Zero Day (2025) s01e05 Episode Script

Evan Green has been released,
but he should never have been detained.
What was done to him on behalf
of the United States government
was unlawful, unethical, and inhumane.
George Mullen's overreach now threatens
to eclipse the very terrorism
it was entrusted to stop.
And are we any safer for it?
I don't think so.
Because inside this building,
my client was nowhere near safe.
I just want to go home.
Are you gonna sue?
Oh, hey.
I was just thinking about Nick trying to
do that stupid trick on his skateboard
from outside my office window in Albany.
He kept falling over and over,
and he just couldn't get it.
And then finally, he did.
And I was gonna go outside
and tell him, "Nice job, kid."
"Way to go. Keep at it."
But the phones were ringing or something.
We were working on the budget, I think.
I don't even remember.
And that was it. I never had the
chance to say anything to him about it.
- Don't do this. Don't do it.
- I
Yeah. Today, in front
of the Oversight Committee,
you can't hold back.
I don't want you defending me
or the commission.
I
I thought, whatever was happening,
I I just could stay ahead of it.
Well, maybe I was wrong.
I think Roger knew that.
But he could never say no to me.
I just couldn't walk away again.
I just couldn't do that.
That would've just made things worse.
Why didn't you tell me
what you were going through?
I don't know.
I don't know.
- Mr. Speaker.
- Madam President.
The Russians and the Chinese
are certainly having a field day.
Mullen's coming in day after tomorrow.
To resign, I hope.
Hasn't exactly been predictable,
but I would think so.
Sheila Mullen's testimony today
should guarantee it.
Quite the stunt.
If his own wife doesn't support him,
and if she still hopes
to be confirmed to the bench,
there's no way she can,
neither will the public.
Madam President, I'm not proud of this.
But even you have to admit
a mistake was made in choosing Mullen,
and it's not too late to correct it.
We need to reclaim
the commission's integrity.
In the right hands, it's still the best
and fastest way to find those responsible.
In your hands, you mean?
I have, once again, secured enough
bipartisan support to be named its head.
Mullen resigns on Monday.
I can be sworn in on Tuesday.
Or together, we can make an appeal
to call for its immediate dissolution.
Call it what it was,
an error born in the aftermath
of collective trauma.
With all due respect, Madam President,
you do not have the political capital
to put this genie back in the bottle.
The people want answers. I'm the
only one that can give them to 'em.
Says the man already running against me?
We received in
a written statement released today
shocking reports
that enhanced interrogation techniques
were used on television personality
Evan Green,
who likened his experience
to those of political prisoners,
tortured and humiliated
at CIA black sites.
These allegations against
the Zero Day commission
have been met
with international condemnation.
Evan Green himself remained unusually
silent following his release earlier
Our work to find those
responsible for this attack continues.
As I said before,
Mullen remains head of the commission.
No, we have no comment on that.
Any update from the medical examiner?
The official cause of
death was drowning,
but he had heroin in his bloodstream,
which has a pretty short half-life.
He must have passed out in the tub
right after taking it.
What's the status of the detainees?
All released,
though three were charged with crimes
unrelated to the terror attack.
Uh, identity fraud,
cryptojacking,
data theft.
You hear from the boss?
Nope.
If nothing else,
deterrence worked, right?
Hasn't been another attack.
Do you solemnly swear
that the testimony you're about to give
will be the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth,
so help you God?
I do.
- Morning, sir.
- Morning.
Autopsy report, sir.
It's moot at this point,
but in reexamining the photos
that Roger provided the commission,
our experts are now saying
they're deep fakes,
the most technically sophisticated
they've ever encountered,
but fakes, nonetheless.
Anyone could have fallen for it.
- Sir?
- Give me a minute.
Hi, everyone.
Nothing has changed, all right?
This is still an active investigation,
and your responsibility, as always,
has been to the American people,
not to me.
Our country was attacked,
and whoever did this
has threatened to do so again.
