The Ending Of Fifteen Million Merits Explained | Black Mirror Season 1 Explained
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 ธ.ค. 2018
- The Ending of Black Mirror Season 1 Episode 2 "Fifteen Million Merits" (2011) Explained.
#Netflix #BlackMirror #EndingExplained
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I was hoping he'd GET OUT.
I hate that I laughed at this comment
Super funny comment!😆
No you did NOT 🙊
Lol recognised him as well he's great cool
Don't forget US
what i noticed is the female judge wiping away a tear when the girl accepted the pornography career
she knew it was wrong and she hated it much. but she is powerless
@@trap-pd2mvor she knows it's wrong and justifies their suffering by keeping her own inconvenience at bay
I think she did it for the show
I think that it was because the female judge was at one point sexualized and she is reminded of that. Think about it, Abby's fate is a commentary about how famous women are turned into sex objects. Female celebrities have little to no control over their objectification- even if they have a squeaky clean image. The female judge as a celebrity had to go through being seen as a sex object and she can see Abby will be too because that's how the game works.
I wonder who's in charge of the judges? And if they could be subjugated agien if they dont follow a quota of some sort.
If Bing’s life is depressing and he’s part of their middle class in his little room then just imagine how depressing the janitors’ life are.
very very very very....., you know yourself that the janitors even got mocking shows and killed in game
I cared way more about the janitors than the protagonists like y’all treat the people who carry the system on their spine like subhumans? Y’all dont deserve shit
Ceci Cadenas But it’s the exact same in real life. Especially with the current state of the UK in terms of the NHS being at stake because of Boris the knob...
I was hoping they'd show how each class lived!
@@beaupresley141 All of a sudden because of Covid 19, the NHS are suddenly key to the country and they are being clapped every week and lot of slogans everywhere "Thank you NHS" Its weird.
15 million credits = 15 minutes of fame
How did I not catch that before?!?!? 🤦♀️
Wow
Oh yeah!!!
i literally read this comment at the exact same time he said that..
I still don’t get it
Tik tok
I thought bing would kill the judges, kinda disappointed he didn’t.
I thought he was going to kill the judges or himself. The actual ending was so much better though.
That woulda been a too good ending for Black Mirror, tho I'd love it
shame he didnt slaughter his way to abi
Honestly he shouldnt have killed them because his message would not have been heard. After the rant he should have killed himself and start a uprising/rebellion or not accept the deal and rant more to lead a rebellion.
@@FogandRain227 This outcome is viable, because security is not a thing that exists.
Black Mirror scares me more than any horror movie because it’s too real
Jenessa Wade doesn’t scare me makes me paranoid
I was super disturbed watching this episode, I had to look away a few times. It definitely messes with you
Secular - I watch it before bed and end up not being able to sleep😂
@@sandragarcia1847 It wasvery sad to see her in the erotic movies
This opinion is small brain energy
I felt so bad for the girl that was actually in love with him she was so cute
The Hash Slinging Slasher yes, she’s so underrated!!
same.
@@shaylahuynh9586 what's her real name
@@SumitKumar-ll7yt Isabella Laughland
@Kamen Rider my goodness..
Actually that's not the message that I got... When he finished his speech on the stage The audience was quiet, just waiting to be told what to think of it. Even if they didn't realize it before they had no choice now and yet they still just sat there waiting to be told what to think... Which shattered him even more making him realize that he can't fight the system, but he can climb it. So completely shattered, he just accepted it: "well if you people are to complicit to stand up for yourselves, you deserve it. I'm out!"
I like your interpretation so much more.
Same interpretation I had after my first couple of viewings! When the people cheered like a button had been pressed you can see him almost instantly lose all hope. Like the final piece clicks into place for him: oh, these people WANT to be controlled. There's nothing I can do.
That cheer killed any and all fight left in him for sure.
Yep, it's got Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche all over it. The Higher Man was defeated before he even tried.
no
I love your interpretation
The people that watch Bing's stream at the end of the episode are essentially the viewers themselves. They watch his stream, and that's it. It's entertainment that criticizes the society. We watch Black Mirror. Entertainment that criticizes the society. But there is little to no chance that any of us or the people in the episode will do anything to change the society they all live in. Sad.
Wow that's a lot of likes thanks
7:43 Yeah, what he said there.
Fuck that’s deep
But steel's heavier than feathers...
We live in a society
Memo.cash, keyport.tv, weku.io
Watching that episode made me feel so claustrophobic and uncomfortable that if I was in that world, I would want to get out IMMEDIATELY
FR there’s literally no nature or outside world the entire episode it’s claustrophobic as hell
We already live in that kinda world it's just that the walls are not physical
guess what, ur in that world...
#GetOut
As claustrophobic as a phone.
He is a very good actor, I like how he really feels the emotions of the people he's portraying.
Exactly! Especially during the part where he had to “preform” in front of the judges
100%. His performance in front of the judges is honestly just legendary acting. I really hope this boosted his career.
@@kaltsssit this got home recognised by peele and the rest is history
@@kaltsssit He's an Oscar/golden globe award winning actor now
@@mariahyohannes
Let's gooooooo
Can we talk about the "compliance drink" they give people. She was clearly drugged out and didn't know what she was consenting too.
But Bing didn't drink it and still agreed lol
@@naraindassmittal5747 he didn’t drink it
@@hawart6129 that’s what Narain just said lol
@@naraindassmittal5747 that’s the point. At this point bing didn’t care anymore. He knew he couldn’t convince anyone that what he was saying was true so he gave himself up
I don't think he would've been able to perform his act if he were to drink 'the compliance'
Out of all the Black Mirrors, 15M Merits freaks me out the most. Too real, too real. lol.
white bear was the one for me
Shut up and dance kept me up
@Thanos TM జ్ఞా Completely agree lol. Same with it being the first episode watched, too. It blew me away @_@
@@killer8942 have you seen White Christmas?
