‘Black Mirror Bandersnatch’: How to Find All the Endings

Micro Play Score: 0/5
Dad’s Status: Alive
Meta Insanity: None

The first ending you can get is really more like a training ending than anything else. Still, it does end the game on a pretty bleak note, so it’s worth including.

The third choice Bandersnatch lets you make happens in Mr. Tucker’s (Asim Chaudhry) office. After showing off the prototype to Bandersnatch the video game, meek Stefan (Fionn Whitehead) is offered the chance of a lifetime. He can either agree to make the game at the company of his dreams, or he can say no and try to make it from home, funded by Tuckersoft’s money. If you refuse, you unlock a world of choices that eventually lead to Stefan’s breakdown. But accepting isn’t that great either.

Immediately after you accept, Mr. Tucker tells Stefan his dream project will have to be streamlined and rushed for Christmas. Stefan now gets to make a flattened version of his passion project. The gaming genius Colin (Will Poulter) comforts you by saying, “Sorry mate. Wrong path,” and he’s right. After you select this option the episode will cut to a review of Stefan’s game on the TV program Micro Play. This version of Bandersnatch gets no stars and is criticized for seeming disjointed. There were too many cooks in this version of the kitchen. Bummer.

Micro Play Score: 0/5
Dad’s Status: Alive
Meta Insanity: Lots

All right, so you’ve decided Stefan should work on Bandersnatch from home. Over four weeks into his passion project he’s having a bit of breakdown. At the height of his frustration, the demo of the game stops working just as Stefan’s dad demands he go with him to the pub. You can either choose to dump tea over all Stefan’s hard work or go with his dad. Choose the latter option and you’re one step closer to drug trip land.

You soon learn that Stefan’s dad has lied to him. He wasn’t planning on taking him to lunch at all, but to his therapist Dr. Haynes’ (Alice Lowe) office. You can go the therapist route where all sorts of odd things await you (which will be covered later), or you can take the other path and make Stefan follow a passing Colin. Go with Colin for this one.

It doesn’t take long before Colin realizes that Stefan is trapped in his own mind, and he knows the perfect cure: drugs. If you choose to take them, Colin will spout off a long list of seemingly nonsensical observations about government control and hearing numbers that will become important later. But the only thing absolutely vital to this particular ending is what happens on the balcony.

After telling Stefan about multiverses, Colin takes his new friend to his balcony. He then decides that nothing in this universe matters. Either one of them could jump off his balcony to their death and it would have just as much of an impact as Pac-Man dying and respawning. He then presents you with two options: either he can jump, or Stefan can.

If you make Stefan fall to his death, it’s movie over. Bandersnatch will be released, but it will get zero out of five stars and be criticized for feeling incomplete. A drug trip Colin certainly won’t remember will become Stefan’s legacy.

Micro Play Score: N/A
Dad’s Status: Alive
Meta Insanity: Almost the most

As mentioned before, you have another option when it comes to taking drugs with Colin. You can pressure Colin to jump instead of Stefan. If you select that, Colin will jump and die, but Stefan will wake up directly after, realizing that the entire drug trip was either an elaborate dream or that he’s been sent into another reality.

Regardless, he’ll then voluntarily go to Dr. Haynes’ office, and this is where things get trippy. During Stefan’s session he’ll admit that he’s starting to feel like someone is controlling him right down to what he eats for breakfast, what music he listens to, and whether or not he agrees to work at Tuckersoft. You know, all of the decisions you’ve been making for him.

She’ll brush him off, but the fear that he’s being controlled will still linger. So much so that during Stefan’s next breakdown he’ll shout at the sky to give him a sign about who’s controlling him. Here you have two options. You can either say you’re Netflix, or flash him the always creepy three rectangle symbol from the Black Mirror episode “White Bear.”

If you choose Netflix, you’ll have to spend a few rounds trying to explain what streaming is to Stefan. Once he’s properly creeped out he’ll return to Dr. Haynes’ office and tell her again that he feels like he’s being controlled. That’s when she raises a good question… If Stefan is really being manipulated to entertain a TV viewer, wouldn’t he be doing something more interesting?

