A little hello: Hi everyone! Season 4 is finally upon us, and like all of you, I'm excited to binge all of the episodes. Let's get started shall we?
- Synopsis:
Robert Daly is a brilliant coder and the Chief Technical Officer of Callister Inc, a company he runs with his partner James Walton. Callister Inc is the company responsible for the popular multiplayer online game called Infinity, in which players use neural interfaces to place themselves into a space themed virtual reality. Despite being the brains behind the operation and the owner of the company, he is very unpopular amongst his employees. Many of them do not respect him enough to follow his orders, while others openly make fun of him. Daly is too meek and cowardly to stand his ground at work, but at night he plugs himself into his own secret version of Infinity that he keeps on his personal computer at home. No one knows about this "other" version of Infinity, nor do they know just what kind of man Robert Daly truly is behind closed doors.
- Discussion
First of all, I love the parallel between Space Fleet and Star Trek. Star Trek is one of my favorite series, and I love anything set in space so I was pulled in from the beginning. The opening scene with Captain Daly and his crew was great, and while watching I was wondering if we were watching a film within the episode. When the Space Fleet scene ended and it cut to Daly in real life, standing in an elevator and looking miserable, I realize that this was yet another stimulation world. I wasn't sure if I would have liked the episode as much if it was literally set in space the whole time, so I was glad for the shift in scenery. Seeing Captain Daly-confident, funny, and secure-then seeing Robert Daly-shy, awkward, and a bit cold-was quite the contrast. I could see from the very start why he would choose to spend so much of his free time in this alternative reality as oppose to his real life. Some people unwind after a long day at work with a glass of wine or a sit on the couch to watch a movie, but for Daly his idea of unwinding is plugging himself into a virtual game to punish those who have wronged him in real life. To each their own?
Captain Daly's "crew" who seem to love and adore him in the game, are really those who work with him at Callister Inc. I found that to be both hilarious and a little sad. Hilarious as in who hasn't thought about "punishing" those who have wrong us? That jerk that stole your crush? The mean cashier who gives you attitude because you asked for change? Your rude co worker who always borrows your pen but never returns it? The mean girl in class who always laughs at your clothes? Or how about your loud next door neighbor who loves to blast music at 2 am even after you had asked her to tone it down? You get the point-we are all human after all are we not? We have people we can't stand and there are people who can't stand us-that's life. Sure it's fun to imagine bad or embarrassing things happening to the people who we don't like, but there is a very distinctive line between imagining something and actually going through with it.
Robert Daly seems like a nice enough guy and by this I mean, he asks and doesn't demand. However, it is quite obvious a few minutes in why the company is co-funded by Daly as well as James Walton. Sure Walton is the typical douche boss-rude and overbearing-but his strong persona is the reason why people respect him and why they work hard to please him.
Robert Daly seems like a nice enough guy and by this I mean, he asks and doesn't demand. However, it is quite obvious a few minutes in why the company is co-funded by Daly as well as James Walton. Sure Walton is the typical douche boss-rude and overbearing-but his strong persona is the reason why people respect him and why they work hard to please him.
Daly doesn't have that affect on his employees which is why he is more of a behind the scenes kind of guy. He doesn't take charge and he asks instead of demands, and that is why people don't listen to him and why they step all over him. So it isn't a surprise that in his version of Infinity, he's the big boss man and everyone looks to him for answers-answers that he, as the Captain, always has.
However, what doesn't change is how his employees feel about him. Despite not respecting him or liking him much in real life, his employees are more indifferent about him than anything. However, when Daly is "away" from the game, the crew members are able to take a break from their respective roles and the audience is able to see just how much they hate Daly. I mean who wouldn't right? He's a tyrant who gets off on belittle and torturing others. I just found it sad how both "versions" of Daly are not liked by his peers.
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When Nanette's DNA is downloaded into Daly's Infinity I also found Lieutenant Cole, to be just as refreshing as Nanette. She's strong and smart, and she definitely handled the whole "stuck here for eternity" better than I would have. I loved that all of the crew members have access to their memories, and were able to recall instances from their real lives. Lieutenant Cole knew that in real life, Daly has a crush on her so she uses this to her advantage. The others describe him as a "God" but Cole rejects this idea right away stating that although he is a brilliant coder, he is not God. This frame of mind is what sets her a part from the rest of the members, and it is also what sets her apart from her coworkers in real life. She has a way of looking at people and situations that differs from most people, and it is this difference in views that ends up saving their lives.
