Welcome to the Heavy Spoilers show, I'm your host Paul aka the guy who's back in black...mirror,
and this video we're breaking down the film two episodes of Season 6.
Due to time constraints I've had to combine these two into one big breakdown but we've
still got a lot to talk about in terms of what happens in them.
The first of these is Mazey Day which centres around a member of the paparazzi named Bo.
Set in 2006 the story follows her as she tries to take the first photo of elusive star Mazey
Day who hasn't been seen for two weeks.
Now on the other side of this we have Mazey who's potentially in a lot of trouble. One
night she kills someone in a hit and run and then from here has a complete breakdown and
refuses to go out in public.
Mazey doesn't really want to be involved in the life of a pap anymore but she ends up
being lured back in with the idea that the photo can be a golden ticket that gets her
vicious, bloody vicious room mate off her back about the rent.
You're a bloody monster.
Nah but what this episode is of course gonne be remembered for is that when Bo tracks down
Mazey that she turns into a werewolf and kills all her buddies. It comes completely out of
nowhere but on a second watch they do little hints towards this reveal if you're paying
very close attention.
Now the description for this episode on Netflix actually has the first of these clues in it.
The streaming service put out two for the entry that they've gone back and forth with
depending on when you load them. They says:
A troubled Hollywood starlet goes to great lengths to escape packs of invasive paparazzi
as she deals with the aftermath of a hit-and-run.
The second says A troubled starlet is dogged by invasive paparazzi while dealing with the
consequences of a hit-and-run incident.
Now the key words here are that wolves hunt in packs just like the paparazzi and her being
dogged is reversed when she turns into one and goes after them.
reach
Nah I genuinely think that was all done on purpose it's just not very good. Other hints
and allusions include when actor Justin Camley calls Bo a f**king animal as she drives away.
I think this episode is basically meant to ask us who the monsters are by presenting
us with a literal one that still doesn't seem as back as the people we're following in the
end.
Bo ends up initially wanting to help Mazey when they find her however in the end she
resorts to just wanting to take a photo of her in what's a moment that will no doubt
make her extremely wealthy.
Now Justin Camleys appearance also ties this episode into other entries most notable the
Sea Of Tranquility. This is an in universe show in which Camley starred in and it showed
up during Nose Dive and also on streamberry in Joan is Awful.
On top of this the club which Bo and co harrass the actress outside of is called Quagmire.
This is a reference to the club of the same name that appeared in San Junipero with that
potentially being a recreation of this californian outlet.
Sydney Alberti gets harrassed and shouted at in the street due to her sex tape being
leaked which has now made the paps think that anything is fair game. She's of course based
on Paris Hilton with Syndey being changed to Paris to play off her name.
Now other clues foreshadowing the werewolf come at the club when we can catch pog paw
prints on the side.
Mazey also listens to to the song Supermassive Black Hole when she's driving and this tune
appears throughout the episode. This song featured heavily in the twilight movies which
themselves featured werewolves.
When Mazey hits the man she initially thinks its an animal and then turns around to see
that it's actually a human. Stuff like this has been done in a lot of werewolf related
media which the wolf turning back to a man after it's death famously in AMerican Werewolf
in London.
When Bo pulls up at to the producers house when she's staking out Mazey we see the moon
clearly shot in frame so that it stands out.
Later on Dr Babich also tells Mazey that it's about getting through tonight and the nights
after that rather than getting through the day.
Honestly I thought that though the twist was shocking on the first watch it kinda just
came out of nowhere and in the end I thought this episode was one of the weaker ones of
Season 6. Possibly the worst out of them and unofrtunately I doubt it's one I'm gonna visit.
I get that thematically this is trying to show how monsterous and unfeeling that the
paparazzi are but I think it should've probably just have stayed focused on that. I watched
a review of the episode by our mates over at Unleash the ghouls and he summed it up
by saying it should be remembered as the one that tears down the paps but instead it's
just gonna be the one remembered as being about the werewolf.
Which is a shame as there are some good things here thematically. Mazey ends up turning her
back on it but at the end shes drawn back in because the money outweighs the moral feels
she has towards it. The paps also hunt and go after their prey with complete disregard
to how they feel about it and they're much like the wolf in that they're these merciless
monsters.
