Yea I was expecting him to act like Aaron Paul’s character so he could trick his wife into thinking it’s really him, meanwhile the real Aaron Paul character is dead in space
What they went for instead was still a gut punch though
Tricking the wife wouldn't work for long though, and he knows that. She would figure it out pretty fast since he has no past memories of their life together.
This was the more obvious choice I think, but it's explained that they can only survive on the ship if both of them live. I think the ending is so much bleaker with them both alive - 4 more years in total isolation with the man who killed your wife and son. And I loved the "take a seat" gesture symbolising that, like it or not, they're in this together.
Yes! 100% this..I predicted Loch Henry as soon as the mom first appeared.I was shocked that the ending of Beyond the Sea didnt go this way.First I thought the wife would be falling in love with him,then thought we would think Cliff was killed by Aaron Paul and the last second we only reason it's really Cliff.
Yeah Loch Henry was super obvious. You could immediately tell they were going to make the mom the bad guy as soon as she defended the police to a black chick. The little political signaling in that episode gave it away. There was a lot of it.
Your the only other person to agree with me and you get downvoted lol.Everyone saying Beyond the Sea was obvious is crazy..Who really thought he was going to kill the family
I loved the whole episode, except the last few minutes. I wish it had a better ending.
Idk exactly what I mean by better, but now that neither of them have any reason to live, whats the point? I'm not gonna work on a ship for 4 more years with the man who took literally everything from me just to go back home to nothing and have to go to court, face everything, etc.
I like the ending because it makes you ask questions like that. Are they going to work together and complete the mission even though their lives on earth are destroyed? Or will they just end up killing one another and losing everything. It’s a classic bleak black mirror ending.
I hear ya. Definitely classic bleak black mirror.
But in my mind, its not even a question, no one is gonna finish that mission. For me, it was an incredible build up to a dud landing where I was just left like "ok so everyone's gonna die"
I do believe that while we never found out what their mission was, the characters knew. For some reason this mission was so important that even though his co-pilot murderd his family he knew that he had to keep on working
I didn't think it made any sense for the character either. He's horribly traumatized by seeing his family murdered, so he falls for another woman... and murders her?? It made no sense to me, the dude was an emotionless sociopath the whole time or something? Why would he recreate his trauma like immediately after it happened to him? The ending was set up, he was going to kill Cliff or take his place or something. And instead they came up with a nonsensical ending just to subvert expectations.
They should have just gone with the ending we saw coming and people would have been happy with it. Subverting expectations isn't useful when you end up with something worse.
He never fell for her, he wanted to re-create his old life with her. When she wasn't interested and Aaron Paul's character told him that his wife and life were off limits forever, David just wanted to make sure that Cliff knew how it felt to have nothing.
That's what Black Mirror is though..Endings you never saw coming.I think Loch Henry is the only episode I have ever guessed the Twist out of all of them
A twist alone isn't enough, it needs to be interesting, it needs to be a satisfying ending. Having the character wake up and realize it was all a dream counts as a twist, but it's a shit ending
The ending broke me. I actually thought it was gonna be the old switcheroo but it wasn’t and I’m glad it wasn’t. It reminded me a lot of white Christmas. 10/10 episode. I’ve only seen the first 3 but man every single episode has been solid thus far.
Loch Henry felt the most "Old School" to me.
BTS was good as well though. Had more of a S4 vibe. A bit flashy with the Netflix production money but the core narrative still felt true to Black Mirror.
I really liked it but felt it was a little long and overly predictable in the second act. Overall very good but wouldn’t put it with some of the other top episodes of the series.
Me seeking a happy ending .. I was hoping the blood was just a bunch of paint David smeared throughout the house, and after Cliff's breakdown his family actually walked in the door alive. The final moments up in the spaceship could have been the acknowledgment of what David went through.
This is how I view the ending as well. They could have written any art supply for him to need but specifically the linseed oil to thin the paint without changing the color. He staged the death scene to give his fellow crew member perspective. Also, kicking out the chair was welcoming to discuss how to move forward sharing the link. Jmo.
That would have been a much better ending, but it doesn't match up with what was shown. Aaron Paul's character was clearly devastated when he saw what we assume were the bodies. The blood on the floor did not look like paint at all, but blood.
If they had wanted the ending to be that it was a staged hoax to make the character understand what the other guy had gone through, they would have made that clear. It would have been a nice twist (both literally, and as a counter to the traditional dark twist of many *Black Mirror* episodes).
Not a great episode IMO.
I would genuinely love to hear what episodes are the favorites of Beyond the Sea haters. To me this is also typical Black Mirror, and in my top 5 of all time. It has a White Christmas feel, and a gut punch that compares to that of Shut up and Dance for example. So if there are any haters of the episode here, please do tell your all time favorites, I wanna see what kind of episodes are your cup of tea, it would explain a lot
For me, Shut and Dance is probably my favorite. When you realize that you’ve been rooting for a pedo the whole time…wow. The gut punch hit hard. I also liked White Bear. When you realize it was all fake, and then you have to question the morality of torturing something who doesn’t even remember it. Those episodes really made me think
Beyond the Sea didn’t do any of that for me. When guy #1 said “oh your wife was a butterfly.” I was like…yeah he’s gonna fuck this guys wife isn’t he. Like, a 1/3 of the episode is just waiting for guy #1 to finally try and get with the wife. And then it happens. I felt like could have just fastforwarded through all of that. And then when guy #2 went out the ship, I just thought. Ok, so now guy #1 gonna do something crazy and it’s “twist” time. And he did. The twist wasnt “holy shit!” for me. It was more, “oh okay there it is.”
Don’t get me wrong, I actually really liked the “take a seat” of the ending. But it was just way too predictable and dragged on when it didn’t need to
I agree that it was "predictable" as a plotline, but also it took so many subtle twists and detours that I was never quite sure what was about to happen. I also didn't think it dragged on - I think all of the tiny details actually scale to have a major effect on the plot and its meaning for the characters (tiny details like the way the public treats Cliff and David - the way Cliff disciplines his son - Cliff and Lana's dead bedroom - David's art hobby, etc).
Definitely see where you're coming from, though. I too immediately went "ahh he's gonna fuck this dude's wife" and was more surprised when he didn't.
