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Black Mirror Season 7 didn’t just deliver another round of dark tech tales, it brought something unexpected to the table: the return of a character fans haven’t stopped thinking about since 2017. In the season finale, USS Callister: Into Infinity, Jesse Plemons briefly steps back into the role of Robert Daly, the troubled genius from one of the show’s most acclaimed episodes. The moment is short, sure, but it carries weight. Daly’s presence in this new story isn’t just a clever callback. It hints at something deeper: the lingering impact of unresolved trauma, the idea that even in virtual worlds, ghosts don’t just disappear.
The show that turned fear of the future into a cultural mirror
When Black Mirror first arrived in 2011, it didn’t try to predict the future, it just asked what could go wrong if we followed certain paths. And the answers were rarely comforting. Created by Charlie Brooker, the anthology series has explored everything from social credit systems and mind-reading devices to grief-processing AIs. It’s a show about technology, yes, but more than that, it’s about people. Our desires, our flaws, our inability to let go. Over the years, Black Mirror has grown from a cult British gem into a global phenomenon on Netflix, attracting top-tier talent and bigger storytelling scope. But even with all that evolution, its core has remained intact: human nature under a technological microscope.
Rewinding to USS Callister: power, control, and digital cruelty
The original USS Callister episode hit different. What started out looking like a cheeky Star Trek parody soon turned into one of the darkest character studies in the series. Robert Daly, played with eerie precision by Plemons, is a software developer whose real-world frustrations drive him to build a twisted digital fantasy. Inside his game, he’s not a shy coder, he’s a commanding space captain, ruling over digital clones of his coworkers, copied without consent. It’s a sharp, painful look at how power can corrupt when there are no rules and no witnesses. The episode won critical acclaim, including an Emmy, not just for its production, but for its complex moral layers. It asked: if you make a digital copy of someone, do they deserve rights? And what happens when the person in control no longer sees them as human?
Into Infinity: when consciousness refuses to die
Cut to 2025. In Into Infinity, we find out that Daly, or at least a version of him, never really left. His consciousness, or some fragmented echo of it, has been preserved in the game. That’s the kicker. He’s dead in the real world, but alive in code. And that changes everything. It forces the characters, and us, to reckon with what it means for trauma to survive, not just in memory, but in digital architecture. Daly becomes more than a villain revisited; he’s a reminder of what we fail to confront. He’s what happens when pain is left to fester behind firewalls and code.
A performance that still unnerves
Jesse Plemons doesn’t need much time onscreen to make an impression. His version of Daly in this new episode is quieter, colder, but no less threatening. He’s not shouting orders or throwing tantrums. He just… exists. Watching. Waiting. And somehow, that’s worse. In this cameo, he feels more like an idea than a man. The idea that systems built by broken people can carry their dysfunction forever, unless someone pulls the plug.
Two selves, one question: what makes someone real?
The return of Nanette Cole also pushes the story forward in surprising ways. This time, her real and digital selves aren’t fighting, they’re merging. Together, they find a way to survive beyond Daly’s influence. But the fact that they can even do that raises heavy questions. If a clone can grow, adapt, and feel, what does that say about the line between original and copy? Black Mirror doesn’t give a clear answer, it never does. But it makes you sit with the question.
Critics and fans weigh in
Reactions to Black Mirror Season 7 have been mixed, but Into Infinity stood out as a standout for many. Some episodes this season were seen as safer or less biting, but Daly’s reappearance brought back that old Black Mirror tension, the kind that stays with you long after the screen fades to black. Online, fans shared theories, debated meanings, and once again wondered how close we really are to the futures the show imagines. If one thing’s clear, it’s this: USS Callister hasn’t lost its grip on the audience.
Some reflections never fade
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Revisiting USS Callister was never just about fan service. It was a deliberate choice, one that speaks to Black Mirror's long-standing themes. The idea that we don’t always get closure. That technology doesn’t erase trauma; sometimes, it preserves it. That our worst impulses can live on in places we’ve forgotten to look.
And so, when Robert Daly appears once again, silent and watchful, it’s not just a narrative twist. It’s a warning. A whisper from the code. A reminder that even in simulated worlds, the past has a funny way of finding us.
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