YMMV / Black Mirror: Demon 79

Black Mirror YMMVJoan is Awful — Loch Henry — Beyond the Sea — Mazey Day — Demon 79

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Whether or not the events of the episode occur in Nida's head, and, if so, how much of it is true. The episode's ending, which depicts the world coming to an end as a result of nuclear warfare, implies that everything that happened was true and in the episode itself, there is otherwise no indication that it was all in Nida's mind; however, in the episode "Loch Henry", there are newspaper clippings from decades later that reveal that Michael Smart is still alive and politically active, which not only suggests that the episodes take place in the same universe, but also that the world did not end. That said, whether Easter Eggs are intended to be taken at face value is up for debate in the series as a whole. Considering that Nida also demonstrates violent intrusive thoughts and is Surrounded by Idiots, one could hardly blame her for snapping.
  • What is Gaap and Nida's relationship by the end? The entire story never shows the pair in any romantic scenarios and its easy to read them as just friends, and Nida never mentions any romantic interest in anyone, but by the end the two agree to exist in the endless void with each other for company, but even this proposal lacks any real romantic connotations and could be easily read as platonic.
  • How guilty is Keith? Was the murder of his wife an accident, or was he abusive beforehand and this was merely the fallout of their relationship? Considering how broken of a man he is by the present day, it seems he's depressed with guilt, but considering his creepiness towards Nida, it's possible he's always been an asshole.
• Complete Monster:
  • Michael Smart, a charismatic and beloved conservative politician, is in fact a psychopathic fascist with nightmarish plans for Britain. As a child, Smart stoned a dog to death, and only got worse from there. In a Bad Future where Smart is elected as Prime Minister, Britain falls under the totalitarian control of the Britannia Party, becoming a Police State where mass surveillance is implemented and the streets are in flames, with Smart's racist regime being responsible for an untold amount of deaths. The pinnacle of evil in the Black Mirror universe, Smart's cruelty is so great that even demons from Hell are said to admire him.
  • Tim Simmons initially appears to be a regular bystander, but Gaap shows Nida his true colors, revealing that Tim raped his own daughter for years every night, which will get so bad that the daughter will kill herself as an adult to stop the pain. Despite his brief appearance, Tim was so vile, the pacifist Nida barely hesitated to murder him in a rage.
• Magnificent Bastard: Gaap is a demon-in-training who was sent to convince meek sales lady Nida to kill 3 people to prevent the apocalypse and keep him out of purgatory. While being a compassionate and kind person to Nida, even using a form she liked through Bobby Farrell from Boney-M, he uses manipulation and his powers to make her see the incoming apocalypse as well as the crimes of her potential victims, convincing her to kill a child rapist and murderer. Despite Nida going against him to kill Micheal Smart against his wishes, and despite Nida failing, Gaap takes his incoming fate with stride as he finds a loophole in the rules to take Nida with him to purgatory so the two can spend eternity together as the world that rejected Nida burned.
• Paranoia Fuel: A big part of the episode is how the most plain and average looking person, who could just be walking their dog or laughing with friends could do horrific crimes.
• The Un-Twist: The story constantly suggests that Gaap might be into something far more sinister and outright manipulating Nida into random acts of violence... until it is revealed that nope, he was frank and earnest with her from the start and she really had to kill three people over the course of three days to prevent the end of the world.

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