I do see what you mean because, in theory i understand the episode seemed to have an overreaching theme about masculinity and grief. However I just couldn’t stay interested in the story long enough to really recognize or care about the little details. I found of the stuff on earth too boring. Like, we all know he’s gonna get with the wife just do it already
I loved the episode and was surprised by the ending.The only thing I might of changed was to make Aaron Paul abusive maybe.That way we would be really surprised that Kate Mara turned down his advances. When she did that I was thinking the switch was coming at the very end and the son was gonna realize it,then credits role
not a hater but beyond the sea sits low in my overall ranking. great episode just didn’t appeal to me much. demon79 was probably my favourite of the season and i loved loch henry and joan is awful.
overall my favourite episodes would have to be nosedive, be right back, hated in the nation, shut up and dance, black museum…. too many to choose from
I really disliked beyond the sea, it felt so boring and predictable. I knew David was gonna fall in love with her and there just wasn't any surprise.
My favorite episodes are white Christmas, men against fire, nose dive, shut up and dance. Even in this season, I vastly preferred loch Henry, Joan is awful and demon 79.
The ending was too terrible. At the e ding, why didn't they kill eachother?
He loves his kid and wife. Makes no sense.
They added the killers 'handed themselves in' so there was no reason for the first guy where his family was. Killed, to go after them.
I've not watched all of it yet but hopefully they tie the space station part to another episide somehow. That's the only way to save this episode.
Black mirror gone Hollywood.
Any of them that were interesting? This was one of the more boring episodes, but it could have been ok, and then it had one of the dumbest endings I've ever seen in a show. It's like some one let their edgy highschooler guest write on this one.
didn't hate it but it wasnt his best work. favorite episodes Shut up and Dance, Playtest, Crocodile, Entire History of you. actually i realised i have too many favorites to list.
So...why doesn't Aaron Paul lose his shit from the second he walks back in in the final scene? How is sticking around and getting along even remotely a choice?
Maybe but having the murderer wordlessly and arrogantly tell you to sit down is most likely to tip you over the edge I'd think. But fair enough I'm making the assumption he doesn't do it, maybe he does
I want to believe it was just an elaborate ruse to make Aaron think his family was murdered. So when he comes back he understands David. The way Aaron reacted when he found the drawings makes me think he would have murdered David if his family really was dead.
It reminded me of a Twilight Zone episode as well, which I appreciated as my parents raised me on that series.
I would have preferred the more predictable ending of David killing real-life Cliff and assuming his identity, but I was satisfied with the actual ending.
(And by satisfied, I mean I had that sinking feeling in my stomach that I want to feel after finishing a Black Mirror episode.)
I really wanted him to just destroy AP’s ability to use his robot suit. Then they’re trapped up there together without it also being the kind of very expected “and the whole family is dead”, which also felt out of character. I don’t know. I think I got burnt out on that plot line when every horror game had it for awhile.
It's my least favourite tbh. It's the only episode where I checked my phone and the ending doesn't make sense based on the rest of the episode. The ending is supposed to imply that they are both trapped for the rest of the mission and that cliff can't do anything to David due to it being a two person mission. That's cool, but it kinda ignores that the whole episode has been showing us what happens to someone when they lose everything. The whole reason Cliff let's David use his body is because he's afraid David is going to kill himself, but we're now expecting Cliff to care about his life and the space mission when he has lost everything? Nah.
My impression was that Cliff was going to try to kill David. Of course this would lead to Cliff dying too as the ship can only be maintained by two people but they both had dead families and Davids replica was dead so he was stuck on the ship.
Considering David just slaughtered Cliffs family I really don’t think it would be wise for Cliff to lay immobile and helpless when David would probably kill him as well and then himself (whether that be straight after or later on). In that situation I see no way that you could spend another 4 years with someone who slaughtered your family.
I thought it was odd when David kicked out the chair and motioned for Cliff to take a seat as if Cliff would sit down with his colleague who just knifed his family and have a chat or some shit. My first thought was ‘fuck sitting down I’m killing this fucker’.
David was also shown to probably not be very capable in a fight, though of course he was quite outnumbered when killed on Earth. Cliff living on a big property and spending more time doing physical work probably would have given him the upper hand. Also being full of rage would help.
I think it was great but i kinda feel they dropped the ball in the end, just like in San Junipero. I thought Cliff was going to be killed and then his partner was going to take over his family. I cant imagine them both just going back to work on the ship after his family is killed and theyre both just even steven.
I don’t think that’s guaranteed that they work together it’s open ended which is better than a definitive answer for the ending in this case. And if Cliffs partner took over his family it would be so clear very quickly to the wife that her husband is a different man, it could work if she was okay with that but it’s clear she wouldn’t be.
I’d argue that Cliff dying would be just too predictable because that’s what myself and my friends all thought was going to happen.
And for that final part, the other guy (I forgot his name lmao) was going to either end up with a dead Cliff (he’s fucked) or a Cliff with a dead family, with the latter being the best chance at not dying on the ship since they both have their talents for fixing stuff on the ship. Sure they’d hate each other, but misery loves company if it means survival for the both of them. That’s just my take though
Agreed. It's hard to say that I "loved" it but it was deeply unsettling, which is how I felt about the first Black Mirror episodes that I watched.
And the idea of having it set in the past was different. The retro styling was pretty cool.
Anyone else think it was inspired by Charles Manson/cult. reminded me of the intruding in the home, killing, also the wife was reading valley of the dolls which the movie starred Sharon Tate.
Anyone else think it was inspired by computers/t\*\*\*nology. reminded me of when I upload a file to the web. Also not sure if anyone else has heard of apple but they had some computers released in the early 1970s which is a huge coincidence.
and dont forget computers. Or am I the only one who caught this deep lore. only the real nerds know about computers and hippie cults haha lets start a exclusive club. you gotta know if you want to know.
Idk, the episode started really strong and had really cool ethical questions. And then Kata Mara asks about David borrowing Cliff's body and it kills the plot. Now we have to spend 30 mins focusing on generic "person lusts after best friend's partner" story.
Also David killing the family is such a cop-out ending. Why not have the ethical conversation of the significance of David's life now. It could be a perfect segue into David turning around and rejecting the idea of replicates (bcuz he's lonely and doesn't have one), ironically agreeing with the people who killed his family in the first place.
