Black Mirror Season 7 ending explained: How does USS Callister: Into Infinity continue after its original episode?

Black Mirror rarely continues the story of one episode into another one, but Season 7 breaks that rule with two of its episodes. Episode 4, titled "Plaything," is the sequel to the 2018 movie, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, while the other episode, titled "USS Callister: Into Infinity," is the "USS Callister" follow-up from season 4. The latter is a deeper dive into the virtual world of Robert Daly, created and reveals that his reign of terror may not be over as anticipated.

Robert Daly and James Walton are the co-founders of the Infinity game, with Daly dying at the end of the original Black Mirror episode—both in real life and in the game. In the game, he was driven into a wormhole, where he became trapped, following which an update deleted him from the game. However, the rest of the crew survived and were respawned into another universe. The clone version of Nanette Cole now leads the crew, which includes the clone versions of Kabir, Karl, Nate, and Elena.

In the following section, details regarding the finale of Black Mirror Season 7 are listed as we explore how "USS Callister: Into Infinity" continues after its original episode in one of the previous seasons.

How does Black Mirror's "USS Callister: Into Infinity" End?

The sequel to the Black Mirror episode, "USS Callister," begins a few months after the death of Robert Daly. Nanette Cole still works at Infinity, but she has no idea about the clones. However, she has her suspicions, which are confirmed when she overhears a New York Times journalist confront Walton about Robert's use of a cloning machine. In the virtual world of Infinity, the crew is no longer just a crew, it has to fight to survive. As the logline for this Black Mirror episode reads,

Robert Daly is dead, but now the crew of the USS Callister - led by Captain Nanette Cole - are stranded in an infinite virtual universe, fighting for survival against 30 million players.

Now, in order to survive, the crew has to attack other players to steal their credits. Since none of the members have player tags, their illegal activities raise suspicions among Infinity employees, namely the human Kabir, who reports to Walton. However, his ignorance about the matter makes Kabir quit his job. Nanette, after overhearing Walton's conversation with the journalist, tries to help Walton.

The twist is revealed when they realize that Robert had himself cloned Walton, his son Tommy, and a few other employees into Infinity and that the crew is stealing credits. Nanette and Walton go into the game, find the crew, and discover the truth of Robert's virtual life before his death.

However, the real-life Walton tries to shoot the clones to remove any proof of the cloning, following which clone Nanette shoots him out of the game. Real-life Nanette attempts to prevent Walton from going back into the game and tries to leave with all the important information. Walton tries to bribe her into working with him, but she refuses and is soon hit by a car, which sends her into a coma.

This Black Mirror plotline becomes more complicated when, in the game, clone Walton tells everyone how the real-life Walton has cloned Robert too, and that Robert lives at the Heart of Infinity. They realize that only the game engine clone of Robert can save the crew by shifting them into a private universe.

Clone Nanette teleports to Robert, where he offers her two options. First, to save the entire crew according to the original plan, or second, to save just herself by having Robert put her into the real-life Nanette's head, who is currently in a coma.

Although Clone Nanette wants to save the crew, Clone Robert wants to keep a copy of her with him. Her attempts to stop him culminate in a fight, and she ends up killing him with his Bargradian cutlass.

Meanwhile, real-life Walton enters the game and sends out mass invites to everyone the crew has robbed in order to remove them entirely. The crew almost beats every player attacking them before the game is deleted as a result of Robert dying.

Clone Nanette manages to save herself and the crew by transporting them into real-life Nanette's mind just before the game is destroyed. Both the Nanettes fuse into one consciousness, and the crew lives in Nanette's mind, giving her privacy in exchange for letting them stream The Real Housewives of Atlanta.

The seventh episode of Black Mirror ends with James Walton being arrested by the FBI after being on the run for three months, while Nanette and her crew are seen returning to safety. When asked if there will be a follow-up to this episode, Black Mirror creator Charles Brooker tells Tudum

“I would not rule it out, [but] I wouldn’t say we've got a definite plan to do that,''

He continues,

“There are several Black Mirror episodes I’d definitely return to if we found the right story.”

Black Mirror is currently streaming on Netflix.

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