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Black Mirror Season 7 takes some cues from Old Hollywood romance in "Hotel Reverie," an episode that combines classic films like Casablanca and Brief Encounter with fictional AI moviemaking tech.
Issa Rae stars as A-list actor Brandy Friday, who's signed on to star in a remake of the vintage British film Hotel Reverie. There's just one catch: This isn't a normal movie shoot. Instead, thanks to a new system called Redream, Brandy's consciousness will be projected into Hotel Reverie. There, she'll replace the male lead, the dashing Dr. Alex Palmer, and act against AI constructs of the film's characters in real time.
SEE ALSO: Every 'Black Mirror' episode ever, ranked by overall dreadAmong these constructs is heiress Clara Ryce-Lechere (Emma Corrin), played by late actor Dorothy Chambers. Brandy's first interactions with Clara don't go as planned, leading her and director Kimmy (Awkwafina) to scramble to stay on Hotel Reverie's narrative track. But it's too late: Brandy's presence —and her mistakenly referring to Clara as Dorothy — alters something in Clara. As she becomes self-aware, and as a technical mishap halts production, she and Brandy embark on a love story of their own.
So how does their romance shake out, and what does Black Mirror have to say about the use of AI in filmmaking? Let's check into "Hotel Reverie" and break it down.
What happens to Clara/Dorothy in "Hotel Reverie"? Emma Corrin in "Black Mirror." Credit: Nick Wall / NetflixBrandy manages to stick to the script until a disastrous piano-playing sequence cools any attraction between her and Clara. From there, she has to improvise in order to win Clara back. That leads to the biggest divergence from the original film's plot: She calls Clara "Dorothy."
The mistake actually intrigues Clara, even after Brandy backtracks and tells Clara that she simply reminds her of a troubled acquaintance named Dorothy. Both Clara and Dorothy appear to have everything, Brandy tells her. But their envious surface was covering up a deeper sorrow.
The message strikes a deep chord with Clara. "What's true of [Dorothy] is also true of me," Clara says. "You know, it's silly, but sometimes a sense of such wretchedness seizes me, as though I'm connected to some fathomless sorrow reaching through time. Perhaps I was a tragic figure in some other life."
Clara's sentiments aren't just romantic melancholy. They're fragments of the real-life Dorothy's psyche leaking through the data. According to the Redream team, the AI construct drew from Dorothy Chambers' performance, which she in turn based heavily on her own life. So when Clara heard Dorothy's name, she connected to the echoes of Dorothy that are running through her AI's data set.
SEE ALSO: 'USS Callister: Into Infinity' ending explained: What happens to the crew?"She's grown a dimension," programmer Jack (Charlie Hiscock) explains.
Hearing Dorothy's name and subsequently growing a dimension gives Clara extra agency. She goes off-script and touches Brandy's hand in the hotel garden. The next day, she invites Brandy-as-Alex on their sightseeing tour of Cairo, when in the original Hotel Reverie, it's Alex who offers the invite first.
The "Dorothy" mishap is the first step on Clara's journey to self-determination, but she makes an even bigger leap when Jack spills his drink on one of Redream's computers (manufactured by TCKR, which also appears in Black Mirror episodes like "San Junipero," "Playtest," and more). The accident freezes all the AI constructs in Hotel Reverie except for Clara, whose extra dimension has pushed her from unaware construct into something more. After Brandy tells her the truth, Clara leaves the hotel and breaches the fringe of Redream's simulation, stepping into a dark void where she's exposed to the program's full data pool, which includes Dorothy's life.
Clara speedruns Dorothy's life — which is also hers — in a matter of seconds. She sees everything from tabloid rumors about a romance with her costar Ralph Redwell (Enzo Cilenti) to her real love for one of the women who worked on Hotel Reverie. She even witnesses Dorothy's death.
The revelations about Dorothy and about her own life not being real are the final steps to Clara gaining full agency. As the world remains frozen around her and Brandy, she steps up to the empty hotel bar's empty piano — a sight that movie Clara said brought her nothing but sorrow — and begins to play for herself.
How does Brandy and Clara's love story end in "Hotel Reverie"? Issa Rae and Emma Corrin in "Black Mirror." Credit: Courtesy of NetflixThe piano isn't the only way Clara begins to reclaim her happiness and embrace her autonomy. She and Brandy, who can't leave Hotel Reverie until the end credits roll, also begin a whirlwind romance in the frozen movie. (The "San Junipero" vibes are strong here, not just because of the queer romance but also because of the simulated period piece setting.) One second in the real world translates to several hours in the movie world, so by the time the Redream team finally fix the system, Brandy and Clara have already confessed their love for one another.
But it's too late for the happy couple: Kimmy resets the film to moments after Brandy and Clara's first kiss, meaning Clara won't remember anything that happened after the world froze — including the truth about Dorothy and her relationship with Brandy. Still, Brandy, unsatisfied with both her personal and professional lives in the real world, hopes to stay in Hotel Reverie with Clara until they can rekindle their longterm romance in earnest, even though it would mean Brandy's death in the outside world.
