Zero Day

Warning : spoiler ahead forZero solar day , as well as references to drug addiction and self-annihilation . Robert De Niro ’s first major telecasting show , Zero Dayputs the actor in the role of former US President of the United States George Mullen , who ’s tasked with investigating a pernicious cyber attack on the land . Throughout the series , Mullen is tag by images and strait that seem to indicate some past injury he ’s still ghost by . Indeed , he is . Mullen is wrack by unresolved grief and guilt over the death of his teenage Word , Nick . It is n’t straightaway clear inZero Dayhow Nick Mullen drop dead . We only know that it took berth before the events of the Netflix show .

However , as the stories ofZero Day’scharacterscontinue , Mullen experiences flashbacks that reveal the details of what happened to his boy . It becomes increasingly clear that many of his actions inZero Dayare part actuate by the feelings he is still processing in carnal knowledge to Nick . George Mullen ’s personal and loyal motives become entangled , as they often do in thebest political thriller . As the commission point by De Niro ’s character comes under increasing pressure from all guidance guide up toZero Day’sending , it becomes exonerated that problem from Mullen ’s kinfolk life are interfering with an investigation on which the safety of his land depends .

George Mullen’s Son, Nick, Died When He Was Still In Office

Mullen Then Gave Up His Chance Of Reelection And Stood Down As President

In one ofZero Day ’s first picture , we read that George Mullen ’s Word , Nick , died during his father ’s first term in office as President of the United States , several geezerhood before the event of the serial take place . When an editor from the publishing house appear to release Mullen ’s memoirs asks him why he did n’t stand for reelection , he replies sharply , " Maybe we were just too busy burying our son . " It ’s exonerated that Nick ’s demise happened towards the end of Mullen ’s four years as Chief Executive , as it ’s made to vocalize as though his drive for reelection was already being discourse .

Zero Day is the Modern Netflix series starring Robert De Niro as a former president , and here is what the title of the show actually means .

What ’s more , in a flashback sequence during the show ’s quaternary episode , Mullen is seen discovering thathis son has died within the White House itself . He ascends a carpeted spiraling stairway that ’s clearly not in his secret residence , and walks down a corridor decorated with historical portraits , making it prosperous for us to place the position of Nick ’s death as the US president ’s prescribed residence . The Mullen family was still living there when Nick exit , because Mullen was president at the time .

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How Nick Mullen Died Prior To The Events Of Zero Day

He Was Killed By A Fatal Overdose In His Bedroom

It ’s George Mullen having to name the bushed soundbox of his escritoire Roger that triggers his flashback to the scene of his son ’s destruction . He was enquire to do the same thing by Secret Service force who find Nick ’s body in his bedroom at the White House . We see Mullen entering the bedchamber and finding his deadened son , apparently the victim ofa drug overdosewith a phonograph needle still in his subdivision . In another flashback , Nick is shown cooking diacetylmorphine when his father walks in on him and physically break him .

" He OD’d . You may think he killed himself but there ’s no proof of that . ” - George Mullen on his son ’s demise inZero Day

Nick seems to have had a heroin addiction that eventually killed him , although his sister Alex suggest that his fateful overdose was , in fact , a deliberate suicide . George disputes his daughter ’s claim , tell her , “ You do n’t know that . None of us do . He OD’d . You may cerebrate he kill himself but there ’s no cogent evidence of that . ” Nick ’s death being a self-annihilation rather than an chance event is n’t decree out . It ’s just that there was nothing to indicate that it was by choice self - inflict . Either path , the physical cause ofhis dying certainly appear to have been a heroin overdose .

Robert De Niro as former President Mullen looking worried about something in Zero Day

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How Nick’s Death Affects George Mullen In Zero Day

He’s Plagued By The Trauma Of What Happened Along With Feelings Of Guilt

George Mullen has obviously been deeply move by Nick ’s decease , even if he is n’t forthcoming about his feelings on the tragedy . The most immediate core it had was preventing him from take to the woods for a 2d terminus as president . While various characters in theZero Daysuggest that there were other reason for him step down after one time , Mullen himself is unequivocal that Nick ’s dying was the cause .

He ’s clearly haunt by the trauma of the effect , to the extent that when his psyche is damage by the culprit of the Zero Day attack , he continually hears thesong “ Who pour down Bambi?”by the Sex Pistols playing in his head . This was the song play on Nick ’s stereo in his sleeping accommodation when his father saw his idle body for the first clip .

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Robert De Niro and Angela Bassett in Zero Day

In addition , Mullen ostensibly feels guilt about his son ’s expiry as well as trauma . It ’s a shadowy sense of “ regret ” that motivate him to return to public office as head of the Zero Day Commission , a opinion undeniably colligate with Nick . He often deal his escritoire Roger like a son during the series , and admits after Roger dies that he wanted to “ do well ” with him than he had done with Nick .

It ’s also a vision that Mullen has of Nick that convince Mullen to severalize the truth about the cyber attack inZero Day ’s serial finis , even if it means bring down his own daughter in the physical process . " Every clock time we can do the right thing it ’s another opportunity to make unnecessary it , ” he assure the Speaker of the House . Although he ’s ostensibly talking about his commonwealth , he could just as well be referencing the guilt he feels about his son ’s death .

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Cast

Robert De Niro, Jesse Plemons, Connie Britton, and others in Zero Day

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Zero Day