Black Mirror 3.04

San Junipero

Yorkie (Mackenzie Davis) and Kelly (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) meet in Tuckers, a night club. Kelly looks like she belongs there, Yorkie does not. Kelly comes on to Yorkie but Yorkie doesn't know how to respond and runs off. She later regrets the way she reacted to Kelly, seeks her out, and eventually finds her.

What isn't readily apparent from the beginning of this story is that San Junipero is a virtual world. As it progresses, it becomes clear that things aren't exactly as they appear to be. The story starts in the 1980s but then jumps backwards and then forwards in time without the characters aging. It is over halfway into the episode before the story pulls back from San Junipero and the real world is shown on screen. Kelly and Yorkie aren't young in the real world. Yorkie isn't able to communicate in the real world and has been a quadriplegic for most of her life.

This is the first full episode I have watched of this anthology series. I watched it because they talked about it on one podcast I listen to (Deathcast) and the hosts of another podcast I listen to (Movie Bears Podcast) said they were planning to talk about it on a future episode. I have held off on listening to the San Junipero episode of Deathcast which dropped early in December 2016. I'm still waiting for the San Junipero episode of Movie Bears Podcast to drop.

The story has a couple themes that run through it: the right to love who you want and the right to die. There is a twist or two towards the end that really added a dimension to the story and made the story that much more poignant. Both actresses were excellent. I have seen Mackenzie David before on Halt and Catch Fire where she plays Cameron. I have seen Gugu Mbatha-Raw before on Doctor Who where she played Martha Jones' sister, but it has been several years since I saw those episodes.

I am very happy that I decided to watch this episode of Black Mirror. I tried watching Black Mirror once before and was completely turned off by the premise of the first episode 1.01. I never finished watching it.