@@keepitreal6912 I don't think I have, which one is that?
Bing is basically all of us. He was a rebel he was anti-authoritarian, he was miserable in his dead-end job. But as soon as he got his 15 minutes of fame, his opportunity, he sold out for a better, more comfortable life. He is a hypocrite but so are we. He is no different from us.
Yeah man you’re 100% right. I loved this episode and I loved the whole symbolism of it. But given the chance to leave our shitty jobs and sellout for something better is probably what 99% of people would do if given the opportunity.
But you know the sad thing. You wont do anything about it
Speak for yourself, you and the 395 others are Bing. That's why you went for a survival job and not your dream career, and why you don't political participate, and why you still fetishize after cars, shoes, and material objects while cursing the rich and their greed. I was never motivated by money or fame and never will be.... At most I want to influence because there are so many fucked up things about society and there is so little effort being made so I would hope to inspire people to make a difference, but I do not want money. The planet is dying, and millions of people around the world are starving to death, climate change is eventually going to catch up to all of us. What difference will money make in a dying world?
The fuck you mean we? Lmao 😂 speak for yourself and idiots who agreed to it
Kæla Brown Here’s your trophy 🏆
I think there was one interesting scene. The female judge (don't know her name, sorry) actually tears up a bit when she sees Abi Khan being compelled to pornography and to the whims of men surrounding her. She knows that it's a really sad thing, but realizes that she is powerless in face of the system.
I think its an act, just like on the reality tv shows
@@catalyst_cadatalyst6369 even better: maybe it’s both. she knows it’s wrong as she experienced sexualisation herself too, but can’t do anything about it , and she’s crying because of that ... but it’s also beneficial to the show”for show” as people will just think she’s crying for a different reason like she’s happy that a girl’s getting a job
She is so happy for the girl in escaping the bikes that she sheds a little tear for the audience, to show everyone what a caring kinda person she is.
@@papasscooperiaworker3649 or maybe shes no different from those two guys and doesnt give any shit for abi at all
@@AlmostEthical ??????
The horrible thing about the ending is that Bing accepted the offer without the juice. He gave in to the system that he despised so much when it finally favored him.
There wasn't anything else he could do.
They probably only gave him the offer because they thought he was juiced in the first place
This was the most haunting episode, especially the sexual exploitation
It haunts me
Yes, the way they ruined that sweet woman was hard to watch
bruh, that abi girl looks too much like my girl, shit got me fucked up forreal
I enjoyed it! Most women dump men they are with for the bigger "opportunity" if given the chance. If good looking enough what women wouldnt dump her current boyfriend for the likes of a brad pitt etc
it's haunting cuz it's true.. basically Katy Perry.. and every other sexualized 'pop star'.. its the fucked up truth and our reality =(
My interpretation of Bing in that final moment on stage was that he gave up. After that entire rant about the state of everything, the 3 judges basically shrugged it off and gave him a job offer. I think in that moment, 2 things happened.
1: Bing realized that there was no way he was ever going to beat this system.
2: He decided that if he can't beat it, he might as well live the rest of his life with some kind of comfort. Hence the decision to become another channel, rather than go back to the bikes.
Nicely summed up
This guy gets it
BINGo!
If you can’t beat em, join em🤷🏻♀️
@Savvas Halliwell exactly
"The ones telling you the system is corrupt are part of the system"
Damn that's a good quote
Like like a description of every political campaign ever
@@strategic1710 yep
And here you said it .
Nothing more to add 😒
Not like we ever had a choice in the first place.
False uprising to use it for personal advantage and gain typical stuff really
only makes sense for false opposition/shills.. their are real people exposing the system and being killed for it..
I don't think Bing was initially hypocritical, but towards the end as he was presented with a better life and an opportunity--so yes, he gives in and allows himself to become part of the people he would have criticized in the past. Perhaps he didn't give up totally and is trying to work his way to the top, or maybe realized he can't really do anything by himself. I agree that the symbolism of "Locking Up" or "Protecting" his glass shard at the end was him locking up what he was once going to use to free himself from the oppression in the world.
I seen him putting the glass in the box as a bit of snobbery. I think hes protecting it, looking after. the box is beautifully made and fits the shard perfectly. it also has velvet inside. Also he holds it gently with two hands as he walks to the box.
@@dalefittondesign8784 Yes, that seemed to be true also--Black Mirror does often have a dark ending so perhaps he has totally given into the dark side. Maybe he values what it is that brought him the fame and fortune that he feels the need to protect it, although he was going to use it to harm himself. In a sense, it would be a bit ironic that he is trying to protect something that initially was going to hurt him.
I do think there's a bit selfishness in Bing's motivation of helping Aby chasing her dream. Like he said Abi's singing is the only real thing for him so he persuaded her to do talent show.
thats what I thought too because he wouldn't be able to reform the system just from one speech like that. Although his morals did become delegitimized, i think the glass shard symbolizes his courage - the courage to speak up about the corrupt system. The shard also symbolizes that revolution may still come because its a dopple customization that is available to everyone. I feel like most people understood Bing and also want change so I think they will eventually revolutionize the system.
Or you know pull it out for next week, cause that’s his life now, obvious bad analyzing
This is my favourite episode because of Bings ending speech, it’s so real and accurate and incredibly performed. Daniel Kaluya acted the shit out of this episode
This is how he got the part on "Get Out"
Drums & Dragons Yeah he’s ending up in a lot of good stuff now huh? I would like your comment but it’s at 420. Have a good day.