At the end Bo just stands there and takes photos of Mazey and I thought that this was
clearly commenting on the death of Diana and what happened with the paparazzi in the parisian
tunnel. Rather than helping her they just stood around taking photographs and she died
with camera flashes going off in her face. Why I think the link is there is because Diana
was mentioned earlier in the series as being what took away the press and publicity from
Ian Adair.
Now I think that the episode is at it's strongest when it's doing things like that and Brooker
has actually come out over the weekend and talked about a common misinterpretation of
the show. He said that while a lot of people think that the show is about how technology
is bad it's actually about how people are bad and that they'll use technology in evil
ways.
Here the technology is a camera with Bo retreating behind it in the end and using it to take
photos of Mazey before and after she passes away. This is a shield which covers her face
now so we can't see who she is and the camera lens is what she has become. Several tribes
used to refuse to have their photos taken because they believed that the camera stole
the soul but you have to wonder here whether this is in regards to Mazey or it's infact
in regards to Bo. She had a way out but has now resorted back to being this soulless thing
that only cares about the photo. It's a great way to close things out and that takes us
into Demon 79.
If you're enjoying the video so far though we'd massively appreciate the thumbs up button
and don't forget to subscribe for breakdown like this every day.
Now Demon 79 was originally supposed to be released on a sister series called Red Mirror
which would deal with more supernatural things rather than having it all technology based.
According to Brooker they might end up doing more Red Mirror episodes depending on the
success of this and let me know what you thought on the episode below.
Now there's several nods to horror classics in this entry with the score of the shining
being used as the title comes up. We also have the poster for the entry itself which
looks like it's playing on the one for that film alongwith it's latter sequel Doctor Sleep.
Made to evoke 70s horrors this entry also tackles themes like race, politics and the
incoming apocalypse. Centred around a woman named Nida Huq I couldn't help think that
this might be a reference to Brookers real life wife Connie Huq who has co-wrote several
episodes of the show in the past.
In it she unwittingly summons a demon named Gaap who tells her that she has to get 3 subscribers
before May Day otherwise the world will end. Originally conceieved to be a punk figure
Brook said that he was making a playlist of 70s songs and realised that the male singer
of Boney M would be much more striking. You could say she Nidas Boney M from Daddy Cool....urrhhhh.
After the title reveal we come across Nida and can hear bright eyes in the background
by Art Garfunkel. This was written for the 1978 movie Watership down and the song itself
is about a dreamlike state where someone goes on a journey. This is similar to Nida in the
entry and they give a lot of focus to her eyes being wide open at several points. This
happens when she sees the visions and they show her the apocalypse and also the darkest
parts of the people she's going after. In the animated movie the rabbits have their
eyes opened to how horrific the world is and this is something that Nida experiences too.
Now this episode is packed with a number of different easter eggs and ties back to other
black mirror episodes from the off and throughout.
There's a shoe brand called Wolfies Footwear which might be building off the back of the
last episode Mazey Day.
We see the newspaper clipping talking about how a tipley publican named Robert Daly has
died.
Robert Daly is a name that has appeared in the series before and this was the character
that Jesse Plemons played in USS Callister.
This is probably director Tobey Haynes giving a bit of a shoutout to himself as he directed
not only this but also that episode as well.
The talisman used to summon the demon also seems like a thinner version of the white
bear symbol which actually appears later on in the flashes of Michael Smarts future.
Tipley has been mentioned in the season already and during Loch Henry we learned that there
was a bafta nominated documentary centred around the town. Michael Smarts name also
appeared in a newspaper clipping during that and the scene we get later on shows several
of things from the series revlving around him.
The fictional UKN broadcaster from the universe announces his Britannia party and we learn
that smart actually took power from Michael Callow from National Anthem. However the flash
here shows that he was kicked out for Racist remarks and a clipping in Loch Henry showed
that he'd rebuke this. It then announced he'd start a new party which leads to the Britannia
one which has the union jack in the white bear symbol.
There's also a shot of facial recognition at an eye level being taken out. This could
indicated that the ADIs from hated in the Nation came from Smart and we see that they're
used on a black man showing that they have a racial angle to them.
We also end up seeing one of dogs from Metal Head. A news ticker in Loch Henry confirmed
that they were introduced by Smart and they of course caused a lot of issues in the country.
