The Ending of Playtest Explained | Black Mirror Season 3 Explained

The Ending of Black Mirror Season 3 Episode 2 "Playtest" (2016) Explained.
#Netflix #BlackMirror #blackmirror3 #endingexplained
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[@twindrill2852]

Imagine the guilt his mom must feel once she finds out her well-meaning attempt to get in contact with her distant son is what ended up killing him…

[@ajbanky7870]

I’m pretty sure she had dementia though so she probably wouldn’t even know.

[@devantesinclair9109]

That’s what’s makes it more unsettling about it

[@harambe420ontheinterwebs]

How would she find out? The company will never admit to it

[@bzq122]

she'll never know

[@Askhad96]

@@bzq122 How do you know? Maybe she has already known

[@theunnamedboog3197]

The way he cries for his mother is fucking haunting.

[@TruthNeverFade]

Same! That almost made me bawl instantly

[@EnigmaGameMaster]

@@lnlyby_yt Same, White Christmas and White Bear did that too. Shut up and dance as well. I think Black Mirror is the most messed up show ever made.

[@J_WheelerDoll30]

@@EnigmaGameMaster that’s what makes it intriguing & relatable. Most of the episodes are literally happening to us or some other people in the world. The obsession of social media, status far as our job(classism) being pressured into doing things against your own will, infidelity, dating in this crazy world world, injustice, helicopter parenting etc

[@Burialofagod]

His brain is malfunctioning and somehow is able to know that his “Mom” is calling the phone. He’s not “crying for her”

[@GelatoFingerboards]

Legit fucked me up😢

[@newguy3588]

Cooper was played so well by that actor. He pulled off the hipster derp really well THEN seals it with horror AND THEN the ending. Dude's pretty good.

[@Sharpstoned]

Kurt Russell's son.

[@newguy3588]

@@Sharpstoned That's fuggin dope

[@BlyGuy]

I didn't think he was a good actor until seeing this. Playtest really cemented him as a talent imo.

[@cavescratchings]

@@Sharpstoned THATS WHY HE LOOKED FAMILIAR THANK YOU OMG

[@NanNan-bz7qh]

i really believed the character he's playing. Its like watching a real person with real personality. Impressive.

[@sophiaisabelle027]

Playtest is one of those Black Mirror episodes that is too unsettling to watch until the end. Technology has its dark side, after all, and somehow it’s us humans who have to pay the consequences as a result of abusing them.

[@ButtersCCookie]

Great insight. You rock.

[@willisverynice]

Sounds pretty sus to me

[@user-tz2zz5ij1s]

Of course humans pay the consequences of the negative sides of technology. Technology exists to make things easier for humans. We have not invented anything that we didn’t think would benefit us in either a direct or non direct way. There is always a negative, whether it is increased laziness, increased social withdrawal and escapism toward more and more stimulating games and vr, to false senses of self intelligence when the intelligence is based on instant access to information.

[@mrgainz7252]

Somehow it's humans that have to deal with the consequences of human inventions 🤔

[@kroneexe]

destroy it all. We don't need technology.

[@4Jo]

With Cooper dead, his mom is now alone... Missing her son. And she'll never know he died. :(

[@Healthevoid]

Heart breaking 💔

[@yousafrafiq13]

Why will she not know, the authorities will let her know and trace it back to her !

[@dontwastetime8830]

@@yousafrafiq13 the shady company will never tell her

[@adw6894]

She has always been alone. Her son doesn't care about her at all. That poor woman.

[@northside.shawty]

​@@adw6894 Cooper wants the game to stop after being stabbed by Sonja. But to stop the game, Katie tells him that the game can only be stopped from the 'access room'. Cooper was very scared to open the door to the access room and tells Katie he was scared, he expects the game to trick him into seeing a deceived version of his mom because he and his mom have had a bad relationship. The game tries to scare it's players by analysing their greatest fears, Cooper thinking that his mom would be dead in that room makes me think that it is a very confronting thought for him. During the dreamlike ending sequence, Cooper gets dropped off by a taxi. As he gets out and stands in front of his house he takes a couple of seconds to look at it and releases a sigh and nervous laugh of relief. I think the ending depicts well on how the experience actually made Cooper happy or at least relieved to be home or seeing his mom again, possibly because he finally wanted to work on the relationship with his mother after his dad passed away. While he realises all this, he is actually dying because his mom interfered the neural network device with her phone call because she was worried about her son's well-being. That is what makes this episode very haunting for me.

