Hello and welcome to the second episode of Season 7 of Casting
Reflections on Black Mirror. Well done.
I've just about got that right, haven't I?
You don't want to retake it. You're OK.
I think you cracked it. Well done.
Yeah, I mean, really, it's only season 2 of casting reflections,
but let's let's say each season of the actual show was it?
Yeah, Yeah, that's fine. How are you done?
I'm good, thank you. How are you?
I'm all right after butchering that intro again.
I was just saying that she before literally just as we were
starting to record. I wish I'd seen this episode
again because I've just watched it the once.
And just to shout out now obviously spoilers for season 7
episode 2 Benoit of Black Mirror.
I found this an odd episode overall for a number of reasons.
What? What should just initial views
of this? My initial views is and we could
talk a little more into it, but I really, really liked it up
until it ended. Like I thought the concept of it
was great and the whole gaslighting theme was kind of
throughout it, and I thought that was really clever.
I just hated the way it ended. I agree with you, I agree with
you, but I also find it's a difficult one when I was
thinking about how we're going to talk about this because it
feels like a difficult one to try to apply to real life, but
but we'll come on to that. We'll come on to that.
Season 7 Episode 2 Bet Noir directed by Toby Haynes.
Now, he has directed a few shows that we've also discussed in the
past ourselves. He directed an episode of
Sherlock. He did The Reich and Backfalls
OK. He also directed the original
USS Callister. He's therefore directed the
second episode, which I've not seen.
He directed Demon 79 and he's also directed a few episodes of
Doctor Who. Now the two, the two main
actresses we're going to talk about they've they haven't got
too much in the way of a filmography.
And I thought our linking to DC has, sorry, our linking to
Marvel has ended. But I found a really tenuous
link. The director has directed some
episodes of Andor, the Disney Plus.
Disney owns Marvel. So that's my link.
I'm not, is it? Is it a link?
It feels a bit of a stretch. Moving on, Right?
It stars Sienna Kelly as Maria, Rosie McEwan as Verity.
Now, yeah, this debuted along with all the other episodes on
the 10th of April of this year. We get straight into it.
It starts off with Monday, which is, I don't know, I always like
it when you have these big, bold things come up on the screen
that tell you what time period it is.
But this is Monday and we see Maria and her boyfriend at home.
She's tasting some chocolates for work.
We find out that she works at a chocolate company.
She comes up with new flavours and she's she's trying a new one
she's just created. It cuts to her at work and
there's a group, A testing group trying it.
And the final person who comes in is Verity, who you can tell
Maria recognizes straight away. They're testing the chocolate
and a lot of the group don't like it.
But Verity tries it and she likes it and she she asks
everyone to try it again. And on the second taste,
suddenly the group starts to like it.
Verity and Maria meet in the restrooms where it's revealed
it's been 10 years since they last met, which was at school.
And Verity says she's going to apply for an assistant role in
Maria's team. And Maria looks uncomfortable
and says there is no role. You see there's tension between
them and you get the impression maybe there's been some bullying
because often that's the only reason why someone's going to be
really uncomfortable. Maria goes back to her computer,
looks on the company website and sees there is a role going.
We then find out in a conversation between Maria and
her boyfriend that Verity was seen as a brainy computer freak
and there was a rumour that she performed a sex act on a
teacher, that she was an easy target and one girl in
particular was quite evil towards Verity.
Maria is suspicious as to why Verity, who was a brainy
student, has been working as a travel agent, now wants to be in
food R&D. So that's Monday.
Anything in that initial bit for you?
I think I missed an important part there actually, didn't I?
About the cap? Yeah, I was going to say that
when she was talking to the research group, the group only
liked the chocolate because she suggested they like the
chocolate, and she was. So she got them to try it again.
And she was like, Oh no, it's so much better than the second time
round. Trust me, trust me, trust me.
And at that point, then they all all loved it.
Yeah, and I'm going to say something here, and I don't want
you to jump in just yet, but the important thing I missed is you
see that her boyfriend works at a chicken shop and he puts a hat
on the counter. And it was for me, probably
gives a bit away. It was this place called
Barney's. So Tuesday comes up, Verity's
being interviewed and to Maria's concern, she gets a job and
Maria asks her boss to dig around a bit more into Verity
because again she's saying why someone who's so clever at
school worked as a a travel agent now wants to be in her
business. Cuts to Wednesday and Maria and
her boss meet and he says Verity checks all came back clean.