Speaking of "frame of mind" one of my favorite scenes in this episodes are the "exit game" or "pause game" scenes in which Daly leaves the game and the crew members are able to stop acting. From the first few minutes of the episode, the cheesy lines and over the top enthusiasm are aspects I would expect. However, when I found out that this is all fake and the crew members are forced to act this way it was fascinating how well these "people" have adapted to their roles. They know that it's literally do or be torture (since "killing in cold blood" is against the moral of the ship) and Daly has conditioned them to know better than to go against him. These "offline" scenes reminds me of those old Hollywood film where the actors would be really into their roles, and once the director shouts "cut" they walk out of the scene and back into their real selves-normally they are whiny and rude. What makes the crew's acting so great is the fact that they know how silly all of this is-from the spaceship's control panel buttons all doing the exact same thing, to the cheesy dialogue, and the gaudy costumes-but they still play their roles so well that you cannot tell how they really feel. I loved the scene where the game was interrupted by a pizza delivery, and the crew members were interacting with "the bad guys".
Aside from being against killing in cold blood, Daly also kept his game very "PG". He strips his crew members of their genitals, and when he kisses the women he "never uses tongue." I found this to be really interesting on two counts 1. it proves once again, how naive and inexperienced he is 2. it made me question why he wouldn't make his game more in his favor since he's the one that controls it. By this I mean, in real life, he obviously has a crush on Nanette but overhears that although she adores his work, she is not interested in him romantically at all. He would never get to hold her hand or kiss her in real life, but in this game, he would be able to. He can essentially make the clones in his game do whatever he wants, so why not take advantage? Why make the game rated PG when his real life is also, essentially, rated PG?
Now I don't want people to think that I am for Daly making women into sex slaves aboard his ship, but because he is so sick in the head it is surprising to me that he wouldn't take it one extra step. However, I couldn't imagine what the clones would go through if they were forced to have sex with him. I mean Nanette did not want to kiss him, and that was just a chaste kiss, and nothing more. However, many people could argue that all of this means nothing because the crew members are nothing more than clones and they are not truly alive. Daly treats them like real life action figures; they're nothing more than dolls that he plays with when he's bored and leaves them be when he has work to do. They truly mean nothing to him; yet, when watching this episode it's hard to see the crew members as nothing but dolls since they have thoughts and feelings and most importantly, memories of their past lives.
Sound familiar?
I, and I am sure many of you, were going through the same thought process when we were watching "White Christmas" last year. Here's my review of "White Christmas" if you wanted to check it out. Also, when players enter Infinity their eyes gloss over and turn into a milky white color, the same way they did in "The Entire History of You". I love all of these connections between episodes, and it makes me wonder: are all the episodes connected?
Before I forget, I have to applaud this episode for keeping me on my toes the last twenty minutes or so. When Nannette broke into Daly's house to steal the DNA, when the crew members took his personal digital assistant, when he came back into the game and realized what was going on etc-I was so scared! I felt as if I was abroad the ship with the crew members, and I kept reminding myself that this is Black Mirror and there are no happy endings but still, I couldn't help but wished anyways. I haven't felt anticipation like this for a while, and I loved that this episode really had me on the edge of my seat.
In the end, I found the ending (no pun intended) to be really bittersweet. Yes it was great that Nanette and the crew members escaped Daly's wrath and they are able to explore the infinite universe of the internet, but I still found what happened to Daly to be quite sad. As Shania told Nanette before she left work, the office will be closed for 10 days for the holiday break, which means that Daly will be "stuck" for 10 days in his virtual game. It is obvious that Daly doesn't have any friends and is very much alone which means he will probably die after being left alone for 10 days, and who knows how long it will take his employees to notice nor care about his absence.
