Black Mirror
6×03: “Beyond the Sea”
Directed by John Crowley
Written by Charlie Brooker

* For a recap & review of 6×02, click here.
* For a recap & review of 6×04, click here.
David Ross (Josh Hartnett) is sketching his children, then they’re off to the movies. The Ross family are heading out of the theatre when a couple greet them. It seems that David is famous. He’s actually not quite real; the real him is up in space somewhere. David’s wife Jessica thinks that people are often “goddamn rude” about seeing him in person. He doesn’t seem all that bothered, he even lets one of the people touch his skin to see how REAL he feels. Later at home, Jessica notices a van parked near their house, though she just heads inside. Outside a barn, Cliff Stanfield (Aaron Paul) tells his boy Henry (Daniel Bell) he’s still getting used to his grip, as he chops wood. Cliff brings the wood back to the house, where his wife Lana (Kate Mara) is reading, and he puts some of the wood in the stove.

At a certain time, Cliff and David’s watches alert them it’s time to go for a little nap, so to speak. They sit in a chair, they hook themselves up, and then they close their eyes before waking up aboard a spacecraft The two men find out there was a minor impact with space debris. They have to go fix the solar coating on the spacecraft, meaning one of them has to suit up and head out into space to do the work. Cliff gets ready with help from David, then he heads out while David watches on a monitor inside.
Once the work is done, Cliff and David get back into their beds and transport back to their bodies on Earth. That’s got to be tiring! Cliff goes to the bedroom, where Lana’s reading. She suggests they throw a little party to get to know the locals, but he’s not so sure. Cliff goes to sleep right away without even so much as a smooch for Lana.
At the Ross house, David hears something downstairs in the middle of the night. He goes looking, grabbing his baseball bat on the way, and discovers some hippies, led by a man called Kappa (Rory Culkin), have broken inside. Kappa taunts David, and the hippies circle him, eventually pinning him down to the bar. Kappa uses a big knife to cut David’s forearm off. “You don‘t even bleed right,” he says. “You are nothing natural, my friend.” He orders his friends to go grab the rest of the family, cracking David in the head… and David wakes up back in space. David forces himself back asleep. He comes to on the couch, pinned down, and finds his wife on her knees, along with the kids watching. Kappa chastises Jessica for “defying nature” and lying in bed with an “abomination.” And he orders the brutality to begin. It’s like a twisted alternate version of the Manson murders; fitting, given this episode is set in an alternate 1969.

Cliff receives a horrifying call about the tragedy at the Ross home. He wakes up in space, looking for his friend and fellow astronaut. He finds David in the spacecraft’s garden weeping. He reaches out, quite literally, but David reacts angrily, telling him to leave. Back on Earth, the papers are full of the details of David’s “Earth replica” and his family being murdered by the “hippie cult.” We hear the whole details, specifically that the cult burned David’s replica. Now they can’t make another replica, not while David is actually up in space. So while Cliff can continue to go back and forth between space and Earth, his friend has nowhere else to go except to stay in space. Easy to see how that might begin to cause problems.

Maybe the worst of it is that David can’t even go to his family’s funeral. He has to watch it on a shitty little TV from space (real talk, you’d think they would be able to have a better TV in space if they can create a human replica?!). He has to go on eating terrible astronaut food while Cliff is able to go home and eat with his family. David has to stay in space all alone, staring into the stars and the depths of space, and Cliff’s able to go back home, sleep in bed with his wife, fish with his son. It’d be hard not to resent that, no?
While fishing, Cliff gets a notice of an airlock issue, so he rushes off, leaving young Henry, and heads to space. He finds David in the airlock, supposedly “looking things over.” Is it that David might be suicidal? Was he about to throw himself into the cold of space? Back home, Lana suggests Cliff might allow David to use his link. It’s all about consciousness. David could just use Cliff’s body to have a walk in the woods. A bit of time away from space. Except there’s potential for bad things to happen if David got carried away. Back up in space, Cliff makes the suggestion to David, hoping it’ll help his friend. David thinks he’d enjoy it.
Cliff and Lana prepare for David to use Cliff’s link. It’ll surely be a bit awkward at first, but they’ll get used to it, right? Sure. David lies back in Cliff’s bed, linking up with the replica on Earth. And moments later, David, in Cliff’s skin, wakes up on Earth once again. An out of body experience for David, as he immediately feels his skin and head. A posthumanist adventure. Lana greets David-Cliff and they take a walk in the woods together. David, via Cliff, takes in the breeze, forgetting how clear the air on Earth felt after so much time away. He feels the crawl of a caterpillar over his fingers; the small joys that one forgets when they’re away from the world. There’s something melancholy about it, too, especially after David’s lost everything back there on Earth. He weeps, and Lana comforts him.