It's your job, it's your duty
to keep that from happening.
Thank you.
Sir, it's starting.
Okay.
Is it your opinion that the suspension
of civil liberties is constitutional?
It's not without precedent.
During the Civil War,
Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus
with Proclamation 104,
and more recently, FDR did it
with EO 9066 during World War II.
Both presidents were in office
at the time, and as you stated,
both were in the middle of a war.
I think you'd agree the definition of
war has expanded quite a bit since then.
After 9/11,
the War on Terror was proclaimed.
The Patriot Act was passed.
Good, bad, or otherwise,
many of its provisions remain law today.
Do you support the Patriot Act?
The job of a judge
is to interpret the law,
not support or oppose it.
Torture is prohibited by Section 2340A,
Title 18 of the United States Code.
Did you have a question,
or was that just for my own edification?
Ma'am, did your husband break the law?
I can only surmise you're referring
to allegations being made in the press
and not yet proven in court.
Torture is illegal.
Of course, if memory serves,
you voted against the law to ban
enhanced interrogation techniques,
you didn't speak out when the NSA
was conducting warrantless surveillance,
and you voted to expand
the authority of military commissions
to hold detainees at Gitmo forever.
So, whatever the commission
is alleged to have done,
it sounds rather consistent
with your own past record,
Mr. Speaker.
How would you describe
your husband's state of mind?
Sound.
How sound?
Given what's happened to this country
and what we've done to ourselves,
how sound is yours?
Are you comfortable with the level of
power President Mullen has been given?
Key word is "given."
He neither asked for
nor wanted this appointment.
Fine, then should he have accepted it?
Well, the Founding Fathers never
intended anyone to have the sort of power
Congress bestowed on my husband,
and the burden of that responsibility
is his alone to bear.
But I would suggest that the members
of this Oversight Committee,
all of whom voted in favor of
the commission and its expansive powers,
take a hard look
at themselves in the mirror.
I may be George Mullen's wife,
but it's all of you
who are his partners in this endeavor.
The House Oversight Committee would
like to declare a ten-minute recess.
Thank you.
Beltway types are weighing in.
I'm seeing some criticisms,
but mostly positive.
Principled stances,
knows her stuff, formidable and feisty.
I think she's coming off well.
Guys, can we have a sec?
I do wonder if it's wise for you
to go to this funeral tomorrow,
in such a public setting,
with the possibility of
- Proteus.
- We could secure the perimeter, but
Look, whoever they are
and whatever they're trying to do,
they've done it already.
I'm not gonna miss the funeral.
I came into this with Roger.
It's only fitting I go out with him too.
They shall grow not old
As we that are left grow old
Age shall not weary them
Nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun
And in the morning
We will remember them
But where our desires are
And our hopes profound
Felt as a wellspring
That is a well-hidden sight
To the innermost heart
Of their own land
Moving in marches
upon the heavenly plain
Moving in marches
Upon the heavenly plain
As the stars that are
starry in the time
- You all right?
- our darkness
You okay?
To the end, to the end
They remain
Why don't you come by the house?
Spend some time with us?
Just for a little while, though.
Okay? I don't
What is he doing?
Why did you ask
to see him at the cemetery?
Because I didn't ask
to see your brother when he passed.
I always wished I had, and I didn't want
to make the same mistake with Roger.
I didn't want to regret that.
But you didn't cry either
at at Nick's funeral.
It was hard not to,
but with everything going on,
with the press and everything,
it just, you know
It just didn't feel like the right thing
to do, that I had a choice.
They were all choices.
And none were easy.
But you were right.
I signed up for this.
All of it.
Uh, to be judged, to be misjudged
because I believed in this work.
I believed in what I'm doing.
And you like the applause.
- I don't
- Oh, you don't like the applause?
- You don't like the crowd?
- Come on.
The prophet is never without honor
except in his own home.
Right. And you're still the prophet.