He also lets her know that he is assigned Verity to shadow Maria.
Maria starts by making Verity list all the ingredients for a
new mallow treat that the company owner, Mr. Ditta is
interested in and is visiting them specifically to try.
Maria starts writing off the list of ingredients and she is
correcting on the spelling by the computer.
I think it was for a seaweed. I I didn't write it down because
it was a a weird word. And her colleagues are then
talking about a chicken shop called Barney, sorry, called
Bernie's, but Maria corrects him and says no, it's Barney's.
And then there's an argument, you know, because as I said, I
also saw the cap at the start of the episode, which confirmed it
was Barney's. So they argue it and she googles
it and the results do show that it's Bernie's, not Barney's.
So she goes home, looks at the cap and see, sees that it
changed from a Barney's cap to a Bernie's.
And I think it changed from red to purple.
Anyway, she's talking to her boyfriend about this, he starts
relating it to the Mandela effect.
They have an argument, she storms out and looks at school
photos where one of them shows Verity in the background looking
on. She then decides to message
Natalie Kane, who was the the girl that was nasty to Verity
and has started the rumours to let her know about Verity coming
back. But on the text message, we see
that they haven't spoken for four years.
Cut to Thursday, bosses visiting the office.
He tries the new chocolate, loves it and starts to ask what
the texture is. Maria says that it's held
together with a derivative from the seaweed that she'd listed in
the the ingredients. Oh, and I forgot to say that.
Yeah, Verity was then going to take the ingredients and bring
it to the chef to make. When she says that it's a plant
based derivative, the head chef looks very confused but doesn't
say anything. Yeah, she she described the
product as having a plant based derivative in the cook looked
horrified at that point and then it was realised that it did have
beef based gelatin in it. They go into the boss's office
and they're arguing and Verity says that all Maria said was
that it should be non pork gelatin and Maria is adamant
that she wrote carrageenan. They're arguing over this.
He asked to see the e-mail that Maria sent, but again, it says
non pork gelatin, whereas we know we saw earlier Maria write
the word carrageenan. She's forced to apologise and
later at home, she says to her boyfriend that Verity must have
done something as she was always a computer genius.
Natalie messages her back with a friend from school, but it's
actually a message from her husband who informs her that
Natalie had died a few days ago. Maria calls her back.
Now whilst this isn't a funny bit in terms of because she's
just found out someone has died, the the boyfriend was arguing
for her not to call him because he's going to be grieving.
And you can see the boyfriend cringing in the background,
can't you, when she calls him up to ask about him.
So we see him cringing in the background and and we find out
the friend took her own life after becoming increasingly
paranoid. Skip to Friday, Maria goes to
work and only Verity is there and she asks if she was sitting
out the team meeting that was going on.
They have an open conversation about their childhood and Verity
then drinks all of their colleagues milk chucking it on
the floor and then blames Maria. Now in a lead up to this, on
previous days there was a colleague in the office was
constantly complaining that her milk was being drunk or was
being used up. Almond.
Milk. Yeah, Yeah, Almond milk.
That's right. And yes.
So Verity drinks this milk, chucks it on the floor, blames
Maria. When the the rest of the team
come in, you know, Maria starts saying that Verity's drunk it,
Verity's drunk it, Verity blames her.
So they go to check the CCTV footage and it shows Maria
getting quite aggressive, grabbing the milk and drinking
it. She says it couldn't be her as
she has a nut allergy. When she says nut allergy, the
boss and the security guard don't recognize these words.
So when she googles nut allergy, it comes up and it says did you
mean not allergy? So now those the phrase nut
allergy means nothing. Right at that point she notices
a pendant on Verity that Verity is fondling and she believes
that it's that that's changing the facts.
She lunges to stop it. They're to take it, but it's
stopped and fired. Now this is where we get to the
bit you were saying that night. Just just just just before that,
just to kind of some of those points.
So when every time that reality is changed, well, what she sees
as reality is being changed. Verity makes a statement just
before which will sound when I watched it first time round, I
don't don't know if you felt the same, but always it felt odd
what she was saying when she was saying it.
But when you watch it second time round, it kind of makes
sense. So when it comes to the nut
allergy piece that the second before that she goes, no, such
fingers are nut allergy. And obviously you kind of like
your, your ears pick up a point because that's nonsense.
And then just before the CCTV footage was shown, she was like,
it was her, it wasn't me. And and again, it was like a
useless kind of you didn't need to say that out loud.
