History Recap / BlackMirrorSanJunipero

* BuryYourDisabled: Despite all the ways in which the BuryYourGays trope gets messed around with (see below), Type 4 of this trope gets absolutely played straight. We're meant to see our characters dying as an unambiguously good and happy thing, because being together and in San Junipero is presented as being infinitely better than them living their real lives. The UnfortunateImplication of this trope seemed to get lost on some fans however, who boast about how "unambiguously happy" the ending is.

* VanityLicensePlate: At the end, the metal plate on Yorki's car reads YORKI.

%% HandlingSpoilers: An episode recap page is, by default, a spoiler. Readers of these pages are expected to have watched the episode in question. Therefore, there are no spoiler tags on recap pages. Conversely, do not add spoilers for future episodes, even under tags. Those go on the later episode pages.

->''"They say in heaven, love comes first,''
->''We'll make heaven a place on Earth."''

* WhamLine

** One review also points out that the setting as created with the San Junipero technology as norm legitimises and justifies homosexual relationships, as theoretical "salvation" is possible without the need to live through children [[spoiler:(also enforced by Kelly's daughter's death)]], and it prioritises individual enjoyment. The moral philosophy arm-in-arm with the SF setting has normalised and even promoted homosexuality, which might be more the allusion that Kelly makes when she tells Yorkie that nobody cares anymore (rather than just that it is about 2030).

* ArtisticLicenseMedicine: Craig, the nurse, said that Yorkie was tetraplegia. But, with tetraplegia, she probably would still be able to talk and move her head. Yorkie's condition looks more like [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locked-in_syndrome locked-in syndrome]].

* WhenTheClockStrikesTwelve: For some reason tourist have to leave the LotusEaterMachine at the strike of midnight.

* YourCheatingHeart: Subverted. Yorkie seemed to be cheating on her fiancé with Kelly, but it's revealed that she's been completely paralyzed the entire time and the marriage was for convenience only.

* SpeculativeFictionLGBT: The {{Hugo|Award}}-nominated episode plays with the BuryYourGays trope like a cat with yarn, with this likely being one of the [[BreatherEpisode episode]]'s [[{{Anvilicious}} social commentaries]] given that it's LighterAndSofter than the rest of the series. It takes the dream beach from ''Film/TheZeroTheorem'', and allows people to infinitely upload their minds there during death, letting wives Kelly and Yorkie have the life together after passing that they can't whilst alive.

* SpeculativeFictionLGBT: The {{Hugo|Award}}-nominated episode plays with the BuryYourGays trope like a cat with yarn, with this likely being the [[BreatherEpisode episode]]'s [[{{Anvilicious}} social commentary]] given that it's LighterAndSofter than the rest of the series. It takes the dream beach from ''Film/TheZeroTheorem'', and allows people to infinitely upload their minds there during death, letting wives Kelly and Yorkie have the life together after passing that they can't whilst alive.

* HappilyMarried: Kelly was married to her husband Richard for 49 years and loved him throughout.

* NothingButHits / PopularHistory: Justified, since it's a purposely nostalgia-filled version of each decade.

* SecondLove: Yorkie is Kelly's.

* UnusualEuphemism: "Passing over" has become one for dying and becoming a permanent resident of San Junipero. Non-residents - people who are still alive - are called tourists.

** It's very hard to decide whether you should be, or even if you ''are'' happy or sad at the end of the episode because Kelly had a point: after a long happy life, much spent believing in and embracing a peaceful death, wouldn't it feel downright ''wrong'' to jump from the edge of oblivion to going out clubbing in your twenties forever? But, then, Yorkie has never had an actual life and is more real in this version of death. And then there's Kelly's relationship with her husband, and with Yorkie. It's painfully conflicting on the mind and on the feelings, which might make it the worst episode of the series.

* BuryYourGays: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]] to hell and back, see deconstruction below for details and is also a subversion as well because of the couple getting a happy ending despite both of them dying.

* {{Deconstruction}}: [[http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2016/10/27/black_mirror_upends_tv_s_bury_your_gays_trope.html Many]] [[http://www.pride.com/netflix/2016/10/24/black-mirror-episode-san-junipero-gives-middle-finger-dead-lesbian-trope critics]] have pointed out that the episode utterly ''dismantles'' the BuryYourGays trope by the time the credits roll. Technically, Kelly and Yorkie ''are'' dead by the end of the episode, having both undergone euthanasia... allowing them to literally live forever together in an artificial afterlife in inarguably the series' most uplifting and optimistic ending.