[@DTowns1Finest]

I'll always believe that the "nightmare" was just his life flashing before his eyes

[@BryceEdwardBrown]

That is so scary, I love it

[@DTowns1Finest]

@@BryceEdwardBrown why thank you

[@MsDarra]

This is exactly what it was

[@zZastik]

This occured to me the 3rd time watching it

[@PiCheZvara]

Well, so all there was to his life was one bully, spiders, the girl he met in UK and his mom? Where was his father? His friends? His former lovers? Teachers? Etc.? Good theory, but the content he visualized is too brief to be a life summary.

[@phraze410]

40 mins in 0.04s. This is was a total awesome horror thriller suspense short movie!!!! This was better than many movies. This is the ultimate twilight zone vibe.

[@Rie-pm8vf]

Yh I love it, I just finished watching it and it's currently my favourite bm episode.

[@pickleioi9058]

this episode is so underrated. beautifully acted and truly haunting episode.

[@baerishlyakita3711]

Here’s another fun Easter egg for the Japanese dialogue: if you watch the episode in the Japanese voices, all of Saito and Katie’s lines are dubbed over on purpose, even the spoken Japanese parts EXCEPT at the very end, after Cooper’s mom calls. When Katie and Saito discuss what happened, they actually use the original actors’ dialogue (sans the “Mom” line from Katie). My guess is to also show that this was the actual reality, not the one nor the perceived voices inside Cooper’s subconscious. Also a strange oversight or a purposeful mistake is Katie mispronouncing Saito’s name initially when introducing Cooper to him in the English dialogue voices.

[@karolclark791]

I did find it strange how he doesn't under the word "fun" then proceeds to have a full conversation in English

[@kuaram8217]

​@@karolclark791I believed that he had just learnt enough English to be able to have that specific conversation only. Like memorizing what he had to say. So he didn't know the basic word "fun" because it wasn't meant to be a part of the conversation.

[@asuka-ryo]

I watched it on Netflix Japan, wouldn't have noticed that if I didn't read this comment

[@kamillakovago2488]

they didnt dubbed the mum in the hungarian version neither

[@Maggie66112]

SANS UNDERTALE?!

[@Tomixx1199]

several years ago when a friend asked if I would get an implant in my brain once they were out on the market, I said yea it sounds cool and I'm not afraid of it. This episode has changed my mind.

[@06DarKKlowN06]

WakeY WakeY

[@audie-cashstack-uk4881]

Riiiiiigghhhhht mark of the beast dude catch up woke tard bet you had a good few covid shots to FRIGHTENING YOU CAN VOTE AND RASE CHILDREN

[@jeeezkxyyy6250]

Fact thats what i was thinking

[@JNB0723]

@@jeeezkxyyy6250 Well, I would imagine by the time they hit the market they would be incredibly well tested- especially for things as this episode addresses.

[@goodjoejoe]

He was a beta tester. Once they're a few years out on the market, they'd be as dangerous as any technology we already have today.

[@RoxiieSays]

Awesome breakdown!! I definitely think that the signature page that was “missing” from the release, was done in purpose. And the document that Katie came back with was completely different and Cooper literally signed his life away.

[@TertiaryQuota]

nahhhh because if the company was keen on keeping Saito's latest game a secret, Katie wouldnt have even kept Connor's phone in the same room with him. Katie is portrayed as rlly intuitive imo and it felt so out of character when she came back with the papers and didnt even question the fact that his phone turned back on when his mum called. Maybe they didnt thoroughly test to see if phone signals could tamper with the cookie or whatever but idk i think youre really right.

[@Rie-pm8vf]

​@@TertiaryQuota watch it again. When she found out about it, not even 1 second later he's already dead (0.04s to be exact).

[@rwbyab7423]

Tbh when I clicked this video I figured it was just going to be some rehash of the episode's basic premise, but I was real impressed how deep and psychological everything actually was. Definitely interested in hearing more from you!

[@ajbanky7870]

3:40 good job on that “real time” edit! It’s somehow even creepier to see how it actually played out like that.

[@BryceEdwardBrown]

Thank you! It felt weird seeing it in real time for the first time, agreed that it's really creepy and unsettling... Gotta love Black Mirror!

[@Torboy124]

This episode put me through a spin, it was so saddening how he died. Its such a scary yet psycho experience

[@robertiv5601]

The part where he calls out for his mom before dying is what gets me... just too fking brutal m8

[@iamsemjaza]

The most disturbing shot in this episode is Sonia shoving that filthy knife into the butter.

