Every Easter Egg in Black Mirror: Bandersnatch

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Did you go through every scenario possible in Black Mirror: Bandersnatch yet? Have you watched each alternate ending of the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure episode, discovered the hidden post-credits scene, and spotted all the easter eggs? If not, don’t sweat it. We’ve got you covered.

For the latest episode of Charlie Brooker‘s mind-bending sci-fi series, fans were able to interact with the show for the first time. In Bandersnatch, viewers take control of the narrative and decide everything from what cereal the main character eats for breakfast to whether or not he commits murder. It’s pretty bleak, as Black Mirror so often is, but the interactive structure also means digging for easter eggs is even more challenging than usual. As the dedicated Black Mirror fan knows, the previous seasons of the Netflix series are full of hidden connections and references to other episodes and Bandersnatch is no exception. The latest is further proof that every episode of Black Mirror exists in the same universe – er, at least in the same universe with multiple crisscrossing, reality-hopping timelines.

Netflix’s Black Mirror Leak Has the Fan Theories Flowing Already

We’ve spent hours watching every scenario – at least we think we’ve seen them all – of the Bandersnatch, which follows Fionn Whitehead‘s Stefan, a shy game developer who begins to question everything he thought he believed about free will and linear timelines. As he programs a new ZX Spectrum computer game, titled Bandersnatch, we, the viewer, decide his and the game’s fate. Each choice leads to a new path, resulting in a handful of alternate endings. We took all the paths we could find and went hunting for Black Mirror easter eggs along the way. Here’s a list of every in-universe connection and reference to previous episodes that we found in Bandersnatch. Obviously, spoiler alert.

1. Bandersnatch the Game
The Netflix episode gets its name from more than one place. It’s loosely based on a real-life, unreleased game from the 1980s. The Liverpool-based company Imagine Software planned to release the game, but soon shut down in July of 1984 after financial troubles – interesting as that’s the same time we meet Whitehead’s Stefan in the opening of the episode. A BBC documentary about Imagine Software (via The Guardian) is full of more history about the company and game if you want to dive in deeper.

But Black Mirror fans have also heard the name of the game before. In the Season 3 episode “Playtest,” the game Bandersnatch is listed on the bottom of the interactive video game magazine Edge, though you’d have to hit pause at just the right moment to catch a glimpse of it.

[image: Bandersnatch_game]

2. Tuckersoft
In Black Mirror, nothing is a coincidence. The name of the video game company in Bandersnatch isn’t all that different from another major technology company seen throughout Brooker’s show: TCKR. That company was first referenced in “Playtest” on the same cover of Edge magazine. You’ll spot it again on the servers at the end of “San Junipero” – and, of course, Tucker’s is also the name of the bar where Kelly and Yorkie meet. In “Metalhead,” TCKR is seen on the vans outside the factory. In “Black Museum,” TCKR is the company conducting research and experiments inside the hospital where Douglas Hodges’ Rolo Haynes works.

[image: Tucker split photo // Description top to bottom: “Playtest,” “Black Museum,” “San Junipero”

3. Saint Juniper’s Medical Practice
Speaking of that hospital from “Black Museum”… it’s called Saint Juniper’s. In Bandersnatch, Stefan’s psychiatrist works out of a medical facility that is also called Saint Juniper’s. Could these also be a loose reference to “San Junipero”?

[image: Saint Juniper_split // Description top to bottom: “Bandersnatch,” “Black Museum”]

4. Dr. R. Haynes
Oh and about that psychiatrist, her name is R. Haynes. That means she’s got to be a relative of Rolo Haynes, right?

[image: Haynes_split photo // description top to bottom: “Bandersnatch,” Rolo Haynes in “Black Museum”]

5. Metl Hedd Game
The post-apocalyptic nightmare of Season 4’s “Metalhead,” where robotic dogs hunt and kill the last-surviving humans, was the inspiration for Colin’s latest game in Bandersnatch. Posters for the game, called Metl Hedd,”are seen all across Bandersnatch.

