Black Mirror is what is known as an anthology series so the episodes do not tell a continuous story like Game Of Thrones style formats or feature the same characters in different adventures like classic TV shows from Star Trek to CSI. Much more Each episode tells its own self-contained story, albeit with recurring themes and motifs – and with plenty of Easter eggs and cross-connections. As in “Demon 79”the fifth episode of “Black Mirror” season 6:
The episode is set in the north of England in 1979 and therefore at first sight has little to do with the remaining episodes of “Black Mirror” – were it not for the storyline about the right-wing populist regional politician Michael Slim (David Shields). In fact, critical views of British politics have already figured heavily in “Black Mirror” episodes such as Season 1’s “The Will of the People” or Season 2’s “The Waldo Candidacy.” And it gets even more specific:
When protagonist Nida (Anjana Vasan) asks the demon Gaap (Paapa Essiedu) to glimpse Michael Smart’s future, she sees his dismay rise to the rank of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom – and Observing Black Mirror fans may see references to two other episodes: White Bear (Season 2, Episode 2) and Metalhead (Season 4, Episode 5).
“Bad New World” & “Metal Head”
For example, Michael Smart chose a symbol for his newly founded party, Britannia, which was first seen in the episode “Bad New World” (and has appeared in other episodes since then): three dashes that together form a kind of inverted Y. Also, one of the robot dogs from the episode “Metal Head” can be seen in a shot:
That doesn’t mean that “Demon 79” is the prelude to “Bad New World” and/or “Metalhead”, after all, the world ends in nuclear war at the end of the episode. It but again underlines that the episodes are at least loosely connected in some kind of narrative universe – perhaps like the various parallel worlds currently being explored at Marvel and DC.
Far from the only Easter egg
It also fits that these connections in “Demon 79” are by no means the only Easter Eggs in “Black Mirror” Season 6. So will be around in several episodes the series-within-the-series “Sea Of Tranquility” and “The Callow Years” mentioned or shown. By the way, the latter is a reference to the protagonist of the very first “Black Mirror” episode, Prime Minister Michael Callow, and “Sea Of Tranquility” is mentioned for the first time in this episode.
And a hospital named Saint Juniper doesn’t make his first appearance in Black Mirror either – which in turn references Episode 4 of Season 3, “San Junipero”, which is arguably the best Black Mirror episode ever.