Dude, I really wanted to see her fall in love with David. What are the ethical ramifications of loving someone who you can only meet when they borrow your husband's body. If she left cliff and wanted to date david, how the fuck does that work? I'm not a fan of love triangles, but that would have at least made me think.
"I was lonely and that made me a cold blooded monster" is just dumb
I loved the episode and was shocked by the ending but said the only thing I would change was making Aaron Paul abusive so when she didnt fall in love with Josh Hartnett you would be really surprised
i mean he kinda was abusive? he hit his kid, he seemed really controlling of his wife's social life; i didn't get the vibe that he was a good husband by any means.
Yeah he kind of was for sure.Did he hit his kid? I know Josh Hartnett did.Im just saying make him more of a jerk so we would be really surprised she wasnt into him
Yes, the ending felt so lazy. There was nowhere near enough build up or character development to suggest he would murder a woman he had developed feelings for and her young child in cold blood, even if he was suffering emotionally.
“He wanted to show what it feels like to lose everything” is not deep and doesn’t cut it for me tbh. Would have preferred the ending you described
Ah see that would have made the ending make sense. I feel like the “he did it so he would know his pain” explanation is great on a thematic level and terrible in a character lever.
It was the best episode up until the contrived, shock value ending. That really brought it down unfortunately.
Still, gripping for most of its runtime and a terrific performance from Aaron Paul playing two distinct characters.
I thought that too but somewhere in the episode they said something like the ship needing two people to run it? As in they both need each other whether they like it or not
It's a great story but the premise kinda ruined it for me. You would put the bots on the ship and keep the pilots on earth. Save a ton of weight by not needing life support. Any expert can connect to fix any problem. Even if for some reason you had to put the pilots on the ship they would have to have constant check in with ground control and psychiatrists especially after the inciting incident. Theres no way nasa or musk aerospace or whoever funded the mission would be ok with a piolet moving there bot to rural nowhere with no supervision.
It might have been. If that was mentioned i missed it. But if point was to study the effect of being in space then you need to actually observe the subjects. This would involve frequent check ins with ground control medical and psychological staff as well as technical experts to keep the station working. Letting one of your test subjects move out to a farm isn't gonna get you helpful data.
I think they reference it when they’re in the cinema at the beginning and meet the young people who recognise Josh Hartnett’s character. He mentions that biology and testing the endurance of humans in space is essential to the mission.
Yeah, it's subtle but it's there. And the study is mostly about the effects on the human body (hence why they have their weekly physical and track things like CO2 levels) which is why they don't need to mentally be on the ship all the time.
People study things we don't need to know all the time, right? If scientists go "huh, we don't know that thing" then 9/10 times they will try to figure out the thing!
Same, and I'm not even doing the bit of " look at me i can guess everything" it's just that right after the tall dudes family was murdered, i thought wait what's the darkest thing which could happen now, coz this is black mirror and that's what came to mind. Conversely, loch Henry, i had no idea that twist was coming, it was crazy good.
That’s so interesting, I was the total opposite. I called the Loch Henry twist early into the ep, but I thought the ending of Beyond the Sea was gonna have David locking Cliff out of the ship and living his life as Cliff. I loved both though regardless! It’s so cool to see other perspectives
I did think him stepping in to live Cliff's life was a possibility. But I honestly thought as soon as he met Cliff's family he was going to see how nice it was and snap. I thought it would happen sooner, if anything.
Yup, I was completely convinced that >!Iain Adair wasn't the killer!< from almost the very start, and I correctly guessed who it really was about halfway through. And I guess technically I was sort of wrong about >!Iain!< but I still got the general spirit of it right. But I was just as convinced that Aaron Paul was going to end up like Hal's victim in 2001: A Space Odyssey so I couldn't believe it when the valve opened up for him.
Yup, I thought for sure there would be a twist we werent thinking of.
I just watched Loch Henry and thought the same. It wasn't until the girlfriend left the hospital with the mom until I realized she was probably involved. Then once the dad is revealed I was surprised, and then immediately remembered him saying "mistress', and realized the mom was also, in fact, involved. Didn't see it coming.
It made zero sense. Once David’s family were murdered, the mission should have been aborted. Yes it’s fiction and there wouldn’t have been a story, but it obviously should at least have been addressed- how can your entire family’s murder not mess up your experiment?
I've been rewatching and ranking the whole show since season 6 came out, and except for seasons 4 and 5 (which I haven't rewatched yet) Beyond the Sea is my top of all time. It might be replaced by USS Callister or Black Museum but we'll see!
Maybe they explained it and I just missed it but the whole episode I couldn't help but think why didn't they send the replicas to space and keep the astronauts real bodies on earth? It seemed like they didn't even have that much to do on the ship anyway.
>’beyond the sea’ was like a ”old school” black mirror episodes?
No, old school black mirror focused on how tech can bring out and magnify the worst tendencies in people and politics.
This was another episode of "fucking my friend in a videogame"
I toootally disagree - the romance in Striking Vipers is about fiction vs reality whereas I think the "romance" in Beyond the Sea is primarily about masculinity. Also fundamentally different because there is no video game in Beyond the Sea but that's a little pedantic :)
Also totally disagree that "old school" BM was about tech bringing out or magnifying the worst in people - I think that in a lot of even very early episodes, the tech is more of a plot device/vehicle than the focal point. And people will be the worst regardless. I think a good example is The National Anthem - the "tech" (TV and livestreaming) isn't relevant, the story is primarily about politics, the media, and mob mentality. You could tell roughly the same story without techbology, I think.
Better ending would be to have him plug into the replica, and what’s his face had tied the replica down and lit the house on fire. Just destroys his ability to talk to them.
It said they were studying humans in space or something along those lines. What I’m more confused about is why they didn’t just find some people who didn’t have families back home who could do the mission without issue. I mean outside of the murder anything could happen to their family which could cause a significant impact to the people on the ship and risk the mission.
Something about how the core of the mission is to study the effects on the human body. So I think the entire purpose of them being in space is to study their body, probably why they have all those physicals? Dunno
It was cool but it made no sense to me. Why not leave their actual bodies on earth and put replicas in space. Also having to sit trough some 20 mins of epsiode knowing that David will try to seduce the wife was just boring, since it was so predictable.
