Warning: Some spoilers for certain Black Mirror episodes ahead!

By Lawson Vaughan

What would you do if you could keep your loved one alive through the thoughts in your mind, or replay all your memories from your eyes to your TV? The Netflix show Black Mirror explores what these realities may lead to.

Often after finishing an episode of Black Mirror, I am left questioning the reality of our world. The show is addictive. Every episode is different, each with its own cast and story. Each episode portrays a somewhat futuristic reality, where technology has affected life in a dystopian way. But, looking deeper, one can find a sense of our own reality creeping in.

If you have not watched at least one episode, I recommend “Nosedive” (Ep. 1, season 3) or “Arkangel” (Ep. 2, season 4). These episodes give you an overview of what Black Mirror is like. They also are easy to understand, while for other episodes, the twists and realities can be complicated quickly.

Lacie from “Nosedive” checking her smile.

“Nosedive,” starring Bryce Dallas Howard as Lacie Pound, features a dystopian society where you have a social rank that determines your socioeconomic status. Your social rank is dependent on your social interactions, meaning that after every social interaction, people rank each other from 1-5 stars, just like an Uber or a food rating, This causes people to act overly nice and fake towards others. The episode follows Lacie as she tries to increase her rank to buy a house that’s more expensive in a better neighborhood. This episode explores how dependent our society is upon each other’s opinions of our actions, now that many people show their day-to-day lives online through social media. They can be judged and criticized for what they post, often causing people to not be their true selves online. This episode, as well as “Arkangel,” is based upon how much our lives can depend on technology, which is a recurring theme throughout the show. 

My favorite episodes of Black Mirror have a twist in the end, where you realize the true plot of the episode in the last ten minutes. One of the most jaw-dropping episodes, in my opinion, is “White Bear” (ep. 2, season 2).  

“White Bear” follows Victoria Skillane, played by Lenora Crichlow, as she wakes up feeling completely discombobulated. She walks out of what she thinks to be her house, and she is being filmed. Still in pain and disoriented, she starts to freak out. People are outside her house and continuously filming her on their phones. On the TV  in her living room, she is shown flashes of a signal that contains three white boxes on top of each other. 

Victoria from “White Bear.”

She finds another person who seems to be unaffected by this image on the TV, because she is not filming her. Victoria and Jem, who is supposedly not affected by the images and signal, try to escape the people who are filming her. The whole time, you are on the edge of your seat wondering what is going on. No more information is given, and you watch as Victoria and her new friend Jem try to escape those affected by the images. The episode seems to get frustrating as you lose patience, wanting to know if Victoria is safe yet. They go to shut down the images and the signaling, but Victoria can sense something is wrong. In the control room, they are met by two people who work for the “White Bear” signal, and Jem is killed off. She goes to kill the workers when suddenly confetti is released, and she stands there as the wall falls down and a stage opens. It turns out she had been filmed and watched the entire time; there was no signal, just people paying to watch her like a zoo animal. The plot of the episode changes, and you no longer are rooting for Victoria. In fact, you’re disgusted by her. 

Black Mirror does an incredible job challenging your emotions and making you think deeply about what is occurring in each episode. Some episodes are more thought-provoking than others. Every episode comes with its own twists and turns that leave the viewer questioning what they just viewed. A more light-hearted episode yet still has somewhat of a twist at the end is “Hang the DJ” (ep. 4 season 4).

“Hang the DJ” explores what it would be like if behind that 99.8% match on your dating profile was actually a 99.8% match. In the beginning, we see two people dealing with a reality where they have to live with someone for a certain number of years to find if they are a perfect match. Every time you are with someone, you get a countdown for the time you spend with them. Once you are matched up, you can only spend that amount of time with them. The main characters, Amy and Frank (Georgina Campbell and Joe Cole), are matched together at the beginning and are only given 12 hours together. They almost instantly connect, but after 12 hours, they are set up on new dates. 

Amy from “Hang the DJ” checker her timer.

Frank is given a very long-term relationship with a girl who he becomes annoyed with, and the next year of his life is miserable. Amy is given many short-term relationships and doesn’t find a real connection with any of them. After Frank’s relationship ends, he and Amy match back up. Amy is sick of the timer program, and she just wants to spend time with Frank and not think about the end of their relationship. Frank agrees, and the next months are enjoyed by the couple spending time together and falling in love. 

One day, Frank gets curious and checks the timer. The timer shows that they have nine years left together, but once it is alerted that he has checked the timer, the time drops to one minute. And the couple is split up. Again they are put into the cycle of dates and meet various people. One day Amy is told that her perfect match has been found, and before she meets them, she gets to say goodbye to one person. She chooses to say goodbye to Frank. 

Scared that they won’t be each other’s perfect match, but knowing that something in their reality seems off, they choose to rebel against the timer and leave the reality they are in. Once they climb out of the simulation, they see 1,000 other versions of Amy and Frank, where they had rebelled against the simulation 998 out of the 1000 times, causing the screen above them to show they are a 99.8% match. 

These episodes are some of my favorites, but over the course of the six seasons some are better than others, and the few I would avoid watching are mostly due to being too confusing. Sometimes Black Mirror tries to keep information from the viewer to either build suspense or to cause the viewer to question the plot. But sometimes, as the viewer, I felt my questions were never answered. In episodes such as “San Junipero” (ep. 4, season 3), the multiple realities can be hard to follow, causing the plot of the episode to be lost. Another episode that suffers from this issue is “Playtest” (ep. 2, season 3); the many realities in the episode cause confusion about which is real and which is fake. But if you are interested, watch all of the episodes, as you may find you can keep up.

When asked about the show, Maddie Jewett (’25) said her favorite episode is “Shut Up and Dance (ep. 3, season 3), because it’s thrilling and keeps me on the edge of my seat. I loved it.” “Shut Up and Dance” is very similar to “White Bear,” and is also one of my favorite episodes because the end is truly jaw-dropping.

All episodes in Black Mirror try to allude to realities in life, whether it’s a dystopian or a stretched reality of our world. If you like sci-fi, dystopias, or want to feel astonished and confused in under 60 minutes, this show is for you. The themes and messages from Black Mirror, although all different, push the issues of the present to how they could affect the future. 

All images courtesy of Netflix.