
Black Mirror’s beauty derives from its episode singularity. Mankind’s fascination with technology arose from the dawn of time right beside mankind, therefore leading ideas of it entrapping us. During season 3 episodes 4 of Black Mirror, an episode was aired that brought so much controversy to light it became marked as on the prime examples in media for our day and age of the future of human kind becoming consumed by technology. The episode San Junipero, accentuates a feeling of nostalgia setting a scene that would be common in the 1980’s. Ironically before the turn of the century in 2000, technology was not as prevalent in people’s day to day life. This already displays a relationship between human life and no technology being a time of ‘better days’ where we could focus on living our lives more fully and with no constraints. By noting that technology takes the role of a ‘God’ per say, we can see that technology has consumed our minds to offer a brighter future than salvation could. This is pivotal because while people long for a fulfilled life the exploit themselves into living a life as a slave to machinery instead of seeking out the freedom in the Lord. 

A woman cautiously enters a bar, showing her comfort level to putting herself in an unfamiliar setting. Glazing her eyes upon the scene of people dancing, smiling, drinking, she makes her in a prompt manner towards the back. The woman puts her attention in a game while she is approached by a man, after making her escape to a table she is approached by another woman, which takes her style cues from Madonna. The girl sits next to the cautious protagonist. “Go along with whatever I am about to say please!” The woman looks at her with eyes growing in diameter behind her large framed glasses. In comes a man, James Dean type, begging for the Madonna of the bar. “Leave me alone Wes, I am trying to catch up with my friend here. (leans in and whispers) She has about 6 months to live so I want to comfort her.” The protagonist looks up from her frames and confidently says “5 actually.” Out walks Dean. The spunky girl says, “Hey that was fast thinking, I am Kelly! Thanks for the help. What is your name?” “Yorkie.” The cautious Yorkie is hesitant to follow Kelly in suite for the remainder of the night, but does as she has a spark on curiosity behind her large frames. As the night progresses, Yorkie starts seeing the world in a brighter light. She dances, drinks and smiles wider than previously shown. Mid-dance, Yorkie escapes the dance floor from what seems to be a social anxiety attack, and Kelly chases her to the outside. “Everything okay?” Kelly exclaims. “Everyone was staring. At you. At me. I could not take it.” Yorkie counsels in Kelly. After minutes of light-hearted conversation, Kelly places her hand on Yorkie’s thigh to which Yorkie timidly withdraws herself in a manner displaying how she does not necessarily want to turn down Kelly. Yorkie displays her insecure nature, not pursuing her true wants from a cultural view of right and wrongs. 

Cutting the scene, the audience is shown Yorkie trying on outfits; taking on the persona of each costume she tries on for size. Rocker, Madonna, Bad girl, none fit her just right so she sticks to her guns but loosens up a tad. Yorkie confidently walks into the bar with her set on finding Kelly and finishing what Kelly started. Kelly is nowhere to be found. Yorkie sets out to find her, when she does she experiences a night she has long awaited. The two girls fall wildly for each other. However, the two are met with a dilemma when Yorkie begs Kelly to cross over. Cross over? The audience, at this point, while strikingly confused is on the edge of their seats awaiting the next scene to unravel itself. 

San Junipero is an alternate reality where the elderly, in real life, can choose to upload their consciousness for five hours a week until they die, upon dying they can permanently upload their consciousness. The audience, most likely shocked by this medium, is shown Kelly in her real life and Yorkie in her real life. Kelly has cancer, yet has outlived many of those she has loved while Yorkie is a quadriplegic resulting from a devastating car crash. Kelly is floating through this virtual reality while Yorkie is fixed. Yorkie wants to permanently pass over, while Kelly has no desire to stay full time in San Junipero. Therefore, when the two meet, they fall in love fast. This creates an inconvenience for both of them. Kelly gives Yorkie something to live for; Yorkie gives Kelly something to die for. Kelly is torn from ‘crossing over’ and living out her days in the real world because her husband of 49 years refused to live an uploaded virtual reality. He believed he would reunite with his daughter in Heaven. 

Heaven. Heaven is abstracted in this world. There is everlasting conscientiousness in this Utopia through technological advances, but there is everlasting life through the Lord in heaven. Love in another underlying theme in this short story. Kelly’s husband loved Kelly, while we can assume this much by her reaction to ill words being said on him we can also assume he wanted was best for her. After his death, he most likely wanted her to move on. Not to lose the memories, but for the sake of making new ones, filled with joy. This is because love is not about containment, in fact the exact opposite. If one person loves another with true definition of the word, then they will always be wanting the best for the other person – even if does involve themselves. Kelly fought the boredom in life and the creeping of age, she never forgot her husband but knew his heart was pure and wanted her to find endless expanse of uncharted future. This is why Kelly has a tough time letting go, because a love so pure in irreplaceable but while you can hold on a lost love; you can create new love full of opportunity. In the end, we see Kelly’s choice to live with Yorkie in their own virtual paradise, where each day is as new and refreshing as the last. This gives a feeling of hope and joy in the audience, until the pictures pan further and further back to only show us a room filled with computers and hard drives. This a scene which sets a gloomy, scary image of slavery. Slavery to a machine. What if there was a power outage? What is a virus emerged in these computers? Does this mean the patrons conscientiousness is lost forever? Much like the previous lines, after the San Junipero episode, the audience was left with ambiguity, only to take their own meaning from something so vague. That in itself is joy, the ability to formulate any meaning from something so captivating. The eerie vibe settles as does the character existence on the show leading us to creating the rest of their lives in our heads. 
