Spoiler Warning: This article contains major spoilers for the Season 2 finale of Netflix’s Sacred Games, including the nuclear bomb sequence and Sartaj Singh’s final attempt to save Mumbai.
Mumbai is minutes away from a nuclear catastrophe.
A bomb has been activated. The man who knows how it works is no longer available to help. The authorities have only a handful of chances to enter the correct security pattern.
And then something happens that has frustrated Sacred Games viewers for years.
A nuclear expert begins drawing patterns on the device.
The first attempt fails.
She tries another.
That fails too.
Two of the five available attempts are gone before Sartaj Singh even begins examining the Kaal Granth for a possible solution.
The scene raises an obvious question.
Why would a trained expert risk two precious attempts on patterns that appear to have no established connection to the bomb?
Was she following a technical procedure the audience never saw?
Was she simply panicking?
Or did the writers sacrifice logic to make Sartaj’s final decision more dramatic?
The series never gives a definitive explanation for her choices.
But the scene, the surrounding circumstances, and the unusually strong Reddit reaction allow us to examine what happened—and why the criticism has persisted.
How Many Attempts Did They Have to Defuse the Bomb?
The bomb’s security interface allows five attempts to enter the correct pattern.
The authorities are operating under extreme time pressure.
Shahid Khan has activated the device, and the countdown is approaching its end.
The bomb cannot simply be switched off through an obvious control.
The investigators need to enter a pattern into its security system.
But they do not know which pattern is correct.
A specialist approaches the device and makes two unsuccessful attempts.
That leaves three.
Sartaj subsequently uses the Kaal Granth, a book associated with Guruji’s religious movement, to identify possible codes.
He tries two patterns without success.
Only one attempt remains.
With seconds left, he selects the pattern associated with his father, Dilbagh Singh.
The series cuts to black before revealing whether the bomb has been disabled.
This sequence makes the scientist’s earlier decisions especially important.
Her two attempts represent 40% of the total opportunities available.
Once those attempts are used, they cannot be recovered.
And Sartaj ultimately needs every remaining chance to reach his final decision.
Were the Scientist’s Patterns Really Random?
This is the first distinction we need to make.
The patterns appear arbitrary to the audience.
But the show does not explicitly establish that the expert selected them through a random process.
We do not hear a detailed explanation of her reasoning.
We do not see her consulting a known list of likely codes.
Nor does the episode clearly establish that she has recognized a specific feature of the device that justifies her choices.
As a result, viewers understandably interpret the attempts as guesses.
But “the show does not explain her reasoning” is more accurate than “the show proves she chose randomly.”
That difference matters because one defense of the character is that she may have been trying patterns she considered plausible.
Perhaps she recognized a common configuration.
Perhaps she was testing an assumption about the interface.
Perhaps she believed the chance of finding the code, however small, was worth taking.
These are possible explanations.
The problem is that the series does not provide evidence for any particular one.
If the writers intended her to follow a professional method, the audience needed enough information to recognize it.
Without that context, the scene looks like a specialist guessing at a password while the city faces destruction.
Why Did Viewers Criticize the Nuclear Expert So Harshly?
The reaction was not limited to a few isolated comments.
After the Season 2 finale aired in August 2019, viewers repeatedly questioned the scientist’s behavior.
In a Reddit thread titled Why people bashing/trolling nucler lady?, the original poster defended her.
The argument was straightforward.
She used only two of the five attempts.
She might have selected patterns based on knowledge the audience did not possess.
And at least she tried to stop the bomb.
But other commenters strongly disagreed.
They argued that a nuclear specialist should not use a limited number of attempts without an identifiable basis.
One commenter pointed out that Sartaj would have had more chances to test patterns from the Kaal Granth if the earlier attempts had been preserved.
Another questioned why the series did not show the expert explaining her choices if they were based on relevant technical knowledge.
That last criticism is particularly strong.
The scene does not need to provide a lengthy lesson in nuclear engineering.
It only needs to establish that the specialist has a reason for entering those patterns.
Without that explanation, the audience is left watching an expert make decisions that appear less careful than those of an ordinary person protecting a locked phone.
The criticism also appeared in Indian entertainment coverage.
Hindustan Times reported on viewers mocking the scene, while Gadgets 360 identified the two guesses as a significant weakness in the finale.
The frustration was therefore not simply about an ambiguous ending.
It was about the credibility of the steps leading to that ending.
Why Would Anyone Guess a Code With Only Five Attempts?
The strongest defense of the scientist is the extreme situation.
The bomb is already counting down.