First time around it, it made me feel a bit weird when she said
it because it just it was out of place.
But then obviously as the story goes on, you understand why
she's saying it. Yeah, and I wish I'd seen it a
second time. So I think a lot of it would
make sense. And and I, I guess the one thing
I haven't stressed is that Maria, as the days have gone on,
has become increasing increasingly more.
I guess we would say the word paranoid because as we said,
she, she was convinced her boyfriend's, that chicken shop
was called Barney's and then it was Bernie's.
The incident where she knows she emailed a specific ingredient to
Verity and when they've looked at the e-mail, that word wasn't
there. I mean, the big one is obviously
the changing of the, the CCTV from Verity because they were
getting on. I think they'd reconciled from
Verity drinking the milk and throwing it on the floor to
Maria drinking the milk and throwing it on the floor.
So all this is increasingly making Maria think she's going
crazy, doesn't she? So that night she breaks into
Verity's home and she discovers a massive server room and a box
of pendants that are identical to the one Verity was wearing.
When Verity discovers Maria hiding under the bed, because
obviously Maria sees Verity still there, she hides under the
bed. Verity explains that after
finishing school, she became an expert programmer.
She created a quantum computer in her home that can shift her
to any timeline she desires through real time data she
gathered using the pendant as the remote, essentially meaning
she could do whatever she wants. She could change anything to her
will. She's been changing the
timelines around Maria in an attempt to drive her to suicide.
Verity reveals she did the same thing to Natalie as revenge for
the rumour that Maria started. Maria tries to reason with her,
but Verity reveals she has tried every path in life, with none
being as satisfying as revenge. Maria attempts to attack Verity,
but Verity alters reality to have armed police arrive,
placing a knife in Maria's hand. While restrained, Maria grabs an
officer's gun and shoots Verity in the face.
She quickly grabs A pendant, uses Verity's fingerprint to
shift to a timeline where it works for her, and after making
the police officers believe that Verity was the attacker, she
shifts reality several times to her own benefit.
Now one thing that was said earlier on when she finds out
that Verity's changing timeline, doesn't Verity say at one point
I even made myself Empress of the Universe, didn't she?
And it wasn't as fun as revenge. So the very final scene is
Verity, sorry, is Maria making herself the Empress of the
Universe. So that's a really, really quick
synopsis, but I think this episode probably has got quite a
quick summary. So ultimately woman makes
another woman go crazy by changing timelines around her to
make her that to doubt everything she currently
believes, right? Yeah, that's essentially it.
So what what? What were your kind of initial
thoughts? So when you finished the
episode, how did you feel? Exactly like you, I love the
idea of it. I love the premise.
I just saw the ending. I I don't know what I thought
about the ending. I know what he was trying to do,
but. Do do you think so?
We've discussed many black bear episodes in the past where we've
said I think it would have been better if we ended it like this.
On this one, I was disappointed with the ending and I couldn't
think how I could end it. So it was satisfactory.
Do you think there's an alternative way you could?
Because because in my mind, I had such a good like first 95%
and like, this episode is great. And then she goes from being
bullied and paranoid to Empress of the Universe in the space of
about 40 seconds. And I'm like, and when that
episode finishes, it's like, oh for goodness sake, like that's,
that was ridiculous. It's an interesting 1, isn't it?
Because one thing I didn't like is because we do find out that
Maria and that the other friend were bullies.
I mean, I think we find out it was actually Maria blamed the
other woman, that Natalie is a person who started the rumour
about the sex act on the teacher.
I think we find out it was Maria, don't we?
So the bully, the bully one at the end of it, that's one thing
I don't like. But yeah, it was just that that
whole if they'd have maybe showed it over like a like a do
it over a few minutes and showing her getting increasingly
crazy with power. And that's then when she made
herself the Empress of the universe.
But she just goes from having a struggle finding out about this
quantum computer, which she doesn't even question, right.
It's just, oh, you've created a quantum computer that can change
time to them making herself that.
I mean maybe I think I wonder if a better ending and maybe more
fitting with Black Mirror is that Verity then ultimately
erases Maria from everyone's memories and she becomes Maria.
Yeah, I think what would have been quite good is if I'd given
Verity a bit more of a back story.
So you felt sorry for her character to start with.
And then you'd kind of get to the episode end and I would
almost have like, like you said, the bully one.
