Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
You know what’s more horrifying than any one Black Mirror episode? The fact that every Black Mirror episode is apparently connected in its own web of horror. Ever since coming to Netflix, Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones’ sci-fi anthology series has become much more cheeky about its winks and ties to past episodes, and Season 5 certainly continues that trend.
If you watch Season 5 at face value, you get to enjoy an emotionally complicated tale of friendship and gaming, a sorrowful yet strangely funny kidnapping, and a teen heist with a dark edge. But look a little deeper and you can find updates to some of your favorite episodes from the past few seasons. Here’s your guide to all of the Black Mirror Easter eggs we’ve uncovered in Season 5 so far. And before you ask, yes: Bandersnatch is all over this season, so you need to feel guilty about whatever you did to Stefan, all over again.
“Striking Vipers”
Striking Vipers’ tech looks very familiar.
It’s difficult to see the tech in the actual episode but the next episode “Smithereens” officially confirms it (more on that in a minute). Striking Vipers X, the VR take on the classic street fighting game Danny (Anthony Mackie) and Karl (Yahya Adbul-Mateen II) love playing, is from the gaming company SaitoGemu. You may recognize them as the experimental horror gaming company that ruined Cooper’s (Wyatt Russell) life in “Playtest.”
But that’s not the only gaming gem this episode hides. The VR devices Danny and Karl use are from TCKR Systems, the company that emerged from Tuckersoft. And what game did Tuckersoft make long before creating implantable VR devices? The dark choose-your-own-adventure ’80s game Bandersnatch.
Karl’s pinball machine contains some episode clues.
The ending of “Striking Vipers” is shocking to say the least. But perhaps it wouldn’t have been so intense if we paid more attention to Karl’s pinball machine. While he’s playing the virtual arcade game, he cycles through three different environments: an ’80s style roller rink, outer space, and a haunted house. Those are the settings of the romantic “San Junipero,” the twisted video game adventure “USS Callister,” and the warped VR horror story “Playtest” — the three Black Mirror episodes that are most similar to “Striking Vipers.”
“Smithereens”
“Smithereens” was first mentioned in Black Mirror: Bandersnatch.
By now this is old news, but it bears repeating. The first time we ever heard about Smithereens, Black Mirror‘s answer to Twitter, was during Bandersnatch. A news ticker at the end of Bandersnatch‘s most violent ending included this report: “Senate Committee grills Smithereens CEO Billy Bauer over Russian bots.” The episode “Smithereens” has nothing to do with Russian bots, so it seems we now know something Topher Grace doesn’t.
Smithereens’ headquarters is next to two remarkable hubs.
The reason Chris (Andrew Scott) was able to get away with his kidnapping plan is because he spent all of his free time posing as a Hitcher (think Uber) driver right outside of Smithereens’ headquarters. When he accepts a new fare, the camera reveals an interesting geographic coincidence. The Smithereens headquarters is right next to the Bandersnatch Theatre and SaitoGemu Arcades. The Bandersnatch connection is obvious, but SaitoGemu is the name of the horror gaming company in “Playtest.”
Smithereens’ feed is basically nothing but Black Mirror references.
At one point “Smithereens” shows us inside the tech company’s lobby, and holy moly, are there a lot of references. The funniest one has to do with Michael Callow, the Prime Minister who was forced to have sex with a pig in “The National Anthem.” A status update implies that Callow is still Prime Minister in 2018. Also if the hashtag #oinkoinkCallow means what we think it does, well the deed has been done.
Other trending topics include a reference to “Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too”s Ashley O, another Tuckersoft reference, a strike happening over the hospital that will become “San Junipero” Saint Juniper, and a note about a Sea of Traquility reboot. If you forgot, Sea of Tranquility is the show “Nosedive”s Lacie (Bryce Dallas Howard) pretends to like so she can catch a ride with some cosplayers. However, the most interesting hashtag is #SaitoXNetflix. Does that mean that SaitoGemu has a collaboration with Netflix in this universe? What does that mean for our real world?
Chris loves SaitoGemu as much as the rest of Black Mirror.
