Every Black Mirror Easter Egg in Season 6

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While it’s ostensibly an anthology of stand-alone stories, most of Netflix’s Black Mirror takes place in a massive shared universe, something creator-writer Charlie Brooker loves to remind viewers of through Easter eggs and implied connections among characters. And while the five-episode sixth season is lighter than usual on future-tech paranoia, it’s still woven through with nods to characters, plots, and sci-fi twists from other episodes both within this season and from past ones. We tried to catch them all so you don’t have to (but sound off in the comments on what we may have missed).

“Joan is Awful”

• Brooker takes a nibble on the hand that feeds him in this chapter about a woman (Annie Murphy) who discovers that Netflix stand-in Streamberry has the ability to turn her life into a streaming series. Before that discovery, she goes to meet an ex named Mac (Rob Delaney), and Black Mirror wastes no time dropping what is basically its theme song as Joan enters a bar: “Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand),” by Irma Thomas. The song has been in every season, included in season one’s “Fifteen Million Merits,” season two’s “White Christmas,” season three’s “Men Against Fire,” season four’s “Crocodile,” and season five’s “Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too.”

• When Joan and her boyfriend Krish (Avi Nash) decide to Streamberry and Chill, they bring up an interface rich with references to other “Black Mirror” episodes, including:

  • “Mad Mind: The Jerome F. Davies Story” (Bandersnatch)
  • “Smart?” (“Demon 79”)
  • “Space Fleet Series 1” (“USS Callister”)
  • “Loch Henry: Truth Will Out” (“Loch Henry”)
  • “Sea of Tranquility” (an in-universe show referenced in multiple episodes)
  • “Finding Ritman” (Bandersnatch)
  • “Rowdy and Peanut” (“Cat Burglar,” a real-life Netflix original interactive film created by Charlie Brooker)
  • “The Callow Years” (“The National Anthem”)
  • “Junipero Dreaming” (“San Junipero”)
  • “Botherguts” (“Fifteen Million Merits”)
  • A series with Ashley O (Miley Cyrus) from “Rachel, Jack, and Ashley Too”
  • “Hot Shots” (“Fifteen Million Merits”)

• As the Streamberry version of “Joan Is Awful” takes off, we see other characters discover it, leading to a few more Easter eggs. First, Sandy (Ayo Edebiri) gets a notification about the show through the Smithereen social platform seen in season five’s “Smithereens.” The same company fuels Mac’s toilet viewing, and his timeline includes another nod to Michael Smart coming to the U.S. (“Demon 79”), a message from Lacie Pound (“Nosedive”) and one from TusktheKid (“Hated in the Nation”).

• Later in the episode, the “real” Joan is looking at a newspaper with a story about Streamberry. The one to its left has a headline with “Grains Going Out of Style,” a reference to the way memories become viewable in season one’s phenomenal“The Entire History of You.”

• Joan goes to meet with an attorney (played by Wunmi Mosaku), who works at a company named Skillane Legal. It’s a reference to Victoria Skillane, the protagonist of season two’s “White Bear.”

“Loch Henry”

• This true-crime commentary has the second-most Easter eggs of the season, and it’s easy to miss a few. They start with another newspaper headline reference to the vicious politician most prominently featured in this season’s “Demon 79,” Michael Smart.

• Not long after Davis (Samuel Blenkin) and Pia (Myha’la Herrold) start working on their true-crime documentary, a montage unfolds that includes a few shots of his laptop. Of course, they’re not random stickers on that case. The blue bear is a nod to season two’s “The Waldo Moment,” the eye logo is from the company in season four’s “Arkangel,” the season-recurring glyph is from season two’s “White Bear,” and the Tuckersoft sticker is a reference to Bandersnatch.

• When Davis and Pia go to meet with Streamberry, there’s a poster on the wall for a docuseries called “The Callow Years,” another reference to “The National Anthem,” which is name-dropped again in a preview for the true crime series that results from the events of this episode with the splash “From the Award Winning Producers of The Callow Years.” The season-one episode gets a third mention with a headline that reads “Whatever Happened to Michael Callow? Now He Runs a Zoo!” later in the montage. Given that episode’s bestiality emphasis, the career choice seems notable.

• Finally, when “Loch Henry” wins a BAFTA, it beats out a series called “Euthanasia: Inside Project Junipero,” which is of course a nod to the excellent season-three episode “San Junipero.”

“Demon 79”

• The season’s other three episodes are much lighter on Easter eggs, but this one has a few that flash by in the blink of an eye, starting with the upside-down “White Bear” glyph on the object that unleashes the murderous demon that turns Nida (Anjana Vasan) into a killer.

• Much later, Nida has a vision of Michael Smart’s (David Shields) vile future as a world leader that includes the famous glyph as a part of his campaign logo.

• The same vision also includes a black-and-white shot of the killer dogs from season four’s “Metalhead.”

“Mazey Day”

• The briefest episode of the season is thin on Easter eggs, but there’s an early, quick nod to the in-universe hit “Sea of Tranquility” on a news story about an actor’s death that might have been influenced by the actions of photographer Bo (Zazie Beetz).

• Moments later, a questionable Easter-egg drops when the title character (Clara Rugaard) is seen exiting a club named Quagmire, a bar that’s also seen in “San Junipero”. Maybe this is the “real” one that inspired the virtual one in that episode.

• After leaving the paparazzi life behind, Bo gets a job at a place called Yorkie’s Coffee Shop, another kinda-random nod to “San Junipero” in that Yorkie was the name of the character played by Mackenzie Davis.

“Beyond the Sea”

• An easy-to-miss reference flashes by early when David (Josh Hartnett) passes a Now Showing poster that includes Space Fleet, the show that led to an obsession for Jesse Plemons’s character in “USS Callister.” It’s playing between Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and The Love Bug.

• When David’s family is brutally murdered, there’s a glimpse of one of the killers painting something in blood that looks a little like the “White Bear” glyph, which is seen a moment later on the forehead of leader Kappa (Rory Culkin). That thing is everywhere this season.

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