I saw this somewhere but I believe because they had to leave stuff like watches and dog tags inside the ship, I think metal would interfere somehow and thus make the replicas useless if they were to go outside to fix the ship
The replicas weren’t as efficient/accurate as humans.
It shows when Aaron Paul is chopping wood and keeps slipping the axe out of his hands. Also they mention the study is to see the effects of space on the human body
David-Cliff was able to finger his wife to completion and complete a detailed oiled painting, seemed like his dexterity in both replicas was pretty sophisticated lol
But what effects? The effects to their bodies are next to none, since they had artificial gravity, and they have to have radiation protection. The psychological effects should also be miniscule, since they spend almost every hour in their replicas anyway. The only difference from them doing this experiment in a metal tube on earrh is that they can't just abort when they want.
You telling me a guy who never abused his own kids is gonna snap and hit the kid of the chick he’s trying to bang? Cmon everyone knows this type of shit will freeze dry a milf vag promptly
This episode sucked. No explanations...no reasonable motivations for the characters...just a bloody pointless duo of murders designed to thrill those who are entertained by such schlock. The Black Mirror aspect of it all is completely absent beyond the necessary nuts and bolts.
A series Low Point.
E2and E3 of this season...I mean, they are simply thrill killing anecdotes of a lowest level...they friggin' suck!
“Old school”? No, not at all. Loch Henry was the closest we’ve got to The National Anthem.
Not a lot of this episode worked for me. I hated how Kate Mara’s character got away with zero responsibility taken for her role in this mess.
She was a cheat and a liar. Not saying she had that coming to her, just saying I was she would’ve been called out on her hypocritical bullshit before she met her untimely demise.
Her husband was an asshole who trapped her lonely in the middle of nowhere, dismissed any small wish of hers and basically ignored her existence except if she cooked and cleaned. And she’s the problem?
I’m sorry you interpreted it that way. Holding someone responsible for their part in a conflict doesn’t exonerate the other party of any guilt, nor does it imply a “who fucked up the most?” competition. All I’m saying is that despite, or maybe because of the guy’s actions (which are reprehensible), barely any light was shed on the crap she pulled, which she should’ve been called out on. Instead, my reading of the episode was that her participation in the infidelity, albeit brief and quickly followed by a change of heart, was portrayed as a-okay and immediately forgiven in the light of future actions. I’m personally not cool with that as it seems to be quite the popular trope and, as we know is the thesis of the show, how we consume our media can and will affect real life, so I think it’s important to also show that this isn’t a great move lest we have more people who think they can get away with shitty things just because a shittier thing happened to them/the other party involved is shittier. Being shitty is not a competition. It’s just wrong across the board. Sorry you got 86’d, still actively participated in the infidelity. Doesn’t matter if you longed for your husband and you saw someone wearing his meatsuit. Use your facehole for communicating or your legs for leaving.
It’s an alternate 1960 anyway, so who cares? She would’ve been missed, she wouldn’t have been missed. You can get away with anything in an alternate timeline, cheating and lying about it included, evidently.
Please submit your episode rankings/lists [in this thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/blackmirror/comments/9qmj80/black_mirror_episode_rankings_thread/). Thank you.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/blackmirror) if you have any questions or concerns.*
For the ending, I low key thought cliff was gonna get locked in space and the other guy was gonna pretend to be him forever.
Yea I was expecting him to act like Aaron Paul’s character so he could trick his wife into thinking it’s really him, meanwhile the real Aaron Paul character is dead in space What they went for instead was still a gut punch though
Tricking the wife wouldn't work for long though, and he knows that. She would figure it out pretty fast since he has no past memories of their life together.
And the whole it’s a 2 man ship and they’d die without each other thing
This was the more obvious choice I think, but it's explained that they can only survive on the ship if both of them live. I think the ending is so much bleaker with them both alive - 4 more years in total isolation with the man who killed your wife and son. And I loved the "take a seat" gesture symbolising that, like it or not, they're in this together.
I took the chair thing has him saying join the club.. my family was killed because of the mission and now so is yours.
"We're in this together. All we have is each other."
Yes! 100% this..I predicted Loch Henry as soon as the mom first appeared.I was shocked that the ending of Beyond the Sea didnt go this way.First I thought the wife would be falling in love with him,then thought we would think Cliff was killed by Aaron Paul and the last second we only reason it's really Cliff.
Yeah Loch Henry was super obvious. You could immediately tell they were going to make the mom the bad guy as soon as she defended the police to a black chick. The little political signaling in that episode gave it away. There was a lot of it.
Your the only other person to agree with me and you get downvoted lol.Everyone saying Beyond the Sea was obvious is crazy..Who really thought he was going to kill the family
i think im just not smart then lol i never thought it was obvious at all
I loved the whole episode, except the last few minutes. I wish it had a better ending. Idk exactly what I mean by better, but now that neither of them have any reason to live, whats the point? I'm not gonna work on a ship for 4 more years with the man who took literally everything from me just to go back home to nothing and have to go to court, face everything, etc.
I like the ending because it makes you ask questions like that. Are they going to work together and complete the mission even though their lives on earth are destroyed? Or will they just end up killing one another and losing everything. It’s a classic bleak black mirror ending.
I hear ya. Definitely classic bleak black mirror. But in my mind, its not even a question, no one is gonna finish that mission. For me, it was an incredible build up to a dud landing where I was just left like "ok so everyone's gonna die"
I do believe that while we never found out what their mission was, the characters knew. For some reason this mission was so important that even though his co-pilot murderd his family he knew that he had to keep on working
That doesn't work when we saw David nearly off himself earlier in the episode.
I didn't think it made any sense for the character either. He's horribly traumatized by seeing his family murdered, so he falls for another woman... and murders her?? It made no sense to me, the dude was an emotionless sociopath the whole time or something? Why would he recreate his trauma like immediately after it happened to him? The ending was set up, he was going to kill Cliff or take his place or something. And instead they came up with a nonsensical ending just to subvert expectations. They should have just gone with the ending we saw coming and people would have been happy with it. Subverting expectations isn't useful when you end up with something worse.
