‘Black Mirror: Bandersnatch’ Is Hiding All Sorts of Easter Eggs and One Big Teaser

If you’re anything like us then you spent your weekend wishing the best for Stefan and inevitably ruing his life. Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, Netflix and Charlie Brooker’s choose-your-own-adventure standalone movie, is more than just a technological marvel. It’s a masterpiece in increasingly complicated storytelling. But Bandersnatch is hiding more than sass from Colin if you choose Now Vol. 2 over The Thompson Twins. It’s full of secrets.

We’ve already covered all of the ways you can unlock Bandersnatch‘s sometimes wacky, sometimes disturbing endings. But beneath all of those binary choices and Fionn Whitehead acting his disturbed butt off there’s another complicated narrative at play. Bandersnatch has direct references to at least 13 of Black Mirror‘s 18 other episodes. The Black Mirror universe is most definitely a thing, and it’s the only pop culture multiverse guaranteed to give you an existential crisis.

Want to learn about all of Bandersnatch‘s in-universe connections but don’t want to traumatize Stefan again? Hear you loud and clear. Here are all of the in-episode connections you may have missed or have yet to unlock. As the good people of Reddit find out more about this hauntingly complicated episode, we’ll be sure to update. Spoilers ahead for all episodes of Black Mirror.

“Bandersnatch’s” past is in “Playtest’s” present

You would think a movie Netflix announced a day before its release would be a surprise drop. But in reality we’ve sort of known about Bandersnatch since roughly 2016.

Black Mirror‘s first video game-specific episode “Playtest” followed the world traveling Cooper (Wyatt Russell) as he let himself be a VR guinea pig for some extra cash. Of course it ended horribly; this is Black Mirror we’re talking about. But before Cooper lost his identity, his mind, and later his life he met a game reviewer who told him all about the top tier company he was visiting. One of the magazines Sonja (Hannah John-Kamen) shows him features a review of several games, one of which is called Bandersnatch. It’s unclear if this is a retro review of the 1984 game or if Pearl Ritman’s reboot (which you learn about in the chop up dad storyline) was a success.

This episode also features another Black Mirror nod that’s incredibly important to Bandersnatch. When Cooper opens up the case to take a picture of the company’s tech, the symbol from “White Bear” can be seen. That same symbol is what drives Stefan mad in multiple endings.

“Be Right Back” and that ominous opening description

Even before Bandersnatch was officially released it was dropping in-universe Easter eggs. A few days before Netflix announced the episode would be happening, a movie page for Bandersnatch appeared with the description “Be right back.” That’s the name of Hayley Atwell’s episode in Season 2.

“Be Right Back” is also indirectly mentioned again in the ending where Stefan murders his father and releases a perfect game. A news article that flashes on the screen mentions a new development from BRB software, the same company responsible both for the AI in “Be Right Back” and the matchmaking system in “Hang the DJ.”

If you need a refresher “Be Right Back” follows a young woman who’s overcome with grief after her boyfriend dies tragically. She buys a lifelike robot that’s able to use her deceased love’s social media personality to mirror him. But as time goes on it becomes less and less clear how much control and free will this computer simulation has. Sound familiar?

Colin’s gaming nods to “Metalhead” and “Nosedive”

Right away Bandersnatch establishes that Colin Ritman (Will Poulter) is a gaming genius. He’s developed several hugely popular computer games, but it’s the names of his latest creations that will make Black Mirror fans doubletake.

Colin’s latest launch is something called “Metl Hedd,” an action game that involves a human running and hiding from robotic dog creatures. As you’ve probably already noticed that’s the exact plot of Black Mirror‘s other David Slade-directed episode, “Metalhead.” Does this mean all of the events in “Metalhead” were actually happening in the interior of a 1980s video game? Is that why the episode was in black in white?

This is already too confusing, so  we’re moving on.

Colin’s second game, which he demos for Stefan, is called “Nohzdyve.” Unlike “Metl Hedd,” “Nohzdyve” seems to have little in common with its Season 3 twin “Nosedive.” Set in a world where anyone can be given an Uber-like rating at any time, the episode follows a young woman whose quest to become a five almost costs her everything. It’s not the same as Bandersnatch‘s video game version, which revolves around a person endlessly falling between two buildings. Still that constant drop mirrors Bryce Dallas Howard’s emotional state pretty well. Also the entire game serves as an interesting piece of foreshadowing for one of Colin’s possible fates.