At the end of the day, you you kind of find that out later on.
But always if you felt sorry for Verity and then she kind of won,
you know, not to the point where she committed suicide, but in a,
in a scenario where, you know, Maria's left unhappy, I think
that might have been a better ending.
Or that they kept changing timelines, that they're having a
battle with these pendants and they changed timelines so much
so it just the world rips apart or something.
I I. Also think they could have drawn
not drawn out. That's probably the wrong word,
but they could have really explored that, you know, the
little things making you go crazy.
I don't think they did that long enough because I think it
because when they did the CCTV, because all that other stuff on
there, you would question yourself, wouldn't you?
You would like, oh, maybe I didn't send that e-mail if the
evidence is here, maybe I've completely remembered that wrong
or maybe I didn't write that ingredient down.
Maybe I just remembered that wrong.
All that stuff is kind of believable.
What you would doubt yourself the second the CCTV got
involved. At that point it's like
blatantly obvious. It's, it's almost like we've
rushed the last few minutes, isn't it?
That's a really good point because everything up till then
maybe apart from the the nut allergy, I still find that funny
where they said, do you mean nut allergy?
Yeah, maybe if they made it more of a small, small steps, small
steps, maybe do it over a couple of weeks.
And it's just these little things because we've all done
that. Like you said, you know, you
think someone has said something to you.
When you say you go back to them, they say, no, I didn't say
that. Or you think you've read
something, but you've misinterpreted it.
Misinterpreted it. So basically you're you're
advocating her drawing out the poor woman's torture a little
bit more, aren't you? Yeah, but with the caveat.
But we feel sorry for her more by seeing more of her back story
because she just kind of, it almost introduces herself as a
bully and we don't understand why.
I'd like to hear a back story. It's like I said, really, really
really good idea. The other thing I found weird
about it though, is, and I know you shouldn't think about things
like this in a, in a show like Black Mirror, but you know, this
woman, OK, she was a computer nerd, but she's created a
quantum computer that can shift timelines.
You know, it's not even said that that she's worked for a
company or or something. It's just.
That or she's stolen it or been given it.
It's yeah, yeah, it's a bit. That bit's a bit silly, isn't
it? I said to you not to jump in at
the start, but the whole thing about the chicken shop, do you
want to say talk about that? Yeah.
So essentially Netflix, I don't, I mean, so I don't think Black
Mirror have done this before. Netflix had done this before,
but they've released 2 alternate episodes, haven't they?
Whereby in one episode it started off being Bernie's and
turned out to be Barney's with the change reality and in
another episode it did it the other way round so it was
Barney's and became Bernie's. Now when I we were texting about
this we saw different versions. However, when I re watched it I
had the version that you just explained.
Now I'm beginning to question myself whether I had the the
version the other the other way right way round in the first
place. But that's what I think this
does good. And that's what I will give this
episode credit for doing. So yeah, there were two
versions. I had the Barneys that turned
into Bernie's, and then I'll message you.
You said you had the Bernie's that turned into Barneys.
This time round when I'm watching it, I heard her say
it's definitely Barney's because it's like a barn where you keep
animals. And now I wish I'd known what
she said in the other version, because she would have said
something. She would have said something
different. This is what I was going to say.
So obviously this whole episode is on playing on gaslighting and
the Mandela Effect, right? And imagine if you and I, we'd
come on and we didn't know about that.
And I'm not saying Barney's turn into Bernie's.
You're probably sitting there. You would either one or two
things if you didn't want to say anything because you'd think,
did you get it wrong? I would have corrected you.
Well, I. Was going to say, yeah, knowing
you, you'd be like, daddy, you're feeling all right.
You know, it was Bernie's into, into Barneys.
Yeah, I I just think that that was a clever little thing.
I think at the start the, the problem is in this day and age
with the Internet, these things come out really quickly.
But yeah, Can you imagine if you or even if you you weren't doing
this episode and you just decided to watch it again, would
you be questioning yourself? I don't.
I don't think I would have picked up on it.
I I feel like we concentrate on these episodes because we're
we're going to talk to them and we look out for these details.
I'm not convinced. If I was just a casual viewer, I
would have noticed it. It's not the sort of detail you
would talk about either, right? It's not like, you know, you
wouldn't go and analyse it to the detail that we've just done
on this this podcast. We wouldn't talk about that
scene. I wonder if you watched it
quickly in succession though, like if you've had a few weeks
between, like I might not watch it for another few months now so
I won't remember. But if you were to watch it,
like sometimes I will watch his episode twice back-to-back,
1:00, so I can add some notes and two, just to enjoy it.