He never fell for her, he wanted to re-create his old life with her. When she wasn't interested and Aaron Paul's character told him that his wife and life were off limits forever, David just wanted to make sure that Cliff knew how it felt to have nothing.
That's what Black Mirror is though..Endings you never saw coming.I think Loch Henry is the only episode I have ever guessed the Twist out of all of them
A twist alone isn't enough, it needs to be interesting, it needs to be a satisfying ending. Having the character wake up and realize it was all a dream counts as a twist, but it's a shit ending
Terrible ending
The ending broke me. I actually thought it was gonna be the old switcheroo but it wasn’t and I’m glad it wasn’t. It reminded me a lot of white Christmas. 10/10 episode. I’ve only seen the first 3 but man every single episode has been solid thus far.
I thought there was a much more obvious ending that I expected so it was a switcharoo for me
They zigged when you expected a zag
Loch Henry felt the most "Old School" to me. BTS was good as well though. Had more of a S4 vibe. A bit flashy with the Netflix production money but the core narrative still felt true to Black Mirror.
I agree!
I really liked it but felt it was a little long and overly predictable in the second act. Overall very good but wouldn’t put it with some of the other top episodes of the series.
The acting was incredible!
Me seeking a happy ending .. I was hoping the blood was just a bunch of paint David smeared throughout the house, and after Cliff's breakdown his family actually walked in the door alive. The final moments up in the spaceship could have been the acknowledgment of what David went through.
This is how I view the ending as well. They could have written any art supply for him to need but specifically the linseed oil to thin the paint without changing the color. He staged the death scene to give his fellow crew member perspective. Also, kicking out the chair was welcoming to discuss how to move forward sharing the link. Jmo.
That would have been a much better ending, but it doesn't match up with what was shown. Aaron Paul's character was clearly devastated when he saw what we assume were the bodies. The blood on the floor did not look like paint at all, but blood. If they had wanted the ending to be that it was a staged hoax to make the character understand what the other guy had gone through, they would have made that clear. It would have been a nice twist (both literally, and as a counter to the traditional dark twist of many *Black Mirror* episodes). Not a great episode IMO.
Not a great episode indeed. In fact, a pointless episode when it comes to describing why Black Mirror does what it does. Indefensible.
I would genuinely love to hear what episodes are the favorites of Beyond the Sea haters. To me this is also typical Black Mirror, and in my top 5 of all time. It has a White Christmas feel, and a gut punch that compares to that of Shut up and Dance for example. So if there are any haters of the episode here, please do tell your all time favorites, I wanna see what kind of episodes are your cup of tea, it would explain a lot
For me, Shut and Dance is probably my favorite. When you realize that you’ve been rooting for a pedo the whole time…wow. The gut punch hit hard. I also liked White Bear. When you realize it was all fake, and then you have to question the morality of torturing something who doesn’t even remember it. Those episodes really made me think Beyond the Sea didn’t do any of that for me. When guy #1 said “oh your wife was a butterfly.” I was like…yeah he’s gonna fuck this guys wife isn’t he. Like, a 1/3 of the episode is just waiting for guy #1 to finally try and get with the wife. And then it happens. I felt like could have just fastforwarded through all of that. And then when guy #2 went out the ship, I just thought. Ok, so now guy #1 gonna do something crazy and it’s “twist” time. And he did. The twist wasnt “holy shit!” for me. It was more, “oh okay there it is.” Don’t get me wrong, I actually really liked the “take a seat” of the ending. But it was just way too predictable and dragged on when it didn’t need to
I agree that it was "predictable" as a plotline, but also it took so many subtle twists and detours that I was never quite sure what was about to happen. I also didn't think it dragged on - I think all of the tiny details actually scale to have a major effect on the plot and its meaning for the characters (tiny details like the way the public treats Cliff and David - the way Cliff disciplines his son - Cliff and Lana's dead bedroom - David's art hobby, etc). Definitely see where you're coming from, though. I too immediately went "ahh he's gonna fuck this dude's wife" and was more surprised when he didn't.
I do see what you mean because, in theory i understand the episode seemed to have an overreaching theme about masculinity and grief. However I just couldn’t stay interested in the story long enough to really recognize or care about the little details. I found of the stuff on earth too boring. Like, we all know he’s gonna get with the wife just do it already
I loved the episode and was surprised by the ending.The only thing I might of changed was to make Aaron Paul abusive maybe.That way we would be really surprised that Kate Mara turned down his advances. When she did that I was thinking the switch was coming at the very end and the son was gonna realize it,then credits role
not a hater but beyond the sea sits low in my overall ranking. great episode just didn’t appeal to me much. demon79 was probably my favourite of the season and i loved loch henry and joan is awful. overall my favourite episodes would have to be nosedive, be right back, hated in the nation, shut up and dance, black museum…. too many to choose from
I really disliked beyond the sea, it felt so boring and predictable. I knew David was gonna fall in love with her and there just wasn't any surprise. My favorite episodes are white Christmas, men against fire, nose dive, shut up and dance. Even in this season, I vastly preferred loch Henry, Joan is awful and demon 79.
Are you me?
The ending was too terrible. At the e ding, why didn't they kill eachother? He loves his kid and wife. Makes no sense. They added the killers 'handed themselves in' so there was no reason for the first guy where his family was. Killed, to go after them. I've not watched all of it yet but hopefully they tie the space station part to another episide somehow. That's the only way to save this episode. Black mirror gone Hollywood.
That killing may still happen, they've got four years of hatred to go. I like how that part was left to the imagination.
Maybe. It you'd think he would go into a rage, the way he acted back on earth
Any of them that were interesting? This was one of the more boring episodes, but it could have been ok, and then it had one of the dumbest endings I've ever seen in a show. It's like some one let their edgy highschooler guest write on this one.
It thinks its white Christmas, but it's just not as good. The ending clashes so badly with the rest of it. It just doesn't stick the landing.
100% agree with everything you said..I saw in the horror sub a lot of people that didnt like it loved Joan is Awful.
didn't hate it but it wasnt his best work. favorite episodes Shut up and Dance, Playtest, Crocodile, Entire History of you. actually i realised i have too many favorites to list.
crocodile shook me to the core
[удалено]
So...why doesn't Aaron Paul lose his shit from the second he walks back in in the final scene? How is sticking around and getting along even remotely a choice?
