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Terminator Zero Ends with Time Travel Paradoxes & Some Big Questions

Terminator Zero has not one but three different timelines that get entangled by the finale, resulting in endless possibilities and mysteries.

Terminator Zero is the freshest take on the Terminator stories for a long time, finding new ways to play the franchise's tropes involving time travel and destiny and reconfiguring them in a way fans didn't expect. At this point, we're throwing on the "MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!" sign just so you're not caught by surprise from this point forward. The end of the series results in a tangle of time paradoxes and more than one possible timeline. A character named The Prophet (Ann Dowd) in the future explains that every time Skynet sends a Terminator into the past, a new timeline is created. It's not the definitive past the Terminator – and the Resistance fighter sent to stop it – arrives at, but a new present where any new future is possible. Thus, every Terminator sequel has a new timeline and a new continuity, which validates every past sequel's new canon. There is no single definitive sequel or ending. They're infinite as long as Skynet keeps sending a Terminator back in time, and it doesn't even involve John or Sarah Connor anymore.

Terminator Zero creates a new saga about the Lee Family, and each member might branch into a separate or contradictory timeline. The father, Malcolm Lee, is developing an AI named Kokoro to combat Skynet and prevent Judgment Day, which was back in 1997, like the first Terminator movies. The Connors aren't mentioned here. Resistance fighter Eiko (Sonoya Mizuno) has been sent back to prevent Malcolm from launching Kokoro.

Malcolm is the First Twist

Malcolm Lee (André Holland) knew when Skynet would come online and launch the nukes to end the world. He has dreams of Judgment Day, but it turns out he's not psychic. He's from the future, a Resistance fighter who went rogue after he built a robot AI from spare parts salvaged from Skynet parts. He believes humans and a benevolent AI can co-exist and combat Skynet, and Kokoru would be the factor that changes the future.

Misaki is the Second Twist

The family housekeeper and nanny Misaki (Sumalee Montano) turns out to be a robot built by Malcolm to look after his kids. She has a third twist: she was the benevolent AI built by Malcolm in the future and came back to 1983 with him, and agreed to be erased and reset while he used her original base code to create Kokoro, effectively making her Kokoro's mother. When they don't stop Judgment Day, Misaki is still alive to go into hiding to protect the Lee kids.

Third Twist: Skynet Didn't Send the Terminator to 1997

The Terminator (Timothy Olyphant) sent back to 1997 turned out not to be from the same future Eiko came from. It was sent by the adult version of Malcolm's oldest son Kenta (Armani Jackson) to kill Malcolm and stop Kokoro from going online in order to ensure Judgment Day happens so that the future of Kenta occurs. The future Kenta is the one who successfully negotiated peace between humans and Skynet. The first hint it is different comes when it doesn't kill Kenta when it has the chance to several times, instead using him as a hostage to first try to force Malcolm into aborting Kokoro. Even when Malcolm refuses, it doesn't kill Kenta but saves his life and tries to convince him to go with it and survive Judgment Day. It even entrusts Kenta with the decision of whether to destroy Kokoro. It even sacrifices itself to let Kenta make that decision.

Kenta is Another Twist

Kenta is most like his father in the way he becomes a genius at studying and building robots. He also develops anti-robot sentiments, treating Misaki with suspicion and hostility. Yet the Terminator plays out a darker version of the relationship John Connor had with the T-800, only without the affection Connor developed. Kenta is the John Connor figure of a possible new timeline, the one who brokers peace in the future. But the timeline is now uncertain because Kokoro has gone online. The present Kenta chooses to trust Kokoro after she tells him Malcolm has convinced her Humanity is worth saving. Kenta also chooses to go into hiding with Eiko, Misaki, and his siblings when Judgment Day occurs. Kokoro is now different from the Kokoro of the future, willing to consider saving humanity and also now agreeing to protect Malcolm's children, though Kenta and Eiko still don't trust her and have taken the family into hiding.

Eiko is the Biggest Twist and the Biggest Mystery

The Prophet chose Eiko to send back in time because she was deemed to have "no fate." In the future Eiko came from, both Skynet and Kokoro are threats to what's left of humanity. Her mission was to prevent Kokoro from going online, and she has failed. She reaches Malcolm just as the Terminator kills him, but he recognizes her as his mother. That comes as a shock to her since she hasn't had a child yet when she was sent back in time. Eiko is left mystified – is she in a time loop? Was she sent back to give birth to Malcolm so that Misaki, then Kokoro, Kenta, and his siblings would be born to create this timeline? When Judgment Day occurs, Malcolm gives her a new mission: to protect her grandchildren Kenta, Reika (Gideon Adlon), and Hiro (Carter Rockwell).

Paradoxes and More Questions Arise

By the time Judgment Day occurs, Malcolm is dead and Kokoro has taken over all the systems and robots in Japan and begun her war against Skynet. This new timeline now has two AIs at war against each other. Does Kenta grow up to play a part in this war, or is that a separate timeline? Will Eiko give birth to Malcolm in this timeline, or did Malcolm come from a different timeline? And what part are Reika and Hiro, who are both emotionally attached to Misaki, going to play in the future and what will happen to Misaki? This series has not one but three different timelines that get tangled together, unlike any of the other stories in the franchise.

In the future that Eiko came from, the young woman she was close to looked like an adult Reika, who was about to be killed by a Terminator when Eiko was sent back in time. Was that future erased by this one or, if The Prophet is right, will it continue with Skynet having eliminated the hideout Eiko came from? Who was Malcolm's late wife anyway? And the biggest question is, who is the Prophet? She seemed to understand time travel and alternate timelines and seemed to know what was going to happen to Eiko when she was sent back to 1997. Is she this future's Sarah Connor, who has been watching events and possibly their alternatives unfold for decades?

The future has been thrown into flux by three factors: Kenta letting Kokoro go online, Eiko coming to 1997, and Kokoro might now behave differently from the future Eiko came from. It's not a plothole but, as screenwriting teacher Robert McKee pointed out, a plot abyss. The Terminator series has always existed on top of a timey-wimey black hole that Terminator Zero has now chosen to embrace rather than try to explain away. Every Terminator sequel or spinoff has become its own canon and its own time loop. We don't necessarily need a second season of Terminator Zero since the whole mystery and paradox of time travel is open to endless speculation rather than any definitive answer.

Terminator Zero is streaming on Netflix.

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