Many people may think he got what he deserved and while I am not defending him on any grounds, I still found his story to be quite sad. Daly invented his own version of Infinity because he was so lonely and miserable in this real life-no one cares for him nor do they want to get to know him. When Nanette first walks into this office, he tells her that the women's bathroom is next door, which means that all the times he was probably excited for a guest to visit him, it was just women looking to use the restroom. Also one of the most touching scenes in the episode was when James Walton "apologized" to Daly stating that he should have appreciated him more, and despite this being a joke, you can't help but look at Daly's face as he is finally hearing the words he had always wanted to hear. It's hard not to sympathize with him during this moment, and understand that behind this sick man, is just a human being that wants to be understood and cared about.
Daly created this personal version of Infinity in which the world is black and white-good fights evil-and good always wins. Yet we all know that in the real world, that's not always the case. So now because he took things too far, Daly has turned his oasis until his personal hell.
Were you on Daly's side? Did you feel as if his end was suited?
All in all I thought this episode was a great start to a very much anticipated season. It really reeled in all the Star Trek and Twilight Zone fans, and gave us a fast paced story with suburb acting. Honestly, I couldn't ask for more and this episode made me very excited for the entire season.
Aside from being against killing in cold blood, Daly also kept his game very "PG". He strips his crew members of their genitals, and when he kisses the women he "never uses tongue." I found this to be really interesting on two counts 1. it proves once again, how naive and inexperienced he is 2. it made me question why he wouldn't make his game more in his favor since he's the one that controls it. By this I mean, in real life, he obviously has a crush on Nanette but overhears that although she adores his work, she is not interested in him romantically at all. He would never get to hold her hand or kiss her in real life, but in this game, he would be able to. He can essentially make the clones in his game do whatever he wants, so why not take advantage? Why make the game rated PG when his real life is also, essentially, rated PG?
Now I don't want people to think that I am for Daly making women into sex slaves aboard his ship, but because he is so sick in the head it is surprising to me that he wouldn't take it one extra step. However, I couldn't imagine what the clones would go through if they were forced to have sex with him. I mean Nanette did not want to kiss him, and that was just a chaste kiss, and nothing more. However, many people could argue that all of this means nothing because the crew members are nothing more than clones and they are not truly alive. Daly treats them like real life action figures; they're nothing more than dolls that he plays with when he's bored and leaves them be when he has work to do. They truly mean nothing to him; yet, when watching this episode it's hard to see the crew members as nothing but dolls since they have thoughts and feelings and most importantly, memories of their past lives.
Sound familiar?
I, and I am sure many of you, were going through the same thought process when we were watching "White Christmas" last year. Here's my review of "White Christmas" if you wanted to check it out. Also, when players enter Infinity their eyes gloss over and turn into a milky white color, the same way they did in "The Entire History of You". I love all of these connections between episodes, and it makes me wonder: are all the episodes connected?
Before I forget, I have to applaud this episode for keeping me on my toes the last twenty minutes or so. When Nannette broke into Daly's house to steal the DNA, when the crew members took his personal digital assistant, when he came back into the game and realized what was going on etc-I was so scared! I felt as if I was abroad the ship with the crew members, and I kept reminding myself that this is Black Mirror and there are no happy endings but still, I couldn't help but wished anyways. I haven't felt anticipation like this for a while, and I loved that this episode really had me on the edge of my seat.
In the end, I found the ending (no pun intended) to be really bittersweet. Yes it was great that Nanette and the crew members escaped Daly's wrath and they are able to explore the infinite universe of the internet, but I still found what happened to Daly to be quite sad. As Shania told Nanette before she left work, the office will be closed for 10 days for the holiday break, which means that Daly will be "stuck" for 10 days in his virtual game. It is obvious that Daly doesn't have any friends and is very much alone which means he will probably die after being left alone for 10 days, and who knows how long it will take his employees to notice nor care about his absence.
Daly created this personal version of Infinity in which the world is black and white-good fights evil-and good always wins. Yet we all know that in the real world, that's not always the case. So now because he took things too far, Daly has turned his oasis until his personal hell.
Were you on Daly's side? Did you feel as if his end was suited?
All in all I thought this episode was a great start to a very much anticipated season. It really reeled in all the Star Trek and Twilight Zone fans, and gave us a fast paced story with suburb acting. Honestly, I couldn't ask for more and this episode made me very excited for the entire season.
★ ★ ★ ★.5/5
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