History Recap / BlackMirrorSmithereens

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney:
** Money, and "God Mode" root access to the system he originally designed, which Billy tells his aide is the only real perk left at his job. When Billy becomes convinced he's morally obligated to give Christopher what he wants to put a stop to this mess, he hangs up ''on the FBI'' when they object. And when his own team tries to stop him, he hangs up on them as well, and uses God Mode to contact Chris unilaterally.

* CallBack:
** A less obvious callback, but this is the second episode whose plot is triggered by a car crash, after [[Recap/BlackMirrorBeRightBack "Be Right Back"]]. Both episodes deal heavily with social media, only with different uses.
** An article about a blackmail victim being found dead in their car is shown, potentially a reference to the severe blackmail inflicted on victims in "Shut Up and Dance".

* BolivianArmyEnding: We know that either Christopher or Jaden was killed by the sniper shot, but there's little indication of who. They are fighting over the gun at the time while Jaden heroically [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished tries to stop Chris from committing suicide]], and, while the first shot hits Chris, there's no suggestion of whether the second one did.

* CuttingTheKnot: In-universe. Hayley's password is right in front of her the whole time, but she probably never would have got it if Billy Bauer hadn't simply accessed God Mode.

* ChekhovsGun: From the beginning of the episode it's clear that Chris has some kind of history with the Smithereen social media service, and later on the police find out his day job used to be teaching kids to code. The fact that he's a geek and a former heavy user of Smithereen prior to his current grievance against it comes up in the thriller plot -- he's savvy enough to know that Smithereen (like Twitter in real life) will give him an ongoing, unfiltered look at the hostage situation from an outside POV, something the cops themselves utterly fail to take into account in their strategy even though the Smithereen staff can see he's logged on.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Billy's subordinates and their FBI liaison are depicted as {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s who only prolong the situation by stringing Chris along and dragging their feet on getting Billy involved. But it turns out they were ''right'' that no one could predict what Chris would do when his demands were met and he might follow the phone conversation by turning the gun on someone now that he has nothing to lose. They just didn't know that person was himself.

* JurisdictionFriction: Averted. Despite the whole hostage situation taking place just outside of London in the Oxfordshire village of Ewelme, the local Oxfordshire police appear to allow the Greater London Police to take control of and engage with the situation fully.
** Although technically the FBI does have jurisdiction because the hostage situation in the UK is an attempt to extort Billy Bauer, a US citizen on US soil, the justification is shaky, and Special Agent Cruz ends up helpless to stop Billy from forcibly cutting him out of the loop.

* NotSoDifferent: The one thing David Gilkes gets right is that Chris and Billy really ''aren't'' so different beneath the surface. Notably, they've both taken up meditation as a way to deal with a burden they can't share with any other person -- and it's implied that neither of them has really been successful at managing it.

* RealityEnsues: Billy Bauer is neither the CorruptCorporateExecutive we'd been led to expect nor a wise guru figure who has any answers for Christopher. He's going on these meditation retreats because he himself is a deeply troubled young man who bluntly tells Christopher his stockholders have taken all his power away and he has no idea how to stop what Smithereen has become.

* RidiculouslyLongPhoneHold: A dramatic version of this. Smithereen keeps Christopher on hold as a gambit so they can listen in to what's going on in the car, and joke about using a "relaxation" playlist to try to calm him down. They don't realize that the romantic love songs they're playing are just getting him more keyed up, since his whole motivation for his crimes was his LostLenore.
* RippedFromTheHeadlines: Not only does this episode explicitly take place in 2018 and use no technology that doesn't exist in real life, and not only is it ostensibly about the real-world problem of [[https://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/distracted_driving/index.html distracted driving]] due to smartphone addiction, but it's also eerily reminiscent of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube_headquarters_shooting 2018 YouTube headquarters shooting]]. And it wasn't even the last time an unstable individual [[https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-youtube-threats-man-arrested-20190520-story.html threatened violence at a social media company]] because he felt they wronged him.

