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Spoiler alert: The following contains details about Zero Day.
“These are the facts, but not necessarily the truth.”
In the concluding moments of Netflix’s new political thriller Zero Day, former U.S. president George Mullen (), now a special commission investigator, delivers a powerful closing statement. This statement encapsulates the series’ central theme: the significance of truth in today’s society.
Zero Day, a six-part series created by Eric Newman (, ) and Noah Oppenheim, former president of NBC News, and directed by Emmy-winning Lesli Linka Glatter (, ), is now available for streaming. The series follows Mullen as he investigates a massive cyberattack that briefly cripples the U.S. power grid. This attack results in numerous deaths and widespread panic. Mullen races against time to prevent further attacks. However, he grapples with memory problems, auditory and visual hallucinations, leading to doubts about his judgment, both from himself and those around him.
The Zero Day finale successfully concludes the story of De Niro’s aging, once-respected leader who is called back into service by current President Evelyn Mitchell () to address an unprecedented threat. While some questions remain unanswered—viewers are left to speculate whether Mullen’s disorientation stems from early dementia or a secret neurological weapon called Proteus—the series does reveal who orchestrated the Zero Day attack and their motivations.
Who Masterminded the Zero Day Attack?
Following the arrest and apparent suicide of tech mogul Monica Kidder (Gaby Hoffmann) in the previous episode, the extent of involvement of Mullen’s daughter, Alex (Lizzy Caplan), and several of her congressional colleagues in the Zero Day plot is revealed.
During a meeting at the office of Speaker of the House Richard Dreyer (Matthew Modine), Alex admits she believed Zero Day would be a brief “system shock” that would temporarily place power in the right hands, restore faith in the government, and steer the country back on course. She claims she never intended for anyone to be harmed and pleads with the group to come forward. However, Dreyer insists that they must complete what they started.
When the power grid fails again, Mullen is forced to escape his upstate New York compound due to a threat to his safety, despite the protestors outside. Chaos and violence erupt, but CIA director Jeremy Lasch (Bill Camp) arrives in time to whisk Mullen away as reports of his death are released. Lasch explains that he and President Mitchell suspected internal government involvement in Zero Day, hence the need for an independent investigator like Mullen.
When Mullen confronts Alex at her apartment, she reveals that Kidder agreed to deploy the malware for the attack via her company Panoply’s apps only after Dreyer and his associates conceived the idea. She then begs for her father’s help.
Mullen arranges a secret meeting with Dreyer and threatens to arrest him. However, Dreyer proposes an alternative: he and the other implicated members of Congress will resign at the end of their terms. Mullen can attribute Zero Day to Kidder and shady billionaire investor Robert Lyndon (Clark Gregg), effectively ending the matter. If Mullen refuses, Alex will be implicated as well.
During the Zero Day commission’s final report to a joint session of Congress, Mullen is triggered by the song that played when he discovered his late son’s body. He deviates from his prepared remarks and speaks passionately about the importance of truth. He then reads a letter from Alex confessing her involvement and her intention to surrender.
Despite the potential personal, professional, and national repercussions, Mullen chooses to publicly identify all those responsible for the deadly Zero Day cyberattack that has destabilized America. He expresses hope that his honesty will mark the beginning of a new chapter for his deeply divided nation and unite the American people against a common threat. The ending is bittersweet, suggesting that Mullen has now lost the remainder of his family in his pursuit of “doing what was right.”
Of course, in reality, such a straightforward solution to the intense polarization of contemporary America seems unlikely. As , “The show’s extreme efforts to avoid offense, the bromides about truth and liberty it offers in lieu of more specific and potentially controversial insights, feel a bit like a betrayal of its plainspoken hero.”
