Terminator Zero Ending Explained

Terminator Zero, the new anime that’s just been released on Netflix. The series is filled with twists and turns, taking the franchise in a whole new direction. Here is the Terminator Zero ending explained.

What Happens at the End of Terminator Zero?

Terminator Zero revolves around the Lee family, who live in Japan, and their connection to Skynet and the dark future that awaits humanity following Judgment Day. It’s through the Lee family, and specifically the father, Malcolm Lee, that Terminator Zero is intent on exploring the main concepts that have built up the franchise’s mythos at this point: time travel, time loops, destiny, and self-fulfilling prophecies. Exploring these concepts also takes the Terminator timeline in an entirely new direction with its ending, which features a new AI and a new way forward. The anime is also the story closest in the Terminator timeline to the original Judgement Day, taking place the day before, on August 29, 1997.

For reasons unknown to viewers at the start of the series, Malcolm has critical information on Skynet, terminators, and the impending Judgement Day, so he’s created an AI called Kokoro. Because of Malcolm’s machinations to hopefully prevent Judgement Day, a Terminator is sent to kill him, and a resistance soldier named Eiko is sent to protect him and prevent Kokoro from ever going online. Thus, the events of the series unfold, and it’s in this eight-episode game of cat and mouse that our characters learn that the future is never set, and neither are the timelines, apparently.

Changing the Past Doesn’t Change Your Future

Terminator Zero decides to tackle the whole time travel angle that the premise of most Terminator projects relies on and uses an old oracle character in the future to do so. This oracle explains that whenever Skynet or the resistance sends someone (or something) back in time, it isn’t changing the future that they currently live in—it’s starting a new timeline and giving a different generation and different people a new chance entirely.

This is when all the twists start revealing themselves about halfway through the series. Misaki, Malcolm’s housekeeper who looks after his children Kenta, Reika, and Hiro, turns out to be a synthetic herself, created by Malcolm in the future. The revelation comes in the series’ penultimate episode that Malcolm escaped his own dark timeline, hoping to create a new path forward using Kokoro to stop Skynet and create a reality where machine and man live in harmony instead of being at war.

Related: Will There Be Terminator Zero Season 2?

Terminator Zero Subverts the Franchise’s Structure

Terminator Zero attempts to subvert expectations with this franchise by revealing Malcolm’s origins in the future. Instead of the usual “us or them” mindset explored in the series up to this point, Malcolm attempts to find a middle ground, creating Misaki by removing specific reasoning and thought pathways from the Skynet blueprint and discovering that there could be a way forward between AI and humans after all. Misaki is a benevolent creation who sees herself and Malcolm as pioneers who will eventually create something better when they escape to the past (that “better” thing being Kokoro). The resistance of Malcolm’s timeline can’t fathom, let alone tolerate, a good machine in their timeline, which is an ample reason for Malcolm and Misaki’s escape to the past.

As if the idea of alternate realities hasn’t been entirely driven home yet, another two twists are added late into the final episode: Eiko, the soldier from the future, is Malcolm’s mother in the alternate timeline he left. The second twist: Malcolm’s oldest son, Kenta, is the one who sent the Terminator from the future, as he believed he brokered peace with Skynet.

These final twists feel a bit unnecessary and seem to be done to cross the time-loop trope off the list of required Terminator plot lines in almost every film. However, they also drive home the paradoxical nature of sending people back to try and secure a future, which is nearly pointless. Kenta’s decision not to shut down Kokoro seemingly changes his and humanity’s fate for the better.

Terminator Zero Ends With Kokoro Stopping Skynet (For Now)

Terminator Zero ends on a somewhat hopeful, albeit ambiguous, note. At the beginning of the series, Kokoro goes online and spends the eight episodes contemplating humanity’s worthiness to carry on. It is undecided on whether it will do what Malcolm intended it to and stop Skynet. When the AI program sees Malcolm sacrifice himself for Eiko and his children, it decides to stop Skynet after seeing the worst and best humanity and machines can be, choosing to be the latter. As Kokoro stops Skynet from enacting Judgment Day, Eiko, Misaki, and Malcolm’s children head into an uncertain future that none had seen coming or predicted.

Terminator Zero juggles several different timelines, plot twists, and philosophical themes. Maybe too many for its own good. Still, you can’t help but commend Mattson Tomlin and the rest of the creative team behind the series for swinging for the fences and trying something new and radical for the franchise in an ending that shows an AI that’s benevolent. However, that might send the wrong message in an industry that’s never been more hostile towards artificial intelligence.

And that’s the Terminator Zero ending, explained.

Terminator Zero is streaming now on Netflix.