🤐 SPOILER ALERT 🤐

So you — the real you, not the deepfake AI version of you — have just finished watching the Emmy nominated Season 6 premiere of Black Mirror, “Joan Is Awful,” and you’re probably still trying to get your brain untwisted after that wild ending. If, however, you haven’t already watched the season opener, then just like Joan, you’re ignoring key information — albeit we’re talking about a spoiler alert, not the damning Streamberry Terms and Conditions. Don’t be like Joan and learn about consequences the hard way — go watch the episode and come back.

The wild premiere episode centers on a nightmare scenario in which an “average” woman played by Annie Murphy (Schitt’s Creek) discovers that a prestige TV adaptation of her life, Joan Is Awful, starring an AI, computer-generated likeness of Salma Hayek Pinault as Joan, has mysteriously popped up on Streamberry — a streaming platform that might look a little familiar to you. 

Leading up to the final big reveal of the episode, the “real” Joan (Murphy) has joined forces with the non-AI Hayek Pinault to infiltrate the headquarters of Streamberry. They shake down a computer engineer named Beppe (Michael Cera) to spill the secrets behind Streamberry’s scheme to create TV shows about the least flattering parts of users’ lives.

So wait, who actually is the “real” Joan and what’s the big reveal you mentioned?

That’s the billion-dollar question. Up until this point, we’ve assumed that the Joan played by Murphy is “real,” and the one played by AI-generated Hayek Pinault (in the TV show of her life Murphy’s Joan is watching) is “fake.” However, Michael Cera — who’s also not the real Michael Cera but the AI version of Cera, Beppe — reveals that both Joans are fake. The Joan played by Murphy is not the “Source Joan.” Source Joan is a more “average” woman, who we haven’t met in the episode yet, but is played by Kayla Lorette in Black Mirror. What we’ve been watching so far is happening in the AI-generated “Fictive Level One” — we’re in the TV show that Source Joan sees when she watches the Streamberry series Joan Is Awful. In Source Joan’s reality, the actor Annie Murphy gave up the rights to her likeness to be used by Streamberry and that likeness is now playing Joan in Source Joan’s show. Salma Hayek Pinault is TV Joan, one Fictive Level beyond Murphy… and one Level beyond Hayek Pinault is AI Cate Blanchett, who’s only mentioned by name (and whose likeness appears in TV Joan’s Streamberry feed as the star of Joan Is Awful). Look, it’s complicated, OK?

That’s why Murphy’s Joan, who’s described as “totally average,” has been comically un-average — who would believe anyone played by Murphy was average? Even her home is a fancy “TV show house.” Once we see Source Joan’s life in the final scenes, we can see that every aspect of her life, including her therapist’s office, has been glamorized and heightened for TV.

If you still have tons of questions after finishing the episode, that’s kind of the point — and you’re not alone. “We got to the end of shooting, and we were still asking Charlie [Brooker] questions,” Murphy tells Tudum. “Then he’d be like, ‘No, we’re not talking about this anymore,’ because we were pulling the thread a little bit too much.”

Adds Hayek Pinault, jokingly, “I was coached on the technology practically every day by Annie, but now that I hear that she barely understood, I don’t know if I got the best coach.”

Ana Blumenkron/Netflix

What is the Quamputer and what does it do?

The Quamputer, as described by Streamberry CEO Mona Javadi (Leila Farzad), is a quantum computer that generates multiverses and creates perfectly edited CGI-generated Streamberry shows based on real users’ lives — Mona has ambitions of making hundreds of millions of [Your Name Here] Is Awful shows to create the most “relatable content imaginable” and drive engagement with negativity. Don’t worry too much about how the machine works, though. Even Mona just leaves it at, “It’s basically magic.”

What happens after the Quamputer is destroyed?

As Joan is about to whack the Quamputer with an axe, Mona warns her that she’ll be wiping out Fictive Level One, and in the process, will kill billions of fictive people who think they’re real, including the version of Hayek Pinault that’s standing right there. But Murphy’s Joan realizes that Source Joan has already smashed it, otherwise she wouldn’t be at the headquarters right now because the events that the moment is based on have already happened… phew, this is just as confusing as trying to figure out time travel.

Once the Quamputer is smashed, the current Fictive Level is destroyed, and everyone’s shifted one Fictive Level back into reality. Source Joan takes Murphy’s place; Murphy takes Hayek Pinault’s (you can tell by the fact that she’s now rocking Hayek Pinault’s eye-catching yellow jumpsuit); and, in the epilogue, Source Joan is wearing an ankle monitor — she’s under house arrest, presumably for smashing extremely expensive proprietary tech — but seems happier than ever, having taken back control of her own narrative. Plus, she’s now besties with the Source Murphy, who’s also wearing a matching ankle monitor! It’s the Black Mirror equivalent of friendship bracelets.

Nick Wall/Netflix

Is “Joan Is Awful” a comedy?

As writer and creator Charlie Brooker previously pointed out to Netflix, it’s “the most overtly comical episode that we have ever done.” That’s why the cast and creative team for the episode is stacked with comedy heavy hitters, from the director Ally Pankiw (Feel Good) to the leads Murphy and Hayek Pinault and supporting actors including Rob Delaney and Cera. Murphy told Netflix, “There have been times I have laid awake at night, completely horrified thinking about some of Charlie’s past episodes. When I found out that ‘Joan Is Awful’ is a lighthearted romp, I was excited to be involved.”

What does the ending of “Joan Is Awful” really mean?

Just like any episode of Black Mirror, there are as many ways to interpret “Joan Is Awful” as there are Fictive Levels. Brooker previously said to Netflix about AI content creators like ChatGPT, “It has no genuinely original ideas of its own: It hoovers up material other people have already written — without paying them for the privilege — and attempts to pass itself off as human. And in doing so, it churns out stuff that’s either generic or derivative.” Sound familiar, Quamputer?

For director Pankiw, the episode “says a lot about the true horror women feel when their image is consumed by other people or society, especially when that control is taken away.”

Although “Joan Is Awful” is packed with ideas, you’re also allowed to not overthink it and simply enjoy the creative premise and hilarious performances. As Brooker said about Black Mirror as a whole, “My main hope is that people come away having had several hours of this miserable existence on this stupid planet made a little easier.”

And what is up with that hidden, post-credits scene?!

Don’t move on to the next episode until you see Source Joan’s version of the already infamous church scene post-credits. “Filming that scenes was probably the most surreal and hilarious,” Lorette tells Tudum. “It was the only time Annie, Salma and I were all on set and all dressed the same in that ridiculous look! It felt very freeing to have to fake defecate in a church in front of a bunch of strangers. A humbling moment! But that’s some of the freedom comedy gives you. You have to give in to the moment, and in that there’s no discomfort or fear. It’s almost meditative!” 

Check it out. You’ll thank us… or blame us later.

Has “Joan Is Awful” been nominated for any awards?

Yes, in fact. Joan hasn’t suffered in vain. Black Mirror has been nominated for two Emmy Awards, and Brooker has been nominated for Outstanding Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for his work on “Joan Is Awful.”

Stream Black Mirror now.

Let’s Break Down the Visual Effects of Black Mirror Season 6Have you ever wondered how a nuclear blast is created on-screen? Wonder no more!