Since the writers of Black Mirror enjoy giving us occasional Easter eggs – little hints that the events in one episode are connected to another – we were keeping an eagle-eye on the brand new three episodes which landed on Netflix on Wednesday. Needless to say, we were not disappointed! While Rachel and Jack and Ashley, Too, had its throwback moments regarding the rest of the series, Smithereens gave us the strongest hint that the Black Mirror universe really is connected – and all it needed was a word cloud.
Smithereens is connected to the Black Mirror universe
Warning, spoilers ahead from here! In episode two, disgruntled taxi driver Chris is holding an employee of a social media company called Smithereens hostage, all while demanding to speak to the head of the company. While the police, FBI and Smithereens attempt to find out everything they can about the hostage-taker, the crew at Smithereens quickly made a word cloud of Chris' most used words on their social media site, and they reference to at least three separate episodes from the Black Mirror universe.
Space Fleet is referenced in the show
While using social media, Chris had used the keyword 'Victoria Skillane'. Ring a bell? Victoria is the main character of season two's White Bear. After waking up with no memory and a photograph of a little girl who she assumes is her daughter, Victoria is terrifyingly chased by people who are all taking video footage of her. The twist of the episode revealed that Victoria was actually being punished for being an accomplice to murder with a twisted game show.
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Naomi from Nosedive also appears as a phone contact
The episode also alluded to season four's USS Callister, in which the main character had a deep obsession with a 'vintage' show called Space Fleet, and also ordered pizza from 'Fences Pizza'. Unsurprisingly, both the name of the pizza company and the fictional show appear on Chris' online mentions. Finally, 'Michael Callow' also appears on his word cloud – who is the Prime Minister in the first ever episode of the show. You remember? We won't go into it but his storyline involved a pig? That's the one.
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The word cloud isn't the only moment hinting at the other episodes, as the HR-person, Hannah, goes through her phone contacts, where named including Naomi Blestow (Nosedive), Jamie Salter (The Waldow Moment) and Abi Khan (Fifteen Million Merits) can be seen.