Black Mirror Season 3 Episode 4 - San Junipero

Black Mirror (2011-)
Season 3  - 6 episodes (2016)

Watch Black Mirror Season 3 on Netflix
Written by: Charlie Brooker 
Directed by: Owen Harris
Starring: Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Mackenzie Davis

Plot 
Black Mirror examines the pitfalls when technology and society intersect. What happens when technology goes off the rails, creating a horrifying situation? Ultimately the questions are, does technology make us happier, is being connected at all times beneficial, and does it do more harm than good?
Black Mirror is an anthology. Each episode is self contained with completely different actors.

The fourth episode of season three is San Junipero. Shy, awkward Yorkie and outgoing, fashionable Kelly meet in a world where it's inhabitants are young forever.

Verdict
San Junipero is great story telling. Each scene reveals more about the characters as the mystery slowly unfolds, the plot hopping entire decades in just a week. I was invested in the characters and the story. It's a love story that only Black Mirror would tell.
This isn't as bleak as other episodes, but it's just as deep with a generation that wants to live forever while asking what is after life. This might be my favorite episode of season 3.
Watch it.

Review
At first this seems like a period piece, but Yorkie is told she can find Kelly "in a different time." The club decor isn't just nostalgic. While text on screen states "one week later", we've jumped to a different decade. There are subtle clues throughout the introduction that there is something off about this world.

Episode 4 - San Junipero

I initially wondered if it was simulation for a cancer support group. Obviously the club isn't reality in the typical sense. We soon are informed the elderly pass over into San Junipero, a digital location where your consciousness lives forever as a young version of you. While Yorkie and Kelly just visit as they're still alive, 80% of the San Junipero residents are permanent residents, dead.

It's this relationship that propels this story. The performance is believable and we care about the characters.

I was surprised the elderly are limited to just five hours a week in the simulation. It seems more likely assisted care homes would hook them to a feeding tube, put them in bed, and let them go wild to reduce the employee count and supervision costs. That would be more haunting, but this episode is about reconciling mortality.

This is a great episode. At first this looks like depraved twenty-somethings partying non-stop, but this is the elderly. There desires don't change, just their abilities. They have a drive to feel something, and while they can do anything they have nothing. They go to the club Quagmire to delve into dark fantasies, because they have nothing else. Complete freedom has lead to over indulging.

Yorkie is excited to live in this world, because she's been in a coma since twenty-one. Kelly is hesitant, tied to the physical world and her family that has already passed and aren't in the simulation. She's willing to take a chance on a promise rather than believe in a sure thing.

What is the afterlife? For Yorkie it's this digital fantasy. She can experience everything she missed in life. For Kelly, she's against the simulation because her husband and daughter aren't there. While she doesn't believe in an afterlife, she doesn't want to ignore that slim chance.

Is the afterlife full of possibility, but unfulfilling? It seems to be a rare occurrence where two people form a connection like Kelly and Yorkie, but most people seem interested in a good time rather than a relationship. Ultimately Kelly decided to join San Junipero for herself instead of avoiding it for her loved ones long gone.

It ends with a warehouse with thousands of hard drives where people live on for eternity, an afterlife. Even that is fleeting as hard drives fail and hardware falls into disrepair.