Spoilers ahead from Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, which just released to Netflix on December 28.
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch isn't just another episode of Black Mirror. It's billed as an "event." And it's the kind of event the internet was made for.
Fans are still waiting for Netflix to drop Black Mirror Season 5, but they have their work cut out for them with Bandersnatch, which is like several episodes in one. The choose-your-own-adventure event doesn't have a set length, but you need at least an hour-and-a-half to get through a full storyline. There are five main endings, and many paths that will take you a short or long distance to the end credits.
Because Reddit was born for opportunities like this, users immediately began documenting the various paths and end games for Bandersnatch. Some of the flowcharts may still need updating as fans discover new routes and share outcomes with others, but here is one fan's attempt:
from r/comments
The "throw tea over computer" line is straight from Bandersnatch, as one of the choices for poor Stefan (Dunkirk's Fionn Whitehead). (You deseved better choices, man. Blame Netflix, not us!) Here's another viewer's attempt at a chart, documenting the choices viewers were given along the way, starting with Stefan's breakfast cereal and music options:
If you're focused on the endings, one Reddit user made a thread based on five main endings they hit: PACS ending, Train ending, META ending, Jail? and Movie Studio. They ended by saying they had yet to discover how to unlock the JFD code or find any other endings, so commenters helped them from there.
Feel free to fall down that rabbit hole, to read other viewers' results.
I went through Bandersnatch from the start three times -- once picking a mix of default and non-default options (I had first Stefan, then Colin, jump over the balcony), then doing the opposite choices, then leaving the system to make its own choices. At one point, when it was doing its own default options, I was busy on my computer and happened to look up to see Stefan choosing between burying or chopping up his dad. I'm not even sure how I got there, although the charts above could break it down.
Bandersnatch was filmed in 35 days, involving 250 segments of video to cover all possible scenarios, THR reports.
There is no one correct path. And even Netflix doesn't seem to know exactly how much is out there to explore in _Black Mirro_r maestro Charlie Brooker's latest creation. As Carla Engelbrecht, Netflix's director of product innovation, explained to THR:
This is what happens when you take someone like Charlie Brooker and you let him loose with a tool like this. There are millions of permutations of how you can play this story. But because of the complexity of the map and the way it hovers in on itself, it's actually hard for us to calculate how many choices there actually are.
Hence the many viewer flowcharts and threads sharing what choices they made and where they led.
Bandersnatch is now streaming on Netflix. Black Mirror Season 5 -- featuring Miley Cyrus, it seems -- is expected to drop in 2019. Here's what else is ahead on Netflix and the rest of TV early "next year."
