Netflix is back with a banging series. Its new release, Death by Lightning, is a historical drama that revisits one of America’s most overlooked political tragedies, the assassination of President James Garfield.
Starring Michael Shannon as Garfield and Matthew Macfadyen as his assassin, Charles Guiteau, the limited series dives deep into the intersection of power, ambition, and delusion that defined this shocking true story. The 4-episode series is being loved by OTT audiences, hence, let's see what the series is all about and how it ends, leaving people impressed and shocked at the same time.
The true story behind President Garfield’s assassination
Death by Lightning begins with a haunting image, a preserved human brain in a government archive, before taking viewers back to the late 19th century. It later moves on to James Garfield’s unlikely rise from an Ohio congressman to the 20th President of the United States forms the series’ emotional and political core.
It also explores how a progressive reformer like Garfield sought to dismantle corruption in a post-Civil War system and still dominated the patronage and political machines. At the same time, Death by Lightning unravels the story of Charles Guiteau, who was a failed writer and obsessive opportunist, but eventually became dangerously fixated on the President, convinced that destiny binds them together.
When his delusions turn violent, he assassinates Garfield, believing it a divinely ordained act.
Death by Lightning ending explained
The series doesn’t stop at the assassination; it further explores how primitive 19th-century medical practices contributed to Garfield’s slow, agonising death. In the third and last episode, the series shows how doctors’ repeated probing of his wound, combined with a lack of antiseptic methods, proved more fatal than the bullet itself.
Death by Lightning in the end, shifts focus to Lucretia 'Crete' Garfield, the President’s wife, portraying her resilience amid grief and erasure from history, balancing political intrigue with human vulnerability.
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