However, Brandy will never get the chance to try. Through some narrative finagling, the Redream team and Brandy manage to fix a major plot hole that would have resulted in Alex's death at the end of the film. They should be home free until the credits, apart from one thing: Clara becomes a wild card, shooting her in-film husband and the police inspector in the hopes of saving herself and Brandy. Her actions result in her tragic death, and as Brandy weeps over her corpse, she says the iconic line that triggers the end credits: "I'll be yours forevermore."
Some time later, Hotel Reverie Reborn becomes a bonafide hit on the streaming service Streamberry (the Netflix parody first introduced in "Joan Is Awful"). Yet Brandy is still mourning a very real relationship.
Enter Redream, who send Brandy a mysterious package. In it, she finds a drive that plays footage from Dorothy's screen test that she'd watched at the start of the episode. The screen test sees Dorothy acting out a conversation into a phone, but the actor keeps talking about how she's waiting for the phone to ring, even if it isn't connected.
But what if it was? That's the second part of Redream's gift: a phone that hooks into the drive and allows Brandy to call this AI simulacrum of Dorothy. The two hit it off, and the episode ends with Dorothy telling Brandy that she has "all the time in the world" to talk to her, an echo of Hotel Reverie's closing, "I'll be yours forevermore."
It's a bittersweet ending, and definitely among Black Mirror's more hopeful offerings. But there's a slightly sinister undercurrent to it, too: This construct of Dorothy is separate from the Clara construct who became self-aware. She lacks the agency her predecessor had, and while Brandy could tell her the truth about who she really is and why they're talking, would that truly free Dorothy, or just make her yearn for escape from being what is essentially a conversation bot? Right now, she exists solely to talk to Brandy, and that doesn't seem like the most fulfilling start to a relationship for either party.
What does "Hotel Reverie" have to say about AI and Hollywood? Issa Rae in "Black Mirror." Credit: Nick Wall / NetflixBased on its concept alone, "Hotel Reverie" seems poised to tackle the never-ending stream of reboots and remakes plaguing Hollywood, along with fears of AI replacing artists. Using AI to resurrect deceased performers has been a hot-button topic in Hollywood in past years, with movies like Alien: Romulus ill-advisedly bringing back late actors for posthumous performances. Elsewhere, director Joe Russo's (of the Russo brothers) comments about AI soon being able to make 90-minute films call to mind Redream's entire project: using AI to quickly regurgitate art that has already been made.
Despite this modern relevance, "Hotel Reverie" doesn't explicitly dive too much deeper into the ethics of Redream's project, choosing instead to focus on a technologically driven romance. (Besides, "Joan Is Awful" already tackles these kinds of issues pretty head-on.) Still, there is a cynicism to how Redream approaches its remakes: Just swap out one star and follow everything else to the letter. Even when Brandy is cast, there's no effort to reshape the story as a queer romance, and they simply hand-wave any conversations around race. Then, during the shooting process, story beats are treated as objectives ("exposition delivered," "backstory deployed") instead of meaningful moments to build to. It's storytelling by numbers in the hopes of making a quick buck.
It's telling, then, that the moments of Hotel Reverie Reborn that most make the Redream team focus are those that deviate from the story, including Brandy and Clara's conversation about Dorothy and Clara's death, which leaves no dry eye in the house. These moments, with real feeling and passion behind them, are the true art (even if there's still an exploitative aspect to how they were captured). Hey, maybe it's these deviations that made Hotel Reverie Reborn such a hit on Streamberry.
Bête Noire is a long way from the bleakest episode of Black Mirror Season 7, but its twist — or at least the sci-fi element of the episode — is probably one of the trickiest to get your head around.
The bulk of the episode plays out like a drama/mystery, only for the last 10 minutes to go impressively off the rails. So what happens at the ending of Bête Noire, and how does the device that Verity (Rosy McEwen) uses to alter reality actually work? We've done our best to break it down below.
SEE ALSO: 'Black Mirror' Season 7 trailer reveals the unsettling plots of each new episode What's Bête Noire about? Credit: Nick Wall / NetflixMaria (Siena Kelly) is cheerfully excelling at her confectionary company job when her world is (literally) rattled by the arrival of former schoolmate Verity. There seems to be some tension between the two of them, with Maria trying to sabotage her getting the job and telling colleagues there were rumours about her at school. The problem? Maria herself was involved in spreading said rumours, making Verity's life a misery in the process.
While Verity quickly settles in at her new workplace, Maria gets increasingly confused. First she finds herself misremembering the names of places, and then she sends an email to Verity in which she swears she wrote one thing, but is proven to have written something else. Eventually she comes to believe that Verity is responsible for her mistakes, and that she's somehow able to change reality without anyone else knowing.
What happens at the end of Bête Noire?After getting fired from her job, Maria follows Verity back to an impressively massive house that has a room filled with computers on the ground floor. She steals Verity's necklace, which she believes is the device she's using to change reality, and then confronts her former schoolmate. Verity, however, is not worried.
"It's just a remote," she says. "It connects to the quantum compiler downstairs. That's what changes reality."
Maria continues hopelessly brandishing her useless necklace/remote until Verity gives a more detailed – albeit equally confusing – explanation.
"Technically, it's not really changing anything; it just retunes our corporeal frequency to one of the parallel realities where whatever I've said has always been true," she says. "There's infinite timelines, so I just pick the one where you're the only one that knows what's going on. So you feel really... special."
