I Love My Country – Episode 2 begins with Joe’s (Zoe Saldana) arrival at Fort Liberty, Home Of Joint Special Operations Command. Kaitlyn Meade (Nicole Kidman) and JSOC Commander Mark Dixon (Jay Huguley) have already spent a few minutes going back and forth but things really blow up the instant Joe arrives and discovers that JSOC is intent on taking over the mission by embedding their own assets into the operation. Joe makes it clear this won’t be happening before storming off. Despite the earlier confrontation, Kaitlyn attempts to calm Joe by telling her JSOC is trying to help. She also guarantees Joe operational command but warns her that everyone is watching closely.
Before Joe returns home to prepare for her mission, she stops by the church lemonade stand to spy on Charlie (Celestina Harris) and Kylee (Alexandria Arnold). This nearly goes bad the moment a supposed customer, Aspen (Molly B. Thomas), shows up and takes an immediate liking to Charlie’s paintings. Joe races in to intervene when Aspen buys all the paintings and requests Charlie’s help hanging them in her van. Luckily, disaster is averted and it turns out that Aspen really was just a customer.
Things only get worse when Joe returns home to be confronted by Kate (Hannah Love Lanier). Joe initially tries to lie to her but then tells her that she is old enough to know the truth and proceeds to share. Despite this, something about this particular job appears to disturb Kate but Joe explains her desire to do what she does by sharing the touching story about her grandfather’s migration to the United States. Neal (Dave Annable) takes the news of the mission much better but does ask Joe to break her one rule about not talking about work. Although she tells him to stop watching the news, he accepts the answer with stride and even joins her for a pre-mission romp in the shower. Later that day, Joe spends some quality time checking and gathering equipment from her personal safe before saying her final goodbyes to the family.
Minutes later, she and Kaitlyn join their team in El Paso, Texas. It doesn’t take either of them long to realize that their accommodations are less than accommodating. Before stepping away to handle some business over the phone, Kaitlyin will ask about Kyle (Thad Luckinbill), which appears to be a shock to Joe. It’s only seconds after the mention that he and his team show up for a rather raucous reunion. Before Kyle briefs the entire team on the four major Mexican cartels, he tells Joe that he expects to be able to offer something more permanent by the end of the week. She doesn’t appear too pleased with the announcement.
As the briefing gets underway, it becomes clear that the team’s focus is the Carrillo Family and the Los Tigres Cartel because of their control of Mexico’s black market oil trade. Although Alvaro Carrillo is the current head of the cartel, it is his legally aboveboard brother Pablo who Kyle focuses on. Despite Pablo’s appearance as a lowly immigration attorney, he lives in what appears to be a mansion by anyone’s standards. The interesting part is that Pablo was active in the military and his daughter, Josephina Carrillo (Genesis Rodriguez), is a current Captain with a list of accolades that would impress anyone. The team wants to use the Carrillo Family to uncover the identity of the supposed Chinese Ministry of State Security pulling the strings. Kaitlyn briefly shares the team’s plan to use Josephina to go after her uncle with Byron Westfield (Michael Kelly) before the team moves out.
By the time Kaitlyn shows up at the White House to air out the fine details of the plan, Byron has already brought the Security Panel up to speed. Hollar (Bruce McGill) and Mason (Jennifer Ehle) will address several practical operational concerns but everyone appears to be on board with the plan, including Edwin Mullins (Morgan Freeman). With all the risks and rewards laid out, Kaitlyin and Wakefield are asked to wait outside while the Panel makes a decision. It’s merely only minutes later when they are given the all-clear to begin the mission.
Joe and her team are already on the ground in Northern Iraq when they receive the green light for Kaitylin. Despite the good news, things immediately go bad when their convoy hits an IED or mine. They’ll spend several minutes trading fire with what appears to be an entire mountainside of Jihadists before Joe radios in air assistance. The confrontation is quickly wrapped up when air support arrives.
Although Joe and her team practically walk away unscathed, three of the convoy soldiers are declared dead upon arriving at the nearest base. This does not sit well at all with Josephina and leads to a physical confrontation between her and Joe. Tucker (LaMonica Garrett) and several others end up having to intervene.
It’s merely minutes later when Josephina is called in to meet with Joe about the operation. Considering their heated exchange, this goes about as well as expected. Even more despairing are the facts that Josephina doesn’t speak Spanish and claims to not even have an uncle. Despite that, Josephina is apparently familiar with the Lioness program and the recent kidnapping of Congresswoman Hernandez (Czarina Mireles). The only problem is, that she apparently doesn’t think much of the program, but she does love her country. The episode ends abruptly with Joe asking her if she has any tattoos.
Lioness Review
To be completely honest, it’s kind of difficult to give the episode a rating because not much happened. I can say it was interesting to learn about the cartel and the team’s plan to recruit Josephina. The gunfight on the hillside and Joe’s ensuing confrontation with Josephina because of it was horrendous. It wasn’t that it was cinematically displeasing; it just didn’t feel right to me.
Josephina did not react at all like I would have expected upon hearing about her cartel uncle. I’m not sure what all that’s about yet, but it was nice to see that Joe found a good balance in her family life. As far as building the story and character development, the episode was a success. For that, I’d have to give it at the very least a 5 out of 10.
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