I know you paid a price for
my decisions. You all have.
Your mother
Your brother, losing him
to drugs.
Suicide.
- He committed suicide. That is
- No, he didn't.
You don't know that.
None of us do. He OD'd.
You may think he killed himself,
but that, there's no proof of that.
- And I didn't see anything.
- No shit, you didn't see anything.
Well, I didn't,
and neither did your mother.
I tried my best.
I tried to do it better with Roger.
I know you loved
him, for a time at least.
Longer than you think.
I'm sorry I disappointed you.
In a lot of ways, I'm sorry.
I'd list them all, but I'd probably
make it worse by leaving out something.
Twenty-four days in, and we still
don't know who's behind all this.
You should have just stayed here.
You should've stayed here
and finished your memoir.
I did tell you to do that.
I said this was a mistake.
- You did.
- Yeah, I did.
I just wish that, for once,
you would have listened to me.
"I just wanted you to know."
That's it.
That's his only personal comment.
And he left it there so I could find it.
It's a confession and a leg up.
Those offshore deposits that were found.
Most likely from his client, Bob Lyndon.
The hedge fund guy.
And frequent Evan Green target.
Yeah, Lyndon supplied the photos.
Roger passed them on to us.
To shut Green up?
Or fuck us up.
Might've been a little bit of both.
He started transcribing the traffic
on a long-range AM radio.
Apparently, Lyndon had one on his boat.
And the Reapers at their farm.
Only way to avoid the government's
pervasive surveillance of digital comms
is to go full analog.
Well, most of what he heard was in code.
But he recognized a phrase
that Lyndon had said to him once.
"People are always looking
for constellations in the stars."
Lyndon is Tyron44.
Call him whatever you want.
With Lyndon's resources, he's a ghost.
Battery's already in.
What was the frequency
Roger was listening on?
There.
Delta 3-5-1.
Red Rooster. Golf Zulu.
Confirm.
Roger listened to dozens
of voices on this channel.
Lyndon may be part of Zero Day,
but not the only part.
And my guess, nowhere near the biggest.
And whatever they're talking about,
we need to break the code.
I'll bring in a cryptologist.
Let's find some more long-range radios.
Okay. Nobody goes home tonight.
Delta 3-5-1. Golf Zulu. Confirm.
Holy shit.
Look, they scrambled the alphabet before
they started moving the letters forward.
Transcript from the first day
of the Homestead attack.
Xray Victor Oscar Foxtrot equals bank.
And after midnight,
it's Yankee Whiskey Papa Golf.
One-digit rotation
after every day that passes.
A phonetic alphabet gets us location.
Numbers get us dates and times.
And the rest?
Uh, small talk, lots of it.
But it's definitely them.
We got 'em.
You got everything?
Hard copy, laptop if you'd rather.
How're you feeling?
Never fucking better.
A major breakthrough.
Last night, we were able to gain access
to a communications system
used by the Zero Day conspirators.
As you'll see in the report,
these conspirators had knowledge
of the American Homestead hack
before it was made public,
an attack they term
a copycat version of their own.
They also referenced a setback
at a set of coordinates
that matches the location
of the Reaper farm we raided.
Where, incidentally,
we also found a long-range radio.
Have you identified
any of the people speaking?
We know Robert Lyndon was involved,
but, unfortunately, he's disappeared.
He was just one part of it, but we're
about to break the whole thing open.
Look.
I'm not going to deny
the significance of these findings,
but after all that's happened,
significant doesn't cut it.
We need decisive.
The expectation on the Hill,
which I've all but promised to fulfill,
is that I will have
your resignation by end of day,
with Speaker Dreyer being sworn in
as head of the commission
by this time tomorrow.
That all said, I wouldn't be sitting
here if I gave a damn about expectations.
If you really are getting close,
whoever we're up against
is only going to fight back harder.
Nail this down, George, quickly.
Madam President.
- Hello.
- Your father's not quitting.