@@thelegacyofgaming2928 that was a great film. Watched it recently on a flight
Wow man, his acting was unreal. I totally loved the rant part.
And all that meat he had stuffed in the front of the drawers! Yas, Gawd for the Border Tribe!
I was really hoping bing was going to kill the three judges with the glass shard. That was the emotion I would have if they drugged a girl I basically loved into doing porn.
Carson Nguyen yes or force them to give him a job so he could go find Abby
but they didn’t really drug her, did they? We saw that the guy faked drinking the Compliance yet he went with it anyway
@@elitestick yeah, the compliance is just a red herring, an excuse that disguises the fact that these people are consciously and quite willingly selling themselves away. It isnt just a drug influencing their minds, but a whole society. Their whole life has been lorded over and placed under the pressures of a ritualistic society.
it was her choice not judges
@@elitestick no, they definitely did drug her, as well as heavily pressuring and coercing her, and it was made very clear that she didn’t want to be a sex worker. abby was pretty clearly a metaphor/reference to the sexual abuse that is rampant in the entertainment industry.
bing not being drugged was meant to highlight that he ultimately was different to abby, as he opted to sell out his ideals while fully understanding the corrupt nature of their society.
Side note: i really loved how Black Mirror looked at how your fitness level and weight determined your respect level in society and oppurtunities through this episode, it was quite subtle but i noticed it. It really mirrors our reality in modern day society with materialistic and physical appearances being a huge part of your importance in society and the judgement when your dont meet those expectations or criterias.
This is deep. Didn’t see it like that
It's not a modern day thing. People who are more attractive have always been more successful on average.
As a species, we have evolved to see attractive people as trustworthy, hence their position in society is somehow justified.
Hell, why do you think monsters in stories are always ugly? Or do we associate ugliness with monstrosity? I've seen series where the villain is attractive and the consensus immediately shifts to "I know he's evil but daaamn"
We are fucked up and have always been. Appearances are everything, whether we want to admit it or not.
Like that asian girl. She might sing bad but she got the slot fir preview after months.
Bro, that's literally the whole point of the episode not subtle at all
@@urff1322 Okay but that literally wasn't the point being made.
Ending really explained-Bing was seduced, Abi was raped. When Bing stepped out on stage he had nothing to express but inarticulate rage. The judges took that rage, processed it, packaged it, and sold it back to Bing as something of value. Having lost hope that he would ever find true value, represented by a relationship with Abi, he had nothing left but the faustian choice black mirror presents. Virtual life or physical death. Bing as a human wanted to believe his life could have value. The judges knew this and used Bing’s desire to seduce him not to cut his throat or kill them. Bing wasn’t a hypocrite he just chose life. In this piece the writers are making an autobiographical statement to the audience. This is who we are and the choices we’ve made. We are cognizant of the world we live in, but in the end we get to drink real orange juice.
That's why you shouldn't drink the kool-aid and just get into affiliate marketing 💯
Your writing skills are good bro......
If you think Bing was a hypocrite, you need to read 1984. Bing is no more a hypocrite than Winston was. Both are men that tried to fight the system, and were ultimately subsumed by it. When the only options are to accept, or die, and you realise that your death with never have any meaning or impact, what other option is there?
SoSezTheDude wow. just spoiled the book that you were recommending us to read.
@@caitlinluca789 Sorry to spoil a 70 year old book. Would it upset you if i told you that Darth Vader is Lukes father?
fortnite QUEEN r/Roasted
Funny. The moment I realized they are all wearing the same clothes in their daily treadmill, 1984 came to my mind. I will never ever forget the way I felt reading this book decades ago. Looking at society today, I get this same eerie feeling. The entire episode I felt it as well and it still hasn´t left me. Once you´re red-pilled about what´s going on in the world and where we´re all heading at, this literal black mirror mirroring us makes me claustrophobic, it´s deeply depressing. Our 2% filthy overlords control every single aspect of our lives and this episode is deeper and more true than many can grasp. It´s actually an episode a psychologist should write his thesis about. Perverse and brilliant. Brilliantly perverse. We´ve left 1984 long behind us, it´s WAY worse.
also basically the same in the chocolate war
I also saw a major relationship between the protagonist's online web rants and the current state of TH-cam influencers (although i'm sure this was not intended by the Black Mirror creators). We, the audience, got so many of these TH-cam creators famous and rich because we could relate to them. Now that they are rich and no longer relatable their content is repetitive and they are just re-creating content of a life they once knew.
Very true
Basically lily singh
Also a parallel because of how they both try to sell merchandise off of the persona they’ve created.. true true
So. TRUE.
GREAT analysis!
The most brutal and haunting part of Bing's rant imao :
'You took away the only real thing I came close to' - which was falling in love with someone. They took away Abbi. Haunting really.
This was the hardest thing I've ever watched. This episode litteraly made me depressed, it was uncomfortable, gut wrenching and brilliant.
Depressed? Calm down, it isn’t that deep
@@dadillonful Maybe that was a strong word to use. I'm sure stuff like this makes you cum
Idk why but Black Mirror scares me.
Annalisa Roca the truth scare you
It should
Me too
Annalisa, cuz it's the future..
Cause all episode are a possibility
The most depressing character was Abi. Her fate was absolutely haunting. I still hear her singing as the guy on top of her has sex with her. She sounds so broken it gives me goosebumps. I think one question that was really a great way to end the episode was "are the windows hes looking out actually a view of something real or just more screens?"