The investigators lack the correct code.
And the consequences of failure are catastrophic.
Under those circumstances, doing nothing may feel impossible.
Even a low-probability attempt could seem preferable to standing beside the device without acting.
That emotional logic is understandable.
But it creates a problem.
An action is not automatically useful merely because the situation is desperate.
If an incorrect input consumes a limited opportunity, every attempt has an opportunity cost.
The question is not simply whether a guess might work.
It is whether the guess is more valuable than preserving the attempt for information that might become available moments later.
This is especially relevant because Sartaj eventually discovers a potential source of patterns in the Kaal Granth.
The scientist does not know that solution is coming.
Viewers do.
Or, at least, viewers recognize its significance once Sartaj begins using the book.
That creates retrospective frustration.
The two attempts that seemed like desperate action now look like chances Sartaj could have used to test additional clues.
Still, hindsight matters.
The expert cannot make decisions using information she does not yet possess.
Her real failure, if there is one, lies not in failing to predict Sartaj’s discovery but in using attempts without explaining or establishing a reasonable basis.
Did the Scientist Know About the Kaal Granth?
There is no clear indication that the scientist understood the significance of the Kaal Granth before Sartaj connected it to the bomb.
The book is not a standard technical manual.
It belongs to the mythology and organization of Guruji’s movement.
Its pages contain patterns associated with members of the cult.
Sartaj’s investigation gives him access to information the specialist does not necessarily have.
He knows about Guruji.
He has investigated Ganesh Gaitonde’s connection to the movement.
He has discovered his father’s involvement.
And he has access to the book.
The scientist’s expertise concerns the immediate physical threat.
Sartaj’s advantage concerns the people who created it.
That is an important difference.
A technical specialist can understand a device without knowing the intentions of the individuals who programmed it.
A detective may know those individuals without understanding the device’s engineering.
The finale brings those two kinds of knowledge together.
But the scene also exposes a weakness in the team’s coordination.
If Sartaj possesses a possible source of security patterns, why is that information not considered before the first attempts are used?
The series does not fully resolve that question.
And it may be a stronger criticism than simply calling the scientist incompetent.
Was Sartaj Partly Responsible for the Wasted Attempts?
This possibility is often overlooked.
Viewers focus on the person physically entering the first two patterns.
But the entire team is operating with incomplete information.
Sartaj has been investigating the conspiracy surrounding Guruji and Gaitonde.
He has knowledge of the cult’s symbols and relationships.
Yet the connection between those symbols and the bomb is recognized only very late.
From a storytelling perspective, the delay is necessary to create the final revelation.
From an investigative perspective, it raises questions about information sharing.
Could Sartaj have raised the possibility earlier?
Could the team have examined the device’s interface before making any attempts?
Could they have compared the security pattern with material recovered from Guruji’s organization?
The episode does not provide enough information to answer these questions confidently.
We should not assume that Sartaj already knew the Kaal Granth contained the solution.
He appears to recognize the connection under pressure.
But the broader criticism remains.
The finale depends on vital information reaching the right person at the last possible moment.
That can create compelling suspense.
It can also make the characters appear less coordinated than the situation demands.
Why Did Sartaj Try Batya’s and Trivedi’s Patterns?
After taking over, Sartaj uses the Kaal Granth as a possible source of codes.
He tests patterns associated with members of Guruji’s circle.
The attempts involving Batya and Trivedi fail.
This leaves the final opportunity.
Sartaj must choose between the remaining possibilities, including the pattern associated with his father.
His decisions differ from the scientist’s because he has a specific reason for considering those patterns.
The book is linked to the organization behind the attack.
The bomb requires a drawn pattern.
And the Kaal Granth contains precisely such designs.
That does not prove any particular pattern will work.
But it gives Sartaj an identifiable hypothesis.
The distinction is important.
Both characters are entering codes without knowing the correct answer.
Yet Sartaj’s choices are tied to evidence from the investigation.
The scientist’s earlier choices are not explained in comparable detail.
This difference is why viewers tend to accept Sartaj’s attempts more readily, even though they also fail.
Why Didn’t They Try Dilbagh Singh’s Pattern First?
Once the ending is revealed, it is tempting to ask why Sartaj did not immediately choose his father’s pattern.
But the answer is not obvious before he makes the decision.
The Kaal Granth contains several patterns.
The show does not provide an explicit instruction identifying Dilbagh’s as the correct deactivation code.
Sartaj has to interpret the book under extraordinary pressure.
His father’s connection to Guruji is significant, but that does not automatically establish that his pattern will stop the bomb.