[@Healthevoid]

Lol right ! So unnecessary

[@CarlosLosChapin62]

I just made the connection but i think That's where the stabbing him later on came from. That stuck with him too, no American would do that

[@darrellcovello7917]

*shudder*

[@MonkeyDBunmi]

I love how he reads with script with such excitement u know he loves what he’s talking about

[@rjai5003]

I went into this episode expecting it to be the typical “evil company that secretly lures in people to experiment on them against their will” kind of story, so the conflict just being the result of a genuine mistake with nothing nefarious going on (at least that we know for sure) was actually kind of refreshing

[@WhoAmIHmmm]

Until you realize that Saito literally had a cleanup crew prepared to "clean" the body of the main character in case any misgivings happened

[@Riyulet]

@@WhoAmIHmmm and a dedicated section to write what caused the crash

[@WhoAmIHmmm]

@@Riyulet idk about how that one is odd

[@GenX7119]

First he shouldn't have never turned his phone on in the first place; all he had to do is call his mother, then she wouldn't have to call him! That was the simple lesson from this story.

[@elliottpak]

Sonja even said your second point to Cooper early in the episode.

[@LonghornsLegend]

If we're doing that, the company should have them leave phones outside the testing room, and scanned with a metal detector. I just took a test where they did this exact thing, it isn't too much to expect this from a major company

[@abeltesfaye_]

This episode is so scary to me, probably their freakiest one yet and it's hard for me to watch all the way through. I've probably seen it 7 times in all, meanwhile I could watch any BM episode over and over again and I have haha. White Christmas with Jon Hamm is my absolute favorite, he was MADE for that role (literally, the episode director had Jon in mind to play it 😏)

[@89kilemal]

Yeah he's perfect but reading what he did in 1990 ruined him for me.

[@stephengrigg5988]

If you'd just call your mother you wouldn't have to worry

[@sierrachief117]

​@@89kilemalwhat did he do?

[@89kilemal]

@@sierrachief117 College hazing incident, ruined the guy's life basically.

[@abeltesfaye_]

​@@89kilemalAgreed 🙃 I can't stand him as a person & can only tolerate his acting, until I remember what he did

[@aryanmishra8629]

An AMAZING analysis. I watched the show way back and completely forgot about how it rolled out, but before watching this I gave the episode another go and its absolutely mind blowing. this episode just made the whole experience better because I uncovered a lot of things I didn't notice.

[@bryanvonstase6755]

The top props i can give to the jumpscares in this episode was the spider with human--like features. That made me sh1t inside. I even had a nightmare like that (after this episode), where a machine produced human/spider like creatures. They even had the big black dark eyes without pupils or iris. (6 or 8 eyes) THEY EVEN HAD HAIR ON THEIR LEGS! But something told me that they were harmless and more afraid of me then i was of them.

[@bryanvonstase6755]

Btw they had an average size of an adult house-cat, so they were pretty big on my opinion.

[@kryptonkx-personaluse-3826]

You’re the reason we don’t have good horror movies anymore.. The guy really getting ptsd from a spider made in blender 🤦‍♂️ If you’re that weak, stay on cartoons. It’s funny how some people find these episodes disturbing when in fact they’re barely watchable (recycling the old formulas on a more boring timeline).

[@thatguywhoasked2823]

​@@kryptonkx-personaluse-3826ur just a kid who didn't like the ep and got offended 😂

[@89kilemal]

*than

[@CZsWorld]

10/10 Sly Cooper reference

[@BryceEdwardBrown]

Thank you.

[@2120musiclover]

This really made me appreciate the episode more. Now I gotta rewatch it

[@BryceEdwardBrown]

I'm honestly so glad to hear that!

[@stewpeas4741]

Your black mirror breakdowns are my absolute favourite!😁

[@BryceEdwardBrown]

Comments like these make me want to keep making them!

[@TLEawareness]

This episode hits kinda close to home. I have temporal lobe epilepsy with seizure auras and this episode pretty much gets the aura down to a T. It takes seconds for the actual seizure to kick in and I black out but the fear and horror seems to last an eternity until I finally black out. I get the feeling I’m some place I shouldn’t be and there is someone or something that doesn’t want me there. I get Jamais vu (opposite of de ja vu) so my most common and well known environment can become completely foreign and unrecognizable. Fun thing too is they want to implant something into my vagus nerve to try and help control them. It was crazy though when she mentioned the brain firing off all at once because that’s what happens to the neurons in your brain during the seizure. Also usually the neurons fire about 80 times a second but during a seizure they can fire up to 500 times a second. The episode was really really crazy. Then at the end it shows him pretty much having a seizure.