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: Money, and "God Mode" root access to the system he originally designed, which Billy tells his aide is the only real perk left at his job. When Billy becomes convinced he's morally obligated to give Christopher what he wants to put a stop to this mess, he hangs up ''on the FBI'' when they object. And when his own team tries to stop him, he hangs up on them as well, and uses God Mode to contact Chris unilaterally.

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Billy Bauer claims to be one, as he never intended Smithereen to be so powerful. Chris is a much more traditional example, as he was distracted by Smithereen during the car accident that killed his girlfriend.
** Arguably the worst UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom was whatever random person left a comment on Chris' photo while he happened to be driving on an empty road.

* WeaponForIntimidation: Once he finds out Jaden is just a kid with no power at the company, Christopher loses any will he had to actually kill him. He even reassures him that the gun is a fake and his life is in no danger. Unfortunately, the cops hear him thanks to the Smithereen staff bugging his phone, and he's forced to prove to them [[ILied he was lying]].

[[caption-width-right:270:Everywhere you look, people are hooked on the things! It's like chain smoking!]]

* MadnessMantra: "This is your last day... This is your last day..."

A rideshare driver takes an employee of Smithereen, a large social media company, hostage, demanding to speak with the CEO of the company. Meanwhile, the local police attempt to keep the hostage situation under control, while also trying to piece together the hostage taker's past through examining his social media profile, hoping that they might be able to figure out a motive for his crime.

A rideshare driver takes an employee of Smithereen, a large social media company, hostage, demanding to speak with the CEO of the company. Meanwhile, the local police attempt to keep the hostage situation under control, while also trying to piece together the hostage taker's past through examining his social media profile, hoping that they might be able to figure out a motive for his crime. Starring Creator/AndrewScott as Christopher Gillhaney and Creator/TopherGrace as Billy Bauer.

* TwentyMinutesIntoThePast: The only episode -- the standalone film ''Film/BlackMirrorBandersnatch'' notwithstanding -- known to actually take place before its release, it’s set in 2018 with limited tech, reinforcing the tech-addict sentiment as well as depicting the reality of Big Data in the present.

* HonestCorporateExecutive: Deconstructed with Billy Bauer - he's a BenevolentBoss to all his employees no matter how low they are on the corporate ladder and seems genuinely heartbroken by Chris' story, but with how massive Smithereen has become, he doesn't really have any actual power in the company and is more of a "face" figurehead at this point.

[[center:[-[[Recap/BlackMirrorStrikingVipers Striking Vipers]]-] -- [-'''Smithereens'''-] -- [-[[Recap/BlackMirrorRachelJackAndAshleyToo Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too]]-] ]]

[caption-width-right:270:Everywhere you look, people are hooked on the things! It's like chain smoking!]]

[[caption-width-right:270:Everywhere you look, people are hooked on the things! It's like chain smoking!]]

A rideshare driver takes an employee of Smithereen, a large social media company, hostage. Starring Creator/AndrewScott as Christopher Gillhaney and Creator/TopherGrace as Billy Bauer.

*** An article about a blackmail victim being found dead in their car, potentially a reference to the severe blackmail inflicted on victims in "Shut Up and Dance".

** A less obvious callback, but this is the second episode whose plot is triggered by a car crash, after [[Recap/BlackMirrorBeRightBack "Be Right Back"]]. Both episodes deal heavily with social media, only with different uses.

*** Prime Minister Michael Callow from [[Recap/BlackMirrorTheNationalAnthem "The National Anthem"]] meeting with EU negotiators.

** A location Chris picks up a customer from is called Skillane Street, a reference to Victoria Skillane from the episode [[Recap/BlackMirrorWhiteBear "White Bear"]]. Other locations shown on the Hitcher app map include a restaurant called Raiman's, a reference to Raiman in [[Recap/BlackMirrorMenAgainstFire "Men Against Fire"]] and the Bandersnatch Theatre, a reference to the interactive standalone [[Recap/BlackMirrorBandersnatch "Bandersnatch"]].

*** Prime Minister Michael Callow from [[Recap/BlackMirrorTheNational Anthem "The National Anthem"]] meeting with EU negotiators.