* ShrinkingViolet: Yorkie.

* SuspiciouslyAproposMusic: Yorkie's second Saturday starts to the sound of ''Girlfriend in a Coma'' by Music/TheSmiths.

* AcCENTUponTheWrongSylLABle: The right way to say Junipero can vary throughout California and Spanish speaking countries. The way it's pronounced in the episode is not any kind of correct though.

* BittersweetEnding: Yorkie and Kelly are physically dead, but get to spend however long they want together and HappilyMarried in San Junipero, in younger and permanently healthy bodies.

* HollywoodDriving: When Kelly drives Yorkie home in her buggy, she is staring at Yorkie for like 8 seconds until an approaching car honks at them because they buggy was straying.

* AdultFear: [[OutlivingOnesOffspring Outliving your children]] [[spoiler:and being able to achieve digital immortality after they weren't]].
* AnachronismStew: The titular 1987 city is named after [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junipero_Serra a saint that was only canonized in 2015.]] [[spoiler:But of course the simulation was created well after that.]]
* ArtisticLicenseMedicine: [[spoiler:Craig, the nurse, said that Yorkie was tetraplegia. But, with tetraplegia, she probably would still be able to talk and move her head. Yorkie's condition looks more like [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locked-in_syndrome locked-in syndrome]].]]
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Yorkie and Kelly are physically dead, but get to spend however long they want together and HappilyMarried in San Junipero, in younger and permanently healthy bodies.]]

* BuryYourGays: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]] to hell and back, see deconstruction below for details and is also a subversion as well because of the couple getting a happy ending [[spoiler: despite both of them dying]].

* ContinuityNod: We're not shown it in-episode, but to White Christmas; Kelly mentions that she will 'red-light' Wes if he doesn't leave her alone. Due to [[spoiler:their brain implants, it can be assumed that]] red-lighting works the same as blocking.

* {{Deconstruction}}: [[http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2016/10/27/black_mirror_upends_tv_s_bury_your_gays_trope.html Many]] [[http://www.pride.com/netflix/2016/10/24/black-mirror-episode-san-junipero-gives-middle-finger-dead-lesbian-trope critics]] have pointed out that the episode utterly ''dismantles'' the [[spoiler:BuryYourGays trope]] by the time the credits roll. [[spoiler:Technically, Kelly and Yorkie ''are'' dead by the end of the episode, having both undergone euthanasia... allowing them to literally live forever together in an artificial afterlife in inarguably the series' most uplifting and optimistic ending]].
* FairytaleWeddingDress: Yorkie wears one after [[spoiler:she and Kelly marry, allowing Kelly to authorize Yorkie's euthanasia so that she can be sent to San Junipero forever.]]

** [[ChekhovsArmoury Little bits and bobs all over the place]], but most telling is [[spoiler:Yorkie's distaste at seeing a car crash in an arcade game and confessions about never being on a dance floor; she was paralyzed at age 21 (the legal age to be in a bar in the United States) after crashing her car, so she may have never been inside of a real club.]] This also explains why her entrances into each bar she visits are apprehensive.
** Likewise, there are subtle hints throughout the first half that [[spoiler:this isn't actually taking place in TheEighties. The most blatant example is probably when Kelly assures Yorkie that society has progressed enough that homophobia isn't really an issue anymore, something that was definitely ''not'' the case in Reagan-era America.]]
** After Kelly has had enough of Wes's advances, she encourages him to go after one of the locals. He says no, saying "they're like corpses". [[spoiler:Turns out he was being semi-literal, as the "locals" are people who died and decided to stay in San Junipero.]]
** The club where Kelly and Yorkie meet is called "Tucker's". At the end we see a facility named TCKR Systems, where [[spoiler:the data comprising the minds of all the people who decided to "pass over" are stored.]]
** When Kelly and Yorkie first meet, Kelly lies that Yorkie is an old friend who has six months left to live in order to get rid of Wes. Wes accepts this without questioning it despite the fact that it would be considered a ''very'' dubious excuse in real life. [[spoiler:His willingness to take the claim at face value is a lot easier to understand after you learn that ''everyone'' in San Junipero is either trying out a digital afterlife because they're in poor health or are already dead and are there permanently. Also, it turns out Kelly has around three months left, and Yorkie plans to be euthanized in a few weeks.]]
* {{Gayngst}}: There's hints of it [[spoiler:with Yorkie's backstory and her continued insecurity with her sexuality in San Junipero]], but ultimately the episode ends as a completely triumphant [[AvertedTrope aversion]] of this trope. [[spoiler:Kelly and Yorkie end up together, happily married, in San Junipero quite literally forever]].
* HappilyMarried: [[spoiler:Kelly was married to her husband Richard for 49 years and loved him throughout.]]
** [[spoiler: Yorkie and Kelly by at the end of the episode.]]