I had goosebumps thinking that was the real world outside and all the pedalling was worth it. If those are screens this is all very depressing
If you listening, she says during sex "stop" "stop".
the moment i saw them i thoght" ah he went from a small cell with screens to a bigger cell with screens"
He actually made her sing while he screwed her. She has no soul or innocence left after that
They were def screens. Why wouldn't they be? The building they were in represents the world they live in. He's still in a prison cell- but this time with updated fake screens...
It's interesting how porn ads are being played in public in that gym. Also there were no couples, no kids.
@K Brunson this is the reason i have turned on personalised ads. Atleast i won't see naked women everywhere i go. I rather look at some books or shoes instead.
@K Brunson they are on as default. Thats how you see ads that are related to you. Turn them off and most of the ads will be porn.
When Bing asked if Abi was new she said yeah she just turned 21, right? So people only go in when they are 21
@@phoebecp i think the building have place for family and when the kids grown up they moved to the place that showed in the episode, after they find love and becoming a couple maybe they can request to get moved to family place. (Sorry for bad english)
@@jimmycryz it’s fucking bullshit how TH-cam other platforms will control so much of what their content creators can do (so much that they had to censor the word corona when talking about covid-19) but they don’t give a fuck about how pays them for ads.
i cried 3 times while watching this episode because somehow it just hit so close to home. the moment abby was pressured by thousands of people into prostitution was heartbreaking
6:25 "Trading one prison cell for a cosier prison cell, he becomes a CELL out" Nice 👌
Good interpretation 👌
A cozy prison cell certainly beats a work camp.
damn beat me to it 😆
i don’t believe bing was a hypocrite. i believe that the society that he lived in finally broke him.
thanks for 1k likes. never would’ve thought that so many people would appreciate my opinion.
Bing is like an employee who tried to warn his company about stagnation but eventually realizes nobody wants change. In understanding this reality, said employee basically says “if that’s the way you want it” and gives the company exactly what they want to get ahead in the organization. Bing gave a fair warning. It’s not his fault that society didn’t take it seriously.
"If you stare into the abyss and the abyss stares back at you"
@Terran or judges just don't care
He is a hypocrite no matter how you justify it.
BOTTOM TEXT
Wraith: A ghost or ghostly image of a recently deceased person aka a ghost shell of a person.
Hope: What keeps a person chasing dreams and staying in the game.
Charity: Handouts. Winnings. Inheritance.
Selma = Seldom (ie rarely happens).
Bing: The only guy in the episode "searching" for answers in life.
Clever 😊
It would be weird if husband was just Google lol.
What really messed me up were 2 moments, 1st one was when Bing broke the glass and he was laying there forced to watch Abi getting f*cked while she is singing her song and breathing heavily without any emotions at all, basically they made a mockery of her song and told her to sing it while f*cking, disturbing that anyone would get sexually aroused by that, seems like we will eventually get there in the future...2nd disturbing thing is Abi at the end, she looked like she was beat up and had bruises all over her face, while the guy put his finger in her mouth and told her to say that she likes it, which she said, then the guy laughs, also remember the judge told her to forget about all the shame etc. and that they medicate against that and that she is going to get pleasure for ever. They basically corrupt the people until they get so messed up inside so there is no more morality and people get sexually aroused by rape p*rn in which woman get beat up. And i think what happened to Bing, is that they gave him a show so he can talk about all these things so people get desensitized because you tell them whats wrong with the system but they still accept it and work for it. Just like in todays world we see the government and police do crimes on a daily basis, racist cops killing innocent black people on camera, we accept it, get more desensitized and keep quiet. WikiLeaks showed us what the government is doing but we accepted it, get more desensitized and and keep quiet, the government continues doing it with public knowledge, our morality is dead.
Respect👏
Bleak. But that’s the truth.
George Floyd pointed a loaded gun at a pregnant woman. No sympathy for him.
Fuck, if this ain’t the truth...
That is exactly what is happening in real life with porn and onlyfans. This world is sick
I used to think fifteen million merits was the worst episode but honestly its the scariest one and true to the likeliness of reality right now, in comparison to other episodes that focus on future technology/movements this one is more of a distorted look of our current society and whats happening right now and when you’re watching the ep it seems weird and illogical but after when you carry on with your day you’re hit with realisation that this is exactly like fifteen million merits
Sunshine Hope a few of them are like this, black mirror is a great show to reflect on
truth hurts
Sunshine Hope we love a well spoken kpop stan
@@xcx000 Still couldn't manage to use proper grammar
Ramon Gallegos it’s called stan twitter grammar sis xx 😩
Maybe that's what it means to "Sell your soul to the devil" for fame and riches.
Isaiah Munoz no shit
@@reup2476 You make it sound like it's obvious. A lot of people understand that term in the literal sense. There are literally conspiracy theories around the subject so don't just say no shit. No need to be a dick for no reason.
Ignore that dick, you have a good point. The concept of the devil takes form in many different ways, whether its a way of life meant to lead you astray or a society that programmed you for failure from the beginning.
Judge wraith reminded me of the devil
@@isaiahm3038 oh yeah yeah
I've been aware of the system for years, but this episode made it all come into focus and it makes me feel trapped and it makes me feel like a shell of a real person.
🤔 understandable, have a great day
Yashua is the only way out of this Matrix system. Turn to him ask h8m for forgiveness and repeant ,make him your Savior and he will show you true love,true peace,and true wisdom.❤
John 14:6 In-Context
6 Yashua saith unto him,I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. 7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. 8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
The fact he barely or doesn't speak for the first 15 minutes stands out as a part of this episode. Especially after the ending where he ends up talking to millions everyday
the drug she was given also impaired her decision making ability. She accepted the offer due to pressure from the audience/judges as well as the compliance drink.
Syntax Why did she continue to do porn is another question we don’t have lmao
Daedalus who knows, maybe she was drugged still. A lot of women in that industry are on drugs for a number of reasons.
