The Lioness Season 3 Finale Leaves One Major Question Unanswered

This article contains spoilers for "Lioness" Season 3, Episode 8, "The Unravelling."

"Lioness" Season 3 pulled plot twist after plot twist before finally revealing the true mastermind of Joe McNamara's (Zoe Saldaña) kidnapping in the finale. Turns out, Stephanie Nur's Aaliyah Amrohi has been behind the events of this season, and is seeking vengeance on Joe and her entire team for the mission they carried out in Season 1. That mission ended in the violent death of Aaliyah's father, so it makes sense for her to be seeking retribution. But one thing that still remains mysterious is the identity of the mole, who has seemingly been handing over secrets to Joe's enemies for some time. Fans have been speculating as to who could be so traitorous, but for now, creator/writer Taylor Sheridan is keeping us in the dark.

Throughout Season 3, there's been talk of a mole within the United States intelligence services. In the finale episode, appropriately titled "The Unravelling," we seem to get confirmation that there is, in fact, such a double agent. The episode sees the return of Belarusian contractor Renat (Dimitry Rozental), the man who oversaw Joe's kidnapping and handoff to Iranian operative Babat (Kamyar Jahan) earlier in the season. In "The Unravelling," Renat meets the man who contracted him for the job: Russian broker Dmitri Sokolov (Gene Farber). During their brief restaurant sit-down, Renat tells Sokolov, "They have a mole," to which Sokolov replies, "I know."

That seemingly confirms that the villains have someone inside the intelligence services. But things might not be so straightforward. While the final moments of "The Unravelling" confirm that Aaliyah is to blame for the repeated attempts to kidnap Joe, we're still none the wiser as to who the mole could be, or whether there actually is one at all.

Taylor Sheridan's spy thriller series has pulled the rug out from under its viewers several times this season. After "Lioness" Season 3, Episode 6 seemed to confirm the real villain was Babat, Episode 7 switched things up, pointing to Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine (FISU) agent Oleksandra Balakin (Elizaveta Neretin) as the real big bad of Season 3. Now, the "Lioness" Season 3 finale has confirmed that Aaliyah Amrohi is actually responsible for everything, in yet another shocking twist that will surely have viewers wondering what's taking Paramount+ so long to greenlight "Lioness" Season 4. But it's not just that we all want to see how Aaliyah's next attempt to make Joe McNamara pay for her crimes plays out — we're all still wondering who's been selling out Joe and her teammates all season.

One possible explanation is that Oleksandra was working both sides all along. But with Aaliyah being revealed as the real mastermind here, the whole Ukrainian double-cross storyline doesn't make much sense anymore. What's more, the show certainly seems to be hinting at someone on Joe's side being crooked. 

In Season 3, Episode 6, "Sugar Land," for example, Dawn Olivieri's Amber Whalen advises Joe's QRF team to drive away from the home where Joe is being held captive, in a suspiciously wrong-headed move that undermined Joe's rescue. In the finale, however, Austin Hébert's Randy and Jonah Wharton's Tex are shot and Thad Luckinbill's Kyle McManus doesn't call for medics right away, an oddly specific thing for Sheridan to include. Then, Tex and Randy's QRF team member Tucker (LaMonica Garrett) visits his wounded brothers in the hospital, and seems to have a lot of questions for Randy. 

One extremely suspicious moment in the "Lioness" Season 3 finale comes via flashbacks to the Renat surveillance operation. The way the footage is cut makes it appear as though Randy didn't actually place a tracker on Dmitri Sokolov's car when he was supposed to. Is Randy the mole?

Maybe, but the possibilities are endless. Laysla De Oliveira's Cruz Manuelos has the motivation, having stormed out of the Lioness program at the end of Season 1 while blaming Joe for turning her into something she never wanted to become. Is she working with Aaliyah? Then, there's Nicole Kidman's Kaitlyn Meade and her husband, Errol Meade (Martin Donovan). Errol was the one who threw what turned out to be a red herring into the mix in Season 3, Episode 7 when he told his wife that Ukraine was most likely behind Joe's kidnapping.

Of course, the other possibility is that there is no mole at all. Renat's claim that "They have a mole" in the season finale could be in reference to Joe's abductors and not the CIA. After all, he says this line after telling Dmitri Sokolov that Joe's team worked their way backwards from Joe's ex-fil to find her, which suggests that he may be referring to someone on the abductor's side who gave the CIA information. That said, Renat was head of the abduction until Babat took over, which means Renat could only be referring to Babat's men and not his own. 

At this point, the identity of the mole is becoming almost as big a storyline in "Lioness" as Aaliyah's quest for vengeance, and Paramount needs to confirm Season 4 yesterday. In the meantime, we'll have to console ourselves with the many shows like "Lioness" that are currently available.