And for some reason,
Mitchell's giving him another 24 hours.
Um, right. Okay.
Talk to me.
Every call sign, the other call signs
they've communicated with,
how often, and when.
Red Rooster does a lot of talking.
Regularly scheduled contact
with Blue Hawk, which Rooster generates.
Underling reporting to his superior.
Stay of execution, but it's temporary.
Dreyer takes over at midday tomorrow.
Reporting to Blue Hawk.
Confirm Red Rooster.
He's prompt, I'll give him that.
Hotel Alpha Bravo Bravo Golf
- Dobbs, you getting this?
- Yeah, putting it up now.
- Confirm Blue Hawk.
- No change. Golf Echo India.
India Whiskey Whiskey India
November November Lima India
Hotel Hotel Tango.
Quit?
Unclear.
Any idea who Emmett Kelly is?
Yeah, a sad clown, famous in the '40s.
They're talking about me.
- Miss Whitesell? It's her again.
- Excuse me.
Thank you.
Hello?
Jesus, did I ask for you?
Listen, I have left several messages.
I need to speak with him.
We're at a crucial point
in the investigation
Okay, well,
then you need to brief me on it
because the committee
hasn't heard shit from you guys
since you started torturing people.
Is that why you're calling,
on behalf of the Oversight Committee?
Maybe. Or maybe
I'm just concerned about my dad.
Or maybe it's none
of your goddamn business, Valerie.
Look, he's spiraling, okay?
He's grasping at straws
to spare his own ego.
No, he's not, Alexandra.
God, you're encouraging him,
aren't you?
Of course, it must be a dream come true,
the two of you,
a little team fighting crime together.
How fucking romantic.
Okay, you tell him this.
He either needs to quit before he
does any more damage to himself
and the commission,
or he needs to brief the committee
on the lead he's following.
I will let him know you called.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
Mr. President. Valerie.
All the voices on this channel
are disguised.
We have a modulator,
so we think we can pose as Lyndon
to set a rendezvous
with one of the other conspirators.
How do we know Lyndon's
not gonna be on there?
Well, Lyndon's gone dark,
so it might be a good time
to take that chance.
Sir.
Tell me when.
And go.
Reporting to Blue Hawk.
Confirm Tyron44.
Confirm Blue Hawk. Echo Golf Kilo.
Lima Roger Lima. There may be an issue.
Come again?
My guy left a mess
that needs to be cleaned.
Documents,
stuff we don't want lying around.
Your guy? Gekko?
The "Greed is good"
guy from Wall Street.
- It has to be Roger.
- Yes.
Yes, Gekko.
Sounds like your problem.
Fuck you, "my problem."
My problem is your problem.
Fix it.
Location?
To your right, sir.
Two-Zero-Zero Charlie Xray Lima
Oscar Juliet
Yankee Bravo Charlie Xray
Victor Uniform Hotel.
Blue Hawk. Copy.
Get a team over to Roger's apartment.
Let's get this son of a bitch.
Yes, sir.
- Time?
- They're late.
Two hours till Dreyer's sworn in.
You don't think
he'd pick up the torch on this?
Maybe, but it's my torch.
And Roger might have died for it.
We've got someone.
That's gotta be him.
Yep, 54th floor.
All right, that's a clear shot.
- Run him through the system.
- On it.
- And facial recognition just hit.
- Let me get in here.
Blake Felton.
Multiple addresses.
Long history in the tech sector.
NetRespective. Rodbell Technology.
- I've never heard of any of these.
- Wait, hold on. I know that company.
Monica acquired NetRespective
a few years ago
and then absorbed it into Panoply.
So he works for Kidder.
Bring this guy in.
Hands up! Don't move!
- Don't move!
- Okay.
I won't. I'm sorry. I'm getting down.
We should have enough
for a search warrant on Kidder.
Yeah, we don't have much time.
And I want you on the ground, Carl.
- This time, we do it by the book.
