Whoever thought of creating the Citadel franchise must have taken major inspiration from the much beloved Assassin’s Creed, series, given how both these narratives share multiple similarities through two rivaling shadow organizations trying to control and manipulate world events throughout known history, with the dialectical ideology of truth and control guiding them both. That being said, the similarities are superficial because none of the game series’ brilliance in storytelling, nuance, or intrigue in ideological conflicts translate into this snoozefest spy franchise, which holds true for its latest spin-off series, Citadel: Diana, as well. With a compelling lead performance by Matilda De Angelis, there are a few moments where Citadel: Diana seems to fare better than its predecessor, the original series. But that isn’t saying much given how dragged out and generic the narrative itself turns out to be.
Spoilers Ahead
Diana’s Connection With the Zani Family
Diana Cavalieri, the hard-headed protagonist of Citadel: Diana, is at the front and center of the series, and her exploits as a Citadel trainee infiltrating Manticore Italy are what the series is all about. Diana lost both her parents in a plane crash, but unlike her sister Sara, she was never able to find solace afterwards, and as she became obsessive while investigating the accident, Diana learned that it was in fact an orchestrated event. Citadel Agent Gabriele had sought out Lara after learning about her driven pursuit to learn about the identity of the people behind the flight accident, as he himself had lost his comrade, a Citadel agent, during the accident. Gabriele mentioned to Diana that, being a Citadel spy, his comrade was targeted by the aristocratic Zani family, the most powerful arms manufacturers of Italy, for their personal gain, and he had begun training Diana in secrecy to infiltrate the Zanis in order to expose their dirty secrets.
Later on, Diana was recruited by Matteo, manager of the Manticore Italy division, which has the Zanis as their patron. The timeline of the series shifts back and forth between 2030 in the present and various years throughout the previous decade, when Diana was trained by Gabriele, recruited into Manticore, orchestrated missions under their command, and saw Citadel fall under the devastating attack launched by Manticore. During one of the final missions to snuff out Citadel from existence, Diana was part of a Manticore task force led by the eldest son of the Zani family, Enrico Zani, and the task force was able to steal a piece of Citadel tech, keeping it a secret from the Europe division of the Manticore organization, namely the France and Germany division. As a result, Manticore Italy faced heavy sanctions after their actions came to light and was significantly depowered, much to the chief of the Zani family, Ettore Zani’s displeasure. During this mission, Diana had killed Enrico Zani, unbeknownst to either of her Manticore comrades or the Zani family. In the years that followed, Diana became acquainted with Enrico’s brother, Edo Zani, the weapons and tech genius of Manticore Italy. Edo shares an estranged relationship with his father, and contrary to Ettore’s self-serving mentality of leading Manticore, he appears to have more of a conscience and goodwill as he wants to use Manticore as a peacekeeping organization. After Citadel’s purge, Diana was unable to communicate with Gabriele any longer, and assumed he’d lost his life in the Manticore attack as well. Sara had raised a family of her own, and even though she wanted her sister to be a part of it as well, Diana remained distant due to her mad pursuit to avenge her parents.
Manticore Civil War: What Is Jupiter?
The Citadel technology, which Manticore Italy had wanted to keep a secret from the other two European divisions of the organization, was separately taken by the German and French divisions, who developed it through eight years. In the present timeline in 2030, as agents from both divisions decide to meet to discuss it, Diana and her comrade Luca are sent to spy over them, and recognizing the tech, Diana ends up killing the French agent, creating a huge ruckus, and steals the French half of the device. To cover up her act, Diana later kills Luca, and returning to Manticore Italy HQ, blames the entire mess on him. Matteo is convinced by her lies, and Diana takes the French half of the device to Edo, proposing to him that he use this half to regain the strength and position Manticore Italy had lost—and in exchange, she wants her way out of the organization.
However, the French half appears to be an ineffective replica, and as a direct retaliation for stealing it, the heir to the French Manticore division, Cecile, hacks the Italy division and orchestrates the killing of twelve agents of their division. Ettore is extremely suspicious of Diana, as he is convinced that Diana had a part to play in this mess and that she pinned the blame on Luca to keep her track record clean. However, aware of the fact that Cecile was going to trick the chief of German Manticore, Wolfgang Klein, by providing him a fake half of the device, with the help of Diana, he manages to get a hold of the German piece of the tech and offers it to Cecile alongside a captive Diana, by presenting her as a captive mole—but really as a Trojan inside the French Manticore HQ. Edo, along with Diana, Matteo, and other Manticore agents, manages to steal the original French half of the Citadel device by killing a number of French division agents and hacks the HQ to successfully escape. Now Manticore Italy possesses both halves of the device, Jupiter, a Citadel tech, and in the final episode, an estimate of its immensely dangerous potential is revealed.
The French part of Jupiter is a microscopic interception instrument, while the German part of it is a biotech one, and combined, Jupiter can spread microchips amidst the mass through water supply or similar means of input. Once inside an individual, the microchip will act as a live transmitter to provide all the data to the central command, thereby allowing Manticore to assume total control over information. Under his father’s command, Edo adds a third component to the device, and the Italian extension introduces the ability to use the device to remotely kill any individual in the worst-case scenario, giving almost godlike power to the controllers who can dictate others’ course of life with a mere thought. Having made the third extension, Manticore Italy now stands on equal footing with the other two European divisions, and Edo’s contribution is the most significant reason for that. The activation protocol of the combined device rests with Edo, and he shares it with Diana, with whom he has fallen in love—although on Diana’s part, her motivation remains ambiguous regarding their relationship. However, despite Edo providing her with the means to leave Manticore and start a life anew, she returns to him—possibly the reason being her concerns that a weapon of such unthinkable power shouldn’t be trusted in the hands of the Zanis.
Was Ettore Zani Able to Gain Command Over Jupiter?
Despite Diana’s assistance allowing Edo to turn things in the favor of Manticore Italy, Ettore remains skeptical of her motivations. To reconcile with his son Edo, he promises him he’ll make Diana the manager of the Italy Manticore division, only to command Matteo to kill her in secrecy while gaining the activation code from her during the trial testing of Jupiter. Edo’s mother, Julia, who doesn’t approve of her husband’s diabolical means, can’t help sharing the truth with her son, and an enraged Edo manages to insert Jupiter in Ettore’s system to threaten and force him to spare Diana’s life. Ettore refuses to do so and provokes his son by drawing similarities between the two of them, prompting Edo to kill his father by using Jupiter.
On the other hand, Diana engages in a brutal fight with Matteo, at the end of which Diana manages to kill him. As she goes outside the water supply station, where she was taken for the first trial of Jupiter, she finds Matteo’s associates to have been killed. The killer is none other than Gabriele himself, who appears in front of Diana after eight long years, and Diana is ecstatic to see her mentor alive. As the first season ends, it seems Diana and Gabriele will begin a new chapter of Citadel together. It will be interesting to see whether Edo, who is now the chief of Manticore Italy, maintains his stance about using the Manticore for benevolent purposes or, after learning about Diana’s truth—of being a Citadel agent and killer of his elder brother—he ends up following Ettore’s footprint.