In simple terms, Verity is saying that there are an infinite number of universes, where every imaginable combination of possibilities has taken place. Her remote allows her to communicate with the quantum compiler she's built, dictating the reality she wants. The compiler then places her in a parallel universe where what she's said is true, and Maria is the only person that's aware things have changed.
Still confused? So is Maria. But as Verity puts it: "I don't care if you understand it. I'm doing it to hurt you."
Why does Maria kill Verity?Correctly ascertaining that she's completely powerless and that Verity's quantum compiler makes her close to a god, Maria does the only thing she can: She shoots Verity in the head, and then uses her remote to tell the quantum compiler that she's the new boss.
"The pendant works for me, the pendant works for me!" Maria yells into it, before quickly issuing another instruction to get the police to stand down. "She shot herself. It wasn't me. You saw the whole thing."
Against all odds, Maria's plan works. She finishes the episode in the same position of power that Verity had previously, making herself the new "Empress of the Universe." The last shot shows her standing on a plinth on what looks like an alien planet, surrounded by loyal subjects calling out "Hail, Maria!" in unison.
So... a happy ending?
Black Mirror Season 7's "USS Callister: Into Infinity" is full of sci-fi space battles and clone-centric plot twists. But perhaps most importantly, it reminds us of a quintessential Black Mirror bop.
SEE ALSO: 'USS Callister: Into Infinity' ending explained: What happens to the crew?No, I'm not talking about Irma Thomas' "Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand)," which first popped up in Season 1's "Fifteen Million Merits" and has since shown up in several other episodes (including Season 7's "Common People"). Instead, I'm talking about fictional pop star Ashley O's (Miley Cyrus) smash hit "On a Roll," from Season 5's "Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too."
The Black Mirror earworm is a danceable riff on Nine Inch Nails' "Head Like A Hole," transforming Trent Reznor's dark lyrics into a manufactured, tongue-in-cheek pop tune. The lyric "head like a hole," for instance, simply becomes the rallying cry "hey, yeah whoa-ho."
On top of being a banger, "On A Roll" has a brief cameo in "USS Callister" sequel "USS Callister: Into Infinity." It comes during one of Nanette (Cristin Milioti) and Nate's (Osy Ikhile) missions to rob an Infinity player.
This time, their target is Pixie Bunkin (Iolanthe), who's rocking out to "On A Roll" while setting up supplies in Infinity. You can only catch the slightest strains of it through her headphones, but it's enough to get you dancing. It's also enough to get the song stuck in your head, but who am I to complain? Anything to be on a roll again.
Black Mirror has always used Easter eggs to link its many episodes, but in Season 7, it delivers the show's first direct sequel.
Season 7, episode 6, "USS Callister: Into Infinity," is a direct follow-up to Season 4 opener "USS Callister." It follows the crew of the ship USS Callister — all made up of digital clones of real people — after their escape into the video game Infinity from Robert Daly's (Jesse Plemons) private gaming universe.
SEE ALSO: 'USS Callister: Into Infinity' ending explained: What happens to the crew?It's been more than seven years since "USS Callister" first aired, so with all that time (and so many other Black Mirror episodes) between its release and now, you may wonder, "Do I need to revisit the original episode before diving into the sequel?"
My frank answer: Only if you really want to! "USS Callister" is a Black Mirror standout thanks to its clever combination of the show's usual technological warnings and Star Trek pastiche, so it's worth a watch on those merits alone. But if you'd only be checking back in for a plot catch-up, don't worry. "USS Callister: Into Infinity" has you covered.
The episode comes with a "previously on" segment — an unusual sight for an anthology like Black Mirror! — that catches you right back up on the crew of the USS Callister, their real-world counterparts, and the ins and outs of the world of Infinity. Trust us, you won't get lost in space.
"USS Callister: Into Infinity" also incorporates minor flashbacks of footage from "USS Callister" into the episode itself, either in dream sequences, memories, or just as a quick way to refresh you on certain specifics. With all these reminders, it's a breeze to jump right back onto the bridge of the USS Callister.
Black Mirror Season 7 blasts back into the world of "USS Callister" with its first-ever sequel episode, "USS Callister: Into Infinity."
The original "USS Callister," which opened Black Mirror Season 4, introduced Robert Daly (Jesse Plemons), the sadistic creator of the immersive space-set game Infinity. Robert created his own personal Infinity universe themed after the TV show Space Fleet (aka Black Mirror's take on Star Trek). He then populated said universe with in-game clones of his coworkers, whom he tortured and mutilated at will.
SEE ALSO: 'Black Mirror' Season 7 trailer reveals the unsettling plots of each new episodeUnlike most Black Mirror episodes, "USS Callister" has a pretty happy ending. Robert's coworkers, led by programmer Nanette Cole (Cristin Milioti), manage to escape into the wider game of Infinity, leaving Robert to die in his own deleted universe. (Which means he dies in the real world as well.)
Yet as "USS Callister: Into Infinity" reveals, life out in Infinity isn't a walk in the park. Infinity has 30 million players, all looking for Star Wars-style space battles and some good old-fashioned shoot-'em-up gaming. But while Infinity's players can always respawn if they die, the crew of the USS Callister can't. For them, this is it — and they need to find a way out.