Yeah, indeed. Now if they'd done two versions
where the two actresses were completely reversed.
Yeah, that would. That would get us that.
I think I'd notice that like that that.
'D be brilliant. Imagine doing a imagine doing a
second watch of that and you're like, what?
You would be, I think you'd be, you would question your sanity,
wouldn't you? And then you would look it up on
the Internet and you'd go, oh that, that's quite clever.
That's actually class. That would be the far better
option. Yeah, that'd be the far better
option. The whole thing.
This got me thinking. So you know, you know the
Mandela Effect where people remember something to be
different to what it is or they find something out and they
they're sure their memory tells them it was something different.
Now long time listeners of this show knows that, knows that I
did an episode on the Mandela Effect.
And The thing is, you know, we've we've discussed like
things are going streaming, there's more and more streaming
on the streaming. People are changing things and
they don't have to tell people like Stranger Things in the last
series that came out, directors changed some of the effects in
the some of the episodes, but didn't tell people what or
where. They just did it.
They were, I think they weren't happy.
So again, if you're watching that and then you rewatch it and
you notice something's different, you're going to think
that's a Mandela Effect, right? And there was that show on
Apple. I don't know if you watched it.
Is it with that Rob Mcaleny in it?
So it's called Mythic Quest. The show got cancelled after the
last season so they weren't happy with the ending so they
redone the last episode and have uploaded it and took away the
original ending. So again, are we in an age now
where these things are happening and we are going to start
questioning ourselves? But because streaming can change
at any point, we're starting to doubt our our minds.
Before I come on, I did try and think there was a way that I
could drop things on into this conversation to, to question
your sanity and see if I could kind of catch you out on I, I, I
couldn't think of one in time to, to do it.
Oh, I've don't worry. I think my, my, my brain's so
tired tonight. I think already some of the the
mistakes I've made during this is is has been fine.
I mean, I like the episode in a whole because I said guests like
Mandela Effect streaming fake news and Big Brother.
That sort of thing has always been something that we as people
have been fascinated. We've nothing faint news in the
last few years since COVID especially has become massive,
right? But it's you see what I'm saying
that it's a hard episode, I think to try to apply to real
life because it would then mean we'd need to have one of these
clickers. So if you had one of these
pendants, I bet you'd have a field day, right?
Yeah, what would you do with it? What wouldn't you do with it?
I think. I guess I guess if if any if the
scope wasn't everything then. This is a thing.
It's a proper cheat code, isn't it?
Well, other than her untimely death, there was no
ramifications for Verity constantly using it, was there?
Yeah, yeah, agree. No penalty I is I guess is what
I mean. And do you think she aged?
Like, do you think she was just living one life or do you think
she kept on going back to do it again?
That bit wasn't clear, was it? No, I got the impression it was
just one life but she was just able.
And she didn't undo some of the stuff that she said.
So she also like, got her speak in Chinese, didn't she?
And then she didn't undo the Chinese.
She just suddenly started speaking English again.
Oh, and I guess the important thing is to say that I think
what a secondary watch will do is as you pointed out in the
focus group where she got people to to change their minds about
the chocolate is you can see when she's she's touching that
pendant is ultimately when she's activating.
Yeah. And and then you can see when
she's influencing. So on the on the Barney's thing,
she made a slide comment saying actually I think it was
Barney's. And you don't notice that on the
on the 1st watch. The second watch it's definitely
worth a go to to notice when she's influencing the room.
I guess, yeah, If you have that power, it's it's a small little
things. Like you said, you could just
change anything you have. You have a bad conversation at
work, you just change it and you say no.
That project I had to do was perfect.
Do you not find though, maybe going off onto a bit of a
tangent here with the whole gaslighting thing, People don't
have pendants, but I feel like this happens a bit in today's
world in, in the because we both work in office environments.
Do you not feel it happens sometimes on the small scale
kind of gaslight? It's like, well, no, you said
this and I said this and so and so said this.
And there's always this influence in by stretching the
truth a little bit, by exaggerating just that little
bit to to kind of change the tone or the message.
Yeah, especially if something isn't written down, you know,
anyone can say I told you to do this.
And especially if it's a position of power to somebody
under their power, then that person is probably more likely
to doubt themselves, right, The person who who's been spoken to.