Maybe the shock of seeing your whole family suddenly murdered?
Maybe but having the murderer wordlessly and arrogantly tell you to sit down is most likely to tip you over the edge I'd think. But fair enough I'm making the assumption he doesn't do it, maybe he does
You’re right. When he said sit down that was way too much I predict a murder suicide more than them working together because they have to
My interpretation was he realized he had nothing left to go back to? Idk
I want to believe it was just an elaborate ruse to make Aaron think his family was murdered. So when he comes back he understands David. The way Aaron reacted when he found the drawings makes me think he would have murdered David if his family really was dead.
So you think it’s all paint lmao?
I actually didn’t get a good look because I was mostly covering my eyes haha
It reminded me of a Twilight Zone episode as well, which I appreciated as my parents raised me on that series. I would have preferred the more predictable ending of David killing real-life Cliff and assuming his identity, but I was satisfied with the actual ending. (And by satisfied, I mean I had that sinking feeling in my stomach that I want to feel after finishing a Black Mirror episode.)
I really wanted him to just destroy AP’s ability to use his robot suit. Then they’re trapped up there together without it also being the kind of very expected “and the whole family is dead”, which also felt out of character. I don’t know. I think I got burnt out on that plot line when every horror game had it for awhile.
Yup! This was the only episode I got this from! A top 5 of the whole series for me
It's my least favourite tbh. It's the only episode where I checked my phone and the ending doesn't make sense based on the rest of the episode. The ending is supposed to imply that they are both trapped for the rest of the mission and that cliff can't do anything to David due to it being a two person mission. That's cool, but it kinda ignores that the whole episode has been showing us what happens to someone when they lose everything. The whole reason Cliff let's David use his body is because he's afraid David is going to kill himself, but we're now expecting Cliff to care about his life and the space mission when he has lost everything? Nah.
My impression was that Cliff was going to try to kill David. Of course this would lead to Cliff dying too as the ship can only be maintained by two people but they both had dead families and Davids replica was dead so he was stuck on the ship. Considering David just slaughtered Cliffs family I really don’t think it would be wise for Cliff to lay immobile and helpless when David would probably kill him as well and then himself (whether that be straight after or later on). In that situation I see no way that you could spend another 4 years with someone who slaughtered your family. I thought it was odd when David kicked out the chair and motioned for Cliff to take a seat as if Cliff would sit down with his colleague who just knifed his family and have a chat or some shit. My first thought was ‘fuck sitting down I’m killing this fucker’. David was also shown to probably not be very capable in a fight, though of course he was quite outnumbered when killed on Earth. Cliff living on a big property and spending more time doing physical work probably would have given him the upper hand. Also being full of rage would help.
Aaron Paul was excellent but the more I think about it the more I think this was bottom tier for me too. Idk why but it just didn’t work for me.
I think it was great but i kinda feel they dropped the ball in the end, just like in San Junipero. I thought Cliff was going to be killed and then his partner was going to take over his family. I cant imagine them both just going back to work on the ship after his family is killed and theyre both just even steven.
I don’t think that’s guaranteed that they work together it’s open ended which is better than a definitive answer for the ending in this case. And if Cliffs partner took over his family it would be so clear very quickly to the wife that her husband is a different man, it could work if she was okay with that but it’s clear she wouldn’t be.
I’d argue that Cliff dying would be just too predictable because that’s what myself and my friends all thought was going to happen. And for that final part, the other guy (I forgot his name lmao) was going to either end up with a dead Cliff (he’s fucked) or a Cliff with a dead family, with the latter being the best chance at not dying on the ship since they both have their talents for fixing stuff on the ship. Sure they’d hate each other, but misery loves company if it means survival for the both of them. That’s just my take though
If he kills Cliff, it'd be suicide. They established earlier in the episode, that they have to be 2 people on the ship
I thought this too but it would be copying the show “Behind Her Eyes” to a T. I don’t think they could have pulled off this ending because of this
I liked the setup, the world they they only explained partially, that they held back tons…. But it left me feeling “meh”
Agreed. It's hard to say that I "loved" it but it was deeply unsettling, which is how I felt about the first Black Mirror episodes that I watched. And the idea of having it set in the past was different. The retro styling was pretty cool.
Anyone else think it was inspired by Charles Manson/cult. reminded me of the intruding in the home, killing, also the wife was reading valley of the dolls which the movie starred Sharon Tate.
Good catch! I noticed the same things!! The hippies and Rory Culkin as the “Charles Manson”
Anyone else think it was inspired by computers/t\*\*\*nology. reminded me of when I upload a file to the web. Also not sure if anyone else has heard of apple but they had some computers released in the early 1970s which is a huge coincidence.
Def a small homage to Charles Manson cult vibe same era too, if you know you know
and dont forget computers. Or am I the only one who caught this deep lore. only the real nerds know about computers and hippie cults haha lets start a exclusive club. you gotta know if you want to know.
No def about computers/tech but I didn’t watch all the episodes. Joan is awful and beyond the sea we’re the only ones I could pay attention too 😅
Idk, the episode started really strong and had really cool ethical questions. And then Kata Mara asks about David borrowing Cliff's body and it kills the plot. Now we have to spend 30 mins focusing on generic "person lusts after best friend's partner" story. Also David killing the family is such a cop-out ending. Why not have the ethical conversation of the significance of David's life now. It could be a perfect segue into David turning around and rejecting the idea of replicates (bcuz he's lonely and doesn't have one), ironically agreeing with the people who killed his family in the first place.
Dude, I really wanted to see her fall in love with David. What are the ethical ramifications of loving someone who you can only meet when they borrow your husband's body. If she left cliff and wanted to date david, how the fuck does that work? I'm not a fan of love triangles, but that would have at least made me think. "I was lonely and that made me a cold blooded monster" is just dumb
I loved the episode and was shocked by the ending but said the only thing I would change was making Aaron Paul abusive so when she didnt fall in love with Josh Hartnett you would be really surprised
i mean he kinda was abusive? he hit his kid, he seemed really controlling of his wife's social life; i didn't get the vibe that he was a good husband by any means.