The episode features him being part of the tory party and also the national front who
came to prominence during the decade. NF is spray painted on Nidas door at one point and
her racist co worker represents how their ideals have seeped into every aspect of the
population.
Unemployment and inflation are at all time highs and people are looking for someone to
blame.
Smart somewhat weaponises the hatred that they use to push their agendas as he says
that they'll never get in power so people should just vote for him instead. Though Gaap
is thought to be the titular demon of the episode I definitely see it as Smart and hell
doesnt even want him dead because of all the evil he could do.
Smart represents the control of the weak minded people who are easily swayed by politicians
and he almost somewhat hypnotises Nidas co-worker into voting for him.
Gaap is also a real life demon from the infernal dictionary who has shape shifting abilities.
Well I say real-life....depends what you believe but he states that's hes a misophape which
is a lower class demon.
There's also the fear of nuclear war which was prominent at the time which is the form
that the apocalypse takes this time around.
Now Nida wrestles back and forth with whether this is actually real or if she's going crazy.
No one other than her can see the demon and they also give lip service to her mother being
thought of as being crazy. Potentially Nida is experiencing the same thing and we know
that she has hallucinations of attacking her coworkers and customers which aren't real.
At one point Nida reads the book Creative Visualisation which is about using the power
of imagination to create what you want in life. Nida is clearly attracted to the singer
of Boney M and this is why Gaap takes on his form. Come the end of the entry the pair will
go off together to spend eternity in oblivion which she earlier describes as sounding like
how her life is now. So if you take this as being all in her mind then you could see this
as her imagining the life she wants to have away from everything with the man she loves.
Now her murder spree is somewhat foreshadowed by the newspaper articles that she finds in
the basement. Finding a newspaper clipping about Geoffrey Possett she then comes across
others recounting three deaths in the area. The final clipping shows that the may day
celebrations have been a grand success showing that Possett went through a similar thing
to what Nida did.
The third article about the womans disappearance also talks about Callow stepping down from
his seat which could be a nod to Michael Callow vacating his position. The timelines are off
there but I think there are the connections.
Later on we meet detective Fisher who reads the book smileys people. Dropping in 1979
this book featured characters that were later brought across into Tinker Tailor Soldier
spy. The cover also has dominos on it which is the form that the talisman takes later
on when Nida is taken in by the police.
Nida ends up killing people who are seen as being some of hte worst in society with her
taken down a father that abuses his daughter and a man that got away with the murder of
his wife. However she is spotted by the latters flatmate / brother and kills him in whats
one of the most awkward hammer and knife fights ive ever seen. This should be the three murders
done but the talisman demands more blood and thus Gaap rings 666 in order to speak to his
bosses.
Turns out that murderers cant count as people who are killed due to them already being damned
and thus she has to go after smart. In the end though she's caught before this can happen
and seemingly escapes the apocalupse to spend eternity with Gaap. Now the more I've thought
about this the more I think that it didn't really happen the way Nida thinks it did.
The book is a major clue and we have the history with her mother adding to it as well. We know
from the other entries that Michael Smart survived and though the connections can often
be tenuous in the show I think the timeline messes up if you count this as canon.
I have seen that this is actually an in universe movie but yeah either way it's all made up.
You also have the similarities to the son of sam killings which too took place in the
70s. David Berkowitz said that a demon in the form of a dog told him to do it which
though he's admitted was a hoax could be the basis for this episode itself.
That's kinda what I took from it and hopefully you've enjoyed us going through these episodes
on the series. I think the first two were great but unfortunately it kinda fell off
around there and though I enjoyed 3 I think the season got worse the longer it went on.
Was still better than Season 5 but yeah, it had it's highs and lows.
I've still enjoyed going through it though and I did wanna do this as two seperate videos
initially but time just got the better of me. We have a pretty packed week and I'll
be back with a breakdown on Secret Invasion come thursday and then one on From Season
2 next week. I was lucky enough to see the finale of that and yeah...we have a lot to
talk about with it.
Anyway let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
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Now if you want something else to watch we have a video on screen right now _____________________
With that out the way, huge thank you for sitting through the video, I've been your
host and I'll see you next time. Take care, Peace.