The Most Thrilling New 'Black Mirror' Episode, Explained

The following story contains spoilers for Black Mirror Season 6 Episode 3, "Beyond the Sea."

PERHAPS THE best episode of Black Mirror Season 6 is "Beyond the Sea," an 80-ish minute affair that takes a bunch of ideas previously attempted elsewhere—including Being John Malkovich, Don't Worry Darling, Bad Times at the El Royale, and Westworld—and drops them into a '60s alternative history setting that at times feels straight out of Mad Men (but with that signature sci-fi twist). A couple episodes of Black Mirror's sixth go-around seemed to be missing that technological hook that makes the show what it's always been, but that's not the case with "Beyond the Sea," which mixes a bit of speculative sci-fi technology with what may be the best cast of the season (Aaron Paul, Josh Hartnett, and Kate Mara) to make an episode that's just about as good as the show has ever been.

The episode in a nutshell: David (Hartnett) and Cliff (Paul) are a pair of astronauts in outer space, in year two of a six-year mission. The initial twist, though, is that this alternative 1969 has made a technological advance that our timeline never did—Cliff and David can go to sleep in a special capsule in their spaceship, and basically use extremely-advanced robots that look identical to themselves as their on-earth avatars. They are quite literally in two places at once.

We see that these two astronauts live different lives; both have families, but while David lives in a modern home in an urban city, Cliff lives far away in a farm house with a big lot. Both, as we see through an interaction David has with a local moviegoer, are somewhat celebrities for their outer-space and on-earth feats. They also aren't quite in the same place personally—David connects on a deep level with his wife and we even see them get intimate as David plays "La Mer" by Charles Trenet, while Cliff and his wife Lana (Mara)'s relationship has seemingly grown cold.

Despite these differences, both men seem content with how things are going—their system works. Most of their time is spent in their on-Earth avatars, and when they need to go up to their actual bodies in space, they can get there with a simple tag that pings in their pockets. This all changes, though, when a cult—led by a Charles Manson-esque figure played by Rory Culkin—breaks into David's home, calling what he and Cliff are doing "unnatural." Despite David's best efforts, the cult murder his family and destroy his avatar, leaving him stuck in space.

Cliff is almost as crushed by David at this happening, and, being a good person (and as someone who isn't sure if he alone could survive their two-man, six-year mission in space should something happen to David), decides with Lana to let David start using his on-earth avatar for a little bit at a time. David, still deeply grieving, accepts the offer, and eventually begins to paint their home as a thank you to Cliff and Lana. Once this starts happening, though, it becomes pretty evident where things are headed; David, the intellectual greiving, connects on a deep level with Lana, and it's clear that a love triangle is coming. When he eventually puts on "La Mer," the moment we all saw coming comes: he attempts to seduce Lana, something she initially declines. Eventually, David (in Cliff's body), hits Cliff's son, Henry, for messing with his art, and Lana tells him to go home.

Cliff, in space, largely suspects nothing. But he eventually finds David's drawings—which he draws from memory—of an increasingly-naked Lana. And that's when things get hairy in a real Black Mirror way.

What really happened with the twist at the end of Black Mirror's "Beyond the Sea"?

Cliff immediately suspects something between David and Lana going on, and questions both of them; David makes the case we all know and can at least somewhat empathize with, that he's alone, with nothing and no one left for him in the world. When he goes back down to earth to talk with Lana—she swears on her and their son's life that nothing is going on, worth noting considering how this all plays out—he eventually believes her, and promises that David won't be back.

He returns to space, telling David the same thing: Lana doesn't want to see him again, and finds him disgusting.

Cliff is called back to earth at some point for an emergency, which he goes out of the ship to fix. At first, Cliff can't get back into the ship, and for that moment, it seems like a Black Mirror outcome we've seen before—Cliff is locked out of the spaceship, and David is living in Cliff's avatar for the rest of time.

But that's not what happens. David is a second late to grab Cliff and let him in... because he was busy doing something. And that something is something not good.

Cliff goes back into his on-earth body and is instantly crushed to see blood all over his home. Lana and their son, Henry, were both slaughtered by David, in Henry's body. A devastated Cliff returns to the ship, panting deeply, as David pushes a chair out for him. Now they've both got nothing. And now they've both got four years to go, together.

There's nothing, at all, that Cliff can do—he said before that this is a two-man mission that needs two men. Not to mention the fact that Lana and Henry were killed by someone in Cliff's body. His time on earth, presumably, is screwed.

These two are stuck in space, with only their mission and the Sartre-esque hellscape of each other, with quite literally nowhere else to go and nothing else to do. It's one of the grimmest Black Mirror endings to date, and a strong reminder of one of sci-fi's most valiant life lessons: don't go in anyone else's body, and don't let anyone into your own.

Is "Beyond the Sea" connected to "USS Callister"?

There's one major connection between "Beyond the Sea" and Season 4, Episode 1 "USS Callister": Aaron Paul. You may not remember (or perhaps never even knew), but Paul has a brief, voice-only cameo at the end of "Callister" as a player of Robert Daly's (Jesse Plemons) game Infinity, Gamer691. Gamer 691 is an avid player of Infinity, threatening to blow the ship that most of the episode's main characters are on if they won't trade with him.

But does the fact that both of these Black Mirror characters are played by Aaron Paul prove a connection between episodes? While much of Black Mirror has proven to objectively take place within the same universe ( "Loch Henry" is referenced as a Streamberry docuseries in"Joan Is Awful," for instance), these two characters feel like a far-fetched connection to make, considering Paul's "Beyond the Sea" episode takes place in 1969 and "USS Callister" is in 2017. Paul is 43 years old in real life, and so we have to assume that Cliff from "Beyond the Sea" is approximately the same age; Gamer691 doesn't exactly seem to have the personality or voice of a 91 year old.

We can also look to "USS Callister" for another example: Michaela Coel, best known for her part in writing, creating, and starring in both Chewing Gum and I May Destroy You, plays Shania in "Callister." However, she also plays an Airplane Stewardess in "Nosedive," which aired as the first episode of Season 3. These aren't the same character—they just happen to be played by the same performer.

It's probably safe to assume that the same is happening with Paul across his two appearances.

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