Is Laylsa De Oliveira leaving Special Ops: Lioness? Did Cruz quit?

This weekend on Paramount+, we had a chance to see the Special Ops: Lioness season 1 finale, and we were nervous in advance for many reasons. We figured that we were going to lose some characters and even if we didn’t, it felt like the inevitable end to Cruz and Aaliyah’s story — by far the most compelling one of the past several weeks.

If there is some sort of good news to share coming out of this episode, it is that both of these women did survive. However, there are still scars. Cruz killed Aaliyah’s father and completed the mission, but at the same time, she also got made after Aaliyah’s husband-to-be was suspicious of just about every single aspect of Cruz’s presence there. Escaping for her was not easy, and the same goes for leaving Aaliyah behind. You can see how she struggled with the lies she told and where this leaves her moving into the next chapter of her life … whatever that may be.

Is Cruz really done? She told Joe that she quit and she doesn’t know how she sleeps at night. There was so much moral ambiguity with Aaliyah’s father — was he exactly who he was initially presented to be? Either way, Aaliyah would someday have to tell her children about what happened. Then, of course, there are all the geopolitical ramifications. The entire ending was a dark breakdown of morality, and a story that really hits the message home of the horrors of war. It’s also another example of Taylor Sheridan presenting something much deeper than what may appear to casual audiences on the surface.

What is so curious about this finale, in the end, is that it does leave so many possibilities open. In theory, there’s a chance that Aaliyah and Cruz could find each other again — but are they destroyed forever if they do after what happened? There is so much betrayal and pain here. This was from the start a complicated show and about complicated feelings, and this is what we were presented in the final minutes. (We at least haven’t seen anything to suggest that Laysla De Oliveira is leaving the show, so take that for what it is.)

The only thing we wish we had was more of Cruz stateside in the final minutes, as the main focus was on Kaitlyn and Joe’s lives instead.

Related – Be sure to get some more news on Special Ops: Lioness, including the chances of a season 2 down the road

What did you think about the Special Ops: Lioness season 1 finale?

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(Photo: Paramount+.)