While the company searches through Chris’ Smithereens profile, a few of his past comments can be seen. And at one point Chris wanted to know which Saito console he should buy. We were all so innocent back then.
Actually, Chris’ Smithereens feed is Easter Egg central.
In an effort to better understand the man kidnapping their employee, the Smithereens team creates a word cloud of the phrases he used the most while he was active on the platform. There are references to Black Mirror episodes “Smithereens” has nodded to before, like Michael Callow and “The National Anthem.” But there are a few new ones as well. It turns out Chris is a fan of “USS Callister”s favorite fake show, Space Fleet, and he also loves Fence’s Pizza, the pizza company featured in both “USS Callister” and “Crocodile.”
He’s also written about Victoria Skillane and Tamsin, which is far more surprising. Victoria Skillane (Lenora Crichlow) is the name of the woman who was seemingly being tortured by phones in “White Bear.” As the episode reveals, she was actually being punished for the murder of a young girl. Tamsin is an odder connection. The only Tamsin we know in this universe is the producer in “The Waldo Moment,” played by Christina Chong. It’s unclear why Chris, a fairly average guy, would know about her unless there’s another story we haven’t heard.
Chris also likes talking about Mr. Robot, Mad Men, Kanye, and Between Two Ferns. That’s not exactly relevant to this article, but it is strangely wholesome.
People are as mad at Persona as they are at Facebook.
If Smithereens is Black Mirror‘s answer to Twitter, then the fake social site Persona is its Facebook. The site is shown multiple times throughout the episode, and a B-plot actually revolves around Chris’ friend trying to guess her late daughter’s Persona password. While Chris scrolls through his Smithereens account, the hashtags #SaitoXNetflix and #DeletePersona can be seen. That’s a pretty clear reference to the “Delete Facebook” movement.
“Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too”
Ashley O’s music video director also directed this episode.
Early on “Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too” shows an Ashley O (Miley Cyrus) music video with a familiar directorial credit. Anne Sewitsky directed both this fake music video and this episode of Black Mirror. Also, Ashley O is apparently signed under Girvan Records. David Girvan was a script coordinator for this season.
Ashley O Is taken to Saint Juniper’s ICU after she falls into her coma.
As we all know, Saint Juniper is the hospital that will one day become the virtual community “San Junipero.” This is actually the second time Saint Juniper has appeared in the series. The hospital made a brief appearance in Black Mirror: Bandersnatch.
While Ashley O was in a coma, “Crocodile”s architect was being arrested.
During one of the reports about Ashley O’s coma, a news ticker announces “Architect arrested on multiple murder charges.” That architect is most likely Mia (Andrea Riseborough), “Crocodile”s protagonist whose attempt to cover up a hit-and-run led to her murdering several more innocent people, including a child.
“Black Museum”s murdered curator has been found.
There are a few other news ticker gems in this episode. Another report announces that something connected to an interactive narrative is missing — likely another reference to Bandersnatch — and that SaitoGemu’s Striking Vipers game has caused stocks to rise. But that same report also reveals the body of a museum owner has been found. There’s only one curator we know of in Black Mirror, and he’s definitely dead: the Black Museum’s Rolo Haynes (Douglas Hodge).
People hated Tusk even before “Hated in the Nation.”
Yet another news report gives us a look at what Sea of Tranquility, “Nosedive”s favorite nerdy show, looks like. Turns out it’s anime. But right after that, a peppy entertainment reporter announces that Tusk made a “boo boo” on British television. If you need a refresher, Tusk (Charles Babalola) was a rapper who appeared in “Hated in the Nation.” He was called out and eventually murdered indirectly by the public after insulting a young fan.
Ashley O knows one song that isn’t by Nine Inch Nails.
A lot of attention has been given to the fact that all of Ashley O’s songs are pop versions of NIN songs. Well, almost all of them. At one point the auto-tuned version of Ashley can be heard faintly singing “Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand).” That’s the most Black Mirror song around. Abi (Jessica Brown Findlay) auditioned for Hot Shot using that very song in “Fifteen Million Merits.”
