Black Mirror Season 7 blasts again into the world of “USS Callister” with its first-ever sequel episode, “USS Callister: Into Infinity.”
The unique “USS Callister,” which opened Black Mirror Season 4, launched Robert Daly (Jesse Plemons), the sadistic creator of the immersive space-set recreation Infinity. Robert created his personal private Infinity universe themed after the TV present Area Fleet (aka Black Mirror‘s tackle Star Trek). He then populated mentioned universe with in-game clones of his coworkers, whom he tortured and mutilated at will.
In contrast to most Black Mirror episodes, “USS Callister” has a fairly completely satisfied ending. Robert’s coworkers, led by programmer Nanette Cole (Cristin Milioti), handle to flee into the broader recreation of Infinity, leaving Robert to die in his personal deleted universe. (Which implies he dies in the actual world as effectively.)
But as “USS Callister: Into Infinity” reveals, life out in Infinity is not a stroll within the park. Infinity has 30 million gamers, all searching for Star Wars-style house battles and a few good old style shoot-’em-up gaming. However whereas Infinity‘s gamers can at all times respawn in the event that they die, the crew of the USS Callister cannot. For them, that is it — and they should discover a method out.
By the tip of the episode, they do! Type of. Let’s break down the crew’s plan, their ultimate destiny, and the way a number of characters returned from the lifeless to assist them out.
What’s the Coronary heart of Infinity?
Billy Magnussen, Osy Ikhile, Cristin Milioti, Milanka Brooks, and Paul G. Raymond in “Black Mirror.”
Credit score: Nick Wall / Netflix
After months of scavenging and robbing Infinity gamers to outlive, Nanette and the remainder of the USS Callister crew — Nate (Osy Ikhile), Elena (Milanka Brooks), Kabir (Paul G. Raymond), and Karl (Billy Magnussen) — determine they should change techniques. If they will one way or the other create their very own private universe, identical to Robert did, they will seal themselves off from Infinity and have a free existence out in house.
To create that universe, they’d need to entry the supply code, represented by an awe-inspiring spinning construction often known as the Coronary heart of Infinity. There’s only one downside: Solely two individuals can entry the Coronary heart of Infinity. Robert Daly, who’s lifeless in each the actual world and the sport, and James Walton (Jimmi Simpson), whose actual self is alive, however whose recreation self wiped out whereas fixing the USS Callister’s thrusters through the escape from Robert. Or did he?
James Walton continues to be alive in “USS Callister: Into Infinity.”
Jimmi Simpson and Cristin Milioti in “Black Mirror.”
Credit score: Nick Wall / Netflix
Karl reveals that Walton has a room on the USS Callister, which ought to be not possible. When the ship reset after leaving Robert’s universe, it spawned rooms for each residing participant. Walton was nothing however an area crisp by the tip of “USS Callister,” so how may he get a room?
Nanette and Kabir motive that if any of Walton’s disintegrated little bits made it by the wormhole with the ship, that might be sufficient to make him respawn as a brand new participant in Infinity. New gamers do not spawn onboard the ship, although: They respawn on a brand new planet.
The crew tracks Walton’s planet down, however they are not the one ones searching for him. In the actual world, studies of rogue Infinity gamers with out participant tags have created concern throughout the Infinity places of work. Walton, particularly, is feeling the stress, particularly when a reporter from the New York Occasions reveals that an unlawful DNA digital cloner was discovered on Robert’s private desk. If clones are in Infinity, then the entire firm is implicated in a significant crime.
Realizing the rogues are none apart from their clones, Nanette and Walton bounce into Infinity and meet up with their in-game selves. That is proper, we’re getting a clone face-off!
Whereas real-world Nanette needs to assist free the clones by getting them into the Coronary heart of Infinity, real-world Walton opts for a extra murderous type of cover-up. He kills Karl and tries to kill the remainder of the crew. No clones means no proof, proper?
Homicide is already unhealthy sufficient, however there is a extra sinister edge to Walton’s actions. He would not even suppose he is doing something fallacious, as a result of he would not see the in-game clones as people, regardless of their full sentience. (To be truthful, real-world Walton barely sees anybody as a human. He treats poor Nate like he is a human espresso machine!)
As soon as once more, Black Mirror is elevating questions round digital consciousness, however “USS Callister” would not dwell on that philosophical conundrum an excessive amount of. As a substitute, it throws main new plot twists at us. First, real-world Nanette will get hit by a automotive whereas fleeing Walton, sending her to St. Juniper Hospital (Easter egg alert!) and setting Walton as much as exterminate the clones.
In the meantime, in-game Walton reveals why his real-world counterpart is so towards the crew reaching the Coronary heart of Infinity. It is not as a result of he would not need them to flee into their very own non-public universe. It is as a result of a digital clone of Robert is within the Coronary heart of Infinity, constructing the sport.
Mashable High Tales
“USS Callister” brings Robert Daly again as a digital clone.
Walton recounts the early phases of Infinity‘s improvement to the remainder of the USS Callister crew. He needed to increase the sport’s universe sooner than Robert may work. “There’s solely one in every of me,” Robert tells him.