Your options here are “Yes” and “Fuck yeah.” No matter what you choose the result will be the same. Stefan will fling coffee in Dr. Haynes’ face and she’ll offer to fight him. Choose to fight, and you’ll enter into an epic showdown with your therapist that includes the option of kicking your dad in the balls. In this ending, dad drags Stefan out of the office, presumably to check him into a mental hospital. No word about what happened to your game.

Micro Play Score: N/A
Dad’s Status: Alive
Meta Insanity: The most

Want Netflix to show you something bizarre? Follow every decision that takes you to the aforementioned “Have a Netflix breakdown.” However, when you’re in Stefan’s therapist’s office, make one slight change. Instead of making Stefan fight Dr. Haynes, have him leap out the window.

That failed action will make someone off screen yell “Cut” revealing that all of this is actually unfolding on a movie set. And Stefan is the only actor not playing along. There’s a lot of confusion in this ending, but it’s absolutely worth checking out for insanity’s sake.

Micro Play Score: N/A, Tuckersoft collapses
Dad’s Status: Very dead
Meta Insanity: More than is comfortable

Of course the ending that involves a direct reference to another Black Mirror episode is Bandersnatch‘s most disturbing one. Remember when Stefan had a breakdown about being controlled that ended with him screaming for a sign from the person controlling him? At least in the first couple of times you play through the episode you can choose “Netflix” or you can choose the symbol featured in Lenora Crichlow’s Black Mirror episode, “White Bear.” Select that and prepare to freak out.

Like with the Netflix option, Stefan becomes aware that he’s being controlled against his will if you select the “White Bear” symbol. He’ll unwillingly get into an argument with his dad, which presents you with two options. Either you can kill his dad, or back off. If you kill him, Stefan will then look to you for guidance, similar to the “Worship Pax” option that appeared in his own game. Choose bury body to bring down the most people possible in the midst of Stefan’s own breakdown.

While Stefan is working on hiding the evidence of his crime, Mr. Tucker is fretting. The game Stefan asked for an extension on still hasn’t arrived. He’ll send Colin over to Stefan’s house to check on his progress.

Colin will arrive right before Stefan has hidden his crime. True to his commanding and impulsive nature, he’ll walk right past the bloody body and go up the stairs to Stefan’s computer. That’s when Stefan will tell him the truth about everything. His dad is dead and he’s not in control. You then have the option to either kill Colin or let him go. (Note: I chose to let Colin go in my play-through, and don’t know how the story changes if you decide to up the body count.) If you let him free, he’ll say “I imagine that’s a bit anti-climatic for you but appreciated. I’m quite enjoying this lifetime. See you in the next one” and walk away. That’s when things go bad for Stefan.

Shortly after Colin leaves the police will arrive. In this ending of the game, Bandersnatch will never be released. Instead Tuckersoft will be investigated and closed for its connection to Stefan’s father’s murder. Stefan will watch what remains of his collapsing dreams from prison.

Micro Play Score: 5/5
Dad’s Status: The bloodiest death
Meta Insanity: Peak Black Mirror

Out of all the endings I’ve found, this one is by far the most elaborate, and is my personal favorite. Do you want Stefan to release a version of Bandersnatch that everyone will love? Then you’re going to have to chop up his dad. Do everything in the above “Have a Black Mirror breakdown” guide. But when Stefan asks you what you should do with the body, tell him to chop it up.

The rest of the episode will show Stefan inadvertently recreating his hero’s crimes, the author Jerome F. Davies. Because he won’t hear the phone ring when he’s chopping up his father’s body, Stefan won’t be distracted by Colin and will be able to complete Bandersnatch. He’ll later schedule an appointment with Dr. Haynes and tell her about how he figured out the game. The trick was to strip out a lot of the player’s free will but give them the illusion of choice. Creepy.

All of this happens while his father’s corpse is scattered around the house. In one especially chilling moment, his father’s bloody head can be seen laying on a table while Stefan codes away. His father’s blood has been used to paint the “White Bear” symbol over and over again on the walls.

Bandersnatch will then cut to a present day news story about Stefan’s game. It turns out that the game was a massive success and received a perfect score. At least that was the case until the police discovered the murder he tried to hide. The game was pulled from shelves shortly thereafter, but Bandersnatch‘s legacy isn’t over quiet yet.