In one scenario we even get a quick glimpse of the game itself as a human character runs from a robot dog on her trail.

6. Nohzdyve Game
The new game Will Poulter‘s Colin is working on is called Nohzdyve. That’s a reference to the Season 3 episode “Nosedive” where Bryce Dallas Howard’s Lacey lives in a world where social media ratings determine socioeconomic status.

7. White Bear Connections
One of Black Mirror‘s most disturbing (and arguably best) episodes is Season 2’s “White Bear,” and it has its fingerprints all over Bandersnatch. The ominous three-pronged “White Bear” symbol – which has appeared in multiple previous Black Mirror episodes – is seen again and again by Stefan. It’s the same symbol Bandersnatch author Jerome F. Davies painted on the walls in blood after killing his wife, it’s one of the options to choose from when Stefan asks the viewer to identify themselves, and it continues to haunt Stefan in the alternate endings that find him locked up in prison.

But there’s another hidden reference to that earlier episode: one of the sheets of paper pinned to Stefan’s corkboard in his bedroom is a review of a game called White Bear. It’s difficult to make out the entire article, but the first line of the review reads, “White Bear is a brand new revolutionary interactive choose-your-own-adventure game from Tuckersoft.”

If you look closely, you’ll also spot the cover for the White Bear game a couple times, once in the window at the bookstore WHSmith, and on the back of a magazine Colin is reading. (That magazine, Crash, is actually a real ZX Spectrum publication from the ’80s and ’90s.)

8. Valdack’s Revenge Game
Remember that long-haired space villain Jesse Plemons‘ Captain Robert Daly fights in “U.S.S. Callister”? Billy Magnussen‘s baddie Valdack has his very own video game in the world of Bandersnatch, and in it he’s out for revenge against the Callister crew. You can briefly spot the game’s poster on Stefan’s bedroom wall at one point.

9. UKN News Crawls
In the Bandersnatch ending that jumps to the future, a UKN News broadcast shows a reporter talking about Stefan and the fate of his game. That’s the same news station that’s been featured across Black Mirror since the very first episode. As always, the news crawls are full of fun callbacks to previous episodes. Michael Callow, the former Prime Minister – you know, the one who did some unsavory stuff to a pig – is now the winner of Celebrity Bake Off, an episode of fake television I would happily watch. The crawl also reveals that Ganular, the company behind the robotic bees in “Hated in the Nation,” is about to unveil the new drones, meaning this newscast must take place before that episode in the Black Mirror timeline.

The next shot is full of goodies. The crawl mentions Liam Monroe, the candidate from “The Waldo Moment.” An old article about Stefan from The Sun includes news about a dating app described as a “love machine” – likely an early version of the Coach app from “Hang the DJ.” There’s also news about the latest season of Space Fleet, the sci-fi show Plemons’ Daly is obsessed with in “U.S.S. Callister,” as well as a new season of Hot Shots, the reality competition show from “Fifteen Million Merits.”

The next news ticker has shoutouts to Space Fleet once more, plus mention that police are beginning to test a new memory recall device. Hm, that sounds a lot like the Recaller from “Crocodile.”

This final headline on the crawl is especially exciting: it references something we’ve never seen on Black Mirror before, and likely hints at a new episode to come. (Spoiler alert: if you prefer to be totally surprised and avoid Black Mirror leaks, skip to the next easter egg.) The headline reads: “Senate committee grills Smithereen CEO Billy Bauer over Russian bots.” Wait, who? Black Mirror has never mentioned a character named Billy Bauer or anything relating to Russian bots, but Brooker never puts information so front-and-center for nothing. Based on a leak, this is probably a hint at what’s to come in Season 5. A couple weeks ago, the Twitter account for the communications office of Kent County in the U.K. tweeted that a Black Mirror Season 5 episode titled “Smithereens” had filmed in a nearby town. The tweet was quickly deleted, but not before it spread across Reddit. There’s no word yet on when Black Mirror Season 5 will hit Netflix, but be prepared for some Russian bots.