[@Jinxy2025]

I unfortunately know exactly what you're talking about :(

[@TLEawareness]

@@Jinxy2025 we are warriors! Never give up never surrender!

[@stefaniskaya1283]

My mother had the same type of seizures and described her auras in a pretty similar way. She got the same kind of implant. Unfortunately it did not help her seizures. They got more and more frequent.. but they were able to locate the exact little spot in her brain that was causing the seizures and removed it. Not a seizure in over ten years. I do hope the implant works for you! I hope that your epilepsy can be managed and that you are seizure free soon.

[@vinceee_r]

I had a seizure one time(at least thats what the doctors told my parents) and im not sure if this is how it’s supposed to be like but when i went through it, i was in the hospital bed staring at the door one min, then the next second, i see my dad in at the end of my bed telling me that the doctors said i had a seizure. There was no blacking out for me. Is that normal?

[@lotte1521]

your analysis is insaneely good. I wish I actually payed attention to the little details so I wouldve noticed the foreshadowing

[@ziggyofilms]

Love this video! Really enjoyed the analysis! I find lots of “analysis” videos are really just re summarizing, so I appreciate the thought in your videos!

[@BryceEdwardBrown]

Thank you @ziggyo0o393, that means a lot! I really do try to provide the most insight “analysis” I possibly can, I don't get why other creators just summarize stuff

[@margarita1776.]

This is the only episode that I believe has a genuinely good ending. Him dying is part of the game. That was his biggest fear being realized: dying alone, in a foreign country, without his mom knowing where he went or if he will ever return to her.

[@pnut3844able]

Nah

[@TheTuttle99]

What? So his biggest fear is dying alone away from home without talking to his mom....so he decides to take a long trip away from home and not talk to his mom? How does that make any sense? His fear is (very clearly) facing his mother, and probably also the idea of her meeting the same fate as his father

[@martincotadoteho3754]

Exactly! Finally someone explained it. It makes sense. But what is not is what is good ending ? This is some depressing sh*t ( and horror at it's best)

[@josephdrilon2923]

Just to add about the significance of the number 4. There's 4 more bars left on his headset until the upload was complete. Damn

[@ballZdeep0420]

The assistant switched off his phone, he died because he switched on his phone to send pictures to Sonya (breaking his NDA). 🤷🏽

[@LonghornsLegend]

I know it's fiction but the company should have/would have taken phones and not speed them in the room all together. And scanned with a metal detector for anything that could interrupt upload. I took a license test where they make you do all this stuff, with the type of technology this company has its silly to not expect them to take the same measures

[@AK_UK_]

His scenes with the mother were haunting

[@BryceEdwardBrown]

Literal nightmare fuel

[@Rie-pm8vf]

Yk what pissess me off the most is how neither of them seem to give a fuck that cooper is dead. They're more concerned about why their mushroom failed rather than the guy that they just killed.

[@gishigoshi]

I never even realized his name name is Cooper Redfield which is similar to Chris redfield from resident evil which is a video game about being in a spooky mansion

[@gishigoshi]

Oh oops he mentioned it lol

[@DrakeAsleep]

I just started watching black mirror and I'm addicted i just find this episode, season 3 episode 1 and wow it haunt me how cooper cried out "mom" at the end really terrified me! I wanted to come here see like more to this episode and I'm glad i found you! All the little details you point out wow man! Great job! Subbed!

[@metagasm820]

Great video but I wanted to point out that Andrew Ryan didn’t program the protagonist of Bioshock to respond to the phrase “Would you kindly,” it was Frank Fontaine. He was using that phrase on the protagonist to get him to kill Andrew Ryan, and Andrew Ryan revealed it to the protagonist.

[@SuperMacro64]

I actually appreciate that this video explained it in a mere 4 minutes, albeit with a better longer explanation afterwards. Thanks for not keeping us waiting.

[@icanfixthat3890]

Did anyone notice that when he first entered the gaming company and while he was walking around what he jokingly referred to as “Hogwarts” there was a guy (or girl) working on a character model. That exact same model was his childhood bully “Josh Peters” this makes me wonder when did those 0.05 seconds start?? This is the one episode that still has me thinking

[@Hellcatte27]

damn. that's a whole lot of details from a 40mins film. great job!

