Zoe Saldaña’s Lioness spy character’s fate revealed

Zoe Saldaña’s Joe McNamara has survived her most brutal Lioness ordeal yet.

The 48-year-old actress returned to the centre of the action in Sunday’s (13.09.26) seventh episode of the third season of Taylor Sheridan’s Paramount+ espionage thriller, and it saw her character escaping her kidnappers after being tortured and held hostage before immediately resisting calls to step away from the field.

Joe’s fate had been left hanging after she was abducted and tortured, prompting her CIA colleagues to launch a desperate search before her captors could move her out of the country.

After Joe is finally reunited with Cruz Manuelos, played by Laysla De Oliveira, she tells her: “I guess I owe you now.”

Joe’s escape begins when police stop the vehicle in which she is being transported.

As officers approach, a shootout erupts and the still-handcuffed Joe manages to grab a gun, shoot several of her captors and flee.

Her team eventually reaches her and she is carried to safety barefoot and injured before being taken aboard a helicopter.

Joe is told she requires urgent surgery at Walter Reed in an attempt to save her badly injured toe, but immediately objects.

Joe argues her toe is already gone and “can’t get any worse”, only for Two Cups, played by James Jordan, to warn her an infection could ultimately threaten more of her leg.

He tells her: “Your family’s waited this long. They’ll wait another day.”

Joe also discovers the lengths to which her colleagues went to find her, with Two Cups explaining Kyle McManus, played by Thad Luckinbill, 51, “went to war” for her and was instrumental in tracking her down.

As the immediate danger passes, Two Cups admits he had doubted whether the team would find Joe alive.

He tells her: “I gotta be honest with you, Joe. I didn’t think we were gonna find you.”

The pair then share a drink as Joe chooses the “s*** whiskey” over the “s*** vodka” and their conversation turns towards the husband and daughters waiting for her at home.