So, yeah, I think people always have been, whether it's to cover
up their own mistake maybe or, or just because they generally
believe it. Yeah, you must have little
instances of this happen all the time, but yeah, I I think you'd
have fun with it. I think I was going to say,
think of all the football results we could change.
Football results but but also as well because again we, we both
work in IT and we both work in kind of support service
operational areas. We could just wipe out any any
bad issue that we encountered. Right.
Yeah, Yeah, that's not really an issue.
It wasn't me. I just felt the ending was very
rushed. Like I said, that Maria quickly
got a plan together and yeah, just that Empress of the
Universe thing felt just so silly and forced.
And I thought the other thing was when she shot that Verity.
That was quite gruesome as well, wasn't it?
It was. Yes, it was, wasn't it?
It was a bit. It was a bit of a shock.
Came out of the blue, didn't it? It was.
It was quite it was quite gory, quite graphic.
See, I don't think they didn't. I didn't need to kill her off, I
just think like seeing her suffer in a prison cell or
something along those lines would have been OK as an end
then. I just don't think we needed a
death in there. Yeah, they could have arrested
her, put her in a prison. Then you can find out that maybe
she had or, or put her in the back of a police van and you
find out she's got one of those pendants hidden in a shoe or
something. Yeah.
Yeah, agreed. And like they, they made a point
of saying like the pendants are like programmed by fingerprint
or whatever it was. Yeah, and Ravine, 5 seconds,
that was undone. So it's like, why?
Why even bother putting the limitation on in the 1st place
like and? I also like the fact that in a
bedroom, she had a box with about 15 of them or something,
wasn't it? It was like a whole jewelry box
full of them. It's like how many of you lost
in the past? Yeah, exactly.
What she could have, what she could have done though, is just
wiped out the bullying thing from school.
Like she didn't need to get revenge.
She didn't. She didn't need to get revenge.
She could have just gone into a universe where that just didn't
happen. Quite, quite a short episode,
but yeah. Yeah, true, true.
You know what? Yeah.
You see that is again Dan you've you can't really sensible
suggestion. I think too much about these
things. I mean, there was a few things I
was going to point out. There was a few Easter eggs in
there. So I I don't think I picked up
any of these. So did did you pick up any that
you want to shower? I didn't.
I didn't pick up any Easter eggs.
I thought there might have been some Easter eggs in the name of
the company, the name of the brand, but I don't recall there
being but. No, so the only thing I think
with the brand was that it was referenced in the previous
episode. Common people.
And I haven't checked these, but you know, I've got no ways doubt
it. But Barney's Chicken is where
Kenny worked in season 3 episodes Shut Up and Dance.
OK. A Verity's previous work
experience on a LinkedIn profile includes Wayhaven Travel, and
that's a hotel chain featured in Shutu and Dance.
Outside the data testing lab is a Gemini Orbits poster, which is
a callback to the doomed spacecraft.
And beyond the sea, the data building is situated opposite a
Tuckersoft billboard and that's the maker of the game that was
the source of Black Mirror Banda Snatch.
When Maria's boyfriend plays with AVR, the creatures of the
video gaming placing which is a later episode can be heard.
The organic milk is the same brand as a chocolate milk Robert
Daly drinks in USS Callister and it makes an appearance in the
second one. And the company Maria and Verity
worked for was did tell the maker of honey hugs referenced
in common people. Now Bandersnatch mentioned
there. I sent you something the other
day and again talk not quite on the Mandela Effect thing, but
did you see that Netflix of now? I think they've removed that
episode from Netflix. No, I, I, I saw your news
article. It said they weren't going to
remove it. I didn't never done it yet.
Well, and the reason being is because that and another show
that one, that one was interactive so you could make
choices and apparently Netflix are updating their software,
which means that wouldn't work anymore.
So again, imagine you sit down and you say I want to watch
Banda Snatch. It's not there.
You're going to start. Did it even exist?
I was thinking why couldn't they release it as just a stand alone
film? But yeah, if you if if those of
you listening have done it, you'll know why.
But yeah, I just think it's funny with this technology now
that we are having to remove episodes because the updates to
the technology can't run it. Yeah, I mean, this was a fairly
quick episode, but like I said, it's I think the subject was not
as in depth as as some of the others, but I guess it was a fun
episode on a fun subject. What would you rate it?