[@BryceEdwardBrown]

Thank you! I had no idea I could talk this long about one episode

[@pickettpride6980]

Crazy that all that he experienced in the episode all happened in less than 1 second.

[@woolsheepthree]

Yep they be pulling Chimera Ant Arc trick here

[@ismaelalvarez8661]

What? It was 4 seconds. .04 is 4 seconds. Yall need to go back to school 🤣🤣🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

[@chapper3ks]

@@ismaelalvarez8661.04 is 40 milliseconds

[@JollyCo-oPEnjoyer]

@@ismaelalvarez8661 confidently incorrect

[@lottasunshine1325]

Great explanation! I'm also very impressed with all the "Easter Eggs" you detected.

[@b3z3jm3nny]

The whole bit about midnight club having the record for jump scares is that it’s a brief scene that’s astory within a story making use of jump scares and then everyone else rags on her for relying on jump scares.

[@Northdy]

Amazing detailed review! The only detail I'd like to add, referring to Resident Evil series is that the house from Harlech Shadow looks almost like The Spencer Mansion from Resident Evil 1.

[@photographybyliamanderson1659]

You sir are a different breed. The amount of layers in this!!! Damn!

[@g0dzilla_au]

21:30 It's the same in Japanese too. The kanji for death and 4 share the same reading: "shi". From what i've seen "yon" is a more common way of saying the number 4 as it avoids the "death" reading

[@BigEddieCalzone]

There are anal-retentive obsessives and then there is you. I cannot remember an analysis video on KZbin that I've enjoyed this much. Thoroughly detailed, brilliant observations of the film language and humorous enough but not distractingly so. Really well done, sir.

[@tyreerockets]

@2:11 I just want to leave this comment to appreciate the fluidity of the video w/ the audio. Salute sir. The most minuscule things mean so much 🫡

[@stephengrigg5988]

It's messed up that one of the only main characters that's a genuinely good person gets such a cosmically horrible ending. His mind basically shuts down while running through all of the deepest fears of his subconscious. It culminates in him realizing that his biggest fear is reality.. he vanished after his fathers passing and his mother will always think he just abandoned her.

[@JamesLee-pi4nv]

Brilliant vid mate. No idea how you picked up on so many minute details!

[@A5H_01]

Funny how Sonja referred to Cooper’s scar as a “battle scar”, then Cooper is stabbed in the same place by red Sonja later.

[@Lucaca-vp7po]

Every single time i felt safe for Cooper everything falls apart

[@BryceEdwardBrown]

Right, it's brilliant!

[@Neolithika]

You'd think they just take peoples phones away to make sure..

[@BryceEdwardBrown]

Right?!

[@jtho8937]

Plenty of people do stupid shit despite instructions and warnings to the contrary - as others have pointed out, he wouldn't have died if he hadn't been a dumbass and turned his phone back on. Maybe the company also didn't realize just how dangerous the interference could be?

[@yucol5661]

@@jtho8937the researchers are dumbasses too honestly, don’t they know how people work? They fail to follow instructions. You don’t just let people around the means to accidentally kill themselves in an experiment if they are dumb

[@dontwastetime8830]

@@jtho8937 or the company is itself evil.

[@dontwastetime8830]

@@jtho8937 do you think the company cares when people die while testing games??

[@zack1256]

This episode made me pick up the phone every time my mom calls. Busy or not.

[@litneyloxan]

I KNEW there was a reason her saying “would you kindly” hit me differently

[@TheGreatEscapeArchives]

Why do nobody mention that it’s weird for a young woman to live alone in a big apartment with high ceiling in freaking London. The place is huge and modern. To me that’s a clue that she’s getting big money from the gaming Company

[@mmps18]

Loving these Black Mirror videos! I loved that show so much.

[@BryceEdwardBrown]

Glad to hear, more on the way!

[@eveheart2876]

Another part is coming this Thursday

[@monsyd913]

This is my favorite episode. So freaking sad.

[@BryceEdwardBrown]

The ending is just heartbreaking

[@tawogparody9298]

@@BryceEdwardBrown i know right 😢

[@arthurdurham]

Greatest episode in the series. Terrifying and emotionally resonant

[@cindypadilla1992]

He was set up by that girl. After he gets with her she drains his acct while he sleeps. When he finds himself broke he goes back to her and she directs him to Saito. He then dies within 4 seconds of starting the test. Really strange how the assistant to a high tech gaming company can forget a page to the consent forms.

