckinbill.
Did you know before this season that Kyle would become such a big centerpiece?
Thad Luckinbill: No. All of us are always guessing, “What’s going to happen this season?”… No, I had no idea. I’m always grateful that, first of all, the fans like it because I mean, I think if they didn’t, obviously, it wouldn’t be happening. But also that Taylor [Sheridan] likes it and he keeps writing it and believes in me enough to just keep expanding the role a bit. But it’s such a great ensemble. Let’s be honest. You can’t go wrong. You could push any of these guys out to the front, and they’d shine, too. It’s a really fun show that way.
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Yeah, that’s true. But Kyle is a little bit singular in the fact that we, as an audience, still don’t fully know whether to trust him or his decision-making. So, what’s it like for you to kind of play that line where he can be a little bit sneaky?
Yeah, I mean, it’s probably the most fun character I’ve ever played, I’ll be honest with you, and because there are so many levels to it… I remember when I got the scripts, and I read it, I thought, “God.”… I remember thinking I’m going to take a little bit of this actor and a little bit of this actor, and I know Taylor, and I know his writing, obviously, and I know some of the characters he’s written. I’m like, “Oh, I remember a little bit from that, from that one,” and so I took an amalgamation of things that felt right to me. But what I don’t think I anticipated was his cavalier approach that kept me not really caring that much about [things] — I mean, caring but not caring, right? Doing things at all costs, getting the objective done at all costs. I think that’s the piece of it that evolved a little bit more from the beginning.
Yeah, it’s absolutely true, and actually, that dovetails into another question I have. There’s a scene where he’s trying to convince Kaitlyn that nothing’s going to happen, that the consequences of not killing the guy at the airport are worse than if he did. What was his motivation in that moment? Do you think he cared about Joe, or was it what he was saying, that this international crisis with Israel and Iran can spiral?
No, I think he believes that. I think part of the way this character was developed was he and Joe worked together in the past. They’ve been with the CIA a long time, and they probably worked with each other, had to call in favors, etc. etc., and then some of that was discussed in previous seasons. But he’s been doing this a long time, and I think some of the stuff they’re even discussing now paints a little bit more of a picture of what his background really is and how much experience he really has. So, I think he has a very clear understanding… of the geopolitics and the repercussions.
So, obviously, in that situation, Kyle and Joe have a very strong relationship, and he’s going to do anything and everything to get her back. But he also knows that… just like what Joe had to do in the first season, where she had to kill her own Lioness — she had to call the bombs back on her own Lioness, she knows what happens if they get her — same thing with Kyle. Kyle knows what happens if Joe falls, and they get the information because she has a wealth of knowledge that they’re going to try to extract, and it puts everybody at risk.
I like what that did to the Kaitlyn dynamic, too… His ability to spout all that out in that moment to such a big person — this is the deputy director’s direct report — and it seemed like she was saying something to the effect of, “You’re on your own if this doesn’t work out, but come with me because we’ve got to talk.” Like she was endeared to him in a way, impressed.
Yeah, well, I mean, he has a lot more clearance, as does Joe, than the QRF team does, right? So, she has to pull him aside to say, essentially, “Look, you’re right, but you did this in a way that gives us a lot of problems. Don’t do it in front of them. Don’t do it again. There are people you do this with, and you know the people you can’t do this with.” I think it was a little bit of a chastise and, “Yeah, you’re right in doing it, but you’re wrong in the way you did it and who you did it with.” … And yeah, I love working with Nicole, by the way… She’s really, really such a good actress, but it’s fun working with her in this dynamic because there’s a little bit of, she needs him, and he obviously needs her and Byron.
Lioness, Sundays, Paramount+