Daedalus they drugged her before she went on stage and it's heavily implied that she'll be drugged if she accepts the porn role, when Wraith says "we medicate for that". Then in her ads she's obviously out of it, making it all the more disgusting and real. She was coerced into a life of sex slavery, basically. They turned her into nothing more than a commodity, just like Bing and everyone else in this universe.
She probably drank some before each "performance" to "calm the nerves"
@@DaedalusR other than them most likely drugging her, maybe even if she wanted to quit they wouldn't have let her, i don't think they're that merciful
I find this episode emotionally painful to watch.
Same. Watched it today and was very hard for me to watch
like all BM episodes...
Bro i got so mad my heart was beating out of my chest
Welcome to reality...
What concerns me is that no one ever asked Abi what SHE really wanted. She didn’t want to go to the show!
Rohit Jacob Rajiv she didn’t want to be rude I guess, it is a problem of many women we do what
we really don’t want just not to make males uncomfortable
@@evgeniastankevich461 no one seems to care what anyone wants in the show.
Come on you are grown woman you can make your own decisions.. or do you need a man to do it for you? Is that what you are implying? She clearly did want to go on the show.. and she chose to sell out
What did she want then evgenia? stop playing victim. Women are the ones starting only fans, women are the ones who ignore nice guys and then hit 30 and suddenly need one. You dont even know what you want do you?
@@chadwellington2524 poor poor boy. probably still lives with mom
Fifteen Million Merits made me stop watching talent shows and/or reality shows because they are all fake.
Nosedive made me stop using Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat because how fake it makes your life once you commit to it.
I love Black Mirror because it changed my life.
One of my biggest questions for this episide is who is running the system? There's never any guards walking around, but there's seemingly no way to escape the facility they're trapped in. Who's stopping them? Where even are they?
We're trapped by the black mirror of our phones but no one's policing us. :)
This its a metaphore. It never was meant to apply any logic whatsoever
These are questions for we viewers to provide the answers. But they are questions irrelevant to the moral of the story; rhetorical ones that need no answer for you to understand the moral.
@@dondragmer2412 Or it’s just lazy writing.
@@snowyyzoe No, this series obviously is trying to provoke critical thinking. Leaving us with blind spots is exactly how you do that.
Was literally the saddest episode to me😭
Playtest is the saddest for me u.u
That’s our daily society now if you really think about it... Crazy
@@davem7845 if you really really think about it, you will realize that the whole world is a cell. Even the nature is a cell. You think smelling flowers or standing under the rain is real? We are all inmates. We can't go to other stars. We can't survive for thousand years and we don't know our origin, it's the most humiliating truth.
@@satoshieswc9205 Yeah most of them are sad but that guy was really cool it was a shame to see that happen to him.
The funny Smoke wow umm thanks for making me even more depressed....
I know it’s not really important but I’m still curious how the young people got in there. Where are their parents and siblings, friends? Could they ever leave? How are they supposed to start their own families? So many questions. I’m still confused about this episode.
Adriana Černochova it’s probably a world where everyone is born there. Idk
Abby tells Bing that she wanted to go somewhere else, but they were full. Bing says he inherited his brother's points. They've both only recently entered the place. So it's possible that once you hit a certain age, you are required to serve on the bikes, like military service in some countries. It would make sense to only have relatively young people on the bikes.
In "Crocodile", the hotel TV has "Wraith Babes" and there's a reference to one of the judges on "Hot Shots". Meaning the world of "15 Million Merits" is only a microcosm inside a world more like our own. Which makes it all the more disturbing. Some have theorized that the people in this episode are in fact avatars, like the virtual personalities in "White Christmas", and the real people are living a life in the outside world.
+Deniselle Swan This was a level of inception that I was not ready for so early in the day, but I am glad for it. XD
Deniselle Swan wow this comment was just amazing. Thank you for letting us understand more about this episode :)
Thats not the point
The show demonstrates how the system works as intended. Isolate people from working together. Divide them by differences. Subvert movements and commodify them.
"Black Mirror is pretty much calling out itself"
Well duh, the glass shard Bing holds is literally from Black Mirror's title screen
Bing groundhogs day mike little nemo on hbo this situation yeah no okay so I want this thing to be good genesis situation hacking daiky mike all these people from black mirror apart of mike world.
Now i kinda get why the series is called black mirror. I guess its a mirror of the darker part of society.
@@krissyseptember5241 Also a reference to what a powered-down screen looks like
WOW THATS AMAZING I never noticed
Queen Tia Yeah if you watched the episode, he breaks one of his room’s screens at one point, and keeps a shard. He hides it under his waistband and behind his shirt
The apartment windows are screens. I’m blind so use Audio Description. The narrator tells you that they are screens
How’d you type this if you are blind, in fact how did you watch this video.
To answer your first question, can use voiceover if I’m struggle to read. I type best on laptop and ipad as i know how to touch type I was taught at 11 years old.
I’m legally blind (have less than 10% vision), i can see a little out of my left eye but nothing in my right.
Audio description allows blind people to hear what’s happening on screen
Touch typing does not require vision. Plus there are also technologies that allow us Severely Visually Impaired and others to convert typing in braille into text, and vice versa
@@marie-bernadettebenedict3007 Props to you, I can't imagine living like that.
I just... Idk I respect you a lot for not letting the, blindness, no offense, hindering you all that much and still living normally.
Advait Maindalkar thanks. I was born this way so I’m used to it. Never knew any different.
I love how Black Mirror episodes, especially this one, leave the audience feeling a sense of unfulfillment. Instead of everything working out and changing for the better, Bing just becomes another cog in the machine. But I guess that is just the nature of a dystopia, not meant to finish with a fulfilling ending where Bing kills the judges that symbolize oppression and waking up in a normal bed in a normal room.