[@alceusrydan6237]

It’s only because of the turned on phone he died. We will never know what actually would’ve happened.

[@jj-mj5bc]

no you got fooled that was just his imagination not real her

[@dontwastetime8830]

@@alceusrydan6237 oh, so you worship that company.

[@desh323]

@@dontwastetime8830I mean they aren’t wrong since saito and katie said something about “the phone interfering” which if they were truly shady, they would probably say something such as the machine breaking (since the test subject is unalived)

[@Amanda_Woodward]

Man you would think they would be a little more diligent with having a cell phone in the room considering it can instantly kill you

[@barbarossa1780]

My mom just died from complications of Alzheimer’s. It’s going to be a long time before I can watch, “Playtest” again 😔

[@CasualYugiStuff]

This analysis is absolutely incredible! THANK YOY!

[@BryceEdwardBrown]

Thank you, I'm glad to hear that!

[@trippy9320]

please never stop making black mirror videos i love them too much.

[@BryceEdwardBrown]

Can't stop, won't stop! and thanks for watching them!

[@sunnylaurie91]

That lady needs to carry a checklist around to make sure she's reminding people to turn off their phones beforehand.

[@BryceEdwardBrown]

Right?! lol

[@niceguysfinishlast]

she did didn't she ?? it's been a while but i think she did and then he turned it back on so that he could take a pic of what the company was doing and forgot to turn it back off

[@Mary-pt8jm]

@@niceguysfinishlast she shouldn’t have brought the phone into the room in the first place

[@dontwastetime8830]

do you think she cares when people die while testing games??

[@someweirdguy5721]

Playtest absolutely reminds me of the last acid trip I took It was an absolute hellish experience where I couldn't tell what was real and what wasn't by the end of it and was left in a mental state where I thought that I had slipped into the wrong timeline and the only way to get back to my original timeline was to kill myself in the false timeline, Play test really hit home with me

[@gnosisi]

omg are you literally me? I just finished watching it and I'm having a mild panick attack rn. That one trip I had felt like this EXACTLY. Couldn't distinguish reality from what's inside my head, and everytime I thought I break out of it I was still there, the endless spiraling, fractal-like mind prison. The insecurity lasted for days even after the trip. sheesh. Even now a little.. I think I'm traumatized for good.

[@someweirdguy5721]

@@gnosisi it's okay at least there is someone else who gets it, it'll probably be with you forever. Luckily I already had that happen with salvia so after I sobered up I knew how to cope with it, but yeah it was like waking up into a different nightmare over and over and over.

[@Pheorach]

Hey same here with a bad shrooms trip. The most intense thing was experiencing everything and every thought as the result of like this deep lore backstory it invented as it went along. Like the analysis of the guy seeing the elements which appeared in the dream, I thought I had been taken from a simple farm life in a distant time long ago and messed with by a time-controlling demon and the connection to farm life was the fact that I had a bunch of bird figurines in my room. The spiraling projectors on my ceiling became representations of galaxies which of course my eternal torture (I felt like I was dying actively) was going towards creating as part of the time demon's game (who just so happened to be my partner who was trying desperately to help me while I screamed and thrashed around the room to get away from him) Then there was a whole sequence where I thought I had drowned in the ocean because my bedspread design looked sorta like waves/shoreline and on and on and on it was so fucking horrible and it messed me up for WEEKS afterwards. My partner was also really affected by the experience because they were supposed to be my trip sitter (and of course did amazingly for what was going on in MY brain- given that I also hallucinated them repeating shit back to me in a mocking tone which only heightened the illusion)

[@Pheorach]

​@someweirdguy5721 please write about your experience. It really helps process it. Your brain is an INCREDIBLE thing. The flip side is that it can really find awfully good ways to scare us. Never be shy to reach out for help, and just know you did AMAZINGLY for the situation your brain gave you to cope with. I'm sorry you had to go through it, but you're okay. You're not crazy. ❤

[@someweirdguy5721]

@@Pheorach yeah I think I'm finished processing it I've spoken about it with therapist and other stuff and that was a long time ago at this point. That trip wasn't even my worst one it was just my last bad trip. At one point I took a whole sheet of acid and after that every trip was a bad trip and the trip being with a whole sheet being the worst of them all. I'm at a place now where I'm content with all my chemical experiences I have no more what ifs left I mean I've even shot up four hits of acid That's what I mean by there are no more what is, there's no Stone that I'm still wondering about if I had this or that. While those experiences were bad and terrifying I feel like they were very strengthening for my mind in the long run and I'm glad that I had them, May you find peace with your experiences it sounds like you have and it is such an empowering seat to be throned upon .

