


Unfortunately, like every Black Mirror episode (they can only be so happy, right?), once the episode starts unfurling its evil grin, it turns into a harrowing look at how we live today: how our experiences might just be extensions of our apps, games, and smartphones. But it never fully materializes, and they all trust Cooper to a certain degree - much more than he probably warrants and much more than he trusts them. Throughout the episode, there are flashes where you could swear they’re about to do something nefarious. The people Cooper meets, as horror movies and other episodes of Black Mirror have taught us, should be bad people. And Katie and Shou at the video game company Saito Gamer, whom Cooper hits up for a quick job - testing a video game that manifests your darkest fears - to earn cash for a ticket home, are more than accommodating. Along the way, he meets Sonja ( Hannah John-Kamen), a one-night stand he encounters in England, who actually gets to know him and lets Cooper come back and stay with her after he loses his money and gets stranded. He goes to India and Thailand, and skips around the world in an effort, he says, to find himself. And, yes, looming over the entire episode is the threat that the protagonist might dig an implant out of his neck and thrust the episode into gore.īut folded into all of this is the most optimistic view of humankind that Black Mirror has ever shown, featuring humans who actually seem like decent people - something that’s often in short supply on Black Mirror.Ĭooper ( Wyatt Russell) is a dopey flâneur who travels the world after the death of his father, who Cooper says suffered from Alzheimer’s. Yes, there’s a creepy, dick-faced spider that’s one of the most disgusting things that’s ever been on Netflix. Yes, it’s an episode of terror where the protagonist dies after 40 minutes.
#BLACK MIRROR SEASON 3 EPISODE 3 SERIES#
This article is a recap of Netflix’s Black Mirror episode “Playtest.” There are spoilers and discussion regarding the episode’s plot.Īt the heart of “ Playtest ,” the second episode of the third season of Netflix’s sci-fi horror series Black Mirror, is a grim tale - but in the sneakiest of ways.