Stefan’s extremely ’80s foreshadowing of “San Junipero”

This is a small one, but it’s important all the same. The office where Stefan sees his therapist Dr. Haynes (Alice Lowe) is called Saint Juniper’s Medical Practice. That’s eerily similar to “San Junipero,” the name of the 1980s virtual community from the future that allowed bedridden and older people to live out their dreams in Season 3. Perhaps Saint Juniper transitioned into San Junipero after a few decades of research and the tolls of dealing with Stefan.

The “White Bear” glyph that ruins Stefan’s life

Halfway through Bandersnatch, Stefan knows that something is wrong with his life. He can feel that someone has been making choices for him. Desperate, he screams at the sky and demands to know who is controlling him. At this point you have a choice. You can either tell him that Netflix is controlling him or you can select the three best known rectangles in Black Mirror’s history (Note: Depending on certain playthrough routes, the Netflix option may be replaced by “P.A.C.S.”).

That symbol — the same one that appeared in “Playtest” — originally showed up in the Season 2 episode “White Bear.” Starring Lenora Crichlow, the episode followed a woman who was aggressively stalked by unending waves of people recording her on their cell phones. It’s only at the end of the episode that it’s revealed she’s far from the victim.

“Bandersnatch”s tongue-in-cheek Black Mirror headlines

Bandersnatch also contains references to six other episodes — “Fifteen Million Merits,” “The National Anthem,” “Hated in the Nation,” “The Waldo Moment,” “USS Callister,” and “Crocodile.” You can only see these if you get the ending that involves murdering Stefan’s dad, chopping up his body, and sending Stefan to jail with a game that receives a perfect score. Welcome to the big wide world of insane Black Mirror Easter eggs.

Let’s start with winking headlines from the past. In this ending the movie skips ahead to a future news report about Stefan’s arrest, his escape, and Bandersnatch’s complicated legacy as a game. At one point in the broadcast, the report shows an old newspaper clipping about Stefan’s arrest. This Sun clipping teases three interesting stories.

“Be Right Back” and “Hang the DJ”

The first headline, titled “The Love Machine,” is about a company named BRB software that promises to use tech to connect people to their soulmates. That’s a clear reference to the closest thing Black Mirror has come to a rom-com, Season 4’s “Hang the DJ.” But BRB software is also the same company behind the tech used in the episode “Be Right Back.”

“USS Callister”

The second 1984 headline is about the upcoming third season of the show Scape Fleet. You may remember that as the fictional show Robert Daly (Jesse Plemmons) was uncomfortably obsessed with in “USS Callister.” This episode is referenced again in a news ticker during the present-day version of the same newscast. It turns out the Space Fleet team is going to have a reunion at the Emmys.

“Fifteen Million Merits”

All of the news stories are a bit creepy in their own way, but the third teaser tis perhaps the most disturbing. The headline “15 Million Talent Team” notes that a new game show called Hot Shots will be premiering in 1985. As we now know that ’80s talent search will descend into a dehumanizing and cheap way to monetize entertainment decades later when “Fifteen Million Merits” takes place.

“The National Anthem”

But those aren’t the only inside jokes the chopped up dad ending has to offer. Throughout the report a news ticker scrolls by, providing some winking updates on the past horrors of this sci-fi anthology series.

The first is fittingly about the first Black Mirror episode ever. It turns out that Michael Callow, the disgraced UK Prime Minister who was blackmailed into having sex with a pig on live TV, has won Celebrity Bake Off. Here’s hoping he didn’t win with pork.

There’s another winking nod to Callow in the Tuckersoft office. In the background you can see a poster for a game called “Pig in a Poke.” Subtle.

“Hated in the Nation”

The next headline that appears is “Granular to unveil prototype of Pollinator drone.” Granular is the name of the environmental robotics company featured heavily in “Hated in the Nation.” Those Pollinator drones are likely what led to the many murders that dominated this episode.

“The Waldo Moment”

The next news story has to do with the politician Liam Monroe entering Buckingham Palace. In case you need a reminder Monroe was a certain blue animated bear’s political rival in “The Waldo Moment.” This detail reveals that Monroe is still going strong in politics.

“Crocodile”

One of the last headlines is “UK police test groundbreaking memory recall device.” That’s a clear reference to the police technology that turned Andrea Riseborough’s “Crocodile” into a cat-and-mouse murder spree.

The future may be in “Smithereens”

There is one final story that’s featured on the news ticker — “Senate Committee grills Smithereen CEO Billy Bauer over Russian bots.” This is the only news article that doesn’t clearly reference another Black Mirror episode. Does that mean a Season 5 episode may be about Russian bots and some company named Smithereen? It sure seems possible. After all Black Mirror has hit uncomfortably close to reality many, many times before.

Watch Black Mirror: Bandersnatch on Netflix