Everyone who has watched Black Mirror Season 6 Episode 3 can agree that it is the best episode in the entire season. The episode, entitled Beyond the Sea, stays true to its Black Mirror roots.
In this article, let's answer some of your questions regarding Black Mirror Beyond the Sea: What is a link? What is a replica? And why couldn't they just create a new one?
What Is Beyond the Sea Episode About?
The official synopsis of Beyond the Sea episode reads:
"In an alternative 1969, two astronauts on a perilous high-tech space mission grapple with the fallout of an unfathomable tragedy back on Earth."
The episode stars Aaron Paul as Cliff Stanfield and Josh Hartnett as David Ross, a couple of astronauts on board a mission.
But thanks to technology, they are able to bring back their consciousness to earth through a replica of their physical bodies.
The two astronauts lead very different lives from each other. So when a tragedy befalls David's family, Cliff steps in to help. Unfortunately, this only mildly helps David as he has turned his affection towards Cliff's wife, Lana Stanfield (played by Kate Mara).
What Is a Link in Beyond the Sea Episode?
This isn't the first time Charlie Brooker forayed into space or the idea of a human clone/robot.
In Black Mirror Season 4, there was an episode that involved traveling to space. The episode, entitled USS Callister, is said to be one of the best installments of the show.
Black Mirror also indulged fans in an idea of a realistic human clone back in Season 2's Be Right Back.
It makes us wonder whether or not Be Right Back and Beyond the Sea episodes are connected in some way. But that's an article for a different time.
But the idea behind the Beyond the Sea episode is that astronauts are able to transmit their consciousness back to Earth.
Each one gets a tag of his own, which allows them to link themselves back home through an identical robot called a replica. This way, they are able to spend time with their families while they are on a mission.
The episode shows Cliff allowing David to use his replica to heal after David's replica got destroyed by a radical cult. When he goes back to Earth, David is in the robot that looks like Cliff.
So even if the robot's consciousness belongs to David, people on Earth believe that he is Cliff.
Why Can’t They Just Make Another Replica for David?
After David's replica got destroyed by a hippie cult led by Rory Culkin's Kappa, he doesn't have a way to transmit his consciousness anymore.
And this means that he has to go on living an isolating experience in space, while the only other human companion he has gets to go back to Earth via his replica.
Not only does his replica get destroyed, but Kappa also murders David's entire family right before him.
So apart from dealing with extreme loneliness, David has no way to get help to release his trauma from the horrific event.
The first thought that viewers have is that there should be a spare replica for David.
But as Cliff explains in the episode, there's no way to create a replica without their physical presence. Their replicas were created while they were still on Earth two years ago.
And with four more years left in their mission, David has nothing left to allow him to stay sane.
Why Did David Kill Cliff’s Family?
When the Beyond the Sea episode began, we got a glimpse of what David was like when his family was still alive.
The show also gave us a peek into Cliff's cold and stiff demeanor and how his wife always yearned for her husband to touch her again.
David was a romantic and happy person. But when the horrifying incident took place, it traumatized him and gave him no reason to stay alive anymore.
He even wondered what it was like to kill himself in the spaceship until Cliff was able to talk sense to him.
So when Cliff started to get jealous and told him that his wife doesn't want to see him again, David feels lost once again.
He can't understand why he had to go through such a horrible experience while his co-pilot can't even appreciate the things he has.
Although it wasn't the best thing to do, David decides to kill Lana and her son. As described by Josh Hartnett in an interview with EW:
"that light gets snuffed out and something snaps. It's like, 'I want you to feel what I'm feeling so that then you'll understand what it feels like to have that light snuffed out. That is the only way that we can actually connect.' I think that's what he does."
How Does Beyond the Sea End?
With the ending, we don't really know what happens to Cliff or David. The likely scenario would be that the two would physically fight and end up killing each other.
But remember, their ship can only be operated by two men. Without the other, they'll be good as dead too.
Back on Earth, the cops will also find the bodies of Cliff's family and likely arrest Cliff. They wouldn't know that it was actually David who killed Cliff's family unless Cliff has some proof.
Still, the question is, would the two survive not killing each other for the next four years just so they can head back home?
This same thing is what Hartnett explained to Today.com:
“I definitely felt it was going one direction, and then it decided to go different. And then afterward, I had to figure out the logic of it, from David’s perspective, and it makes more sense the way that it is. And it’s sad, but what was the other option?... I mean, it could have been self-inflicted harm. But that would have been have been (a case of) David killing Cliff as well. I mean, he’s stuck between a rock and a hard place here. It might have been his only option.”
And that's what we're left to ponder on as the screen fills with credits.
All episodes of Black Mirror Season 6 are available to stream on Netflix.
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