By the end of the episode, they do! Kind of. Let's break down the crew's plan, their final fate, and how multiple characters returned from the dead to help them out.
What is the Heart of Infinity? Billy Magnussen, Osy Ikhile, Cristin Milioti, Milanka Brooks, and Paul G. Raymond in "Black Mirror." Credit: Nick Wall / NetflixAfter months of scavenging and robbing Infinity players to survive, Nanette and the rest of the USS Callister crew — Nate (Osy Ikhile), Elena (Milanka Brooks), Kabir (Paul G. Raymond), and Karl (Billy Magnussen) — decide they need to change tactics. If they can somehow create their own personal universe, just like Robert did, they can seal themselves off from Infinity and have a free existence out in space.
To create that universe, they'd have to access the source code, represented by an awe-inspiring spinning structure known as the Heart of Infinity. There's just one problem: Only two people can access the Heart of Infinity. Robert Daly, who's dead in both the real world and the game, and James Walton (Jimmi Simpson), whose real self is alive, but whose game self burnt up while fixing the USS Callister's thrusters during the escape from Robert. Or did he?
James Walton is still alive in "USS Callister: Into Infinity." Jimmi Simpson and Cristin Milioti in "Black Mirror." Credit: Nick Wall / NetflixKarl reveals that Walton has a room on the USS Callister, which should be impossible. When the ship reset after leaving Robert's universe, it spawned rooms for every living player. Walton was nothing but a space crisp by the end of "USS Callister," so how could he get a room?
Nanette and Kabir reason that if any of Walton's disintegrated little bits made it through the wormhole with the ship, that would be enough to make him respawn as a new player in Infinity. New players don't spawn onboard the ship, though: They respawn on a new planet.
The crew tracks Walton's planet down, but they aren't the only ones looking for him. In the real world, reports of rogue Infinity players without player tags have created concern within the Infinity offices. Walton, in particular, is feeling the pressure, especially when a reporter from the New York Times reveals that an illegal DNA digital cloner was found on Robert's personal desk. If clones are in Infinity, then the whole company is implicated in a major crime.
Realizing the rogues are none other than their clones, Nanette and Walton jump into Infinity and meet up with their in-game selves. That's right, we're getting a clone face-off!
While real-world Nanette wants to help free the clones by getting them into the Heart of Infinity, real-world Walton opts for a more murderous form of cover-up. He kills Karl and tries to kill the rest of the crew. No clones means no evidence, right?
Murder is already bad enough, but there's a more sinister edge to Walton's actions. He doesn't even think he's doing anything wrong, because he doesn't see the in-game clones as humans, despite their full sentience. (To be fair, real-world Walton barely sees anyone as a human. He treats poor Nate like he's a human coffee machine!)
Once again, Black Mirror is raising questions around digital consciousness, but "USS Callister" doesn't dwell on that philosophical conundrum too much. Instead, it throws major new plot twists at us. First, real-world Nanette gets hit by a car while fleeing Walton, sending her to St. Juniper Hospital (Easter egg alert!) and setting Walton up to exterminate the clones.
Meanwhile, in-game Walton reveals why his real-world counterpart is so against the crew reaching the Heart of Infinity. It's not because he doesn't want them to escape into their own private universe. It's because a digital clone of Robert is in the Heart of Infinity, building the game.
"USS Callister" brings Robert Daly back as a digital clone.Walton recounts the early stages of Infinity's development to the rest of the USS Callister crew. He wanted to expand the game's universe faster than Robert could work. "There's only one of me," Robert tells him.
But what if there wasn't?
Turns out Walton was one of the earlier investors in the DNA digital cloner that Robert was using. The machine originally came from the porn industry, meant to be a way to create a sentient, virtual sexual partner. Thankfully considered a human rights violation, the technology was outlawed before it went to production. But Walton kept a copy and used it to clone Robert into the game so he could work on it nonstop from within.
That's what's in the Heart of Infinity: not the game's source code, but a clone of Robert with godlike powers.
Nanette enters the Heart of Infinity in order to ask Robert to send her and the crew to a universe of their own. At first glance, this Robert is a far cry from the vicious, vengeful man we came to know in "USS Callister." He's reserved, especially after eons without human contact, but willing to help Nanette after she tells him what the original Robert did.
"I'm so disappointed in myself," he tells her after listening to Nanette's story. "What you described does not sound like me. I'm a nice guy."
With those last four words — a hallmark of a toxic man who believes women owe him something for his niceness — the alarm bells start blaring. Robert works on setting up the separate universe for the clones, but it's clear something is off.
For Nanette, the trauma of her time under Robert's command lingers. She hastily appeases Robert's clone after revealing she hasn't watched Space Fleet, then listens to him compare her situation to several of the show's episodes with a forced smile plastered on her face. This version of Robert might not understand the skewed power dynamic that comes with his control over the game, but Nanette certainly does.
Robert's clone succumbs to Robert's old ways.Outside the Heart of Infinity, real-world Walton manages to send an in-game party invitation to anyone the USS Callister crew has ever robbed. As that battle rages overhead, Nanette continues her tense visit with Robert.
