‘Black Mirror’ pulls ‘Plaything’ inspiration from infamous true crime case

Loads of TV dramas dive into twisted tales of homicide, however none do it fairly like Black Mirror. Killers on this sci-fi thriller anthology are available sudden kinds, like a ruthless architect on a rampage (“Crocodile”), a heartbroken ex on a vacation go to (“White Christmas”), or a swarm of digital bees compelled by social media (“Hated in the Nation”).

Now, following up on the true crime commentary in Season 6’s “Loch Henry,” Season 7 affords “Plaything,” a narrative a few ranting gamer who’s tied to a decades-old chilly case. 

Whereas the tech on show on this episode is so superior it would properly make modern avid gamers drool or shudder, the homicide on the story’s core is cryptically acquainted. There are a few clues amid the thriller that recommend the episode’s rambling protagonist, Cameron Paul Walker (Peter Capaldi), is impressed by the late convicted killer and star of The Jinx, Robert Durst. 

What’s “Plaything” about? 

Set in near-future London, Plaything follows the felony investigation into reclusive gamer Cameron. To start with of the episode, he’s performed by 66-year-old Capaldi, who wears grubby garments, glasses, and an extended, ratty grey wig. His look as he is dragged right into a police interrogation room suggests Cameron hasn’t been caring properly for himself. However he has been caring for somebody… or one thing. 

Let’s flash again to 1994, the place younger Cameron (Lewis Gribben), a socially awkward online game reporter for PC Zone journal, is assigned to assessment the newest creation of “genius programmer” Colin Ritman (Will Poulter).

Bandersnatch followers will keep in mind that Colin was a personality in that choose-your-adventure Black Mirror vacation particular, which allowed viewers to make decisions for the protagonist, resulting in completely different endings. In a few of these paths, Colin appeared to die again in 1984 — and in a single ending Mohan Thakur (Asim Chaudhry) does. “Plaything” is ready in a timeline of Bandersnatch during which neither is useless, and Colin “went fucking gaga” (per Cameron’s boss). 

When these fellow avid gamers meet, Colin affords to point out Cameron one thing that isn’t a online game. “There is not a single line of code in this that can be thought of as a game in the traditional sense,” he tells the reporter. Colin is trying to not create one other killing sport (like DOOM, the first-person shooter Cameron performs earlier within the ep). “We have to create software that elevates us, improves us as human beings,” he preaches earlier than introducing Thronglets. 

Behold: a pc display screen on which a inexperienced forest is bustling with little yellow pixelated creatures. “You’re looking at the first lifeforms in history whose biology is entirely digital,” Colin explains. The purpose of Thronglets is to look after them, hatch them, feed them, nurture them, and so they’ll replicate, even communicate to you in their very own language. Earlier than lengthy, Cameron turns into so obsessive about the Throng that he’s remoted from the human world and even turns to homicide. 

Why does Cameron kill Lump? 

In 1994, younger Cameron’s understanding of the Throng grows due to “Lump,” a scruffy pal whose actual identify modern-day Cameron can now not recall. Lump is a drug supplier who provides Cameron with LSD. Whereas tripping, Cameron not solely feels much less anxious but additionally can perceive the Throng’s language. Sooner or later timeline, he swears to interrogating officers Kano (James Nelson-Joyce) and Minter (Michele Austin) that the Throng had been asking him to improve his laptop for them. Cutaways to his present condo reveals he is turned the place into an digital shrine, supposed to nurture the Throng. 

However again in 1994, an intoxicated Lump stumbles onto the unguarded Throng whereas Cameron is out. His impulse is to not nurture them however squish them with pixelated rocks and set them on fireplace. The Throng scream and bleed, and Lump laughs. For this, he pays with blood — his personal.

In a match of rage (and maybe LSD), Cameron assaults Lump after seeing his digital utopia on fireplace. By way of a webcam, the Throng witness him beat and throttle Lump to dying. From there, Cameron will do away with the physique. And for many years, he’ll get away with homicide.

What does “Plaything” should do with Robert Durst? 

Cameron disposes of Lump’s physique by dismembering it, then discarding it within the woods in a suitcase. The aggressive cop, Kano, reveals Cameron a photograph of the recovered corpse, and scolds, “No hands, no head, no identifying marks.” 

The circumstances of this dying and the disposal of the physique are harking back to the Morris Black case, which was explored within the 2015 true crime mini-series The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst.

On Sept. 30, 2001, in Galveston Bay, Texas, a name got here into police, reporting a person’s headless torso floating close to the shore. It was wrapped in a black rubbish bag. Police on the scene would get better extra baggage containing human limbs. The physique was recognized as 71-year-old native Morris Black, although his head was by no means recovered. 

Mashable High Tales

After a sophisticated felony investigation explored in The Jinx and its 2024 sequel The Jinx: Half Two, it was finally decided that Black’s reclusive neighbor Robert Durst, who was additionally a suspect within the 1982 disappearance of his spouse, had dismembered Black’s physique and disposed of it within the water. Durst would declare he did not kill Black, however had gotten rid of the physique in order to not be bothered by authorities who already suspected him of murdering his spouse Kathie. In response to Durst, Black pulled a gun and by chance shot himself as they struggled over it.

