Black Mirror is back on Netflix, and kicking season seven off is a truly heartbreaking, clever and moving episode which series creator Charlie Brooker has described as a "comedy". Um, Charlie are you ok? I'm literally sobbing over here.
The episode 'Common People' tells the story of a married couple who live a very ordinary existence which is put in jeopardy when Amanda gets into an accident and the solution to saving her is less than conventional.
If, like us, you were in tears at certain points during the episode and missed a few key details then here is the full episode explained.
What happens in Black Mirror's Common People?
'Common People' revolves around one couple Mike (Chris O'Dowd) and Amanda (Rashida Jones), who have one of those disgustingly cute relationships that actually makes you believe in love.
They live a fairly normal and happy existence. They're both in normal jobs - Mike works as a labourer and Amanda is a primary school teacher. They love each deeply and are struggling to get pregnant.
One day, Amanda has an accident at school which essentially reveals she is suffering from a brain tumour. Mike then agrees in order to save his wife's life to sign her up to an experimental service called Rivermind which promises to restore Amanda.
Er, so what is Rivermind?
In the series Rivermind is a type of technology which Tracee Ellis Ross' character Gaynor explains works by taking an "imprint of the affected part of her neural structure" which they the claim onto their mainframe. Essentially it's "a backup of part of her brain on the computer". They then remove the existing tumour and surrounding tissue, and replace it with synthetic receiver tissue. The Rivermind server then sends cognitive function to the part of Amanda's brain via the backup on their cloud.
In theory, it's a great idea. However, in reality, the couple end up having to pay a large amount of money every month to keep Amanda alive. She then starts to "malfunction" and starts speaking about adverts, which in order to remove they must upgrade to the next subscription tier and pay more to stop the ads.
Black Mirror's creator Charlie Brooker has described this process as "enshittification" which is "the process by which tech companies will have some new service, that seems a wonderful opportunity for users, but over time gets worse because it has to turn a profit. So, the experience for the user gets worse and worse until you don’t want it anymore."
How does Common People end?
As the Rivermind subscription continues to burn away at their finances, Mike is determined to find a way to keep his wife alive. After picking up all the shifts he can, it's still not enough to keep them afloat. There's also the added temporary boosters from the Rivermind Lux Premium Package that they want access to in order to give Amanda a better quality of life.
And so when Mike feels he has no options left he signs himself up to the site 'Dum Dummies', which allows users to do humiliating acts to themselves in exchange for high cash rewards.
At one point in order to get a higher cash reward, Mike reveals his face no the site, having previously worn a bunny mask. One of the guys spots it at work and shares it with the rest of the team.
Mike approaches him at work and as the young guy is running away he is crushed in an accident. Mike's behaviour causes him to lose his job.
The episode ends with a time jump to a year later. In a very sad scene Mike is seen giving the crib they had at the beginning of episode to a couple who are planning to set it on fire in their music video. As the couple drive off, we see Mike chuckling to himself and a number of his teeth are missing.
Mike meets with Amanda in the garden, who looks unwell and she tells him that she think "it's time", the implication being that she's had enough of this life and wants to end it. He then settles her into bed and ends up killing Amanda with a pillow over her mouth.
Mike is then seen heading downstairs to his laptop, with a sharp tool in his hand and the episode ends.
Black Mirror is available on Netflix now
