“San Junipero” is an episode in the television show called Black Mirror. Black Mirror has different uneasy scenarios about modern life.  In this particular episode, you have two women that meet in this computer generated world that they are testing out.  This is where they would spend eternity if they decide to pass over.  Kelly and Yorkie are two different types of people that meet and fall in love.  Kelly has a terminal disease and Yorkie is in an irreversible coma.  Looking through this episode you see a bunch of theme related scenarios and two big ones are religion and sexuality.  When one is to think about religion you think about heaven and hell, or the after-life.  That also ties in with sexuality and how you get to the after-life.  The way to the after-life is debatable but in the end we get there somehow.

Euthanasia, or as some call it assisted suicide, is killing someone with an incurable or terminal illness in a painless way.  Also if the patient is in an irreversible coma they could use the same technique. San Junipero is basically a trial system for the ones with this incurable disease or irreversible coma.  San Junipero is a computer animated system where you can be free.  When you hear a person give their condolences about someone who has passed away, you always hear them say the person “is in a better place now.”  That is what you would consider to be San Junipero it this show.  To some this could be considered to be heaven but to some this could be considered Hell.  

“Wright believes that the afterlife has two stages: first, the period of time between the dissolution of the material body and its resurrection and second, the resurrection state itself in which re-embodied humans experience an everlasting existence on a remade material world” (Hentschel 66).  When you read the bible, you see that Paul assures you that it is “far better” to be with Christ than it is to live in this world (Phil. 1:23). Every Christian believes that eternal life with God is considered to be Heaven.  But, where is this so called God in Black Mirror?  They fail to show a higher power in the show because all this is a “taste” of what eternity is.  To get to eternity there is a process in the show as well as in life.

Many Christians believe that in order to get to Heaven, you must have faith in God and also be baptized to cleanse your soul.  “In order to have a full and healthy conception of life after death, one must grant the existence of spiritual souls distinct from, yet naturally linked to, the body” (Hentschel 68). This is what some would call a baptism. They have this saying in Black Mirror called the “pass over.”  This is the process where the person has the choice to stay ind San Junipero or to just exist in nothingness.  In the show, you basically are in heaven, but if you choose to take down on the wrong path then you experience a different part of the simulation.

In San Junipero, there is a place called Quagmire. Quagmire is considered the “rough side of town”.  Now in the show they don’t tell you this is Hell or purgatory, but there are many signs.  When she first get there it looks like an old worn down factory and it’s a dark scene. When Yorkie gets there she is walking up the stairs where there is just a bunch of smoke and crazy looking people.  During the scene, you see a person with big devil horns stare her down and as Yorkie walks away she ends up walking passed a woman holding a snake.  As we all know, the serpent or snake is the main animal classified as the devil.  Then you notice all the people in cages like caged animals and people beating on the cages getting them roweled up.  Finally as Yorkie is leaving Quagmire, it is like they are grabbing on to her to make her stay or to take them with her as she leaves like they wanted her soul.  

Stated by Hentschel, “Paul’s discussion of the commendation of the ministers of the new covenant, with chap. 5 speaking specifically about their promised reward” (Hentschel 70).  In this chapter Paul discusses the promise to us.  “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10).  This is where our soul, or “whole person or personality” is before God and he decides where we will spend eternity (Hentschel 66).  With the show there is no judgement day, but inevitably the person chooses the lifestyle want to live by living in the “Heaven” or “Hell” of San Junipero. 

In San Junipero, every lifestyle was welcome without question but in society you are questioned.  Yorkie came out to her parents about being gay and that led to her being in a coma because she got into an accident after telling her parents.  When she gets to San Junipero she was hesitant about everything but she finds someone that is like her.  The only catch was her pass over couldn’t be complete until she was married because her parents didn’t approve her sexuality and wouldn’t sign her off to pass over.  In reality, Yorkie parents could be considered society because they didn’t approve of her sexuality.  Without her getting married she would just pass away to nothingness.  Can this not be said about the real world and Christianity?

In The Bible it says, “Women must not pretend to be men, and men must not pretend to women. The Lord your God is disgusted with people who do that” (Deuteronomy 22:5). With that being said Yorkie wanted to marry a man just so it would be made “right” and she could pass over.  Newheiser says, “the judgment, so strongly supported by Scripture, that in the sexual act performed between persons of the same sex we confront a manifestation of the fallen and sinful character of our humanity” (Newheiser 124).  This is understandable to why she wanted to get married to a man so that, hypothetically, she could pass over correctly.  In the end she ends up marrying Kelly and she passes over into San Junipero for eternity with Kelly.  What happens to everyone in the real world when it comes to homosexuality and judgement day??  The story of Sodom and Gomorrah can be an example of the way the Lord feels about homosexuality. “We should also be warned by what happened to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and the nearby towns.  Their people became immoral and committed all sorts of sexual sins. Then God made an example of them and punished them with eternal fire” (Jude 1:7).  Being that San Junipero is a computer system anyone can make it as long as someone is there to sign off for them to be there for eternity.  

Kelly and Yorkie stayed in San Junipero for eternity and lived happily ever after. In reality though, how does the after-life really work? We have many sources and opinions but nobody really knows.  All we can do is base it off The Bible and live by The Bible.  Certain aspects do bring up questions, such as sexuality.  Homosexuality questions a lot of after-life theories, but only time will tell what happens when Judgement Day comes.  If your soul is pure you should be granted the wonders of the after-life no matter your sexuality.
