Laysla de Oliveira, the actress who plays the role of Cruz Manuelos, said there is a simple solution for all those “Lioness” fans who think that her character betrayed the team and is actually a mole leaking information to the villains following the Season 3 finale: leave it alone.
In a TikTok video, the actress who plays Cruz, a Marine-turned-operative, denied the betrayal theories.
“Come here. Come here. You guys gotta stop. You gotta stop asking me if I’m the mole, okay?” de Oliveira said in the video.
She asked whether they were even watching her character’s psychological state during the season when she, along with other members of the team, was desperately trying to find their missing leader.
“Because I don’t know if we watch the same show or not, but I. What I can say is that my girl was in shambles because she could not find Joe, okay? So let it go,” she added.
She believes that her character’s actions were obvious to the audience who followed the events in the series carefully.
“I genuinely feel like they told us, if you were watching. They told everybody to get the stuff and bring it, and she did,” she noted.
The actress revealed one of those scenes that might have proved her character’s innocence but didn’t make it into the final version of the episode.
“And let me tell you something. There was a scene where you see me put the phone and the bag. They just cut it out. There’s no, like, stop the mole allegations. Stop the mole allegations, okay?” she said.
De Oliveira confessed that the constant allegations wear on her patience.
“I’m tired. I’m tired. I’m trying to be positive, but every day I come on here, and I’m accused,” she said.
She pointed out that her character already had enough problems before entering the next season of the series.
“Like, my girl Cruz is going through enough already. We. Okay. We all know what’s coming her way with that ending, so let her just rest for a second,” she added.
Despite her frustration, de Oliveira ended the clip on an upbeat note.
“Other than that, I love you guys,” she concluded.
@laysladeo Holy Mole-y
♬ original sound – LAYSLA
The season-ending episode of this drama, called The Unraveling, aired on Sunday, September 20, 2026, and marked the end of the third season. This episode unveils Aaliyah Amrohi as a very powerful woman who organized the kidnapping of Joe McNamara. Actress Zoe Saldaña plays Joe McNamara. Aaliyah’s need for revenge on the team that killed her dad motivates her actions, which aim to lure the team, as well as Cruz, into rescuing Joe.
This revelation is directly connected to Cruz. Namely, in the first season, Cruz fell in love with Aaliyah, but had to betray her by killing her fiancé, Ehsan, and her father, Asim Amrohi, in the name of the U.S.
But the potential leak remained unaddressed until the end of the season. The finale didn’t confirm whether a traitor was inside the CIA team, but it didn’t refute the theory either. Doubts about a traitor arose at the beginning of Season 3 because of how much information the person kidnapping Joe knew.
Cruz’s controversial history in the team became a basis for these theories. Cruz ran away from the Lioness program at the end of Season 1, claiming it was Joe’s fault that she became the woman she is now.
On the other hand, the counter-argument is clear as well. As Aaliyah has been lied to, betrayed by Cruz, and her fiancé and father have been killed, she has every reason for getting revenge on Cruz and not working with her.
De Oliveira refuted these theories with harsh words, as she felt offended by these claims.
Leave Cruz the f*** alone, she said.
In addition, De Oliveira asked fans, “Are we watching the same show?” Her statements about Cruz’s future seem to refer to next season’s stakes. Cruz has been building a new life away from the Season 1 events for two whole seasons and developed a relationship with Josephina. It seems they both find themselves under fire in the finale.
Paramount+ hasn’t announced the next season of this Taylor Sheridan spy drama yet.
Social media reactions are positive, though some fans tried to defend the plot-driven theories or jokingly claimed her passion only fueled the speculation.
Here is how it looks online!
