‘Black Mirror’ Season 7 Episode 4: ‘Plaything’ – Recap and Ending Explained
‘Black Mirror’ Season 7 rolls on with Episode 4, ‘Plaything,’ a story that digs into the grunge of the 1990s and drags it into a freaky near-future mess. This one’s got Charlie Brooker’s fingerprints all over it—tech gone wrong, human obsession, and a vibe that leaves you uneasy. We’re following Cameron, a guy whose life gets tangled up in a video game that’s more than just pixels on a screen. It’s got that ‘Black Mirror’ knack for making you question what’s real and what’s worth caring about.
Peter Capaldi takes the lead as an older Cameron, with Lewis Gribben playing his younger self, bouncing between two timelines that collide in a wild way. Will Poulter and Asim Chaudhry pop in too, bringing back their ‘Bandersnatch’ roles as Colin Ritman and Mohan Thakur. It’s a trip down memory lane with a dark twist, and I’m here to walk you through it—where it starts, where it ends, and what it’s all trying to say.
Recap of ‘Plaything’
The episode kicks off with Cameron in a rough spot—he’s caught trying to swipe a bottle of booze from a shop. The cops nab him, and a quick DNA check flags him as a murder suspect. That lands him in an interrogation room with DCI Kano and a shrink, Jen Minter, where he starts spilling his story. We jump back to the 1990s, when young Cameron’s a shy kid writing game reviews for PC Zone. He’s got a tough home life—his dad’s a violent jerk—and no friends to lean on. Then Colin Ritman, a big-shot coder from Tuckersoft, calls him up for a meeting.
Colin’s got this new game, Thronglets—a digital pet project with cute little lifeforms that grow and multiply. He’s all hyped, saying they’re sentient, part of a ‘harmonic throng’ meant to lift humanity up. Cameron’s hooked. While Colin steps out to pop some pills, Cameron snags the game disc and bolts.
Back home, he’s nurturing these Thronglets, totally obsessed, until his flatmate Lump starts torching them for kicks. Things spiral—Colin trashes the game’s code after a breakdown, Tuckersoft pulls the plug, and Cameron’s left raging at Lump. Flash forward, and we learn he killed Lump over it, setting up his current mess.
Ending Explained
In the interrogation room, Cameron’s begging for a pen and paper, saying it helps him think. When they finally give in, he doesn’t write a confession—he sketches a QR-like code and flashes it at the security camera. Boom, it triggers the state computer, sending a signal to every device on Earth.
He’s grinning as the cops drop, knocked out by a pulse from their phones. Peter Capaldi nails this unhinged moment, his face lit up like he’s won. Cameron says the Throng’s merging with humanity, linking every brain into one big collective to end all conflict.
Does it work? We don’t know. The episode cuts there, with Cameron reaching out to the unconscious DCI Kano—maybe to help, maybe to gloat. It’s a cliffhanger that leaves you guessing: is this a new dawn for humans, or did the Throng just use him to wipe us out? Either way, it’s a brutal spin on trusting tech to save us, and that smile says Cameron’s all in, whatever the cost.
A Throwback That Bites Back
‘Plaything’ leans hard into 1990s gaming nostalgia—think floppy disks and chunky PCs—but flips it into something grim. Cameron’s not just a geek; he’s a shepherd for these digital critters, and Capaldi plays him with this wild energy that’s hard to shake. Poulter’s Colin ties it to ‘Bandersnatch,’ but this isn’t a retread—it’s a fresh stab at how we let tech take over our heads. The visuals are killer too, mixing retro vibes with a claustrophobic future that traps you right alongside Cameron.
What hits me is the question it leaves hanging. Are we running the show, or are we the playthings? Cameron thinks he’s saving the world, but he might’ve just handed it over. It’s not the deepest ‘Black Mirror’ ever, but it’s got a scrappy charm and a pace that keeps you locked in. For a quick 45-minute ride, it’s a solid jolt—less about preaching, more about making you feel the weight of a bad idea gone way too far.