WARNING: This article contains spoilers from Black Mirror.
Black Mirror season seven has dropped on Netflix, and it’s chock-full of hidden gems for the eagle-eyed enthusiasts.
Charlie Brooker’s iconic series Black Mirror is back with a bang, offering six new episodes that explore the potentially dark consequences of technology on our lives in the present and future.
What amps up the excitement for Black Mirror aficionados are the intricate details that link the seemingly unrelated stories, and season seven doesn’t disappoint.
Without further ado, let’s dive into 13 Easter Eggs you might have missed in each episode of Black Mirror season seven.
In the season opener, we see teacher Amanda (portrayed by Rashida Jones) educating her students about pollination – but with a twist.
Sky is giving away a free Netflix subscription with its new Sky Stream TV bundles, including the £15 Essential TV plan.
This lets members watch live and on-demand TV content without a satellite dish or aerial and includes hit shows like Black Mirror and You.
She quizzes the kids on “how Autonomous Drone Insects (ADIs) help with flowers?”, then reveals that they “buzz from flower to flower and spread pollen, which is the same way organic bees used to.”
This clever nod takes us back to the third season’s Hated In The Nation, where ADIs were introduced as a substitute for the now-extinct bees, doubling as lethal weapons and tools for Government spying.
The song Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand) by Irma Thomas has featured numerous times throughout Black Mirror’s run.
It has appeared in episodes including Fifteen Million Merits, White Christmas, Men Against Fire, Crocodile, Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too and Joan Is Awful.
In season seven, Amanda and Mike spend their anniversary at a hotel where a country singing duo perform their own rendition of Anyone Who Knows What Love Is on the small stage.
Verity (Rosy McEwen) is tormenting her former bully Maria (Siena Kelly) at work with the use of a remote control that alters reality.
One of the ways she uses this ability to make Maria think she’s going mad is by changing the name of Barnies chicken shop to Bernies.
Maria is certain of the fast food chain’s name as her boyfriend used to work there and wears a baseball camp with the name on the front.
So she is left very confused when she Googles the name and Barnies nowhere to be seen with her boyfriend’s hat also changing to “Bernies”.
This isn’t the first time Barnies has been mentioned though as it featured in season three’s Shut Up and Dance as Kenny (Alex Lawther) worked there.
There are a lot of Black Mirror Easter Eggs in this vintage-style episode, kicking off with Brandy Friday’s (Issa Rae) agent making a reference to the streaming service Streamberry.
Dubbed as Black Mirror’s rip-off of Netflix, Streamberry is at the heart of season six’s Joan Is Awful as Joan (Annie Murphy) finds out her life has been made into a TV drama.
Who can forget the heartwarming episode San Junipero from the third season of the 1980s, where a picturesque beach town serves as a virtual reality where the deceased can live eternally in their youthful avatars.
This beloved narrative is subtly referenced in Hotel Riverie, with Brandy residing on Junipero Drive.
In the second season’s episode The White Bear, Victoria (played by Lenora Crichlow), an accomplice in the abduction and murder of a woman, is punished by being forced to relive a day of confusion and fear, with bystanders filming her every move.
A poster for The White Bear is displayed in the studio during Hotel Reverie.
The fourth season’s USS Callister introduces the fictional show Space Fleet, with a tech enthusiast from Redream spotted wearing a Space Fleet T-shirt.
Furthermore, Space Fleet briefly appears in a video that Brandy stumbles upon while researching Hotel Reverie.
Alongside Space Fleet, another video referencing Demon 79, the concluding episode of Black Mirror’s sixth season, is showcased.
Plaything is considered more of a spin-off than a sequel to the standalone 2018 episode Bandersnatch.
However, like Bandersnatch, it sees the return of actor Will Poulter in the role of video game designer Colin Ritman, as well as Asim Chaudry reprising his role as Mohan Thakur, the proprietor of software firm Tuckersoft.
Cameron’s room is adorned with numerous posters, including one for Space Fleet, a nod to the episode discussed in USS Callister, and another for Striking Vipers II, a reference to the video game-centric episode from season five.
USS Callister initially aired as part of season four, with Into Infinity serving as a sequel that catches up with the remaining characters after Robert Daly’s (Jesse Plemons) downfall.
In a surprising twist, Demon 79 stars Nida Huq (Anjana Vassan) and Gaap (Paapa Essiedu) make an appearance as gamers in the final scene of USS Callister: Into Infinity.
The beloved San Junipero gets a subtle mention in season seven when Nanette is treated at St Juniper Hospital.
The finale concludes with several nods to other episodes via the USN news broadcast.
These include a segment discussing a remake of the classic British film featured in season seven’s Hotel Riverie on Streamberry.
Another reference to a season seven episode occurs when the presenter announces the CEO of Rivermind’s resignation.
Rivermind is the tech start-up featured in episode one, Common People, known for its escalating subscription prices which Mike (Chris O’Dowd) and Amanda struggle to afford.
Finally, an Easter Egg linking back to the very first episode of Black Mirror is included, with the announcement that former UK Prime Minister Michael Callow is enrolling in Celebrity Vet School.
In the episode titled ‘The National Anthem’, Callow is forced into a compromising situation where he must engage in sexual acts with a pig on live television, as part of a blackmail plot to save a beloved princess who has been kidnapped.
Black Mirror is available to watch on Netflix.
At Reach and across our entities we and our partners use information collected through cookies and other identifiers from your device to improve experience on our site, analyse how it is used and to show personalised advertising. You can opt out of the sale or sharing of your data, at any time clicking the “Do Not Sell or Share my Data” button at the bottom of the webpage. Please note that your preferences are browser specific. Use of our website and any of our services represents your acceptance of the use of cookies and consent to the practices described in our Privacy Notice and Cookie Notice.