10. The Secret Website
As the most devoted and patient Black Mirror fans learned, there’s a ton of different endings in Bandersnatch. One of them has an Easter egg within an Easter egg… that leads to even more Easter eggs. If you were lucky enough to get to the alternate ending where the Bandersnatch credits roll and keep rolling without a pop-up suggestion for what to watch next, then hopefully you waited until the end. A post-credits scene plays where Stefan is riding the bus. After he pops the ZX Spectrum tape of Bandersnatch into his cassette player, the dial-up sounds of the tape play across the soundtrack. Just a bunch of nonsense noise, right? Nope! Some clever Redditors recorded the audio, put it through an emulator, and out popped a QR code. That code leads to a secret website for Tuckersoft, which is of course packed with Easter eggs.


11. Bandersnatch Game Web Page
The Tuckersoft website will lead to a handful of pages for each of the company’s games, and all of them reference Black Mirror episodes. There’s a web page for Stefan’s Bandersnatch, which is full of White Bear symbols.


12. Play Nohzdyve For Real
There’s also web page for Nohzdyve, but here’s where things get really awesome – you can actually download Colin’s game and play it for real.

As Mashable notes, you’ll need a ZX Spectrum emulator to run the game, so good luck! One fan has already shared a video of what the real game is like to play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AUlkoXpc9o

13. Metl Hedd Game Web Page
There’s a webpage for Colin’s Metl Hedd game, which funny enough, has a note at the bottom revealing the game is “based on true events.” (That text links to the Black Mirror homepage on Netflix’s website so you can watch the “Metalhead” episode.)

At the bottom of the page there’s also an ad for the social media rating system from the episode “Nosedive.” Click it and you can use the actual social media app from Reputelligent to see what your rating is. Warning: this may lead you to lose your shit and have a mental breakdown at a wedding reception.


14. Roachbusters Game Web Page

In the Tuckersoft game Roachbusters, the player is tasked with protecting “the wellbeing of mankind” by killing the roaches. Sounds a lot like the MASS program in Season 3’s “Men Against Fire.”

15. Terror on Rannoch B Game Web Page
Meet Tuckersoft’s most disturbing game yet: one where you kill children! The cover of the game Terror on Rannoch B shows a screaming child with a half-alien face inside a sniper’s rifle scope. Confused? This is a reference to Ian Rannoch, the fiance of Victoria Skillane, who kidnapped and killed a young girl in “White Bear.” Rannoch and his “child killings” are also mentioned in “Hated in the Nation.” (However, it looks like someone over at Netflix screwed up on the game’s web page description.)

Take a peek at the bottom of the page and you’ll spot an ad for Coach. Click it and you can play the same dating app from “Hang the DJ” to find out how long you’ll be with your partner. Good luck, and please don’t blame us if things go south.

16. Rolling Road Game Web Page
Want to win points – and thus currency to feed yourself – by riding a stationary bike? Tuckersoft has just the game! Rolling Road is a nice little nod to the cycling game played in “Fifteen Million Merits.”

17. Pig in a Poke Game Web Page
“Who’d have thought a ramble through the countryside would be so fun,” reads the description for Tuckersoft’s Pig in a Poke game. Sure, lots of fun if you’re a Prime Minister who decides to have sex with a pig on national television! This is a fun little poke at Michael Callow from “The National Anthem.”

18. Valdack’s Revenge Game Web Page
This gives you another look at the “U.S.S. Callister”-inspired game Valdack’s Revenge where you get to fight the villain alongside Captain Daly, Walton, Cole, Packer, and the rest of the Callister crew. Another game inspired by true events.

19. White Bear Game Web Page
The White Bear game briefly spotted throughout Bandersnatch also gets its own web page with a better look at the cover.

20. Tuckersoft 1984 Ad
There’s one more Easter egg hidden on the website. An old job posting ad from 1984 shows Asim Chaudhry‘s Tuckersoft CEO Mohan Thakur. Click on the ad and you’ll be directed to engineering jobs at Netflix.

Did you spot any easter eggs we missed? Let us know on Twitter or Facebook!





Source : TVGuide