This post contains spoilers from Netflix's Zero Day episode 2 from this point forward.
Picking up in the revelations from episode 1, Zero Day episode 2 begins with Mullen sitting in the helicopter and thinking about the evening before in his office, scribbling in his notebook while talking to Natan. The world around him is glitching, which seems to be symbolic of his uncertain mental state. But the show must go on.
While he's in the air, someone's getting shot at after discovering dead body in a suspicious warehouse in the Bronx. Let's see how that comes into play, but Mitchell's pressing Mullen to find the truth in order to retaliate within three days. Mullen arrives at his new office and meets the team, including PR rep Melissa Kornblau (Mozhan Navabi) and Carl Otieno (McKinley Belcher III) from justice.
During the first team meeting, various members brief Mullen on what they know about the attack and how it was deployed. They're zeroing in on potential suspects, such as that unidentified man evading bullets in the Bronx and GRU officer Alexi Lebedev. The government seems to believe Russia had involvement, but Mullen isn't sure yet.
What happened to Anna Sindler?
Mullen studies his updated notes in his notebook then looks back at the "Who killed Bambi?" pages before Roger interrupts him. Sheila's worried about him, and apparently, we're writing off that snafu as "Wayne the new house manager" changing the combination on the safe. Hmmm... Interesting.
However, there's a code that spells out "Maidan" in the Cyrillic alphabet, which Mullen identifies as the Orange Revolution in Ukraine. Roger also shows him the obituary for Anna Sindler, the political writer he met with before the attack and was killed at the railroad near his home. He's skeptical about Anna's death for some reason. Roger later checks up on Anna's body at the morgue, and it's missing.
The team hits a snag while running facial recognition on the man from the Bronx warehouse as Roger meets with Robert "Bob" Lyndon (Clark Gregg), a billionaire who wants Roger to keep the Zero Day Commission investigation focused on Moscow seemingly for his own benefit. Another billionaire, Monica Kidder (Gaby Hoffmann), speaks about the commission on the news and offers her help.
President Mitchell isn't happy that she didn't find out right away about the Russian Intelligence officer at the scene of the murder in the Bronx, but Mullen still isn't sure that it's an actual smoking gun. Mullen feels the pressure from all sides, including political talking head Evan Green (Dan Stevens) who has no faith in Mullen's ability to pull off this commission.
In the middle of the night, Mullen takes pills. Are they helping or hurting him? It's no matter because Otieno's team have figured out who runner from the Bronx is. He was assigned to Tailored Access Operations, an elite offensive hacker. Things are starting to picking up, and Mullen shares with Roger that he saw Anna during the press conference. Maybe it wasn't a hallucination after all.
The commission rules out Russia
Sheila catches up with Mullen's former chief of staff Valerie Whitesell (Connie Britton) and asks her to get back into the political world to work with Mullen. Sheila worries about her husband taking this all on in a changed world without real allies like Valerie. Speaking of real allies, Dreyer stokes fear in the commission and appoints Alex to lead the oversight committee to keep an eye on the Zero Day Commission. His own daughter.
Mr. Bronx Runner shows up at a diner in White Plains and asks someone named Emma with help to get out of the country. Alexi is outside the diner keeping a closer watch on him. Evan Green spews more nonsense on the cable news while Mullen thumbs through his notebooks and hears from Sheila that Valerie is back on his side as chief of staff. Roger confronts Alex but makes no inroads in playing middle man, but it is revealed that they have a sexual relationship. (Not surprised, to be honest.)
Mullen makes a phone call and learns the name of the NSA operative: Patrick O'Keefe (Jasjit Williams). When trying to track him down, Otieno's team finds Emma, his sister. As he's preparing to leave the country via the Red Hook Terminal, both Alexi and the cops show up, but the cops get him first. While he's walking away from the scene, Alexi gets hit and killed by a truck.
Patrick tells all during his interrogation, but no one's sure whether to trust what he's saying. When Roger returns to his home, he finds the man who ran over Alexi waiting for him who insists Russia had nothing to do with the attack and someone else hired the hackers for Zero Day. He gives Roger an envelope. Mitchell was prepared to address the nation on TV and announce retaliation on Russian oil refineries, but she has to cancel when the commission verifies the domestic terrorism.
While watching Evan Green, Mullen has another memory of his phone, in which he learned of a weapon called Proteus. Roger receives a call from Sara Sindler, Anna's mother. She tells him that they buried her this morning and hangs up on him. Mullen gives a statement to the public and press and reveals that the Proteus virus from the attack was developed by the NSA, stolen, and used by the Reapers. No one's happy with his decision to share that information with the world.
Jeremy (Bill Camp) drops another bomb on Mitchell when he admits that there is government program named Proteus, but it's not what Mullen thinks it is. He hands the president a thick file marked top secret.
Zero Day episode 2 review
The second episode of Netflix's limited series Zero Day increases the stakes as Mullen continues to be questioned by those around him, including his wife and the president. Everyone seems to have a lot of hope for his ability to pull of this commission, but at the same time, no one has much faith. It's a confusing place for him to be in, but he's a compelling character who doesn't give up.
Episode 2 moved the plot forward by making large strides in the investigation and ruling out the main suspect that had been the easy target from day one. But there's still a decent amount of uncertainty about the actual truth and who's to be believed. There's clearly something there with the Proteus revelation, both from Mullen and the CIA. And Anna Sindler? Something still isn't right there!
Again, for those who enjoy the political thriller genre and this kind of slow burn mystery storytelling, you're on the edge of your seat while watching Zero Day. But if you're looking for a little more action and a little less political chess, you probably weren't as captivated by episode 2. Still, anyone who's watching can't help but need to know the whole truth.
Watch Zero Day only on Netflix.