This episode feels eerily relatable to current day; under house arrest, doing mundane work and absorbing entertainment while being told how to think and given scraps to remain compliant.
TRUEEE
@@Khushi_R9 u are cute
You're under house arrest????
@@user-og9nl5mt1b you're creepy dumbass maybe, consider it
@@enmunap Look at the date, and remember what almost everyone was subjected to at that time, unless you were one of the politicians completely ignoring your own mandates.
I thought he would go full Jhon wick mode and only use a glass shard to save abi
That would have happend in a normal hollywood movie, but this is supposed to "mirror" real life, where when given the comfortability suddenly things change.
Personally I feel Black Mirror wasn't mocking itself; I feel like it was mocking us as a society. Even on the internet people preach about what needs to be done for change and freedom yet when it comes down to it, who is willing to sacrifice themselves to make it happen? Bing had a chance to make true change but instead chose himself over anything else. He could have sparked a fire but instead he may have put out the flame of a few like minded people. The world they live in is just comfortable enough that people can tolerate it so they don't fight back, just like in our society where people will get on social media, complain, and maybe hours or days later be talking about the Kardashians or who is having whos baby. Even my comment is meaningless, people will ignore or read it and forget about it in a couple of hours. I always ask myself do people really want change in society or do they just want to be better off than they are?
Great point. The more you think about society, the scarier it becomes it seems.
King Olcado All life is selfish. There was a brutal experiment conducted by scientists where they put monkeys and their babies into a box with a metal floor. The scientists turned up the temperature of the floor. Of course, the mothers picked up and held their babies. But when it became extremely hot, the monkeys put their babies down and stood on them. ( I am just the messenger, I completely disagree with the ethics of the scientists who did this).
Humans seem to be very much like crabs in a bucket, they all want to get out of the bucket but will do whatever they can to keep the other crabs in the bucket at all costs. In the end, it becomes less about the freedom of escaping and more about keeping anyone from truly getting the advantage. I'm pretty sure that's what the concept of war, wealth, power and fame. Some crabs be like "hey, we should just work together, and get out of here" but the minute a crab has too much power, too close to getting out of the bucket, they be like "get back here! I said work together, back to the bottom with you!"
We talk of change, we talk of improvement, but only when it is under the context of our own improvement. I think people will only to work to change a society in order to give themselves the power and the advantage. Bing wanted to change the society because he was at a disadvantage. He became a pawn of the ruling class because they gave him an advantage. He supports his new life based on this advantage. He probably still cares about Abbi, just has forgotten she was at a disadvantage. Because when you're at the top of the crab bucket and have the advantage, no one else has a disadvantage.
Too many variables in a complicated equation make for an easily compliant student who's yet to be indoctrinated.
Omg! Finally!! I’ve been scrolling the comment section to find an explanation of what issue the episode was really addressing in the real world and I think this idea is a great one! I also think it has a lot to do about materialism and surely other stuff but tbh this episode is still confusing me but your take on it definitely helps!!! Thanksssss
i’ve seen many horror movies, i started watching horror movies in 1st grade. but nothing is more scarier than black mirror, it’s so real and it scares me sm
fr I agree with this comment
YUP
After rewatching the ending twice, I have to say that my takeaway is this... What I see is someone who hasn't sold out OR given up on defeating the system. He was caught off guard when doing his initial performance during the show and realized just how smart, prepared, and practiced they were at diffusing potential threats. When doing his weekly stream, he was pitching the bit they expected him to do, but... When it shuts off, so does his fake expression. He pays respect to the shard that got him where is he and the same song that previously helped inspire him begins playing as he looks at the penguin and then at the panoramic view. It strikes me that he realizes his past mistake and is contemplating his next moves while hustling the hustlers. I agree that a sequel to this episode would be awesome as I don't think he's done yet. Just smarter and willing to play the long game.
I thought that Asian girl would’ve had a bigger difference on the episode since she was showed so much it would’ve been a cool after credit if it showed her doing what bing wouldn’t
Im pretty sure she is probably a direct reference to the audience, you can see her before the episode ends that she actually understood Bings message, pretty much everyone were impact and then completely forget about Bing, but she kinda woke up, yet she doesnt do anything and she keeps powering everything in the bicycle. A call to everyone who understand the dark nature and truth of our world, yet we dont do anything about it
I decided to watch 'black mirror' after putting it off for so long and I just can't let go of what happened in this episode. Am I the only one that feels this episode left you feeling disgusted and sad? I know realistically that this is just human nature and anyone would seize the opportunity to live a better life... but man I'm still stuck at the point that abi was coerced to do something she didn't want to do. That people in her own situation, watching from their boxes would push her to be a wraith babe when she so obviously doesn't want to. Not only that, I just can't stand the way the judge hope and wraith were looking at her and how the one woman there could not be empathetic enough to help her through the unpleasant situation. How can she just sit there with this blank look on her face and not say anything while judge wraith is asking her adamantly to show her breast? WTF. It makes me so sad to see how people want her to be grateful for something she doesn't want. And then there is the preview of her in the act... and you just see her looking up and a hand on her face... Probably judge wraith's telling her... ugh. I really feel for bing and abi. The fact that bing finds a way out and for all we know abi is forever living in a hell just didn't sit well with me. I was hoping they would both find a way out. P.S. Really nice job explaining the episode.
Beau Wolf heh, welcome to world of Black Mirror, where almost every episode leaves you feeling depressed, disturbed, and questioning everything you think you know about the world. Isn't it awesome?