However what if there wasn’t?
Seems Walton was one of many earlier buyers within the DNA digital cloner that Robert was utilizing. The machine initially got here from the porn business, meant to be a method to create a sentient, digital sexual accomplice. Fortunately thought of a human rights violation, the know-how was outlawed earlier than it went to manufacturing. However Walton saved a replica and used it to clone Robert into the sport so he may work on it nonstop from inside.
That is what’s within the Coronary heart of Infinity: not the sport’s supply code, however a clone of Robert with godlike powers.
Nanette enters the Coronary heart of Infinity so as to ask Robert to ship her and the crew to a universe of their very own. At first look, this Robert is a far cry from the vicious, vengeful man we got here to know in “USS Callister.” He is reserved, particularly after eons with out human contact, however keen to assist Nanette after she tells him what the unique Robert did.
“I am so disenchanted in myself,” he tells her after listening to Nanette’s story. “What you described doesn’t sound like me. I am a pleasant man.”
With these final 4 phrases — a trademark of a poisonous man who believes ladies owe him one thing for his niceness — the alarm bells begin blaring. Robert works on organising the separate universe for the clones, nevertheless it’s clear one thing is off.
For Nanette, the trauma of her time underneath Robert’s command lingers. She swiftly appeases Robert’s clone after revealing she hasn’t watched Area Fleet, then listens to him evaluate her scenario to a number of of the present’s episodes with a pressured smile plastered on her face. This model of Robert may not perceive the skewed energy dynamic that comes together with his management over the sport, however Nanette actually does.
Robert’s clone succumbs to Robert’s previous methods.
Outdoors the Coronary heart of Infinity, real-world Walton manages to ship an in-game social gathering invitation to anybody the USS Callister crew has ever robbed. As that battle rages overhead, Nanette continues her tense go to with Robert.
He gives her a alternative. Following the automotive accident, her physique within the exterior world is braindead and hooked as much as a cerebral monitor. Robert may ship her consciousness by that, granting her her physique and life again. That may wipe out the USS Callister and everybody on it, although. Ought to she save herself, or save the crew?
Nanette chooses the crew, at which level Robert reveals it was all a take a look at, identical to within the Area Fleet episode “Quandary at Outpost 5.” He can truly create the pocket universe and ship Nanette again to her physique.
“You mentioned you could not try this,” Nanette says.
“I do know,” he replies. “I needed to faux I could not so we may role-play the entire Area Fleet factor.”
And there it’s: Nanette could be in Robert’s storage, and he or she might not be sporting a Area Fleet uniform, however she is as soon as once more trapped, pressured to play out his Area Fleet fantasy.
The scenario solely worsens from there, when Robert says he’ll be copying the crew into the brand new universe as an alternative of reducing them from Infinity completely. Meaning the Infinity set of the clones is doomed to be hunted and killed — all aside from Nanette. Robert intends to maintain her copy for himself. He says he will not damage her, however Nanette — and anybody who watched “USS Callister” — is aware of that is not true. Actually, Robert goes proper forward and proves it when he removes Nanette’s mouth in an effort to get her to be quiet, a chilling parallel to her first punishment at Robert’s palms within the unique episode. Clone Robert would not appear to know the total scope of his powers, however that does not cease him from harming Nanette, both.
This time, although, Nanette will get the higher hand, killing Robert’s clone with the Bargradian cutlass he’d proven off earlier within the episode. However with Robert’s clone gone, Infinity stops working and begins to delete itself completely.
What occurs to the USS Callister crew after Infinity is deleted?
Osy Ikhile in “Black Mirror.”
Credit score: Nick Wall / Netflix
Nanette manages to search out the exhausting drive Robert instructed her would save everybody and insert it into his “retro shit” laptop. Simply in time, too: Infinity, even all its backups, deletes itself completely.
Nanette wakes up within the hospital, however she’s not alone. With none Infinity, the USS Callister crew hasn’t been transported to a separate universe. As a substitute, they’re in Nanette’s head, capable of see by her eyes (the set-up is very paying homage to the Inside Out management room) and discuss to her by her cellphone.
“USS Callister: Into Infinity” flashes ahead a few months. Walton has been arrested, and Nanette and the remainder of the surviving crew have labored out a system: They shut their eyes when she modifies, goes to the toilet, or hooks up with anybody. In return, she lets them watch The Actual Housewives of Atlanta by her eyes. Oh, and he or she’s apparently engaged on methods to extract them from her head, though it would not look like she’s working too exhausting on it.
So there you may have it. The crew of the USS Callister lastly handle to flee Infinity, solely to search out themselves in a wierd new residing scenario. Like with “USS Callister,” the ending of “USS Callister: Into Infinity” is amongst Black Mirror‘s lightest. Being trapped in somebody’s mind — or having 4 roommates residing in your mind — looks like it may turn into a nightmare, quick. However that is a narrative for one more sequel episode.
Black Mirror Season 7 is now streaming on Netflix.