** A location Chris picks up a customer from is called Skillane Street, a reference to Victoria Skillane from the episode "White Bear". Other locations shown on the Hitcher app map include a restaurant called Raimans, a reference to Raiman in "Men Against Fire" and the Bandersnatch Theatre, a reference to the interactive standalone "Bandersnatch".
** Social feed seen on screens in the Smithereen London Office makes reference to:
*** Prime Minister Michael Callow from "The National Anthem" meeting with EU negotiators.
*** Game company SaitoGemu from "Playtest"
*** The television series Sea of Tranquillity mentioned in both "The National Anthem" and "Nosedive"
*** An industrial strike at St. Junipers, a reference to "San Junipero", "Black Museum" and the doctor's surgery seen in "Bandersnatch".

** The UKN website page looked at by Penelope Wu showing details of the car crash that killed Chris Gillhaney's fiance includes:
*** An article noting a severe decline in the bee population, a reference to "Hated in the Nation" where such a problem was resolved with Automated Drone Insects (ADI's).

*** References to the Cookie, the data cloning device first seen in "White Christmas", and later referenced in "Shut Up and Dance" and "Hated in the Nation".

** An empty pizza box from Fences Pizza is seen in Christopher's house, a brand previously seen in "Crocodile" and "USS Callister".
** A less obvious callback, but this is the second episode whose plot is triggered by a car crash, after "Be Right Back". Both episodes deal heavily with social media, only with different uses.
** There was a CallForward to this episode in Film/BlackMirrorBandersnatch, with a news feed announcing that Billy Bauer was in talks with the US government over the issue of Russian bots (mirroring a real-life controversy over Facebook and, to a lesser degree, Twitter).

** Hitcher, the rideshare company Chris works for is a fictional equivalent to the real-life rideshare app Uber.

* HateSink: David Gilkes, the hostage negotiator, is technically just doing his job ([[HeroWithAnFInGood albeit not very skillfully]]). However, his self-obsessed attitude and the impression that he's more concerned with showing how smart he is than with saving lives makes him the only truly hateable character in an episode where we otherwise sympathise with pretty much everyone.

* HollywoodHacking: A minor example but one that sticks out for anyone who's been in a similar situation: If they're following modern infosec best practices, Hayley's daughter's actual password shouldn't be stored in plaintext anywhere on Persona's servers; "God Mode" would let the company give Hayley a link to reset the password, but not tell her what the original password was.

* IdiotBall: There's some major opsec failures by both sides of the standoff -- it's more forgivable for Chris who, however smart he is, is not a hardened criminal and not in the most stable frame of mind, less so for the actual police. Notably, disaster ensues when Chris lets slip the lie that his gun isn't real to the cops -- because of the extremely amateurish error of not muting his own phone mic while he's on hold. (Even in ''normal'' circumstances one should never assume hearing "hold music" means no one is listening to you.) However, he discovers this mistake because of the cops' even bigger mistake of letting random civilian bystanders -- bystanders who ''openly have their phones out'' and are ''obviously posting on social media'' -- close enough to an active crime scene to overhear their own radio chatter.

* LimaSyndrome: Downplayed, but it's pretty clear that Chris envisaged Jaden as an asshole CEO and, when he turns out to be a kind, normal intern in his early 20s, he freaks out and no longer threatens to hurt Jaden to his face. Although he states that he will to others, this is heavily implied to be a bluff.

* MessianicArchetype: When we finally see Billy Bauer at his meditation retreat he's dressed in sandals and a robe and pretty much looks like a clichéd depiction of Jesus. He even at one point refers to his unlimited superuser access to the Smithereen app as "God Mode", and Christopher's desperate quest to speak to him feels a lot like a metaphor for Job seeking answers from God. A subverted trope, though, in that Billy, though seemingly a decent guy, isn't particularly wise and in the end doesn't have the power to save anyone. Lampshaded when he's woken from his meditative trance and told about the news and his reaction is a very human [[PrecisionFStrike "Fuck!"]]

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Chris's stated motive against Smithereen, though he baulks at killing Jaden upon learning he has little power.
* SceneryPorn: The landscape shots deserve many awards, showing both urban and rural London, the Los Gatos area of California (filmed in Kent), and the fake Furnace Valley (a more mellow Grand Canyon; filmed in Spain) based on Fiery Furnace, Salt Valley in Utah. The episode is also rather limited to these locations and gets a lot of different shots in; nature is beautiful, a further addition to the ‘phones are bad' narrative.

