Chris O’Dowd and Rashida Jones in Season 7 of ‘Black Mirror’. Photo:
Robert Falconer/Netflix©
Black Mirror is back — and bleaker than ever.
The seventh season of the Netflix original series premiered on April 10, kicking off with “Common People,” a dark new entry starring Chris O’Dowd, Rashida Jones and Tracee Ellis Ross.
“It’s a possibly deceptive episode where it starts out as if it’s an indie comedy, but the premise turns out to be quintessentially Black Mirror in that it’s pitiless in terms of how it treats the characters,” series creator Charlie Brooker told Vulture.
While speaking with Tudum, Brooker said the new season is “back to basics in many ways.” He teased, “They’re all sci-fi stories — there’s definitely some horrifying things that occur, but maybe not in an overt horror-movie way. There’s definitely some disturbing content in it.”
“Common People” stars O’Dowd, Jones and Ross, all known for their comedic roles. But like a classic Black Mirror episode, the premiere mixes technology with a heartbreaking twist.
So how does “Common People” end? Here’s everything to know about the ending to the season 7 premiere of Black Mirror.
Warning: “Common People” spoilers ahead!
Chris O’Dowd in Season 7 of ‘Black Mirror’. Netflix©
In the episode, O’Dowd and Jones play Mike and Amanda, respectively, a couple living a happy and simple life until Amanda suffers a frightening medical emergency and passes out. It is revealed that Amanda has a brain tumor and may never regain consciousness.
The hospital refers Mike to Gaynor (Ross), a representative for Rivermind, a tech company that will clone Amanda’s brain, save it on their server and then stream her consciousness back into her body. The only catch is that Amanda will require more hours of sleep, and the subscription-based Rivermind plan costs $300 a month — something Mike and Amanda can’t afford.
As with any subscription-based service, new, more expensive Rivermind tiers are introduced. Mike and Amanda are stuck on the Rivermind Common level, which leads to Amanda unconsciously saying “contextually relevant” ads throughout the day, almost costing her her teaching job.
They upgrade their Rivermind subscription, and to help pay for it, Mike (who is a welder by day) starts making side money on DumDummies, a streaming video site where users pay to watch people hurt themselves.
Mike and Amanda can’t keep up with the cost of Rivermind’s expanding tiers, which leads them to make a dark and twisted decision, even for Black Mirror.
After years of trying to keep up with Rivermind payments, the couple are financially strained and emotionally exhausted, as they have both lost their jobs.
With Amanda requiring more and more sleep, she eventually tells Mike that she’s decided to end her life. “I think it’s time,” she says.
“Do it when I’m not here,” she instructs, referring to when she goes unconscious while streaming advertisements.
Mike takes Amanda to bed and smothers her with a pillow as she goes into advertisement mode, calmly reciting her commercials as she suffocates.
Rashida Jones in Season 7 of ‘Black Mirror’. Netflix©
Amanda tells Mike to end her suffering, knowing she can’t go on living, as Rivermind continues to up their prices for every new level introduced.
“It’s key that Rashida’s character, Amanda, says to him, ‘Do it while I’m not here.’ She’s talking about when she starts giving a sales pitch [during her commercials],” Brooker told Entertainment Weekly.
He continued, “We’ve established that she’s not aware when she’s running ads. She’s not mentally present. It felt so Black Mirror for her to ask him to basically euthanize her [in that moment].”
In an interview with Tudum, Brooker spoke about Amanda’s heartbreaking ending, saying that her request to be “smothered to death while giving a pitch, felt sort of perfectly bleak and perfectly Black Mirror.”
Chris O’Dowd in Season 7 of ‘Black Mirror’. Netflix©
After smothering Amanda with a pillow, Mike walks into his office. His laptop sits open on his desk with DumDummies live-streaming.
As he enters the room, viewers see he’s holding a box cutter with an extended blade. He turns to briefly look into the camera before shutting the door.
“My interpretation is that he is doing the same thing. It’s probably the hardest thing he’s ever done,” Jones told TV Insider.
She continued, “To have to do that at my request, but then to not live without me and to go through what he’s been through, the humiliation and the frustration and just the overwhelming [nature] of being left with no choice. I think he probably does the same.”
The actress also believed Mike live-streamed his death on DumDummies. “That is what he did. He says, ‘I’m doing a specialty thing later,’ which is pretty dark,” she added.
Netflix
While the ending is ambiguous, Brooker shared that certain clues were dropped.
“Earlier, he alluded that he’s paid for her last half-hour of Rivermind Lux. He’s doing something for a private buyer on DumDummies,” he explained to EW. “You can surmise from that that he’s probably not coming out [of that room].”
Brooker added, “It’s subtle, but he looks straight down the lens at the end, which is particularly chilling as endings go.”
‘Common People’ episode in Season 7 of ‘Black Mirror. Netflix©
Black Mirror is an anthology series, so each episode is a self-contained story. That said, the new season includes an episode titled “USS Callister: Into Infinity,” a sequel to the season 4 episode, “USS Callister,” which won four Emmys in 2018.
While it is unclear if “Common People” is connected to another Black Mirror episode, it does have a reference to a previous installment.
For their anniversary, Mike and Amanda stay at a lodge called the Juniper every year, which is a nod to the 2016 fan-favorite episode, “San Junipero,” per EW.