- Yes, sir.
Carl Otieno, Zero Day Commission.
We have a search warrant.
Private property, sir.
You'll save yourself the trouble of
an arrest by just cooperating with us.
- Afraid you can't do that.
- Ask him if Kidder knows.
Has your employee
been notified of our presence?
She knows you're here.
Then open the gate.
Is the feed up yet?
Yes, ma'am.
Get them on the line.
Zulu 7-3-0-1, Athena, confirm.
The whole world already thinks
Mullen's a fascist?
Zulu 7-3-0-1, Athena, come in.
Let's let 'em see it.
You're aware
we don't actually need this warrant.
We'll come in by force if we have to.
It's up to you if you open that gate
and bring Kidder out.
- Take a look at this.
- We can handle this peacefully.
Kidder's live-streaming
on multiple platforms.
What's she saying?
Stand by.
America, what you are about to see
is an act of desperation.
But George Mullen
isn't just a desperate man.
He is a dangerous one.
Now, I'm no fan of Evan Green,
but let's be clear.
What happened to him was criminal.
I've got the resources to resist,
but what if it happens to you?
You cannot let it.
Call your senators.
Call your congresspeople
before they come to where you live
with their guns drawn
and their jackbooted thugs
ready to storm your property
What is she doing?
Daring me to go Waco on her
while the world watches.
- Networks are picking it up.
- when you see this, it is not right.
But it is also not normal.
There have been rumors
of George Mullen's mental health issues
that may have played a part in his
decision not to seek a second term.
I get it. His son died.
He was depressed.
But from what I have seen recently,
I think it is clear
that something else was going on.
Have them put Kidder
on the phone with you.
- Anything?
- Not yet.
- What about the backup comms?
- Front gate called.
- Guy from commission wants to talk to you.
- Nothing on backup comms either.
These assholes have to know
what's going on.
They're cutting me loose.
Miss Kidder, my name is Carl Otieno.
I'm speaking with you on behalf
of the Zero Day Commission.
We have a lawful warrant,
and we're asking again
for you to grant us
- It's like literally no one's there.
- Give me the radio.
I know you can hear me.
You motherfuckers, I
know you can hear me.
Pick up the goddamn radio.
I'm willing to talk. But only to
Mullen and Valerie Whitesell.
Excuse me?
Just the three of us.
No one in the room. No recording.
Trust me, they'll want it that way too.
Y'all hearing this?
Miss Kidder, George Mullen.
Yes.
I would advise you
to cooperate with the federal agents
surrounding your compound.
Give me guaranteed immunity first.
We have Blake Felton in custody.
Calls himself Leon.
Why would I give you immunity?
Well, there is a lot
that Leon doesn't know, sir.
I'm sorry, I can't do that.
I am not going to prison.
You need to be held accountable
for the things that you've done.
What about the things you've done?
Any accountability for that?
Is she there? Valerie?
Yes, I'm here.
Hello, Valerie.
I'm sure you're aware
that I own dozens of apps,
but you might not realize
that one of them is Kindred,
a DNA-based genealogy search engine.
We recently had a fascinating submission
from your daughter, Lily.
Seems she's interested
in her family tree.
God. Imagine being
12 years old and finding out
that George Mullen
has been a part of it this entire time.
Just nobody mentioned it.
But really, what I wonder about is
what will the country think
when they find out
that everybody's favorite president
fathered a love child while in office
and then lied about it?
Your credibility's already shot, Mullen.
But this?
Give me guaranteed immunity.
No one will ever know, not even Lily.
Think about it.
Oh fuck. She's gonna think
I've been lying to her her whole life.
I've been lying to her her whole life.
- I never asked you to say anything.
- I know you didn't.
I did it. I took responsibility.
Because I wanted her
to have a normal life.
Valerie, don't
I shouldn't have come back here to you.
This is, you know
I I forgot the the cost of this.
What's going on?
They still on?