* SharpDressedMan: Jaden is the best-dressed person Chris has seen come out of the Smithereen office in weeks, with a ''very'' fashionable suit. Turns out that's because he's just a kid in his first week of an internship and he was desperate to make a good impression on the executive he'd been assigned to meet, with no idea that in this case his clothes would tragically make him a target.
** Jaden doesn't help his own case by copping a bit of an attitude to Chris when he first gets in the car and trying very much to play the role of the cool, confident executive, not knowing that it was hardening Chris' resolve to take him hostage.

* StockholmSyndrome: Downplayed, but Jaden appears straight-up sympathetic to Chris's plight by the end of the episode, even ''fighting with him'' over the gun with which he intends to kill himself after he lets Jaden go.

* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: Assuming he ended up being shot by the sniper during the struggle, Jaden is this considering that despite being held hostage by Chris and repeatedly threatened with a gun, he’s still sympathetic towards Chris’s story, especially when Chris himself is willing to let him free and not shoot him in the back. His presumably last actions in the car is begging his kidnapper not to commit suicide once he exits the car and when Chris goes to open the door, attempting to wrestle the gun away from him in a last ditch effort to keep him from killing himself.

* RecklessGunUsage: Christopher does a ''lot'' of wild ranting and gesticulating with a loaded gun, with his ''finger on the trigger'', seemingly avoiding IJustShotMarvinInTheFace by sheer luck. Seemingly justified once he reveals that the gun isn't even real... except that this, unfortunately, turns out to be a lie. It is justified by the fact that he's both a untrained gun user and, it rapidly becomes clear, quite seriously mentally unwell.

** To a lesser degree, Chris' basic plan involving driving for an Uber/Lyft-style company under false credentials, waiting for someone who fits his target profile to hail a ride, then lying about a detour on the GPS to get his victim alone. It's an [[https://money.cnn.com/2018/04/30/technology/uber-driver-sexual-assault/index.html all-too-common template for crime]] and women who use these apps talk about the need to stay safe by having your own GPS app turned on during the ride. Jaden, unfortunately, didn't heed this advice.

* ShootTheHostageTaker: Initially defied, as Chief Superintendent Linda Grace tells the armed officers she hopes to resolve the incident without bloodshed as the force recently dealt with a controversy when officers accidentally shot an unarmed man. However, she changes her mind and orders a critical shot to be taken once Chris starts firing out the window of the car, which ultimately ends with him being shot in the head by a police sniper.

* StockholmSyndrome: Downplayed, but Jaden appears straig-up sympathetic to Chris's plight by the end of the episode, even ''fighting with him'' over the gun with which he intends to kill himself after he lets Jaden go.

* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: Assuming he ended up being shot by the sniper during the struggle, Jaden is this considering that despite being held hostage by Chris and repeatedly threatened with a gun, he’s still sympathetic towards Chris’ story, especially when Chris himself is willing to let him free and not shoot him in the back. His presumably last actions in the car is begging his kidnapper not to commit suicide once he exits the car and when Chris goes to open the door, attempting to wrestle the gun away from him in a last ditch effort to keep him from killing himself.

* DeathSeeker: Christopher had absolutely no intention of surviving this encounter, one way or another. It's implied that he originally obtained the pistol he uses for the purpose of committing suicide, but hatched this hostage taking scheme became obsessed with the idea that he couldn't die before telling Billy Bauer his story. His MadnessMantra he uses to calm himself down turns out to be ''reassuring'' himself that no matter what happens, he's going to die today.

* TheAtoner: Subverted. Chris acts like this is his motive, but he eventually admits that he doesn't believe he can be redeemed. When Billy protests that making changes to keep Tamsin's death from happening again, Chris reveals he doesn't even care about that. All he wanted was to unburden his conscience before he died.

* RealitySubtext: And a bit of BitingTheHandHumor. Smithereen's corporate campus is located in Los Gatos, California. The biggest tech company headquartered there in RealLife is Creator/{{Netflix}}.