The deeper explanation comes from writer Varun Grover’s discussion of the ending.
Grover proposed a possible interpretation in which Dilbagh was the only follower who seriously questioned Guruji’s destructive plan.
Under that interpretation, his pattern served as a secret fail-safe.
It could stop the catastrophe if someone decided the plan should not proceed.
But Grover also discussed a darker possible outcome in which Sartaj fails to save Mumbai.
The finale never confirms that Dilbagh’s pattern works.
So the scientist’s two lost attempts cannot be described as definitely preventing a successful disarmament.
We do not know whether additional attempts would have changed the outcome.
What we know is that they reduced the team’s options.
For the complete explanation of Dilbagh’s pattern and Grover’s two possible endings, read:
Why Did Sartaj Choose His Father’s Pattern in Sacred Games? The Secret Hidden in the Kaal Granth
Why Did the Scientist Wear a Bulletproof Vest Near a Nuclear Bomb?
Another detail attracted almost as much criticism as the pattern guessing.
The specialist wears a bulletproof vest while working near the device.
Some viewers mocked the image because a bulletproof vest would not protect someone from a nearby nuclear detonation.
That observation is correct in a narrow sense.
But it misses the immediate context.
A gunfight has taken place near the bomb.
Majid has been killed.
The investigators cannot necessarily assume that the area is completely secure.
A bulletproof vest is intended to reduce certain ballistic threats.
It is not nuclear protection.
In a separate Reddit discussion, viewers defended the vest on exactly those grounds.
The expert could still face gunfire while working on the device.
Removing protective equipment would not improve her ability to stop the countdown.
This is an example where the criticism is less persuasive.
The vest and the code attempts are different issues.
Wearing ballistic protection in an area recently affected by gunfire has a plausible explanation.
Using two limited security attempts without an established rationale is harder to defend.
Treating both details as equally absurd obscures that distinction.
Is the Bomb-Defusing Scene Realistic?
The most important realism problem is not the precise shape of the patterns.
It is the way the sequence compresses a catastrophic threat into a familiar password puzzle.
The bomb’s interface resembles a smartphone-style pattern lock.
The characters are allowed five attempts.
Each failure visibly reduces their remaining opportunities.
That creates an immediately understandable challenge for viewers.
But it is a dramatic convention, not a reliable representation of how real nuclear weapons are secured or rendered safe.
Real-world procedures depend on the particular device, its safety mechanisms, and specialized protocols.
The series does not establish enough technical information to evaluate its fictional device as an authentic nuclear weapon system.
What we can evaluate is the logic presented within the story.
The interface allows only five attempts.
The characters know those attempts are limited.
The expert uses two before Sartaj discovers the Kaal Granth connection.
Within those rules, the criticism makes sense.
Even if the device itself is fictionalized, its established constraints should still influence the characters’ decisions.
The scene becomes frustrating when the characters appear to disregard those constraints.
Did the Writers Intentionally Make the Scientist Look Incompetent?
There is no verified statement from the writers establishing that the scientist was deliberately written as incompetent.
We should not claim that the character was intentionally humiliated or made foolish to elevate Sartaj.
However, we can examine the dramatic effect of the scene.
The expert fails.
The technical team cannot solve the puzzle.
The other investigators evacuate.
Sartaj remains behind.
He discovers the connection between the bomb and the Kaal Granth.
He then makes the final choice alone.
This structure transfers the story’s decisive moment from the technical specialists to its central protagonist.
Sartaj becomes the person whose knowledge, family history, and judgment determine the ending.
The two early failures intensify that transfer.
They leave him with fewer opportunities.
They make every subsequent input more consequential.
And they ensure that his final choice carries maximum emotional weight.
The scene clearly serves the dramatic purpose of isolating Sartaj as the final decision-maker.
Whether that purpose justified the questionable behavior of the specialist is a matter of interpretation.
The show could have achieved a similar effect by giving her two evidence-based attempts that failed.
Instead, it leaves her reasoning unexplained.
That choice invites criticism.
The Strongest Defense of the Scientist
The fairest defense combines three observations.
First, she is working under extreme pressure.
Second, the correct code is unknown.
Third, Sartaj’s potential solution has not yet been established.
From her perspective, she may believe that the available options are to attempt something or allow the countdown to continue.
She also uses only two of the five attempts.
She does not exhaust the entire allowance.
That preserves opportunities for someone else to act.
These details make her behavior more understandable.
But they do not fully resolve the criticism.
If she has a reason for choosing those patterns, the episode does not communicate it.