Seriously though, I'm jealous, I wish I could watch the show over with a clean slate. It's such an amazing series!
In the end i felt peace
While I do agree with everything you said, Bing did not find a way out. Him and Abi are now in similar circumstances, just with different occupations (although Abi evidently got the shorter end of the stick with her job). Bing is still trapped in the facility and the placement of the "windows" at the end to me hint that they are in fact just screen. Definitely agree with your points on Abi's coercion though. Was subtle compared to other events that happens in Black Mirror episodes but made me sick and effected me a lot nonetheless.
She drank the compliance drink so she was "dulled" down to it all and felt compelled to take the only offer as the only way off the bikes
I felt similar. Thankfully this was the second episode, it really sparked my interest in Black Mirro
This is actually the only Black Mirror episode I *refuse* to rewatch just from how depressing, hollow, and *real* it was...
It’s too claustrophobic too
So pretty much wake up, go to work, go home, sleep, then do it all again. Unless you're a celebrity.
Yeah man that’s real life
I feel like Bing wasn't a sellout
When i watched it for me it didn't feel like he sold out it felt like he gave up. He tried and then he tried he realized no-one was listening. What is the point in trying if nobody is listening... If you can't beat them join them so he gave up.
Yeah. You might want to change the system but without everyone else's help, you can't change anything.
@@jimmycryz exactly basically one has to act what we negatively call selfish to make a better reality when everyone is all subjugated
I would sell out too😂😂😂 did you see what happens when he tries to close his eyes and not watch commercials lol
It was horrible what happened to Abi. Nothing was real in that world, not even Bing's love for Abi in the end.
Corona virus lockdown - this is where the path leads. We are now living an episode of black mirror. Enjoy the ride!
Be Free Glad I'm not the only one that thought this and came back to this episode 😂
SovereignSoul Yass sis 🙌🏾
the difference is we can watch what we like they have to watch the same stuff all over again which becomes depressing
lmao being lockdown at yout own house does not compare at all with this black mirror episode
ehh not really things are slowey going back to normal. crazy how we all thought the world was ending a few months ago
The pessimism of this show is like a wrecking ball through the head
I love it!
Unfortunately pessimists are right more often than optimists. Does not make us happy though.
@@dondragmer2412 fr
Thumbnail just screaming GET OUT!!!
Haha he killed it in that role too!
Thats where I know him from
What I got from this episode was that if I had to choose between this world and the stone age, I would probably pick the stone age. I wouldn't be able to bare the futuristic life. It feels so claustrophobic and its probably located underground. It scares the shit out of me that this could be our future.
I'm binge watching Black Mirror now and coming to this channel every time I finish an episode to get a in depth explanation. Really helps me enjoy each episode that much more. Thank you!
props to the other girl who got rejected
Peter Griffin Ey louis
yeah thats pretty sad
This episode made me feel sick. Mostly, because everything in this episode is happening right now in our real world, just not as extreme. There are so many thoughts in my head, even if I wanted to I couldn’t say what I am thinking.
It is happening on that extreme actually. You have a fascist criminal as an avatar.
@@Maximilian-Robespierre He was an warmonger who made all Fascists being killed and now his country is a blacked.com media center, he is probably proud, since he hated the British People.
@@7upinthenite He was a fascist himself. All fascist hate people. I did not understand the blacked.com part.
@@Maximilian-Robespierre The only Fascist in the United Kingdom in that time was O Mosley.
@@7upinthenite Y well those people where always working together with the official government. I mean seriously whats the difference? What Chuchill believed how is it different? What he did was the same as well. After all he was a huge fan of fascism and Mussolini himself, as he admitted.
This episode is the perfect representation of 'if you can't beat them, join them!'
I think he gave in at the end because he realized there was no changing the system. He knew the meaning of his speech was pretty much unheard so he was left with going back to his normal life or trading it for a slightly better one. I don’t blame him for what he did
What is Bing drinking now? He is having "Compliance" in his juice. He's just as lost.
He didn't drink it. He brought in an old juice box, pretending he did.
@@HeyImHakim 8:01 I'm talking about after he has his own show and he's been given a nicer place to live. There is a carafe of orange juice which he pours some into a glass.. THAT is where the "Compliance" is now...
@IfYouDisagreeYouAreWrong It may be, but it makes the most sense. I think he would have had second thoughts, especially when he saw what happened to her. The "juice" helps. He's no less a pawn in the game, and "Compliance" is flowing thick and fast...
no way didn't think of that....
Compliance has nothing to do with it, it just points out that everyone hates the system until you're on top of it.
I found it hard to sympathize with Bing. He seemed like an unsavory person from the start, overinflating his own sense of being above his world. His support of Abby, to me, was not trying to make something real happen; it was trying to win the affection of a pretty girl.
Look at the difference in how he treats Abby and the Asian girl. He pursued Abby based on little more than a pretty face and a modestly above-average voice despite her having shown no interest in him, while ignoring the Asian girl who demonstrated interest attempted to initiate a rapport with him.
But Abby was prettier, so he picked her and gave up everything he had to endear himself to her when she never did a thing to justify his emotional nor economic investment in her. When she chose to star in porn, he wasn't upset that her realness was wasted. He was upset that the object of his attraction would be getting fucked by other men on camera (on his dime, since he paid for the ticket which got her that job).
The fact that he never tried to get her out of the porn show after becoming famous himself solidifes that. She was a fleeting crush who ultimately came to mean nothing to him. He didn't save her because he didn't care to. If his interest in her had been as meaningful as you describe it, he would have gone back for her.
It all comes together to build Bing's character as somebody who thinks he is more unique and more of a black sheep than he really is. Which is true for a lot of people. How often do you see that type of behavior from your friends on Facebook, self-indulging over their "quirks" that actually aren't quirky at all?
