Apr 14, 2025 09:03 AM IST
Black Mirror S7E3 ‘Hotel Reverie’ echoes ‘San Junipero’ with a queer love story set in a dreamlike AI film simulation starring Issa Rae.
Black Mirror season 7’s third episode ‘Hotel Reverie’ is more like a successor to season 3’s ‘San Junipero,’ with both of them featuring queer love stories. The episode sends Hollywood’s A-list star Brandy (played by Issa Rae) to a different dimension in an immersive AI remake of a vintage British film where she must stick to the script if she ever wants to make it home. The dimension is made possible by ‘Redream,’ a company that recreates characters and plots from Hollywood movies by making their AI constructs so that users can interact with them in the simulation within their dreams.
Brandy immerses as the lead in a recreation of her favourite film, Hotel Reverie, in which she plays the gender-swapped hero Alex Palmer. The movie also stars her favourite actress, Dorothy Chambers (played by Emma Corrin), as her romantic interest, Clara Ryce-Lechere. However, due to some technical issues, Clara not only finds out that Brandy isn’t real but also learns the fact that she was played by the closeted actress Dorothy.
Warning: This article contains spoilers for episode 3 of Black Mirror Season 7.
What happens at the end?
The AI construct of Clara becomes gradually self-aware through the episode. Even though she’s reset by Redream’s representative Kimmy (played by Awkwafina), she keeps on recalling that Brandy called her Dorothy once – which is somehow a major turning point and revelation in her journey. That moment was enough to send Clara down her own path to escape from the plotline, even if it results in her death.
However, the change from Clara to Dorothy isn’t received well by Brandy. She can’t even follow the same principle that self-aware Clara does, as she has to stay alive and get out of the dream. She doesn’t want Clara to realise the true nature of the connection they have, as it would lead Clara to think she’s trapped in a simulation. There would remain no reality for them to exist together.
In the recreated film’s climax, Clara shoots her husband, which isn’t in the plot, and she too gets wounded after opening fire on a detective. Brandy, who is reluctant to leave Clara behind in the simulation, struggles to deliver her final dialogue but eventually does as Clara dies in her arms. She wakes up from the simulation into the real world, still fazed by whatever happened.