In a news report packed to the brim with winking Black Mirror references, it’s revealed that another young developer named Pearl Ritman (Laura Evelyn) wants to adapt Davies’ book and Stefan’s game. That last name is familiar for a reason. Colin’s daughter is now all grown up and taking on a disturbing project of her own. The very last choice you have in this ending doesn’t have to do with Stefan at all, but with Pearl. While she’s in the middle of working, you can either make her throw tea on her computer, or destroy her computer. And so the cycle continues.

Micro Play Score: 2.5/5
Dad’s Status: Dead
Meta Insanity: None

We’re going back a few choices for this one. Before a desperate Stefan begs for his controller to give him a sign, he hits a late night crossroads. Confronted with a game that refuses to work, he can either pick up an adventure game guide or a photo of his family. All of the other ending options above depended on Stefan being a workaholic, so pick up the family photo this time.

But before we get into the specifics of this ending, a quick refresher is useful. During one of Stefan’s therapy sessions he reveals that his mother died because she got on the 8:45 a.m. train instead of the 8:30 a.m. one. The later train was involved in a horrific accident. Stefan believes she was late because his dad took a stuffed rabbit from him, and Stefan wasted valuable time looking for it. He blames both his father and himself for her death.

Back to this latest ending. Choose to fall asleep with the family photo, and Stefan will wake up in the middle of the night to steal his dad’s keys. Once he’s in his dad’s secret study, you have two options for the passcode on his safe. You can select “PAX”, which will send you back down the road of disturbing inner demons. Or you can select “PAC.”

The latter will unlock the safe, revealing a vast assortment of files about Stefan. It turns out that his father was never really his father but a trained operative assigned to monitor and experiment on him for the Program and Control Study. Thanks to a tape in this safe, Stefan will learn that his mom’s death was actually an event orchestrated by this organization to monitor childhood trauma.

It’s unclear if any of this is actually true or just a result of Stefan’s dwindling sanity and lack of drugs. Either way, a new option appears when Stefan later asks who’s controlling him: PACS. If you select that, then Stefan will kill his dad all on his own, convinced that the older man has been controlling him his whole life.

Stefan will then remember Colin saying that you can hear numbers and try to call Dr. Haynes. This part of the episode will require you to pay attention to the sequence of numbers that are said next. (Note: I failed to get the last number, so I wasn’t able to call Dr. Haynes in my playthrough.) If you fail, then Stefan will give up and bury his dad’s body. That’s when the dog that annoyed his dad so much in the beginning of Bandersnatch will bite him in the ass. The neighbor’s dog will dig up Stefan’s dad, forcing him to go to jail.

When Micro Play later reviews the game, it will only give it two and a half stars. The game was released only partially finished, but most people only know it because of the murder attached. In this one you get all of the horror and none of the glory.

Micro Play Score: N/A
Dad’s Status: Alive
Meta Insanity: Some of the mirror-walking variety

I was only able to get this ending option after the third time playing the “Get the rabbit from dad” restart. So back to Stefan’s various breakdowns we go! When Stefan is prompted to either take the gaming guide book or the family photo to bed, something interesting will happen if you choose the family photo.

At one point he’ll look at himself in the mirror while remembering that a drugged out Colin said mirrors are a way to time travel. He’ll then walk through the glass and appear as a young boy the night before his mom’s death.

After a long flashback, the camera will show that Stefan’s dad has locked his rabbit toy in his secret safe. When Stefan returns to the present and breaks into his dad’s study, you now have a new password option. He can either type in “PAX” or “TOY.” Select “TOY” and get ready to time travel.

As soon as Stefan has the rabbit, he’ll return to his past. His father will tell him to put it back where it needs to go, and the young boy will hide it under the bed as his adult self watches him.

Even with all of this effort, the same scene plays out in the morning. Stefan’s mother will still miss the earlier train, but this time a new option will emerge. Little kid Stefan can either go with him mom — a choice that will certainly end in his death — or he can stay behind like before. If you make him go, the lights around Stefan and his mother will become noticeably brighter and more dreamlike. He will ultimately die with his mother in the past, but more confusingly he’ll also die in the present. While in a session with Dr. Haynes, Stefan will slump over dead, and Bandersnatch will never be released. Not even the plot of Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy combined was this confusing.

Watch Black Mirror: Bandersnatch on Netflix