[@israelmateo2050]

I love the fact that this can be some years in the future, yet there's still no portal 3

[@briancrosby160]

Been holding off watching this because the ep scared me so much. I'm not prone to being scared by movies, but Play Test fucking haunts me

[@joshdepaola4002]

This episode is so sad :( his poor mother

[@BronyEd]

It wasn't Ryan using "Would you kindly" It was atlas aka Frank fontaine. Yeah Ryan did use it at the literal end of the game, but it's misleading to say he was controlling Jack the whole time

[@casketclubmerch]

Excellent breakdown, this is still one of my favourite Black Mirror episodes to back and watch for all the little hints scattered throughout. Also, this might be a reach but the Silent Hill game in the episode is actually Silent Hill: Homecoming, perhaps a reference to his fear of eventually coming home.

[@fanboyshypad61]

Id go as far as to say its deeper inset trauma mixed with the load stimuli from the game tha specially hit all his fears at once whilst it happens in less than a second the brain processes it at light speed and he perceived it stretched to well the whole episode

[@MsTinkerbelle87]

You’re really missing Black Mirror:( I hope they comeback!!! I LOVE the Easter Eggs!

[@Johnny-hn9ts]

A new season has recently came out!

[@danielchapter70128]

Dude this was the scariest BM episode for me personally. Great breakdown!

[@dylgaarthecarpathian4019]

They did an exceptional job of emulating how deep personal issues come to the surface and overwhelm you during a psychedelic experience (or VR sim in this case, but same idea)

[@HugeConverse]

This was one of the first episodes of the show I watched before I understood what it was. I will never forget the harrowing feeling of the ending.

[@northeasternpeak5732]

My takeaway was more personal as I've been avoiding my mom's calls for years. I'm definitely not answering now.

[@sjin8896]

Wyatt Russell is effortlessly likeable. Hard to get away with when both parents are famous.

[@TayWoode]

I was watching it thinking he looks like Kurt Russell, I thought Goldie Hawn only had two kids, Kate and Oliver Hudson 😂

[@Pining_for_the_fjords]

I wasn't a fan of this episode when I saw it, but it's interesting you mentioning all the parallels between things he saw in the real world and things he dreamt later, similar to Mulholland Drive. My main problem with the episode is that none of the things he experienced, nor his death, meant anything. It's literally just an "it was all a dream" ending. And his death was apparently a complete accident. If they had known that phone signals could kill somebody connected to the machine, they would have been super strict about it from the beginning, searching or scanning him for any similar devices, letting him know about the risks and making him leave his phone outside the room, preferably in a box which completely blocks phone signals. There's nothing to be learnt from his death. He didn't die because of his poor relationship with his mum, he didn't die because of his thrillseeking lifestyle, he died because he tried an experimental technology before they'd ironed out all the bugs.

[@heart022]

Literally my opinion! I wish that there was some deeper meaning or at least a form of redemption for the main character because without it, the ending felt really cheap in my opinion. It was literally just torture for the sake of torture.

[@sierrachief117]

But the results in his head were great. All that action happened within 0.04 seconds.

[@funnafisa]

This was one of the best episodes of Black Mirror!!!

[@Anyway120]

+1

[@CharlesVanNoland]

I remember that I never had a dream where I "woke up" and it ended up still being a dream until after I had learned of the concept itself in life. I remember as a kid learning about the concept of "lucid dreaming" and my inclination when I finally realized I was in a dream was to make myself "wake up", I guess because I was drawn to the idea of willing myself from one reality to another(???). That was the best I could come up with at the time, and so I "woke up" and found myself sitting in an attic, with a light, some Shel Silverstein shizzz, and then totally forgot I was dreaming. Since then I've seen everything mainstream media has to offer about dreams and whatnot, and only since then have my dreams-within-dreams gotten crazier. I kinda doubt that people had dreams within dreams as much 30-40+ years ago. It's a concept that didn't really exist in the Zeitgeist, the hive mind, the collective consciousness, and so it's sort of a modern phenomenon. Maybe I'm wrong. After all, I didn't exist 40+ years ago.