Call's over,
but Mullen and Valerie haven't come out.
Then what are we doing?
Shots fired! Shots fired!
- What the hell?
- Who fired?
I don't know. It wasn't us.
- Anybody got eyes on the shooter?
- Negative.
Are they coming in?
Don't let them through.
Yes, sir. Engaging.
No!
Don't engage. Stop firing.
The rooftop! The rooftop!
Somebody help him!
Hands! Hands up!
Let me see your hands right now!
Hands! Hands up!
- On your knees! Hands!
- Don't move!
Here we can see a shootout
between the Zero Day Commission's federal
agents and Kidder's security team.
Multiple fatalities reported,
and a number of individuals
suffered injuries,
with one member of the commission
in critical but stable condition.
Our sources remain unclear
on the reasoning
behind the commission's
attempted siege on Kidder's property,
but we can only surmise
that the commission
must have finally made
an investigatory breakthrough,
one that seems to have led them
straight to Monica Kidder.
Earlier today, in our execution
of a search warrant at a property
owned by tech giant Panoply,
commission agents found evidence,
including signature code,
directly linking its CEO, Monica Kidder,
to the malware attack that in
one minute took over 3,400 lives,
hurt and disrupted thousands of others,
and brought our country to its knees.
As of this moment, we have
as many questions as we do answers
about Kidder, her
motives, and the details
of how she planned
and perpetrated this attack.
There is still much work to be done,
but we know one thing.
The American people are safer tonight.
I'll let our communications director,
Melissa Kornblau, fill you in on the rest.
Thank you.
Thank you, President Mullen.
Monica Kidder's arrest today
was a landmark achievement
for the Zero Day Commission.
Now, we are still in the dark
as to her exact motives,
but the evidence is clear.
The malware used in the Zero Day attack
was acquired and deployed
by Monica Kidder,
which places her and
her company, Panoply,
at the center
of our ongoing investigation.
Yes.
Agreed.
I'm going to New York.
Carl's in recovery.
He has to be in the ICU for a few days
but they say the surgery went well,
and he's gonna be okay.
Good. Glad to hear that.
I don't think it stops with her, Kidder.
At the house, it's like she was
waiting for someone to come save her.
And And what about Proteus?
If she's using it on me, where is it?
We did a full sweep on the compound,
her offices, there was nothing. Nothing.
Honestly, we don't
even know if it exists.
It's been an exhausting 48 hours.
I think you should get some rest.
Just make arrangements for me to talk
to Kidder myself first thing tomorrow.
Okay.
Valerie.
After this is all over, really over,
I want to meet her.
Lily.
Sure.
Excuse me.
I need to see you. He's
- Not on the phone.
- You need to call this off.
Okay, this was a mistake.
All of it, I need you to call it off.
Not on the phone, Alex.
I said call it off.
If you want to discuss
this, you know how.
In a press conference earlier tonight,
President Mullen announced that
the commission has uncovered evidence
directly linking Kidder to the malware
that enabled the Zero Day attack.
Mullen did not offer any speculation
as to Kidder's potential motives.
Which leads you to wonder,
why would this wildly
accomplished businesswoman
make such a horrific attack
against the country
that's brought her such success?
Many are now speculating that
the attack could have been a reaction
to the Federal Trade Commission's
recent targeting of Panoply
in an antitrust investigation.
Wasn't sure if you'd be
coming home tonight.
I guess I'll know more
when I can talk to Kidder.
It's amazing how powerful
these tech types have become.
Yeah, well, I would have guessed she was
too smart to take this kind of a gamble.
Yeah.
- You hungry?
- Yeah.
I I didn't get to tell you,
but I saw your testimony.
You were terrific.
I'm so proud of you.
But I'm not surprised. I'm sure
you'll get the nod when the time comes.
I'm lucky to have you.
Hello?
We got a problem.
When did you check on her last?
- A few hours ago.
- And the cameras?
Looks like somebody looped the feed.