* LipstickAndLoadMontage: Yorkie gets an extended one. [[spoiler:Turns out everyone in San Junipero can change their outfit and makeup just by thinking about it.]]

* LotusEaterMachine: [[spoiler:San Junipero. Living people are limited to 5 hours a week in San Junipero to avoid this effect.]]
* MarriageOfConvenience: Yorkie is marrying Greg [[spoiler:so he can authorize her euthanasia when her family won't. Discovery of this prompts Kelly to make her own WackyMarriageProposal to Yorkie instead.]]
* MisterSandmanSequence: Each era starts with one of these. [[spoiler: Likely deliberate, in-universe, to help orient tourists to what specific year they're recreating.]]
* NiceGuy: [[spoiler:[[DarknessInducedAudienceApathy Against all expectations]], Greg turns out to be one.]]
* NoSocialSkills: Yorkie, in spades. [[spoiler:She's had nothing of a social life to practice with.]]

* OlderThanTheyLook: [[spoiler:Pretty much everyone in San Junipero.]]
* RageAgainstTheReflection: Kelly punches a bathroom mirror after Yorkie calls her out. [[spoiler:This reveals that Kelly has InvulnerableKnuckles and, in a seamless cut, that the mirror has repaired itself.]]
* ReallyGetsAround: Kelly is having fun in San Junipero [[spoiler:before she dies and after a lifetime in a loving monogamous relationship. Yorkie wants more from their one-night stand and convinces her to have another loving monogamous relationship.]]
* ResidualSelfImage: [[spoiler:Most people appear to have picked an idealized younger version of themselves.]]

** [[spoiler:Uploading the minds of dying people to the cloud and calling it Heaven? [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E11DarkWater Didn't Missy try that not too long ago?]]]]
** The [[spoiler:ending scene is Kelly and Yorkie [[VideoGame/OutRun riding a red sports car, cruising through a coast]]]].

* SocietyMarchesOn: In-universe example. Yorkie is worried that people will react negatively to the sight of two girls dancing, but Kelly assures her that such prejudices aren't really a problem anymore. [[spoiler:This is one of the big hints that the story is actually taking place in the future.]]
* SoundtrackDissonance: Aside from the opening, the light-sounding "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" starts playing [[spoiler:over the ending, where it shows Kelly being euthanized and buried.]]
* SurprisinglyHappyEnding: [[spoiler:Certainly compared to the rest of the series; Kelly overcomes her fears and grief and joins Yorkie in San Junipero for good to live HappilyEverAfter.]]
* SuspiciouslyAproposMusic: [[spoiler:Yorkie's second Saturday starts to the sound of ''Girlfriend in a Coma'' by Music/TheSmiths.]]
** Likewise [[spoiler:Belinda Carlisle's ''Heaven Is a Place on Earth'' over the end credits; San Junipero is designed to be exactly this.]]
** The INXS song "Need You Tonight," the lyric [[spoiler:'twenty-first century's yesterday.']]

* TotallyRadical: Only in TheEighties could someone say "bodacious" with a straight face. [[spoiler: Justified in that the space exists specifically as a nostalgic throwback, and people are deliberately trying to recreate their memories of the era.]]

* UnusualEuphemism: "Passing over" has become one for [[spoiler:dying and becoming a permanent resident of San Junipero. Non-residents - people who are still alive - are called tourists.]]

* YourCheatingHeart: Subverted. [[spoiler:Yorkie seemed to be cheating on her fiancé with Kelly, but it's revealed that she's been completely paralyzed the entire time and the marriage was for convenience only.]]

[[center:[-'''Series/BlackMirrorSeriesThree'''-]]]

[[center:[-[[Recap/BlackMirrorNosedive Nosedive]]-] -- [-[[Recap/BlackMirrorPlaytest Playtest]]-] -- [-'''Shut Up and Dance'''-] -- [-[[Recap/BlackMirrorSanJunipero San Junipero]]-] -- [-[[Recap/BlackMirrorMenAgainstFire Men Against Fire]]-] -- [-[[Recap/BlackMirrorHatedInTheNation Hated in the Nation]]-]]]