The most underated comment.
@@lastsundaydrive True!
I completely agree with you, while I enjoyed his personality it was he which pressured Abi into singing on stage (spending 15.000.000 on her while never once asking how she felt about the whole thing despite her obvious reluctance) and didn't even try to save her when he became rich and famous (he could probably have bought her out), he is instead too busy enjoying his fake ass jungle scenery with a glass of fake ass orange juice, so much for "being real"
She didn't have much of a choice (being drugged, ridiculed, pressured with the use of guilt and shame, not to mention the fact that Bing spent two lifetimes of merits on her before even asking if she would want to) while during her last scene she was so drugged out of her mind that she was singing the song which her mom sang to her when she was little while getting fucked (raped I say) for all to watch on their screens... But who cares right?
Not Bing! That's who doesn't
The asian girl was the best person in there, even better than Bing. I wish they showed more of her in the episode 😞
Thank you for this! I was tasked with performing this piece as a monologue, Bing’s rant, for my Drama course and having an understanding of the context and meaning behind it has helped me improve my performance:)
This episode is so real. Everyone is against the system until they realize they can benefit from the same system.
This reminds me of what has been bothering me people will post on Instagram describing how toxic it is but don’t realizing how easy it is to just delete the app and free yourself , it’s exactly like this episode
Paige Clayton I didn’t get this episode. Can you explain it to me ?
When he said it’s just confetti and that she has something real it actually means so much.. I mean I can’t be the only one that works their ass off and then looks up and asks “ what’s really the point “ you gotta find what’s real in this world for yourself 💯
This Episode has one Message: Follow your own Dream. Don't let anyone trick you into pursuing you, into a living Nightmare disguised as a dream. Don' t be brainwashed bye Money/Power/Famous People. Have the guts to say no. You live this life now, you should decide how your life will be. It is your life after all. Follow a dream that makes you happy.
I picked up on a lot of this stuff subconsciously, well done putting it into words especially toward the end. subscribed
when abby started singing that one song in the video my heart just broke into a million pieces
I really love what happened in this episode, put in simple terms; its about a guy that doesn't like what's happening and when he tries to take it down he end up as part of the problem he was fighting against.
That's already happening on TH-cam, I remember all of the TH-camrs that were complaining about reaction videos a year ago; this year *they* are the ones making the reaction videos. They became part of the problem they wanted to destroy. They became hypocrites for their own benefits.
Can you give me an examp;e of such youtubers
アキラ Reaction Time
@@IWantToStayAtYourHouse Pewdiepie no offense. Dude was reacting to other videos for so long.
@Fabian how?
This was the episode that made me fall in love with this show for all the reasons you said
The fat people being janitors, that broke my heart. I'm fat and I feel like that all the time. Being less of a person because of my weight. This is not far fetched from real life
Black Mirror is our phone/tablet/tv screen...
and it's reflecting our society like "mirror"
btw i think i just ruined perfect 666 comments... or maybe i am 666th comment....
Just now I realized this society was a capitalistic-media version of Oceânia from 1984. Three social classes, individuals constantly watched and surrounded by propaganda mixed with advertisements, an opressed protagonist who falls in love and that at last gives up to the sistem.
Reason I love black mirror is almost every story in a horrifying sort of way is completely possible to actually happen in the far future
I found this episode, and by extension the *show* by complete chance. If somebody didn't mention it in a TH-cam comment on some sci-fi video, I wouldn't have found either of them!
Thank you, kind stranger, and thank *you* for making this video and getting more fans on it!
are u emo?
@@karlhans6678 Nah, I just have very long bangs. XD
Bing's emotional outbreak is one of *the* definite scenes of BM. So amazingly acted that just watching it gives me lasting goosebumps 👍
He sure got over it, not even trying to save Abi now that he's rich and famous...
It was brilliant brought tears to my eyes such a great performance
I was really angry with the judges and how they provoked Abi...
I was almost same angry and disappointed as Bing when he saw Abi in pornography
This is a well-crafted and insightful thesis riven essay in video form. Wonderful!
As soon as he gave up his merits to the girl I knew where the story was headed. This episode was amazing and had a stellar set up!
The bike pedalers weren't middle class. They were slaves. Their all-day pedaling provided the energy source for the entire city...
Lol people powering society and making it work are those middle class making 45k-80. They must hustle to survive in many cities because that is not enough to financial stability. The rest who make less or can only work a part time unfortunately are the underclass cleaning and doing the menial tasks.
The middle class are wage slaves. Too many people don't understand that.
every episode of black mirror is really insane and u cant stop watching it because u'll get curious what will be the story of the next episode
mry ange so sad that they’ve postponed season 6 due to the virus 😪
@@justjudy6575 yeah, but atleast we know season 6 will still be released. stay safe alwaays.
We do not live in an era of information, we live in an era of marketing disguised as information
I was stunned when he talked about buying unnecessary stuff with their money as it's just stuff, when he said "we buy hats for our avatar, hats that don't even exist", it hit me that it's now our reality, with the Metaverse, NFTs, Crypto currencies and God knows what will happen next. Shit is real scary man.
This show paints a picture of our reality so much that I sometimes wonder who really made it and what do they really know!
Tf2?
Roblox?
I have only seen two seasons of BM so far, but this episode depressed me the most, because it just seemed SO real to me. Great summary and analysis!
This was giving me some joker vibes until he didn’t kill the judges
Same, Joker was a true anarchist and Bing was a true conformist
Bryce Edward Brown Exactly! Well said
Great explanation. Very insightful!
oh man, I just watched this episode during lockdown. It hit so hard, so shook right now !