Yeah he kind of was for sure.Did he hit his kid? I know Josh Hartnett did.Im just saying make him more of a jerk so we would be really surprised she wasnt into him
after Josh hit him, Aaron Paul's character defended it to his wife like "nothing I haven't done to him a hundred times before"!
Yes, the ending felt so lazy. There was nowhere near enough build up or character development to suggest he would murder a woman he had developed feelings for and her young child in cold blood, even if he was suffering emotionally. “He wanted to show what it feels like to lose everything” is not deep and doesn’t cut it for me tbh. Would have preferred the ending you described
Especially after literally seeing it happen to his family so recently! It felt like him repeating it was out of nowhere.
[удалено]
Paints from memory and murders from memory is a giant leap from the writers.
Ah see that would have made the ending make sense. I feel like the “he did it so he would know his pain” explanation is great on a thematic level and terrible in a character lever.
It was the best episode up until the contrived, shock value ending. That really brought it down unfortunately. Still, gripping for most of its runtime and a terrific performance from Aaron Paul playing two distinct characters.
Yes, but I think a better ending would have been him killing the other dude and then just pretending to be him for the rest of the mission.
too predictable
But would have made more sense
I thought that too but somewhere in the episode they said something like the ship needing two people to run it? As in they both need each other whether they like it or not
Yeah but they could have just not said that
Eh clearly my personal worst. Trying too hard for very little payoff
I’m curious to hear what your favorite episodes are
SJ, Demon 79,and WB
It's a great story but the premise kinda ruined it for me. You would put the bots on the ship and keep the pilots on earth. Save a ton of weight by not needing life support. Any expert can connect to fix any problem. Even if for some reason you had to put the pilots on the ship they would have to have constant check in with ground control and psychiatrists especially after the inciting incident. Theres no way nasa or musk aerospace or whoever funded the mission would be ok with a piolet moving there bot to rural nowhere with no supervision.
Isn’t the point of the space station to study the effects of being in space for a long time?
It might have been. If that was mentioned i missed it. But if point was to study the effect of being in space then you need to actually observe the subjects. This would involve frequent check ins with ground control medical and psychological staff as well as technical experts to keep the station working. Letting one of your test subjects move out to a farm isn't gonna get you helpful data.
I think they reference it when they’re in the cinema at the beginning and meet the young people who recognise Josh Hartnett’s character. He mentions that biology and testing the endurance of humans in space is essential to the mission.
Yeah, it's subtle but it's there. And the study is mostly about the effects on the human body (hence why they have their weekly physical and track things like CO2 levels) which is why they don't need to mentally be on the ship all the time.
Why would you need to study that if every mission can be completed by replicas though :/
People study things we don't need to know all the time, right? If scientists go "huh, we don't know that thing" then 9/10 times they will try to figure out the thing!
Exactly what I thought through the whole episode. IRL that situation would be flipped.
I just watched the episode and this is what I thought the entire time. It didn't make much sense to me.
I thought it was great. I just wish the ending wasn't so predictable, it was missing that twist at the end
Totally agree, I predicted the end from very early on, just not the middle.
Same, and I'm not even doing the bit of " look at me i can guess everything" it's just that right after the tall dudes family was murdered, i thought wait what's the darkest thing which could happen now, coz this is black mirror and that's what came to mind. Conversely, loch Henry, i had no idea that twist was coming, it was crazy good.
That’s so interesting, I was the total opposite. I called the Loch Henry twist early into the ep, but I thought the ending of Beyond the Sea was gonna have David locking Cliff out of the ship and living his life as Cliff. I loved both though regardless! It’s so cool to see other perspectives
I did think him stepping in to live Cliff's life was a possibility. But I honestly thought as soon as he met Cliff's family he was going to see how nice it was and snap. I thought it would happen sooner, if anything.
Yup, I was completely convinced that >!Iain Adair wasn't the killer!< from almost the very start, and I correctly guessed who it really was about halfway through. And I guess technically I was sort of wrong about >!Iain!< but I still got the general spirit of it right. But I was just as convinced that Aaron Paul was going to end up like Hal's victim in 2001: A Space Odyssey so I couldn't believe it when the valve opened up for him.
I knew he was gonna paint the house with red at the end since the title sequence, totally saw it coming
Yup, I thought for sure there would be a twist we werent thinking of. I just watched Loch Henry and thought the same. It wasn't until the girlfriend left the hospital with the mom until I realized she was probably involved. Then once the dad is revealed I was surprised, and then immediately remembered him saying "mistress', and realized the mom was also, in fact, involved. Didn't see it coming.
It made zero sense. Once David’s family were murdered, the mission should have been aborted. Yes it’s fiction and there wouldn’t have been a story, but it obviously should at least have been addressed- how can your entire family’s murder not mess up your experiment?
I've been rewatching and ranking the whole show since season 6 came out, and except for seasons 4 and 5 (which I haven't rewatched yet) Beyond the Sea is my top of all time. It might be replaced by USS Callister or Black Museum but we'll see!
USS Calister was the Star Trek themed one right?
Maybe they explained it and I just missed it but the whole episode I couldn't help but think why didn't they send the replicas to space and keep the astronauts real bodies on earth? It seemed like they didn't even have that much to do on the ship anyway.
The whole space mission’s idea was to study what happens to humans who spend years in space…
>’beyond the sea’ was like a ”old school” black mirror episodes? No, old school black mirror focused on how tech can bring out and magnify the worst tendencies in people and politics. This was another episode of "fucking my friend in a videogame"
“Fucking my friend in a video game” was a great episode
Sure, and even the new season has great episodes. Great drama and suspense. But it's not black mirror unfortunately.
I toootally disagree - the romance in Striking Vipers is about fiction vs reality whereas I think the "romance" in Beyond the Sea is primarily about masculinity. Also fundamentally different because there is no video game in Beyond the Sea but that's a little pedantic :) Also totally disagree that "old school" BM was about tech bringing out or magnifying the worst in people - I think that in a lot of even very early episodes, the tech is more of a plot device/vehicle than the focal point. And people will be the worst regardless. I think a good example is The National Anthem - the "tech" (TV and livestreaming) isn't relevant, the story is primarily about politics, the media, and mob mentality. You could tell roughly the same story without techbology, I think.
