A man kidnaps an employee of a tech giant out of desperation to be heard.
Who is to blame for social media obsession: human error or the tech gods themselves?
Where is the justice when that obsession yields catastrophe?
Credit: Stuart Hendry/Netflix
These are the questions posed in the second episode ofBlack Mirror’s fifth season “Smithereens.”
We open on a man sitting in his car, following along to a recorded guided meditation.
It’s 2018 in London.
Stuart Hendry/Netflix
We’re not given his name, so let’s call him Our Guy(Fleabag’sAndrew Scott).
As the phantom voice dictates, Our Guy’s mind begins to wander.
A memory flashes across the screen too quickly for the viewer to place it.
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He’s a driver for a rideshare/taxi app called Hitcher.
Later, Our Guy is sitting alone in a cafe and looking physically uncomfortable.
Eventually, the continuous buzzing and beeping forces him to flee.
Apparently, he’s into her humor because the next scene is them having sex in her bedroom.
After, she talks about her struggle to hack her daughter’s Persona account (read: Facebook).
She only gets three tries each day before the site locks her out for another 24 hours.
The next day, Our Guy repeats his routine from the previous morning.
He accepts a ride request from a young man headed for the airport.
It just so happens that Passenger is a Smithereen employee.
Our Guy instructs Passenger to zip-tie his own hands.
This information stops Our Guy cold.
Why would an intern be dressed in a nice suit and headed for the airport?
Passenger was sent by a stylist to take a bunch of outfits to an executive waiting at Heathrow airport.
Ok, that explains the luggage, but what about the suit?
It’s Passenger’s first week on the job and he just wanted to look nice.
This sends Our Guy into a rage.
Our Guy collects his hostage and tries shove him into the trunk of the other car.
Our guy screams at him to lie back down, but it’s too late.
They pursue the car conservatively.
Our Guy pulls the car over and the police follow suit.
Our Guy is driving so frantically that he nearly collides with two young men riding bikes.
He swerves into a field and the car sputters to a stop.
As the police run up to the vehicle, Our Guy hops out waving his gun in the air.
The police retreat and instruct the bikers to follow them.
As an intern, Passenger is too low on the totem pole to know how to contact Billy directly.
Our Guy will settle for the most senior person he knows, which is Hannah Kent from HR.
The only issue is that Passenger’s phone is still on the floor of the other car.
Our Guy’s composure breaks.
He pounds on the car horn, presumably cursing his own stupidity.
He’ll have to search for the office number himself.
Hannah is away from her desk, but her cell phone number is conveniently in the voicemail recording.
Once they have her on the phone, we learn that Passenger’s real name is Jaden.
Hannah and another colleague reach out to the Smithereen executives at the Silicon Valley office in California.
Back in the UK, Chief Superintendent Grace and a hostage negotiator are now on the scene.
Meanwhile, those bikers are still on loitering nearby and steadily posting a play-by-play of the situation on Smithereen.
The press has arrived at the site of the hostage situation with vans and helicopters.
Snipers have moved into position.
Chief Superintendent Grace gets a phone call from the executives at Smithereen Silicon Valley and the FBI.
Through his now dormant Smithereen account, Penelope has learned that Chris lost his fiance in that car accident.
Hostage Negotiator David tries and epically fails to reason with Chris.
He’s read about negotiators and he’s not interested in being manipulated.
They have no choice but to find the elusive Billy Bauer.
In the middle of Utah, surrounded by canyons lies an isolated glass house.
He’s 6 days into a 10-day silent retreat, and presently deeply engrossed in a round of mediation.
An employee gingerly knocks on one of the glass windows and informs him of the ongoing hostage situation.
Chris tells Jaden his mother has nothing to worry about because the gun isn’t real.
It’s only a replica.
That news reverberates among the police and is heard by one of the bikers still hanging out nearby.
The gun is real.
Chris has been played and he’s pissed.
Billy has his laptop and a satellite connection, so he really doesn’t need her.
I’ll get it myself.
Chris is stunned to hear Billy on the other end of the phone.
Chris and his fiance Tamsin had been driving home after visiting his sick mother the night of the accident.
Tamsin was asleep in the passenger seat and Chris was driving.
It was at that moment that their car collided with that of a drunk driver.
It took Tamsin 2 months to die, and although everyone blamed the drunk driver, Chris blames himself.
He and his late fiance used to be addicted to their phones and Smithereen.
Constantly checking it like the people he despises now.
He blames Billy and his company for making the app so addictive in the first place.
“Bit of user feedback for you there,” he says through tears.
“Maybe factor that into your next update.”
Billy can’t stand the thought of Chris completing suicide.
He promises to give him anything he wants.
Turns out the password was hidden in plain sight in a photo of the two them together.
Chris hangs up with Billy and cuts Jaden free.
He still fully intends to take his own life, but Jaden can’t let him do that.
He lost an uncle to suicide and has seen how it ruined his family.
He tries to take the gun from Chris and the two struggle back and forth.
Nearby, the sniper is trying to get a clear shot at Chris so he doesn’t harm Jaden.
As the sniper pulls the trigger and the woman presses the enter key, the screen cuts to black.
