Citadel season 1 finale recap, review & ending explained

In the final episode of Citadel’s first season, Nadia and Mason must do as Dahlia says to rescue their daughter. Along with Dahlia’s mission, Mason also has to deal with his past. The first season is now streaming on Prime Video.

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In Serbia, 30 years ago, a young Mason sat terrified in a hospital room as doctors around him rushed to save the patients. Six months later, he was living in Oregon with his grandmother, who told him that his mother was traveling the world.

In the present, Dahlia forces Mason, Nadia, and Carter to go on a mission. Manticore wants nuclear cores from the missiles in a submarine, and Mason and Nadia can get Asha back if they hand over the cores to Manticore.

Carter will have to hack into the submarine that contains nuclear weapons and have it breach the surface. Mason and Davik will go inside and retrieve nuclear cores from the missiles. They will then bring them to Valencia, where they can get Asha back. 

Nadia believes that Mason is not equipped to carry out this mission, but he is the only one who can access the submarine, as eight years ago, he installed his biolock on it against orders in the hope of getting Grace to reveal Nadia’s whereabouts.

The scene shifts to eight years ago when Mason was sent on a Red Cell mission to the same submarine, as Citadel wanted to prepare for a scenario where the Russians launch their nuclear weapons on another country. 

Mason believed that Grace knew Nadia’s whereabouts, but she chose not to tell him, even though he kept asking. He even tried to negotiate with her, but Grace could not give him the answers he wanted.

In the present, with Nadia and Carter’s assistance, Mason makes the same difficult jump he made eight years ago, but not as smoothly as before. Davik follows Mason, but as soon as he gets access through Mason, Davik pushes him off the submarine.

Davik also betrays Dahlia, as he knows that she is the one who killed Anders. He threatens to launch the five missiles on the family compounds of the five families that founded Manticore, but his threat does not work, as Dahlia overrides the system.

Nadia also comes to the submarine to save Mason. Once she deals with Davik, she tries to retrieve the cores from the missiles. However, for that, she needs to raise her body temperature, which makes it difficult to function.

Meanwhile, Davik gains consciousness again and fights Mason. Carter encourages him to fight like he used to, as he believes that Mason still has his skills. Mason not only defeats Davik but also saves Nadia, who almost dies while trying to retrieve the cores.

Nadia and Mason then go to Valencia to give the cores to a woman named Christoph and get their daughter back. When Manticore agents find out that they have encrypted the cores, the two groups start firing at each other. 

With Carter’s help, Nadia and Mason not only save Asha but also prevent Manticore from taking the cores. Nadia reunites with her daughter after eight years, but Manticore still has Nadia’s father.

Eight years ago, Mason went above and beyond to find Nadia. Bernard showed Mason pictures of Nadia and their daughter. He asked Mason to fight for his family, but Mason refused, as he did not want to fight for anything anymore.

In the present, Dahlia knows that since she failed to get the cores, there will be repercussions, so she prepares for them. She leaves her house and then blows it up to fake her death.

At Citadel’s US headquarters, Mason reunites with his family. Nadia and Carter discover that Mason’s wife, Abby, is Celeste and that Mason and Abby do not remember anything from their past. Additionally, Carter finds a way for Mason to regain his memories.

Citadel season 1 ending explained in detail:

How did Mason find Nadia?

Mason wants to remember and know what happened in the past, so he chooses to get his memories back. He then remembers everything, including the fact that he was the one who found Nadia and gave her location to Bernard. Mason remembers meeting Dahlia eight years ago. 

A scene from the past shows Mason asking Dahlia for help in finding Nadia. He tells her that Nadia is his wife, and Dahlia promises to find Nadia for him. Mason was able to find Nadia and give her location to Bernard, who then found out about Asha, only because of Dahlia.

How are Mason and Dahlia related?

When Mason tells Dahlia about Nadia, she tells him about her own husband, Thomas. Her husband was killed in an explosion, and she had to watch him suffer. She even tried to put out the flames that were killing her husband with her hands, and she still has scars from that time.

She tells Mason that she still carries the burden of those memories. She never returned home after that incident because she was not the same person. It is then that Mason asks her about her son, who is none other than Mason himself.

After Mason’s father died, his mother, Dahlia, left him. Mason’s grandmother raised him, and Citadel gave him an identity. 

Why did Mason betray Citadel?

When Dahlia finds out that Mason is her son, she tells him that Citadel was responsible for his father’s death. He believed that it was a car bomb that destroyed their building and led to Thomas’ death, but Dahlia claims that it was air missiles.

She found a communique between Citadel and NATO that stated Citadel’s intention to launch air strikes on a Serbian terror cell. However, Citadel had the wrong coordinates, and they ended up killing UN workers and their families, which included Mason’s father, instead of the terrorists. 

Citadel covered this up, and the world never found out about their crimes. Dahlia asks Mason to stop an amoral organization like Citadel. She convinces him to give her Citadel secrets and promises to take them to the High Court in the UK to get justice.

However, instead of taking them to court, she uses them to take Citadel down. As Mason had given her all the information about Citadel agents, she orders the death of thousands of Citadel agents, including Mason and Nadia.

Mason now remembers all this, but when Abby asks him about it, he lies to her and tells her that he does not know. Nadia, who had been watching him, walks away when she hears his response.

Review

  • The first season of Citadel ends on a satisfying note. The episode answers all the questions, but at the same time, it makes the viewers curious about what is to come next. 
  • While the second part of the episode had enough twists and turns to keep the audience entertained, the same cannot be said about the first part, as it seemed to have a mission that did not seem worthy of a finale.
  • Nadia meeting Asha after eight years did not leave the impact that it should have. Unfortunately, that scene was not given enough attention, and Priyanka Chopra Jonas’ performance is the only thing that stood out in that scene.
  • It is extremely hard to make the protagonist the culprit without the knowledge of the audience, who have been watching the events unfold from their perspective. Citadel managed to accomplish this rather smoothly, which gave it the edge that it needed.
Citadel season 1 episode 6
Citadel season 1 finale recap, review & ending explained 1

Director: Newton Thomas Sigel

Date Created: 2023-05-25 18:03

Editor's Rating:
3.5

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