SPOILERS ahead from Black Mirror episodes, including Season 5.
If you watch Netflix's Black Mirror, you know to expect easter eggs connecting the various episodes. It's one of the many reasons why you should watch episodes multiple times. TV news tickers are good places to pop in easter eggs, since primary attention is usually on the main coverage.
That's what happened in Black Mirror Season 5's "Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too," which used a news ticker to give fans updates on two very disturbing Season 4 episodes -- "Crocodile" and "Black Museum":
As you can see, that news ticker gives us several Black Mirror easter eggs. While fans might be busy watching the news of Ashley O's (Miley Cyrus) coma, there are mini updates below.
First, we see "SaitoGemu shares jump in Striking Vipers release." "Striking Vipers" is the name of another Season 5 episode, and the company SaitoGemu has been featured in "Playtest" and "Hated in the Nation," and referenced through hashtags in "Smithereens."
But it's the next two news tickers that really give us some Black Mirror updates. "Museum owner's body found in smoking ruins" is an obvious reference to the aftermath of Nish's fire in "Black Museum."
Black Mirror Season 4's "Black Museum" was a truly dark companion episode to "White Christmas," and ended with Nish (Letitia Wright, aka Shuri in Black Panther) getting revenge against sadistic museum owner Rolo Haynes (Douglas Hodge).
The next piece of the news ticker in Black Mirror Season 5's "Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too" cuts away just after we see "Architect arrested." But that's a clear reference to architect Mia Nolan (Andrea Riseborough) from "Crocodile." That also very unsettling episode ended with police waiting for Mia at the back of the auditorium during her son's school production. Guess the guinea pig talked.
So all of those Black Mirror episode events are not only happening in the same world, they're happening at the same time. That's pretty cool.
There are so many easter eggs out there, but sticking with Black Mirror Season 5's "Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too," you might have noticed Ritman High School. That appears to be a nod to "Bandersnatch" video game programmer Colin Ritman (Will Poulter) of Tuckersoft. Ashley O's evil aunt is also shown using the Smithereen social app. Speaking of "Smithereens," that episode included a nod to Fence’s Pizza, which was first introduced in "Crocodile."
Black Mirror Season 5 hasn't been terribly popular with critics, and I agree that it was lackluster overall, especially in comparison to past seasons. That said, one of the three new episodes did make my list of the 10 best episodes of the series. Considering there are only 23 episodes to date, that just puts it in the top half. Stream all of Black Mirror right now on Netflix.