He offers her a choice. Following the car accident, her body in the outside world is braindead and hooked up to a cerebral monitor. Robert could send her consciousness through that, granting her her body and life back. That would wipe out the USS Callister and everyone on it, though. Should she save herself, or save the crew?
Nanette chooses the crew, at which point Robert reveals it was all a test, just like in the Space Fleet episode "Quandary at Outpost 5." He can actually create the pocket universe and send Nanette back to her body.
"You said you couldn't do that," Nanette says.
"I know," he replies. "I had to pretend I couldn't so we could role-play the whole Space Fleet thing."
And there it is: Nanette may just be in Robert's garage, and she may not be wearing a Space Fleet uniform, but she is once again trapped, forced to play out his Space Fleet fantasy.
The situation only worsens from there, when Robert says he'll be copying the crew into the new universe instead of cutting them from Infinity entirely. That means the Infinity set of the clones is doomed to be hunted and killed — all except for Nanette. Robert intends to keep her copy for himself. He says he won't hurt her, but Nanette — and anyone who watched "USS Callister" — knows that isn't true. In fact, Robert goes right ahead 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 hands in the original episode. Clone Robert doesn't seem to understand the full scope of his powers, but that doesn't stop him from harming Nanette, either.
This time, though, Nanette gets the upper hand, killing Robert's clone with the Bargradian cutlass he'd shown off earlier in the episode. But with Robert's clone gone, Infinity stops working and begins to delete itself permanently.
What happens to the USS Callister crew after Infinity is deleted? Osy Ikhile in "Black Mirror." Credit: Nick Wall / NetflixNanette manages to find the hard drive Robert told her would save everyone and insert it into his "retro shit" computer. Just in time, too: Infinity, even all its backups, deletes itself permanently.
Nanette wakes up in the hospital, but she's not alone. Without any Infinity, the USS Callister crew hasn't been transported to a separate universe. Instead, they're in Nanette's head, able to see through her eyes (the set-up is very reminiscent of the Inside Out control room) and talk to her through her phone.
"USS Callister: Into Infinity" flashes forward a couple of months. Walton has been arrested, and Nanette and the rest of the surviving crew have worked out a system: They close their eyes when she changes, goes to the bathroom, or hooks up with anyone. In return, she lets them watch The Real Housewives of Atlanta through her eyes. Oh, and she's apparently working on ways to extract them from her head, although it doesn't seem like she's working too hard on it.
So there you have it. The crew of the USS Callister finally manage to escape Infinity, only to find themselves in a strange new living situation. Like with "USS Callister," the ending of "USS Callister: Into Infinity" is among Black Mirror's lightest. Being trapped in someone's brain — or having four roommates living in your brain — seems like it could become a nightmare, fast. But that's a story for another sequel episode.
Yep, we're going to need a while to recover from that one.
Black Mirror Season 7 starts off on an impressively depressing note with "Common People", a story about a woman forced to use a subscription service to stay alive.
But what exactly happens at the end? Why did Mike (Chris O'Dowd) do what he did, and what was he planning to do next? Let's unpack.
SEE ALSO: 20 of the most WTF quotes from Season 6 of 'Black Mirror.' You'll cry — and laugh. What is Black Mirror episode "Common People" about?After schoolteacher Amanda (Rashida Jones) is diagnosed with a brain tumour, her husband Mike signs her up to an experimental procedure called Rivermind in order to keep her alive.
"We take an imprint of the affected part of her neural structure and we clone it on to our mainframe," explains sales rep Gaynor (Tracee Ellis Ross). "So basically...we make a backup of part of her brain onto our computer."
The catch? While the surgery is free, there's a monthly subscription fee to keep Amanda's brain active that the couple can barely afford. She increasingly needs to sleep for longer at night (the company essentially uses Amanda's brain to power their own servers, putting her in "sleep mode" instead of actually letting her rest). As this is one of those episodes where things just keep getting worse and worse, Amanda's geographical freedom then vanishes, when she's unable to go beyond her tier's allowed signal, and there's the eventual addition of ads played directly through Amanda, with opting out of them only available by upgrading to additional, more expensive Rivermind tiers.
Soon Amanda's job is at risk due to her randomly blurting out commercials at school children, and Mike decides to sign up to a seedy website called "Dum Dummies", where internet strangers pay money to watch people hurt themselves on camera.
And as grim as all that is, it only gets worse in the final act...
Rivermind is able to help, but there are catches. Credit: Netflix What happens at the end of "Common People"?Things reach breaking point when Mike loses his job after a violent altercation. No longer able to afford Rivermind+, the more expensive service that stops Amanda from playing ads and sleeping for 16 hours a day, they head back to the company to appeal for help — and are turned away.
One year later, Mike and Amanda celebrate their anniversary with a 30-minute booster for Rivermind Lux — an advanced tier of the service that allows users to upgrade different emotions and experiences by tapping into the Rivermind cloud. With her serenity levels turned up to the max, Amanda tells Mike, "I think it's time."
Laying her down on the bed, he tells her that he loves her — and then suffocates her with a pillow as she delivers a final advertisement. The episode's last shot shows Mike going into the spare bedroom with a scalpel in his hand. In the background his computer is still open on the Dum Dummies website.