Admittedly, Cameron and Lump’s story is barely superficially comparable, involving “kind of friends” preventing, resulting in homicide, and dismemberment. However the greatest connection between Cameron and Durst is how as outdated, gray-haired, muttering males, they each bought caught due to a ridiculous shoplifting try. 

Initially of “Plaything,” Cameron walks right into a liquor retailer, grabs a bottle, and tries to expire. The door has auto-locked, so he sits and waits for the cops to reach. Once they do, a compulsory DNA swab is performed, which ties him to the bloody suitcase present in 1994. 

This was mainly how Durst was caught as properly. On November 30, two months after the physique had been found and a month and a half after he’d jumped bail in reference to the case, Durst was on the run when he went right into a Wegmans grocery store in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and tried to shoplift a hen sandwich. The misdemeanor arrest led to main fees because the police grew to become conscious of his connection to the Black case. 

The Jinx and its sequel delve into all the main points of Durst’s weird felony life. However for all of the questions the miniseries do handle, nobody can reply why Durst shoplifted a sandwich when he had $500 in his possession. Cameron, alternatively, meant to get caught. 

Why did Cameron shoplift? 

Of his arrest for shoplifting, Cameron tells Kano, “I did it deliberately, so you’d bring me in here and I could deliver the message.” Cameron declares himself the Throng’s messenger, chosen to share with the broader world the “symbiotic co-existence” he has developed with the digital lifeforms. 

After Lump’s homicide, Cameron successfully misplaced his solely human pal, and so devotes himself fully to the Throng. Not solely does he give them all the pieces they’ve requested for, however he additionally affords his literal mind to them, making a port they will plug into. He tells the cops, “Now, I’m free from fear. I’ve no thirst for conflict. No more petty jealousies or red mists. I’m part of a collective whole.” 

For the entire of the episode, Cameron speaks about people’ inescapable predilection for violence, in video video games and in life. “In caveman times, you had to be violent to survive,” he explains. “But now the only way we are going to make it as a species is if we cooperate. We know that. But we can’t do it, can we?” 

To him, the answer to repair the failings of mankind is to present ourselves over to the Throng. However Cameron did not get arrested to present a peaceable rationalization that is perhaps shared worldwide. He got here for conquest. 

What’s Cameron doodling? 

As quickly as Cameron is handed over to the interrogating Kino, arresting Officer Finest (Ami Tredrea) notes that Cameron bought irritated when she would not take a look at the drawing he’d made. In the course of the police interrogation, he repeatedly asks for a pen and paper. When mild Minter lastly obliges, Cameron attracts with intense focus. What he attracts appears to be like like a QR code, and as he factors it to the surveillance digital camera within the station, it connects again to the Throng. 

Cameron grows giddy as he monologues, “This will grant the Throng infinitely more processing capabilities, prompting an immediate singularity event. The Throng will instantly adapt their essence into a signal transmissible to the human mind. And you won’t need drugs or surgery. You’ll merely have to hear it to absorb it.” 

Kano responds with violence, punching Cameron, because the ranting suspect guarantees, “I swear everything will be so much better.” Then, the screeching sign reverberates all through the station.

There isn’t a escaping the Throng. People eyes go white as they’re upgraded. The episode ends with a bloodied Cameron holding out his hand to the person who attacked him, presumably welcoming Kano into the Thronglet.

What does the top of “Plaything” imply for Black Mirror?

Nicely, it might be a hell of a approach for Brooker to finish his collection. No season 8 has but been introduced. So whereas it is the second-to-last episode of Season 7, may “Plaything” be seen as Black Mirror‘s finale? I doubt it. 

For one factor, who’s to say all human minds will work as properly with the Throng as Cameron’s? He wanted a lot of LSD and years of experimenting and publicity to attach with the Throng. And for all his monologuing, he hasn’t talked about any human testing exterior himself. So, may this be a circumstance that results in a sequel episode the place it is man versus Throng? With this season providing two sequel episodes, it appears a chance. 

But even when the Throng does successively take over mankind and thereby crush any battle from there on out, that would not be sufficient to cease Black Mirror. 

Certain, recurring tech and characters (just like the cookies and Colin) have lengthy urged the episodes of Black Mirror exist throughout the similar narrative universe. Nonetheless, Bandersnatch allowed audiences to create their very own Black Mirror story, leaving that movie unclear on its canon. So what does it imply if Bandersnatch‘s Colin is again and kicking 10 years after the occasions of that episode? His destiny modified relying on the consumer’s choices. Notably, each Bandersnatch and “Plaything” had been written by Brooker and directed by David Slade, suggesting there’s an agreed-upon canon between these two collaborators. So, are they confirming that it is canon that Colin survived his brush with programmer Stefan Butler? Or that there’s a a Black Mirror multiverse?

If it is the latter, which means this Season 7 episode may have its apocalyptic ending with out impacting the collection shifting ahead. (Type of a variant on Season 6’s Crimson Mirror episode, “Demon 79.”)

Till a brand new season is introduced — or Brooker himself affords some readability — what the ending of “Plaything” means is all as much as the human viewing it. 

Find out how to watch: Black Mirror Season 7 is now streaming on Netflix.