How does Aaron Paul tie the 'Black Mirror' universe together?
Aaron Paul is the latest Easter egg connecting the Black Mirror universe.
Netflix's hit series is back with another season brimming with the existential dread and techno-paranoia that we all love. And while each episode of Black Mirror takes on its own unique, notoriously ruthless story about society's collapse, show writer Charlie Brooker has made it a point to connect all of the show's episodes through slight clues and Easter eggs hinting that they're all playing out in the same universe. Sometimes it's clues hiding in plain sight, like Streamberry's many gems. Other times it's Aaron Paul.
In Season 6's episode, "Beyond the Sea," Paul plays an astronaut, Cliff, who's on a six-year mission in space with only one other teammate, David (Josh Hartnett). To make the endless orbiting around a vast sea of nothingness easier, David and Cliff have eerily realistic robotic counterparts of themselves on earth that they can "live in" while on the ship. All they have to do is sleep in a machine, plug in a chip, and bada boom, bada bing: They're "back" on earth (at least, through their robots). It's pretty advanced technology, I'd say, for two guys living in 1969.
Naturally, as is always the case in Black Mirror, David and Cliff's robot fun quickly turns dark with the episode ending on one of Black Mirror's grimmest notes yet. But murder, loneliness, and overall existential anxiety aside, this isn't the first time we've seen Aaron Paul in Black Mirror.
"Beyond the Sea" ties back to "USS Callister."
You might remember hearing Paul's voice at the end of another Black Mirror episode, "USS Callister." The first episode of Season 4, "USS Callister" is also a space-themed episode that dives into a realistic, multiplayer game called Infinity, where users can control a starship in a virtual reality.
The episode is mainly concerned with its villainous lead, Robert Daly (Jesse Plemons), using the game to recreate people from his actual life as players and tormenting them on his starship. Throughout the episode, we watch the crew members on Robert's ship try to find a way to exit his version of the game and enter back into Infinity's mainframe where all other players exist. This is where Paul comes in.
After successfully booting out Robert and rejoining Infinity's main lobby, the crew members hear a voice of a gamer called Gamer691 asking them if they want to trade any resources. Paul is the voice behind Gamer691, a loud-mouthed, disgruntled player who's ready to blow someone's ship up if they aren't willing to trade. "King of space right here," he claims right before the crew blasts off and the episode ends.
Are Gamer691 and Cliff the same person?
With Aaron Paul playing both characters, it's highly likely that Gamer691 in "USS Callister" and Cliff in "Beyond the Sea" are the same person. It would make sense. Cliff is an astronaut and Gamer691 is clearly a fan of the galaxy. Put two and two together and you have an astronaut playing a space-themed game for fun. But there's a slight issue.
"Beyond the Sea" is set in 1969, and "USS Callister" is set in the present (or a distant future existing in the 21st century). If the two are in fact the same person, Gamer691 could be a much, much older Cliff playing the game to relive the glory days. Considering his dark ending in "Beyond the Sea," I totally get why Cliff would immerse himself in the game and use it as an escape from his actual life.
There's also the chance that they aren't the same person at all. Gamer691 could just be Aaron Paul himself — or if we want to get really meta, he could be Jesse Pinkman (but that's just a hopeful dream). But it seems more likely that Cliff is Gamer691, with all the space stuff merging them into one — what better claim to being the "king of space" than having actually been in space for a mission?
So for anyone who wondered what happened to Cliff after "Beyond the Sea," well, we can now totally imagine him as an 80-year-old playing Infinity to pass the time. Hopefully, he's having a much more fulfilling space adventure than the sheer calamity of "Beyond the Sea."
How to watch: Season 6 of Black Mirror is now streaming on Netflix.
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