Robert Daly (Jesse Plemons) is dead, and Nanette (Cristin Milioti) has taken up the captain’s chair in Black Mirror’s “USS Callister: Into Infinity,” the anticipated follow-up to the beloved Season 4 opener from 2017. 

Toby Haynes, who directed “USS Callister,” returns to helm the episode written by series creator Charlie Brooker, Bisha K. Ali (“Demon 79” and “Common People”), William Bridges (“Shut Up and Dance” and “USS Callister”), and Bekka Bowling. 

Tour the USS Callister Set with the Black Mirror Season 7 Cast

Although free from Captain Daly’s torment, the titular crew finds that traveling to a new universe comes with an entirely new problem: They can now die. What’s worse, they have a huge target on their backs after stealing credits from other players as a means of survival. 

In the real world, Nanette investigates numerous complaints from online gamers of a mysterious player stealing credits. After looking into it, she pieces together that Daly had cloned her, Walton (Jimmi Simpson), and others from the office. She notifies Walton and quickly realizes that he’d rather kill their digital counterparts than help them. 

When Nanette threatens to go to the reporter who had been investigating Walton, he attempts to bribe her to remain quiet. But then she’s hit by a car mid-argument and falls into a coma. 

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Back in the game, the USS Callister crew enlists Walton’s digital clone, who re-spawned as a new character after dying in “USS Callister,” to help them get to the game’s core, called the Heart of Infinity. A flashback set 12 years earlier reveals that Walton cloned Daly to continue building out the game in perpetuity. The virtual copy, called Bob, is still there working on the game nonstop. 

Meanwhile, real-world Walton is worried the public will find out his company was built from an illegal clone, which would almost certainly land him in prison. He sends a mass invite to everyone the USS Callister crew has ever robbed, and they all rush toward the gang at warp speed. 

How does “USS Callister: Into Infinity” end?

Captain Nanette makes it to the Heart of Infinity and tells Bob about real-world Nanette’s coma, and Bob informs her that he can place Captain Nanette into real-world Nanette’s head because she’s essentially brain-dead. After agreeing to the plan that would save both her and her crew, the captain notices that Bob is trying to make a copy of — not transfer — her so that he can keep a version of her with him. They get into a scuffle that ends with Captain Nanette killing Bob with his prized Bargradian cutlass, which activates a kill switch that will delete the entire game. At the last second, before the game is wiped, Captain Nanette transfers into her real-world counterpart. 

Nanette wakes up in her body, with the USS Callister crew now residing in her head and seeing the world through her eyes — much like what happens in the Season 4 episode “Black Museum.” 

Plus, Walton gets his comeuppance. Nanette and the crew watch a news report that reveals he was arrested by the FBI after three months on the run. She’s slowly working on freeing her friends, but for now, they’ve reached a compromise. With Nate (Osy Ikhile) now captain, he and the remaining crew agree to give her privacy occasionally in exchange for watching their favorite show, The Real Housewives of Atlanta.

Of the episode’s ending, Brooker tells Tudum that Captain Nanette hasn’t replaced the real-world Nanette so much as they’ve been fused together. 

“Rather than just overriding, she’s kind of merging with her real self,” he explains. “She closes that loop in a way which felt important because the real-world her is definitely not as accomplished as the [digital version]. 

“The virtual Nanette has been through a lot and has stepped up and become this very capable leader, whereas the real-world Nanette is running behind on that,” Brooker adds. “Nanette, in a way, becomes whole again.”

Does “USS Callister: Into Infinity” have a happy ending?

The crew members are not dead, but they do find themselves stranded once again. “It’s sort of an ultra Black Mirror ending,” Brooker notes. “Even though it is kind of hopeful, they’re not in a great situation.”

Simpson, who plays Walton, calls it a “complicated and honest ending.”

“I think it's hilarious that these folks who are kind of getting [under] each other’s skin are now forced into an even tighter situation because it makes the potential for problems greater, but also makes it kind of essential to find the next doorway,” Simpson says. “I like that they're forced into this purgatory [with] each other. It seems kind of perfect.”

Milioti, who plays Nanette, loved the ending because of how twisted it is. “I thought it was so weird and singular, and I never saw that coming,” she says. “It presents a whole new set of challenges, and it’s horrifying and funny.”

Why isn’t Nanette in a rush to remove her friends from her head?

“I think that there's some stuff going on there about not wanting to relinquish a power position, because if she lets go of her [captainship], she has to return to her life where she just works at this office with people that don’t really respect her,” Milioti says. “I wonder how much of it is ‘absolute power corrupts absolutely’ and also how much of it has to do with loneliness. These are the only people that understand her, and why would she want to let them go?”

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Who dies in “USS Callister: Into Infinity”?

Captain Nanette reveals early in the episode that Shania (Michaela Coel), who was featured in the original “USS Callister” episode, was killed four weeks ago, and she’s haunted by it. “I can still smell her fucking blood,” the captain says in the episode.

Later, Walton logs into the game with Nanette to learn more about their digital copies. When they beam aboard the USS Callister, he opens fire on the crew, convinced he can make his cloning problem go away by killing them. He fatally wounds Karl (Billy Magnussen) and is booted from the game when Captain Nanette shoots him.  

Why make a sequel to “USS Callister”?

Black Mirror enters bold new territory with its first-ever sequel episode, “USS Callister: Into Infinity.” 

“Sometimes I’m writing an episode and I’m disappointed I have to say goodbye to all these characters, and this is definitely one of those,” Brooker says. “We had such a great ensemble cast, and from the moment the credits rolled on the first one, I was like, ‘I wanna do it again. I want to keep telling that story.’”

 The show’s creative team worked on the sequel for “quite a long time,” Brooker said.

“It went through lots of different iterations, and we spent a lot of time toying with it,” He noted. “It’s just been really gratifying to see it all come together. It was quite emotional getting the cast back and rebuilding the ship.” 

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Is there potential for another follow-up?

“I would not rule it out, [but] I wouldn’t say we've got a definite plan to do that,” Brooker tells Tudum. “There are several Black Mirror episodes I’d definitely return to if we found the right story.”

Stream all six new episodes of Black Mirror now.