Lioness Season 3 Episode 6 Finally Reveals The Main Villain (And It's Not Who You Think)

Spoilers ahead for "Lioness" Season 3, Episode 6, "Sugar Land."

"Lioness" continues to make a case for being the best of all of Taylor Sheridan's shows. After six episodes, Season 3 just pulled the old switcheroo — and it was a big one. Thus far, the military thriller's latest season has followed a dual timeline structure that made it appear as though Zoe Saldaña's Joe McNamara was kidnapped by Russian operatives. But Season 3, Episode 6, "Sugar Land," reveals that the Iranians have been behind her kidnapping all along. "Sugar Land" also introduces Kamyar Jahan's Babat, a mysterious and sadistic operative who's almost certainly Iranian (though the episode stops short of confirming it outright). Turns out, Babat isn't too happy about a mission Joe spearheaded back in "Lioness" Season 2, and her latest ordeal is all about revenge.

"Lioness" Season 3 follows two timelines. In one, we see Joe kidnapped and transported across the United States while her team carries out a desperate search to try to prevent her from being trafficked internationally. In the other timeline, which takes place six months prior to Joe's kidnapping, we see how she was approached by Ukrainian FISU agent Oleksandra Balakin (Elizaveta Neretin), who provided the location of a member of Russia's Special Services Department (SSD). Joe, her QRF team, and Taylor Sheridan's Cody Spears then capture the target in Ukraine, before Joe returns home. From there, two men impersonating police officers arrive at her house, and she kills them in self-defense.

All of this heavily implies that Joe was finally taken by Russians in the present timeline as revenge for having led the operation that captured the SSD member. But in "Sugar Land," we learn that Russia has little to nothing to do with Joe being taken captive.

Much of "Lioness" Season 3 is focused on the "Six months ago" storyline, in which we see Joe McNamara leading an operation to root out Russian sleeper agents in the United States. She's successful, turfing out Russian assets with a series of stings and honey pot operations that have given us some of the show's best ever moments. (James Jordan turning the tables on his own honey-potter was just great TV, especially since Taylor Sheridan usually can't help but kill Jordan in his projects.) Of course, all the while we assume that Joe's kidnapping six months later is Russia's retaliation. But Episode 6 reveals that Iran is actually behind her capture, and it all ties back to an entirely different mission from "Lioness" Season 2.

At the end of the show's second season, Joe, her team, and the U.S. military intercept a motorcade carrying Chinese scientists on Iranian soil. The scientists in question were being transported to Isfahan in order to support Iran's nuclear program, but Joe and her cohorts made sure that never happened. It seems this mission led to Joe's kidnapping in Season 3, Episode 6.

At the end of the episode, Joe is being held in a Texas safe house, where it's revealed her Belarusian handlers are merely transporting her for someone else. That someone is Babat, an Iranian who arrives at the safe house and threatens Joe with all manner of indignity before promising her an excruciating death. Not only does Babat speak Farsi, his arrival comes after Thad Luckinbill's Kyle McManus speaks with Oleksandra Balakin, who tells him that Iran has a vengeful foreign policy and the resources to carry out Joe's abduction. Babat is almost certainly doing just that.

So far, "Lioness" Season 3 has been a brilliant departure for the series, focusing more on spy craft and political intrigue and reinvigorating the show in the process. It proves that Taylor Sheridan's thriller series is much more versatile than its first season suggested (let's hope when Sheridan leaves Paramount, we still get more "Lioness"). The dual timeline approach also sets this latest season apart from those before it, which mostly stuck to linear narratives. While it can be frustrating at times to flash back to an earlier timeline just as Joe McNamara 's team close in on her location, both storylines have been consistently compelling. Now, we know Sheridan was using that same dual timelines to pull the wool over our eyes as well.

All along, we were being tricked into thinking that the earlier timeline was setting up Joe's eventual capture by Russian forces, when, in reality, she's experiencing retaliation for a mission from the prior season. Not only does that add a sense of continuity to the series, it reinforces the idea that Joe's international exploits don't come without consequences, which opens the door to yet more callbacks and potential retaliation from other aggrieved parties in future.

Remember the mission from Season 1, wherein Joe and her Lioness, Cruz Manuelos (Laysla De Oliveira) killed an Iraqi terrorist financier on the eve of his daughter's wedding? Remember how close Cruz and the daughter, Aaliyah Amrohi (Stephanie Nur), became? There was never any reckoning following Cruz's killing of her father. Could we see Aaliyah take revenge of her own in future? It's exciting to think about. For now, however, Joe remains captive, and we're all just waiting for Babat to receive a fate worse than the one he promised Joe.