IR TV Review: SPECIAL OPS - LIONESS - EPISODE 5 (“Truth Is The Shrewdest Lie”) [Paramount+]

While the last episode of "Special Ops: Lioness" created many right beats to show the trauma and mistakes that can come out of any given op, Episode 5: "Truth Is The Shrewdest Lie" shows more the consequence and fallout of those actions. After Jo's daughter is hurt in a car crash, she travels back between an op with Kaitlyn (Nicole Kidman) to see her. The context is what makes it work. Like her husband's talk with their daughter the time before it has resonance like with Neil [David Annable). But again Annable as Neil gets one of the better scenes in the episode; a quiet one with Kidman which says so much about what they know about what their roles are respectively. It is subtle and quiet.

In this way, the last two episodes moved away from Cruz (Laysla De Oliveira) though it is her story creating the plot push. The firestorm and impending mission that ends the episode is a needs to an end to reset in a way what had happened before (and to create a tension on support on a bigger scale for upcoming ops). The bigger baddie simmers in the background, which is good for these types of series because you have to care what they go through before they have to truly act ("1923" did this with the Sutton romance in Africa). It would be nice to see more of Bobby [Jill Wagner] who is simply part of the action team but her diametric with Cruz going forward in the field is an interesting wild card. B

By Tim Wassberg