What is Mike planning to do at the end?While some Black Mirror episodes end with major twists or reveals, "Common People" follows something of a downward spiral structure. Things start off well, get steadily worse, and then — just when you think they can't possibly get any worse — they somehow do!
The final sequence of the episode shows us Mike and Amanda at rock bottom. They feel as though they've run out of options — neither of them have jobs, and their only means of paying to keep Amanda alive is by Mike finding increasingly worse ways to hurt himself for the entertainment of internet strangers.
With Amanda dead, the implication of the final shot seems to be that Mike is planning to die by suicide — and given that the computer is still open in the background, it's hinted that the violence will be livestreamed.
Black Mirror Season 7 is streaming now on Netflix.
If you're feeling suicidal or experiencing a mental health crisis, please talk to somebody. You can reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988; the Trans Lifeline at 877-565-8860; or the Trevor Project at 866-488-7386. Text "START" to Crisis Text Line at 741-741. Contact the NAMI HelpLine at 1-800-950-NAMI, Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. ET, or email info@nami.org. If you don't like the phone, consider using the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline Chat at crisischat.org. Here is a list of international resources.
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Connections: Sports Edition is a new version of the popular New York Times word game that seeks to test the knowledge of sports fans.
Like the original Connections, the game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.
If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for the latest Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.
SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable What is Connections Sports Edition?The NYT's latest daily word game has launched in association with The Athletic, the New York Times property that provides the publication's sports coverage. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there's only one correct answer.
If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.
Here's a hint for today's Connections Sports Edition categoriesWant a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:
Yellow: Not a catch in football
Green: Positions on the gridiron
Blue: Major American golf tournament champs
Purple: Same first word
Need a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:
Yellow: Lose control of the ball
Green: Football positions, abbreviated
Blue: Masters winners
Purple: Triple _________
Looking for Wordle today? Here's the answer to today's Wordle.
Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today's puzzle before we reveal the solutions.
Drumroll, please!
The solution to today's Connections Sports Edition #199 is...
What is the answer to Connections Sports Edition todayLose control of the ball - BOBBLE, FUMBLE, JUGGLE, MUFF
Football positions, abbreviated - CB, DT, P, WR
Masters winners - COUPLES, PLAYER, RAHM, WOODS
Triple _________ - A,CROWN, DOUBLE, PLAY
Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be new Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.
Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.
If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Connections.
If you're reading this, you're looking for a little help playing Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game.
Strands requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There's always a theme linking every solution, along with the "spangram," a special, word or phrase that sums up that day's theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.
SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on MashableBy providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.
If you're feeling stuck or just don't have 10 or more minutes to figure out today's puzzle, we've got all the NYT Strands hints for today's puzzle you need to progress at your preferrined pace.
SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for April 10 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for April 10 NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: What's the buzz?The words are part of an insect.
Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explainedThese words are make up a bug that buzzes.
NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?Today's NYT Strands spangram is horizontal.
NYT Strands spangram answer todayToday's spangram is Bumblebee.
Featured Video For You Strands 101: How to win NYT’s latest word game NYT Strands word list for April 10Antennae
Thorax
Wings
Abdomen
Tongue
Stinger
Bumblebee
Looking for other daily online games? Mashable's Games page has more hints, and if you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now!
Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Strands.
Connections is the one of the most popular New York Times word games that's captured the public's attention. The game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.
If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for today's Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.
SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable What is Connections?The NYT's latest daily word game has become a social media hit. The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications' Games section. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there's only one correct answer.
If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.
SEE ALSO: NYT's The Mini crossword answers for April 10 Here's a hint for today's Connections categoriesWant a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:
Yellow: Cheery, bright hues
Green: Stockpile
Blue: Scrooge
Purple: You might hear these south of the border
Need a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:
Yellow: Shades of yellow
Green: Supply
Blue: Anti-spirit of Christmas
Purple: Spanish words
Looking for Wordle today? Here's the answer to today's Wordle.
Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today's puzzle before we reveal the solutions.
Drumroll, please!
The solution to today's Connections #669 is...
What is the answer to Connections todayShades of yellow: CANARY, GOLD, LEMON, MUSTARD
Supply: MINE, RESERVE, STORE, WELL
Anti-spirit of Christmas: BAH, COAL, GRINCH, NAUGHTY
Spanish words: ELLA, GUSTO, MAYO, SOY
Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be new Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.
SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for April 10Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.
If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Connections.
Oh hey there! If you're here, it must be time for Wordle. As always, we're serving up our daily hints and tips to help you figure out today's answer.
If you just want to be told today's word, you can jump to the bottom of this article for today's Wordle solution revealed. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.
SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable SEE ALSO: NYT Connections today: Hints and answers for April 10 Where did Wordle come from?Originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner, Wordle rapidly spread to become an international phenomenon, with thousands of people around the globe playing every day. Alternate Wordle versions created by fans also sprang up, including battle royale Squabble, music identification game Heardle, and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once.
Wordle eventually became so popular that it was purchased by the New York Times, and TikTok creators even livestream themselves playing.
What's the best Wordle starting word?The best Wordle starting word is the one that speaks to you. But if you prefer to be strategic in your approach, we have a few ideas to help you pick a word that might help you find the solution faster. One tip is to select a word that includes at least two different vowels, plus some common consonants like S, T, R, or N.