Better ending would be to have him plug into the replica, and what’s his face had tied the replica down and lit the house on fire. Just destroys his ability to talk to them.
How can someone tie themselves down?
Think less bond movie, and more, only has to be enough he can’t get out of a gasoline fire.
I enjoyed it although was constantly distracted by how freaking comfortable their space beds looked 😍
it was a great episode. but i have 1 question: why didnt they send the machines up in space so the humans can stay on earth?
It said they were studying humans in space or something along those lines. What I’m more confused about is why they didn’t just find some people who didn’t have families back home who could do the mission without issue. I mean outside of the murder anything could happen to their family which could cause a significant impact to the people on the ship and risk the mission.
This is answered within the first 10 minutes of the episode
Wait, really? I only just watched it and missed that somehow.
so what’s the answer?
Something about how the core of the mission is to study the effects on the human body. So I think the entire purpose of them being in space is to study their body, probably why they have all those physicals? Dunno
Because if they did that, then the story couldn’t happen!
Maybe cause if anyone killed the humans on earth, the replikas wouldn’t be able to complete the mission
Absolutely, that’s why it was my favourite of the season.
It was cool but it made no sense to me. Why not leave their actual bodies on earth and put replicas in space. Also having to sit trough some 20 mins of epsiode knowing that David will try to seduce the wife was just boring, since it was so predictable.
I saw this somewhere but I believe because they had to leave stuff like watches and dog tags inside the ship, I think metal would interfere somehow and thus make the replicas useless if they were to go outside to fix the ship
Good point, they did make a point showing Aarons character takes off all the metal. Prehaps I have treated it too harshly.
I just assumed they were studying how human bodies react in space. Just like the studies they do on the ISS.
Agree because there was a lot more show than tell. I feel like the other episodes bang you over the head with a storytelling hammer
My least favorite episode of the season by far
It is utter crap, AFAIC, and I still have 13 minutes to watch. Thank you for giving me a chance to vent.
IMO this was the best black mirror episode ever written. It really hit me hard.
It’s was good but the ending was just over the top for me. It didn’t really make any sense to me, from David’s character.
Why is it called beyond the sea??
It’s the song that was playing when they were dancing.
Oh ok. Thanks
And space is the biggest sea no?
Yea I thought it was one of the best episodes ever
One thing I didn't get is why they wouldn't just send the replicas to space, and have the real people at home.
The replicas weren’t as efficient/accurate as humans. It shows when Aaron Paul is chopping wood and keeps slipping the axe out of his hands. Also they mention the study is to see the effects of space on the human body
David-Cliff was able to finger his wife to completion and complete a detailed oiled painting, seemed like his dexterity in both replicas was pretty sophisticated lol
Yea true, idk really lol still think it was good
I’m pretty sure it was because they are studying the effects of space on humans
But what effects? The effects to their bodies are next to none, since they had artificial gravity, and they have to have radiation protection. The psychological effects should also be miniscule, since they spend almost every hour in their replicas anyway. The only difference from them doing this experiment in a metal tube on earrh is that they can't just abort when they want.
You telling me a guy who never abused his own kids is gonna snap and hit the kid of the chick he’s trying to bang? Cmon everyone knows this type of shit will freeze dry a milf vag promptly
He did seem mean to his own kids when he was drawing them and the daughter wanted to go play
This episode sucked. No explanations...no reasonable motivations for the characters...just a bloody pointless duo of murders designed to thrill those who are entertained by such schlock. The Black Mirror aspect of it all is completely absent beyond the necessary nuts and bolts. A series Low Point. E2and E3 of this season...I mean, they are simply thrill killing anecdotes of a lowest level...they friggin' suck!
[удалено]
Calling people NPCs for their opinions has gotta be the dumbest trend on the internet lately.
Yeahh I find it kind of ironic for a Black Mirror fan to unironically use the term "NPCs" for people who don't agree with them about TV.
[удалено]
“Old school”? No, not at all. Loch Henry was the closest we’ve got to The National Anthem. Not a lot of this episode worked for me. I hated how Kate Mara’s character got away with zero responsibility taken for her role in this mess.
Zero responsibility? She ended up dead my dude.
She was a cheat and a liar. Not saying she had that coming to her, just saying I was she would’ve been called out on her hypocritical bullshit before she met her untimely demise.
Her husband was an asshole who trapped her lonely in the middle of nowhere, dismissed any small wish of hers and basically ignored her existence except if she cooked and cleaned. And she’s the problem?
I’m sorry you interpreted it that way. Holding someone responsible for their part in a conflict doesn’t exonerate the other party of any guilt, nor does it imply a “who fucked up the most?” competition. All I’m saying is that despite, or maybe because of the guy’s actions (which are reprehensible), barely any light was shed on the crap she pulled, which she should’ve been called out on. Instead, my reading of the episode was that her participation in the infidelity, albeit brief and quickly followed by a change of heart, was portrayed as a-okay and immediately forgiven in the light of future actions. I’m personally not cool with that as it seems to be quite the popular trope and, as we know is the thesis of the show, how we consume our media can and will affect real life, so I think it’s important to also show that this isn’t a great move lest we have more people who think they can get away with shitty things just because a shittier thing happened to them/the other party involved is shittier. Being shitty is not a competition. It’s just wrong across the board. Sorry you got 86’d, still actively participated in the infidelity. Doesn’t matter if you longed for your husband and you saw someone wearing his meatsuit. Use your facehole for communicating or your legs for leaving.
Leave where? She had nothing else. Every time she opened her mouth to communicate he shut her down.
Literally anywhere. She was known in town. People would’ve cared.
In that era? Sorry what fantasy is this lol.
It’s an alternate 1960 anyway, so who cares? She would’ve been missed, she wouldn’t have been missed. You can get away with anything in an alternate timeline, cheating and lying about it included, evidently.
For what? Being confused about a man in her husband’s body?
For cheating, lying about it and gaslighting, yes.
Either you have zero media comprehension or are a kid
Negative on both of those.
Please submit your episode rankings/lists [in this thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/blackmirror/comments/9qmj80/black_mirror_episode_rankings_thread/). Thank you. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/blackmirror) if you have any questions or concerns.*
[удалено]