Just before you rate it, one thing I was going to say is I
thought the actresses, both the actresses are really, really
good. I thought they they played those
parts well. She got more and more frantic
and paranoid, and the other one got a little bit more psychotic
as the story went on. Quite good.
Yeah, really good point that Verity starts off as quite as
shy, like she's a new person in the company's shy, like the harm
innocent. You know, I'm just trying to get
a job. And then like he said, when she
reveals herself with the milk bit at the end, she she just
totally changes. Doesn't she just switched?
Yeah, I'm going to give this one a six because I just can't hide
from how disappointed I was at the end.
I'm annoyed because I'm going to give it 6 as well.
Really. Yeah, Yeah.
Well, I'm annoyed because you've got the same score as me.
Usually you score a little bit higher than me, so I was open to
go. Oh, no, I'm going to be tougher
than you. Yeah, again, I like the.
I like the subject. I thought it was good the ending
yeah just just let it down. It it, it ruined what?
Well, not ruined, but it it let down what was a really big build
up. And yeah, like I said, just
about that she you go into a house which had these massive
quantum computers, this pendant. Thing is, it was, what was it, a
47 minute episode? 47 minutes or something like
that. 51. 51 so some Black Mirror episodes go on for like
an hour and a half, so it felt like they had a bit more time to
play with. So I think they didn't have to
rush it. Obviously, obviously people can
tell. I'm really frustrated with the
way it ended, but just just felt like there's opportunity and
they've swandered it. Yeah, like you said, you know
where because I just had a look ahead.
So the next episode is 78 minutes.
So they they've got the ability to, as you say, have a bit of
time. But, you know, it's there are
probably some people out there who, who, who think where were
miserable and they loved the endings.
Yeah, maybe, probably right. Maybe they maybe they saw a
completely different ending. Maybe if you did, let us know
and I might put out a second, second episode of this.
I might update this a week after I put this out just to correct
some things, but anything else about this one you wanted to
talk about? No, I think, I think we've
covered it all. I guess the one thing I probably
should ask, did this feel like a Black Mirror episode to you?
Did it feel like a Black episode?
It's funny you say that because at some points while watching
it, I did feel like this was more stand alone and siloed from
the rest of them. And I can't tell you why I felt
that. So it's funny that you've asked
me that, because I did feel that.
I'm the same it it. It could almost be up until the
last five minutes, but it feels like it could almost be just
some sort of psychological drama.
It's I, I think the reason why I ask that is because a lot of the
Black Mirror episodes tend to have either that massive impact
of technology right throughout it, or it's quite sinister at
the start, isn't it? There's that, that overtone.
I do wonder, and maybe it's not linked to that at all, but that
you mentioned it about the dramatic announcement of what
day it was. I don't know if that had like
some sort of impact on my viewing of it in in some sort of
weird way that made it seemed different to Black Mirror.
I don't know. Maybe, and the only reason I say
that is because it's very unusual, because you didn't
really need to know that it was Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.
Completely unimportant, wasn't it?
Apart from the fact that everything unravelled within a
few days. Yeah, like Russ, literally what
they were trying to establish. Yeah, but it comes up full
screen, doesn't it? It's almost like a jump scare,
you know, It's it's. Jarring, isn't it?
It's not like it's gentle. It was quite jarring when they
announced what day it was. Maybe that's what work feels
like. Maybe that's the impact they
were trying to introduce it. This is what a day at work feels
like. We're going to jar you into
business. OK, well, you had a you had a
high scoring one last week. We've gone to six, six.
I think it just means it's a solid episode, right?
It's not. It's not terrible, but.
Yeah, solid could be better. Yeah.
And just actually one more thing for me, what you said about the
two leads. Yeah, because when I was looking
them up, they haven't actually done that much.
So it's like they're fairly. It's not like they've got a
massive catalog. I think I said this at the
start. So you know, for how well they
portrayed those two roles and being ultimately the two main
roles, right, it was only the the boss and the boyfriend, I
think that had the next biggest roles, right?
So. Yeah, I don't think you did
mention it at the start. OK.
No, I'm, I'm joking. I was going there.
You go well, so I I, I couldn't let my mum.
You got it in, you got me. You got anything else should be
done before we go other than having having fun at my expense
again? No, I think I'm done now.
I could do it offline as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We will see you next time for another episode of Casting
Reflections on Black Mirror, where it will be Season 7,
Episode 3, Hotel Reverie 2334. If I want your opinion, I will
give it to you.