- Just three episodes of the dystopian
fan-favorite series "Black Mirror"
have landed on Netflix.
As with other seasons,
showrunners Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones
have included some Easter eggs
and nods to previous episodes.
We've taken a forensic deep dive to show you
34 things that you might have missed
in season five of "Black Mirror."
Warning: If you haven't seen the latest season,
you might want to look away now.
Episode one, "Striking Vipers,"
stars "Avengers" actor Anthony Mackie
as a man romantically linked to a VR game.
The game Mackie's character, Danny, is gifted
is made by TCKR.
You might recognize the neural-research company
from the season four episode "Black Museum."
It developed the pain-diagnostic service
used by Dr. Peter Dawson.
The company also developed the alternative-reality simulator
in the beloved episode "San Junipero."
The acronym TCKR is also referenced
in the bar named Tucker's in that episode.
The idea of augmented-reality gaming
isn't new to "Black Mirror."
It's the premise for "Playtest,"
the episode in which TCKR Systems
is also referenced briefly in the magazine headline.
Think the production design
and costumes look a bit familiar?
The pastel palette bears an uncanny resemblance
to the community in season three's "Nosedive."
In order to access the game, Danny and Cole
have to put small round devices onto their temples.
Similar technology is also seen
throughout the seasons,
as a mind-reading device in "Crocodile"
or to extract consciousness in "Black Museum."
When Danny opens his cupboard to put the game away,
we can visibly see an out-of-place-looking
blue convertible model on the shelf.
Retro cars make an appearance in
several "Black Mirror" episodes
such as "Black Museum" and "San Junipero."
It's episode two, "Smithereens,"
where we start to see tons of references.
It stars "Sherlock" actor Andrew Scott
as a disillusioned rideshare driver
who takes an intern from an
internet-privacy company hostage.
The episode makes no secret of Brooker and Jones' attitude
towards smartphone addiction.
The payoff about Scott causing death by dangerous driving
because he was checking his phone
is a recognizable theme about
the dangers of app usage.
We've seen it in
"Nosedive" and "Shut Up and Dance."
You might not recognize the name of the episode
unless if you got to one of the many endings
of "Bandersnatch"
in which UKN news footage of Stefan's game
is played with a crawl across the bottom of the screen.
This reads "Senate committee grills
Smithereen CEO Billy Bauer over Russian Bots."
The episode opens with Scott's character,
Chris, picking up a ride in central London.
The real-life location of the shady Smithereen Corporation?
It's actually Bloomberg's HQ. On a Google map drop,
it takes us to Wallbrook just outside of Bloomberg
and the City of London Magistrates' Court.
But it's the close-up of the rideshare app address
that's particularly interesting.
We learned that the rider is picking up
from Skillane Street EC4N.
Skillane was one of the names of the planets
in "USS Callister," Skillane 4 and Ranek.
Victoria Skillane is the name of the killer
in season two's "White Bear."
Her name also crops up in the hashtags feed
in "Hated in the Nation"
as #DeathToVictoriaSkillane.
Also in this frame, we see Bandersnatch Theatre,
a reference to "Bandersnatch,"
Raiman's, which is the name of the antagonist in
"Men Against Fire," and Dahl's, after Vanessa Dahl
in "Hated in the Nation."
There's also Redfield's Theatre, after
Cooper Redfield, the protagonist in "Playtest,"
Dawson's Burger Bar, who is the doctor in "Black Museum,"
and there's two more interesting place names.
The first is Huq's, a supposed nod to
Charlie Brooker's wife Konnie Huq,
who's a TV personality in the UK.
The second is Fence's Pizza.
This takeout joint was also
featured in "USS Callister" and "Crocodile."
We see an empty Fence's Pizza box later on
in "Smithereens" when police raid Chris' house.
A quick look at a phone
also gives us some references to other
characters in other episodes.
Carlton Bloom, the main antagonist of "The National Anthem"
is in there, as is Clayton Leigh,
the abused prisoner in "Black Museum."
These characters live such disparate lives
in the "Black Mirror" universe
that it's hard to imagine these
numbers reference the actual characters.
Chris drives past a BRB Connect petrol station.
Fans might recognize this gas
station chain from "Black Museum,"
as well as the acronym "BRB," "Be Right Back" from
season two, episode one.
An eagle-eyed Reddit user
also spotted "BRB" appears on the
login screen in "Metalhead" where abbreviations
for all the season four episode names are shown.
Then we go to the interiors of Smithereen HQ.
There's a newscast saying "Prime Minister Callow
to meet with EU negotiators in Brussels,"
in reference to Prime Minister Callow from
season one, episode one.
The hashtag #snoutrage
also presumably refers to this episode too.
But take a closer look at
some of the other hashtags.
#AshleyOWembley previews Miley Cyrus'
gig in the following episode,
"Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too."
Also hashtagged are #SeaofTranquillityReboot
and #SaitoXNetflix, which suggests
that the company from "Playtest" has
bought out a new game or series with Netflix.
#StJunipersStrike is also on screen,
which refers to the fictional hospital
St. Juniper's from "Black Museum."
Interestingly, this shows that "Smithereens," "Nosedive,"
"Playtest," "Black Museum," and "The National Anthem"
all take place in the same time
in the same universe.
Also, because it's Charlie Brooker,
the seemingly mundane BBC show
"Bargain Hunt" is also trending.
Any Radiohead fans out there?
If you weren't content with "Exit Music for a Film"
being used in "Shut Up and Dance,"
this episode also features a 2016 song, "Daydreaming."
Moving on to episode three, "Rachel, Jack, and Ashley Too"
plays with Miley Cyrus' own experiences as a pop icon
as she is forced to repress elements of her
own personality to become a palatable
bite-sized toy consciousness, Ashley Too.
The episode makes two really great
references to modern pop stardom.
The first is "clone theory": that pop stars
like Avril Lavigne and Taylor Swift have
actually been replaced with clones and
aren't who they say they are.
The second is hologram technology.
Artists like Mariah Carey have been
criticized for embracing hologram
versions of themselves, which can
simultaneously perform at different
venues around the world.
Brooker and Jones seem to be suggesting
through Ashley's hologram that this
isn't a true representation of the
singer and so shouldn't be pursued.
The transplant tech featured in this episode
isn't new to "Black Mirror."
In "White Christmas" and "Black Museum,"
we've seen the perils of transplanted consciousness
from a person into an inanimate object.
In an interesting time overlap, we see
that the rapper Tusk from "Hated in the Nation"
is making headlines.
On a newscast, we see the news that, along with a
Striking Vipers reference,
"Museum owner's body found in smoking ruins."
Surely this is a nod to the events of "Black Museum."
"Simpsons" fans might feel a little deja vu
at the line, "Believe in yourself. You can do anything."
The facile line spouted by Ashley Too
is eerily similar to "Trust in
yourself, and you can achieve anything"
that the doll Lisa Lionheart makes
when Lisa Simpson pulls her cord.
Brooker fans might have noticed that teddy bears
crop up across the series,
as does a sinister organization, White Bear.
This time, it's the name of a shady security guard.
We finally got a nod to Charlie Brooker's series
"Nathan Barley."
The series about an
east London creative was a satire on
media life in the mid-2000s.
In it, a character gets in Sugar Ape magazine.
The magazine with a different cover star
is pictured hanging on the wall
of a record company.
The series ends with the
characters exiting Bob's music venue.
Bob was the name of the antagonist in
"USS Callister," hinting that Ashley O has
embraced her darker side.
Think you spotted anything that we've missed?
Comment below.