Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror is one of the most addictive and thought-provoking shows around, with lengthy Reddit threads dedicated to uncovering its many spoilers and Easter eggs.
However, it seems as if there was one secret which has been hidden in plain sight all this time – and, yes, it has to do with the show’s title.
For a very long time, many assumed that Brooker had looked to the Bible (specifically 1 Corinthians 13:12) for inspiration when it came to naming his anthology series.
“For now we see in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known.”
Using this quote as inspiration, fans deduced that Black Mirror’s title referred to the fact that many of us have an obscure or imperfect vision of reality. That we fail to anticipate the consequences new technologies can have on modern society. That we will only ever reach a full sense of understanding come the end of each episode.
However, it turns out that the show’s title is a little more literal than that.
Check it out:
That’s right: Black Mirror is, quite simply, a reference to the reflection you see on a device when you turn it off
Naturally, the internet has responded to this revelation in exactly the way you might expect: with GIFs, jokes and references to being “beyond shook”.
And, of course, there were a few know-it-alls who couldn’t resist chiming in, too:
However, these guys shouldn’t feel too smug about their powers of deduction – particularly as Brooker himself revealed that this was what the title referred to way back in 2014.
Speaking to Channel 4, the showrunner said: “What I took it to mean was when a screen is off – when a screen is off it looks like a black mirror.
“Because any TV, any LCD, any iPhone, any iPad – something like that – if you just stare at it, it looks like a black mirror, and there’s something cold and horrifying about that, and it was such a fitting title for the show.”
Brooker added: “I mean, I don’t know what else we would’ve called it – Spooky Technology Time?! It would’ve been rubbish.
“I quite like the fact that people are watching it on their TV or on their laptop, or their smartphone or whatever, and then as the end credits start running and the screen cuts to black, they see themselves reflected.”
Yet another reason to go home, log into Netflix and binge-watch every single Black Mirror episode tonight, eh?
Images: Black Mirror/Netflix
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