#special ops: lioness spoilers

[caliphoria17]

“Come here.”

Aaliyah x Cruz

[cloudsonclouds]

OH NO! She got her charm from her father!

[comic-book-jawns]

Cruz & Aaliyah || “Wish the Fight Away”

Special Ops: Lioness 1.07

[booasaur]

Special Ops: Lioness - 1x07

[aliliebert]

[sapphic-bombshell-vixen]

take me to aaliyah or take me to the fucking airport.

[hoooebot]

they are hiding Cruz from all these season 2 stills and even the trailer, her season 2 arc must be big. but still, I spot her in these 2 scenes.

looks like joe's shady ass is about to gaslight her back to the mission in Mexico since all the other gringos in the QRF can not .

good to know she still hates joe (as she should! yas queen, pull your gun out with your strong arms and point as joe

[alphacentaurinebula]

Small break from regularly scheduled good omens content because I finally watched the end of Lioness and like…come on. I knew it was a crap show the whole time I was watching it, but like…fucking hell.

In aid of anyone who like…doesn’t want to write bad stories, here are many of the things lioness did wrong. Please look away if you liked this show I’m not here to spoil anyone’s fun. Full spoilers below the cut.

- almost every single plot strand outside the main secret agent infiltration narrative was totally random and completely external, rather than grown from character or existing story. Not enough CIA shooting in this ep? Oh, your team has been borrowed for an illegal mission on US soil. Natural family angst not at a high enough level? Ah, daughter’s in a deadly car accident with people we’ve never seen or heard of and won’t again. Oh, and she’s randomly pregnant at 14! Cool cool cool. But it’s ok cuz god gives her an abortion

- the plot REGULARLY made no sense and the characters couldn't employ logic if it slapped them in the face. Like, someone explain to me why AFTER you have already run an insertion op to start the embedding process for your asset - thus meaning that the mark could contact her at ANY POINT - you decide THAT is the moment when you should fake abduct her, beat her up enormously, including on her face. Like, if it had been a ploy to get Aaliyah's sympathy that would have been one thing, but they 100% hadn't thought it through at all. These are supposed to be crack agents???

- they had a central moral quandary but they didn’t understand what it was or what they were trying to say. Was it about how money is all that counts and rich people are gonna rich no matter who you kill (eg all the weird dialogue with Nicole Kidman's husband)? Was it that fighting terrorism with terrorism is ineffective and pointless and cruel (literally one single conversation between Joe and Cruz at the end)? Is it that trying to have it all as a woman is not possible when you’re a super secret agent (I think this one was unintentional consequence of super clichéd writing tbh)? Was it that any problem can be solved with enough shooty fighty (prob the most evidence for this one)? The show certainly doesn't know, so how could I?

- the show was BAD at writing queer women. Like, ok, it was hot, and aaliyah and cruz had interesting potential. But there were these moments that rang SO false. Like...after Cruz runs from the hotel room after sleeping with Aaliyah, Joe heads off to meet her. She grabs Bobby and says, let's go. I literally was like, oh, finally, Bobby will talk some lesbian sense into Cruz. But Bobby was just like...there to drive the main character to the hotel?? You have a canonically queer woman and another going through extreme queer angst and you just...don't put them in the same room?

- the politics. Like, Ok. I know it's paramount plus. I know it's the same guy who did Yellowstone. I know it's US propaganda, and copaganda, and like every ganda that's known to humankind. I know it's not overtly antiabortion but also kind of is, I know it has a THING about the way it writes woman (like..did Joe really seem the type to have kids to anyone?? Are women EVER allowed to be strong and badass without a rape backstory AND an abuse backstory?). It's all terrible. But fine, whatever I sort of signed up for it. I knew from the first five minutes that this was going to be America Rah Rah Shootytime, and tbh I knew from the posters. But the thing that really pissed me off in the end? The like absolutely random and unnecessary barbs at climate change. There were just a few moments but it basically made out like the politicians wanted to keep this 'terrorist' alive because he was artificially inflating the price of oil and they're trying to 'wean the country off fossil fuels'. Like, REALLY? We don't have enough conspiracy theories? Fucksake.

And finally - the ending. After all the moral questioning about whether she can kill Aaliyah's father or not, Cruz's hand is forced and she ends up having to kill or be killed, which is an utter cop out. She also does not go back for Aaliyah. I'm sorry. That is some bullshit. I just don't buy it. I mean the whole plan was super dumb - literally, it really made zero sense - but was Cruz really happy to put Aaliyah in jeopardy that way? She is the one who brought this killer into the house - does Cruz really think she is safe? And given everything Aaliyah was saying about how little she wanted that life, wouldn't Cruz have offered her the chance to run with her? I dunno. Obviously not all lesbian stories have to be happy. But that one was just DUMB.

Ok, thus ends my rant on the narrative shortcomings of a terrible show that I watched because...lesbians. Anyway. I hope you either enjoyed the show, or enjoyed the rant!

[whatimdoing-here]

Excuse me wait that's the end of the episode?!?!?

[caliphoria17]

HOLY MOTHER OF—

[mysweetsinfulobsessions]

Jo trying to convince Cruz everything she feels isn't real

Spoiler: Cruz isn't pretending, and neither is Aaliyah

"I don't think she's [Aaliyah] pretending." - Cruz Manuelos

Special Ops: Lioness

[theothergaycousin]

SPOILERS for random thoughts about Special Ops: Lioness Ep7

- lust/want on point between Aaliyah and Cruz;

- kind of a doomed ship but at least the characterization was very VERY well done;

- the fact that Cruz was a hardened person who never knew genuine love and affection and suddenly during the hardest mission in the military she has the luck (or misfortune…) to actually experience it for the first time but it’s the target’s daughter FUCK ME;

- it’s as bittersweet as Fingersmith that’s what it is - I hope they pull an ending like the original movie, that’d be grand;

-the hilarious thing is that I’m not sad it’s a doomed ship, I’m mad because they had the chance to put JOE listening in on them having sex but instead chose the dudebro to do it - I would’ve paid MONEY to see her expressions during the whole thing.

[booasaur]

Special Ops: Lioness - Aaliyah wanting to see Cruz's face

[realjediverse]

Spoiler Free Special Ops: Lioness Review!

Special Ops: Lioness is a new Paramount+ series created by Taylor Sheridan. It stars Zoe Saldaña as Joe, a CIA officer who recruits a young Muslim woman, Jaslene “Jazz” Cruz (Lyndie Greenwood), to become a covert operative. The show follows Jazz as she undergoes rigorous training and then goes on her first mission to infiltrate a terrorist cell. The show has received mixed reviews. Some critics…

[caliphoria17]

“I just want to feel loved one last time.”

Aaliyah x Cruz