What happened to the Wordle archive?The entire archive of past Wordle puzzles was originally available for anyone to enjoy whenever they felt like it, but it was later taken down, with the website's creator stating it was done at the request of the New York Times. However, the New York Times then rolled out its own Wordle Archive, available only to NYT Games subscribers.
Is Wordle getting harder?It might feel like Wordle is getting harder, but it actually isn't any more difficult than when it first began. You can turn on Wordle's Hard Mode if you're after more of a challenge, though.
SEE ALSO: NYT's The Mini crossword answers for April 10, 2025 Here's a subtle hint for today's Wordle answer:High-speed.
Does today's Wordle answer have a double letter?There are no recurring letters.
Today's Wordle is a 5-letter word that starts with...Today's Wordle starts with the letter T.
SEE ALSO: Wordle-obsessed? These are the best word games to play IRL. The Wordle answer today is...Get your last guesses in now, because it's your final chance to solve today's Wordle before we reveal the solution.
Drumroll please!
The solution to today's Wordle is...
TURBO.
Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be a new Wordle for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.
Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.
SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for April 10Reporting by Chance Townsend, Caitlin Welsh, Sam Haysom, Amanda Yeo, Shannon Connellan, Cecily Mauran, Mike Pearl, and Adam Rosenberg contributed to this article.
If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Wordle.
President Donald Trump has announced a 90-day pause on his reciprocal tariffs, and the stock market is already bouncing back — from the damage caused last week when Trump announced his reciprocal tariffs.
Tech stocks, like Apple, Sony, and Microsoft, shot up quickly following Trump's announcement, with Tesla rising particularly fast. As of this writing, Tesla stock was up 22.69 percent for the day. Meanwhile, Intel gained more than 17 percent; Nvidia was up by over 15 percent; and Meta, Amazon, Alphabet, and more stocks were spiking as well.
Trump made the announcement in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.
"I have authorized a 90 day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10%, also effective immediately," Trump announced.
SEE ALSO: Trump tariff news: iPhones getting snapped up, laptop sales disrupted – what we knowHowever, according to the president, the pause only affects countries who are engaged in negotiations with the White House. Tariffs put on goods from countries like China, who responded with their own new reciprocal tariffs, have not been paused. In fact, Trump announced a new 125 percent tariff with China. A global 10 percent tariff, announced over the weekend, will also remain in effect.
The slapdash tariff rollout has led to an extremely volatile market. Still, the news of a pause on levies for countries like South Korea and Vietnam was enough to send Apple stock flying upward. Trump's tariffs resulted in the worst 4-day stretch on the stock market for Apple since 2000.
Crypto market also rebounds with tariff newsThe crypto markets also reacted positively to Trump's tariff suspension announcement. Bitcoin was back up over $82,000 as of publication after spending days floundering in the mid-to-upper $70k range. Ethereum also spiked 8 percent after Trump's tariff announcement.
The tariffs that Trump implemented last week wreaked havoc on the global economy. The market looked so bleak over the weekend that some analysts expected a "Black Monday" scenario. On Monday, April 7, rumors spread on Elon Musk's X that Trump was considering a pause on the tariffs, which helped avoid that worse case scenario. According to the White House, those posts were untrue.
Despite a temporary reprieve on most reciprocal tariffs, the ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China rages on. So, while Trump's tariff pause was welcome news on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley for the moment, the fallout remains impossible to predict.
How will President Trump’s tariffs affect you? Keep checking Mashable for our latest tariff news and explainers, from delayed Nintendo Switch 2 preorders to reports of iPhone 16 panic buying.
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Remember that man who was rescued from the ocean after calling for help on his Apple Watch last year? Apple has released audio from that call in a new ad highlighting the Watch's safety features.
Rick Shearman was swimming off an Australian beach last July when he was caught in a current and dragged approximately one mile from the shore. Fortunately, he was able to call for help using his Apple Watch Ultra's Emergency SOS feature, which put him in touch with local emergency services (000 in Australia). The Watch also kept them updated on Shearman's coordinates, so the rescue helicopter didn't have to spend too much time searching for him in an endless expanse of blue.
The call is an interesting listen, with Shearman sounding much less panicked than most others would be in his situation (which no doubt contributed to his survival). Though he was clearly tired at that point, freaking out would have been a phenomenally poor use of his depleting energy.
It's also clear enough to be comprehensible even without Apple's helpful subtitles, which is quite the feat considering that Shearman was treading water and holding his wrist to his mouth or ear in turns. It's possible that Apple cleaned the audio up a bit for the ad, but even so, it was still apparently clear enough for Australia's emergency services to understand.
Google has now confirmed that Reddit uses Gemini to power Reddit Answers, an internal AI search tool for Reddit users. Contrary to some early reports, a Google PR representative told Mashable that Reddit Answers was already integrated with Gemini prior to the announcement.
A beta version of Reddit Answers launched last December. And at the Google Cloud Next event on Wednesday, Google shared new details about how Reddit Answers works with Gemini. The tool uses Gemini "to help people more effectively find information, recommendations, discussions, and insights directly from the conversations and communities across Reddit," according to a press release.
