This post contains spoilers from Netflix's Zero Day episode 5 from this point forward.
After the unbelievable events of episode 4, including the death of Roger Carlson and the unexpected torture of Evan Green at the behest of Mullen (which has hit the news cycle), Zero Day episode 5 opens with Green being released amid a flurry of cameras and media. It's almost a month since the cyberattack, and Mullen tells Sheila not to hold back at the Oversight Committee.
Dreyer makes a move on Mitchell to take Mullen's place on the Zero Day Commission should he resign, but Mitchell has another idea: dissolve the commission altogether. Meanwhile, Roger's autopsy report has come in. He had heroin in his system, but drowning was his cause of death. Otieno also looked into those photos Roger gave the commission and they were confirmed as deep fakes.
Well, Sheila takes the stand to give her testimony, and it's airing live on television. She flips all of Dreyer's questions back on him, making sure to remind the committee that they voted for it. She's smart and quick and seemingly nothing like they expected. In spite of concerns about Proteus, Mullen attends Roger's funeral, which brings back memories of his late son's drug addiction.
When everyone disperses after the funeral, Mullen asks to open the casket and see Roger. Back at the house, Alex asks her dad when he looked, and he explains that he regretted not doing the same when Nick died and didn't want to make the same mistake. Their conversation has peaks and valleys. She seems to be touched when he apologizes and shows emotion, but she's still disappointed that he didn't listen to her about the commission.
The commission catches Leon
While sitting at his desk later that night and flipping through his notebook, Mullen sees an envelope tucked into the back marked "Boss." It's a letter from Roger that's part confession and part handing over everything he knew about Lyndon before he was killed. The commission meets and spends the night listening to the radio frequencies Roger left them. Finally, they have something.
Mullen brings their breakthrough to Mitchell, having gained access to the communications systems used by the Zero Day conspirators who also were knowledgable on the American Homestead hack. The pieces have started to come together, along with Lyndon being at the center, but they're getting closer to cracking the case. Still, Mitchell isn't impressed. She needs more, and he has a deadline.
As the commission continues to comb through the messaging, Alex and Valerie share a tense phone call. She tells Valerie that Mullen either needs to quit or brief the committee. The next day, Mullen speaks over the radio to set a trap at Roger's apartment. The commission watches from the office as they have officers on the ground ready to pounce. From the elevator, they spot their guy: Blake "Leon" Felton (Ryan Spahn). Apparently, he works for Monica Kidder via her company Panoply.
Monica Kidder blackmails Mullen
The commission's team makes their way to Monica's residence, but she's refusing their entry and live streaming on her social media platforms. She's weaponizing her own implication in this mess and dramatizing Mullen's health issues. Monica says she will only talk to Mullen and Valerie without being recorded, and when she does, she uses the paternity of Valerie's daughter Lily against them. Lily used Monica's genealogy app Kindred... and Mullen is her real father.
Monica has some severe blackmail on them to get away unscathed and avoid jail time for whatever part she'd played in Zero Day. She wants immunity in exchange for her silence about Lily. The scene outside Monica's apartment turns violent as a shooting erupts between Monica's security team and the commission's agents. Otieno gets shot (he's okay) and the team breaks in to arrest Monica.
Obviously, the shooting hits the news and Mullen gives a press conference, and he shares that they "found evidence, including signature code" that links Panoply CEO Monica Kidder to the Zero Day attack. Still, there's a lot of uncertainty with how much further this could go and how Proteus plays into it. On top of everything that's going on, Mullen tells Valerie that he wants to meet Lily.
Alex makes a desperate phone call to Dreyer telling him to "call it off." She takes a radio out of her desk and begins to dial to find the right frequency. When Mullen gets home to have dinner with Sheila, Valerie calls him with a problem: Monica hanged herself in her cell. Finding out her motives, or any information that she might have had, just got a lot harder. Her secrets died with her.
Zero Day episode 5 review
As far as penultimate episodes go, Zero Day delivers everything you want right before the series finale. Everything seems to come into view: They receive key intel from Roger from beyond the grave, they find Leon, and they discover Monica Kidder's connection to the cyberattack. But just when you think the answers are coming, there's always that unexpected twist that changes everything.
Not only did we learn the truth about Mullen and Valerie's relationship in the past — their affair resulted in a daughter, Lily, who Mullen has never met — but another shocking death prevented the easy wrap up of the case. Kidder's death came as a surprise, but at the same time, it's also not surprising. She clearly had some skeletons in her closet she didn't want to pay for.
Admittedly, I'd forgotten about Monica Kidder and wasn't expecting her to play such a big role in the commission's investigation. The show used her as this tertiary character that brought color to the political and economic landscape, but we shouldn't have put it past a tech billionaire to be dangerous. There's lots more questions to be answered in the series finale, and it's going to get messier.
Watch Zero Day only on Netflix.