[@SweetSourPickle]

I've had one of the best breakdowns after having a cookie.

[@imthewonderband]

Don't pay attention to the headlines about The Midnight Club's Guinness World Record for jump scares. If you hate jump scares but like Ari Aster, and San Junipero, you would probably dig the show as well as all of Mike Flanagan's other stuff! The whole point of the massive amount of jump scares is a meta joke about how crappy jump scares are as a tactic in horror movies. All of his Netflix shows (haven't seen all of Flanagan's movies yet) are deeply touching metaphors that usually make me cry more than be scared.

[@ISRAEL_the1st]

IDK why but the ending of this episode was very upsetting for me even though I am aware of the whole Black Mirror theme. Cooper dying in the end just felt crazy to me, at least give him trauma or something, his death definitely took me by surprise

[@Astrovite]

I didn't even put 2 and 2 together that Sonja was Hannah John-Kamen until I saw your video. I guess in Hindsight I didn't know who she was when this came out. But now they're both in the "Thunderbolts*" movie together. So cool.

[@bdcs9752]

Papers please 3 is also a reference to the entire concept of black mirror It's a game that's on the surface is a rules sim having to check specific parameters for specific people enter But in reality it's a game that plays with morality and individuality and to show the greys of morality similar to black mirror

[@aakanksha7877]

Loved this analysis so much…. You observed way too many details, loved it honestly!

[@wjb4578]

Out of all the BM episodes, I had to pause for a bit and catch my breath on Playtest. I found out very early that I get waaaaaay too paranoid during my expirements and that psychedelics were not my tea cup, nor will they ever be. This episode felt like I was right there with Cooper on a never-ending trip.

[@adrianabarrios1202]

Its also interesting how the mother in psicoanalysis is represented by the spider as a symbol, and how just as in a dream he keeps seeing spiders and responding with fear.

[@danielmorales5901]

Wow, I had no idea about that bioshock thing. That’s crazy, blown away.

[@Solkre82]

Adding the noise speakers make when a cell phone goes off nearby was clever.

[@pnut3844able]

You played the theme from "annihilation" at the very end. Thought we wouldn't notice but we did

[@partor3566]

amazing video as always king 👑 and my favorite bm episode

[@BryceEdwardBrown]

Solid favorite, thank you @partor3566!

[@northside.shawty]

Cooper wants the game to stop after being stabbed by Sonja. But to stop the game, Katie tells him that the game can only be stopped from the 'access room'. Cooper was very scared to open the door to the access room and tells Katie he was scared, he expects the game to trick him into seeing a deceived version of his mom because he and his mom have had a bad relationship. The game tries to scare it's players by analysing their greatest fears, Cooper thinking that his mom would be dead in that room makes me think that it is a very confronting thought for him. During the dreamlike ending sequence, Cooper gets dropped off by a taxi. As he gets out and stands in front of his house he takes a couple of seconds to look at it and releases a sigh and nervous laugh of relief. I think the ending depicts well on how the experience actually made Cooper happy or at least relieved to be home or seeing his mom again, possibly because he finally wanted to work on the relationship with his mother after his dad passed away. While he realises all this, he is actually dying because his mom interfered the neural network device with her phone call because she was worried about her son's well-being. That is what makes this episode very haunting for me.

[@sopliplily2204]

Had a bunch of edibles while watching this and it was not a pleasant experience.

[@martincotadoteho3754]

It is not a pleasant experience even with clean head.

[@holdmeclosertonydanza22]

Atlas/Fontaine used the "would you kindly" prompt throughout the game, not Andrew Ryan. There's a sequence where Andrew Ryan uses it, and Ryan was the one who created the phrase and subsequent enslavement, but it was mostly used by Fontaine.

[@terragenesis32x]

Came to the comments to correct this, but was glad someone else already caught that. Still a great analysis of this episode either way.

[@aureeybaby]

Wow!!! This is so deep . What we see hear and read has a deep impact in our minds

[@Jimmy1timee]

Still one of the best videos on KZbin

[@hysteric4u]

YOUR MIND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! UGH! i'm hooked! can't wait to watch all the vids. thank u!

[@zurtacoin5624]

Yell Heah bruh

[@Wtfmango]

Earned a follow and my respect with the hereditary love haha

[@euphoricnotes3409]

This break down is brilliant!