If she has no reason, using limited attempts is difficult to defend.
And if the team is still gathering information, preserving those attempts could have been valuable.
The strongest conclusion is therefore not that she must have been incompetent.
It is that the scene fails to show enough of her reasoning to make her actions convincing.
That is a criticism of the storytelling as much as the character.
The Bigger Plot Hole: Why Was the Team So Unprepared?
The scientist’s choices are only one part of a larger problem.
By the time the authorities reach the bomb, the investigation has uncovered a conspiracy involving Guruji, his followers, Gaitonde, and Shahid Khan.
The danger to Mumbai is no longer hypothetical.
Yet the team arrives without a confirmed way to disable the device.
They have no verified pattern.
They lack access to the person who activated it.
And they appear unable to coordinate the information needed to identify the correct code before the countdown becomes critical.
Some of this is inevitable in a thriller.
The characters must face uncertainty.
The antagonist must retain an advantage.
And the final confrontation must be difficult.
But the finale’s suspense depends heavily on preventable-looking failures.
The specialist’s unexplained guesses.
The late discovery of the Kaal Granth connection.
The lack of a clear plan for the security interface.
And the final reliance on Sartaj’s personal judgment.
Together, these choices make the sequence feel less like a professional emergency response and more like a deliberately constructed puzzle.
That does not invalidate the emotional meaning of the ending.
It does explain why viewers continue to question its practical logic.
Why This Plot Hole Matters to the Ending
The nuclear countdown is supposed to bring together the series’ central themes.
Sartaj’s relationship with his father.
Guruji’s ideology.
The corruption surrounding Mumbai.
Gaitonde’s role in the conspiracy.
And the question of whether the city deserves or can achieve salvation.
The final pattern is meant to carry all of that significance.
But the scientist’s earlier guesses draw attention away from the symbolism.
Instead of concentrating on Dilbagh’s legacy, viewers begin calculating the number of attempts that were wasted.
Instead of debating whether Sartaj has resisted Guruji’s philosophy, they ask why a specialist treated a nuclear threat like a phone-unlocking problem.
This is the real cost of the scene.
A practical inconsistency can distract from an otherwise powerful thematic conclusion.
The writers wanted the final choice to be about Sartaj.
For some viewers, it became about the expert who had already used two of his chances.
Final Verdict: Why Did the Scientist Waste Two Attempts?
The series never explicitly explains why the nuclear expert selected her two unsuccessful patterns.
She is operating under extreme time pressure, without a confirmed code, and may believe that trying something is better than doing nothing.
But the show does not establish that her choices are based on technical evidence or a known security procedure.
That makes the criticism reasonable.
The two attempts consume 40% of the available chances.
They reduce Sartaj’s options when he later discovers the patterns in the Kaal Granth.
And they create the impression that a trained specialist is guessing without a clear strategy.
At the same time, it would be unfair to claim that the expert alone caused Mumbai’s destruction.
The series never confirms that the bomb explodes.
Nor does it establish that another two attempts would have produced the correct code.
The most defensible interpretation is that the scene uses unexplained failures to increase suspense and make Sartaj’s final choice more consequential.
But the price is credibility.
The nuclear expert may have had reasons for her choices.
The audience is never shown what they were.
That is the real plot hole: not necessarily that the scientist guessed, but that the series asked viewers to trust her expertise without showing any evidence of it.
Related Analysis on True Taste Korea
Why Did Sartaj Choose His Father’s Pattern in Sacred Games? The Secret Hidden in the Kaal Granth
Explore Dilbagh Singh’s connection to Guruji, the writer’s secret fail-safe theory, and why Sartaj’s final pattern may have been the key to saving Mumbai.
Sources and Further Reading
- Reddit — Why People Bashing/Trolling Nuclear Lady?
- Reddit — The Least Believable Thing About the Series
- Reddit — Why Issue Over Wearing a Bulletproof Jacket While Defusing a Bomb?
- Reddit — Sacred Games Season 2 Discussion
- Hindustan Times — Sacred Games Season 2’s Final Scene Left Many Scratching Heads
- Gadgets 360 — Sacred Games Season 2: Biggest Talking Points
- GQ India — Sacred Games Writer Varun Grover Explains Two Possible Endings
TTK Original — Beyond the Headlines
Editorial note: The five-attempt limit, the expert’s two failed inputs, Sartaj’s use of the Kaal Granth, and the unresolved ending are established by the series and contemporary coverage. The expert’s actual reasoning is not confirmed; explanations involving panic, guesswork, or unshown technical knowledge remain interpretations.