The Reddit Answers beta launched in late 2024. Credit: Screenshot courtesy of RedditThanks to an existing partnership between Google and Reddit, which allows the latter to access Google Cloud's Vertex AI platform, Reddit Answers is powered by Google's Gemini AI model, among other tools. This means Reddit Answers has a similar AI search experience as Google tools using Gemini, like the standalone chatbot, Google Search's AI Overviews and AI Mode — except with answers sourced directly from the Reddit community.
"The integration of Vertex AI Search into Reddit Answers means users can find the information they need more quickly and accurately, and easily navigate to the conversations that matter to them," said Michael Clark, president of North America GTM at Google Cloud, in the press release.
The introduction of ChatGPT brought upheaval to the search world, and left Google scrambling to catch up in the AI arms race. A recent survey from media company Future found that up to 27 percent of U.S. searchers already use AI tools like ChatGPT instead of Google (though, the low-quality of recent Google Search results may also be a factor).
Google has made significant changes to its search engine in an effort to re-engage users. This includes features like AI Overviews and AI Mode, but also a licensing deal to train its models on Reddit content. After the Reddit-Google partnership was announced, Reddit's forum pages also became far more visible in Google Search.
With Gemini powering Reddit Answers, the companies are growing ever more entwined.
Adding to growing fears of digital surveillance under the Trump administration, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it will begin screening immigrants' social media accounts in an effort to uncover "antisemitic activity," the department explained.
The department will be on the hunt for content that appears to be "endorsing, espousing, promoting, or supporting antisemitic terrorism, antisemitic terrorist organizations, or other antisemitic activity," the order says. Under the new directive, evidence of such online activity, as well as physical harassment of Jewish citizens, determined by the USCIS and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), can be used as grounds for denying immigrant benefit requests.
SEE ALSO: Phone inspections when crossing the U.S. border: What you need to know about your rights and securityIn line with President Donald Trump's executive orders to tighten immigration enforcement and combat antisemitism, the DHS argues such surveillance will "protect the homeland from extremists and terrorist aliens, including those who support antisemitic terrorism, violent antisemitic ideologies and antisemitic terrorist organizations such as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, or Ansar Allah aka: 'the Houthis.'”
While reports of antisemitism have increased across the U.S., activists argue the policy is less of a protective measure and more of an opportunity to root out criticism of Israel's occupation and siege of Palestinian territories, as well as America's allegiance to the foreign power. Over the last month, several international students who have vocally supported Palestine were clandestinely arrested by immigration agents, including graduate students Rumeysa Öztürk, Ranjani Srinivasan, and Mahmoud Khalil. The latter is currently fighting his deportation in court and has become a symbol of the administration's crack down on Palestinian organizers. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has revoked hundreds of visas on such grounds, saying: "We gave you a visa to come and study and get a degree, not to become a social activist that tears up our university campus."
The latest policy applies to "lawful permanent resident status, foreign students, and aliens affiliated with educational institutions," providing legal protection to scour the profiles of international students and faculty despite a widespread outcry from free speech advocates across the political spectrum.
"The spirit of Joseph McCarthy is alive and well in the Trump administration, which has spent months dishonestly mischaracterizing legitimate criticism of the Israeli government's war crimes in Gaza as antisemitic, pursuing witch hunts into American colleges, and threatening the free speech rights of immigrants," said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, the national deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in a statement to NPR.
In March, the administration announced it would begin reviewing social media profiles as part of the immigrant benefits request process, including applications for visas, naturalization, and relatives of people who have been granted asylum or refugee status. The decision was estimated to impact more than 3 million people.
Meanwhile, individuals entering the U.S. — citizen or otherwise — are increasingly on alert about securing their digital devices and online privacy in the face of increased electronic checks by federal immigration services on the border and at customs checkpoints.
AI companies have been working on voice models for a while now, but it seems things really ramped up after OpenAI unveiled ChatGPT Voice Mode.
Now, Amazon has just introduced its new "foundation" AI voice model called Nova Sonic. And it really makes Alexa sound like she's living way in the past.
According to Amazon, Nova Sonic "unifies speech understanding and speech generation into a single model, to enable more human-like voice conversations in AI applications." With the samples provided, it certainly does seem more human-like than the company's previous iterations of AI voice models.
SEE ALSO: I compared Sesame to ChatGPT voice mode and I'm unnervedFor example, there are proper pauses, tone, and inflections on words depending on where they are and what they mean in a sentence. Amazon provided some samples you can listen to here and here.
Again, "more human-like" is the key description here. There are still plenty of signs that it's an AI voice, but it also does sound like a big step over previous AI voice assistants like Alexa.
Amazon says that it achieved this by combining multiple models that would traditionally be used, like speech recognition, large language models, and text-to-speech, into one single unified model. According to Amazon, it not only understands the nuances in speech to produce it, but it also understands it when a human inputs their own speech with these nuances as well.
According to TechCrunch, Nova Sonic is already powering Amazon's next-generation AI voice assistant, Alexa+.
Based on recent developments, it does seem like the big AI companies are currently focusing on voice models. So, prepare for competition in that space to heat up. Amazon is already pointing to claims that Nova Sonic is roughly 80 percent cheaper than OpenAI's GPT-4o model and promoting it as “the most cost-efficient."
Nova Sonic is currently available to developers through Amazon's enterprise AI developer platform, Bedrock.
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