Back up in space, Cliff flicks through a copy of Ray Bradbury’s The Illustrated Man (itself a collection of stories focusing on the cold heartless of technology v. the relatively frail psychology of human beings) and wonders how things are going for David at home. In a little while, David returns in his own body in space. He shakes his friend’s hand and tells Cliff that his home “is beautiful.” Then it’s Cliff’s turn to go home, in his own body. He asks Lana how things went since David seems a bit better after the Earthly visit. Lana mentions David crying, which surprises Cliff. As long as it helps David, I guess!
Aboard the spacecraft, David and Cliff workout. After that, David shows Cliff a sketch he did of Cliff and Lana’s house. Cliff is impressed, wishing he had one for his home to hang on the wall. David suggests they get him some oil and canvas and he could repay Cliff and Lana for the help. But that would necessitate Cliff giving over his body to David again, for a period of time longer than one visit. Cliff thinks it’ll help David, who finds that “painting helps.” Lana appears slightly reluctant. Yet they go ahead anyway, setting David’s painting gear up in the barn. David-Cliff and Lana talk a little about science fiction, as he promises to come up with recommendations for her. Then he’s left to do his painting, as Cliff is in space doing his mandated physical. Once David is back in space, Cliff goes home to his body again.

On Earth, David-Cliff gets Lana to try a little stroking… on the canvas. He helps her paint a leaf, putting his hands on hers while she brushes a stroke. This is, of course, just the beginning. David, as Cliff, is starting to push the boundaries ever so slightly. It’s hard to blame Lana if she feels a pull towards him; it is Cliff’s body, it’s just not his consciousness inside. We see David in space starting to sketch Lana. Next time on Earth, he goes up to the house asking for linseed oil to help with his paints. There’s nothing at the house, so David-Cliff asks about a hardware store, giving him a little excursion with Lana into town. While in town, David-Cliff notices a bookstore, so he and Lana head inside; she makes him put on a hat because Cliff typically wears it when they’re out. David-Cliff is doing more to try romancing his friend’s wife by picking up some sci-fi suggestions. When they’re checking out, the clerk recognises Cliff’s replica, so David-Cliff has to play the real Cliff. The clerk mentions David’s family being murdered, which has to be tough for David to hear beneath Cliff’s skin. An awkward, meta moment.
In space, Cliff’s anxiously awaiting the return of David before he can head back to his own body. This time David goes immediately for his sketchbook, surely continuing his sketch of Lana. On Earth, Lana’s in bed reading The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein. When David-Cliff is back again he shows Lana a small version of herself in his painting; the picture Lana is standing on the porch. He puts on a record and asks Lana to dance with him. Things start to get romantic, then sexual, as David-Cliff caresses Lana’s breasts and tries to kiss her. Lana pulls away, running back to the house. Nearby, Henry watches his mother and the body of his father. David-Cliff goes up to the house after Lana. He tries kissing her: “He won‘t know.” Lana reacts angrily, pushing David-Cliff away. He keeps telling her: “You want this.” It seems that David’s gotten quite out of control with his feelings of resentment towards Cliff for still having a life on Earth while they’re up in space. Back in the barn, David-Cliff finds his painting smeared by Henry. The boy later rushes back into the house, prompting Lana to tell David-Cliff to leave. And so David goes back to space, allowing Cliff to go back to his body.

We find out that David smacked Henry in the face. Well, that doesn’t overly bother Cliff, who’s done that “a hundred times.” It is 1969 after all, and plenty of people apparently beat their kids. But for Lana it’s more than that. Cliff says David wants to “finish the painting.” He says it’ll just be one or two more visits, then they can stop. Lana can’t bring herself to tell Cliff about what happened to cause the painting smear incident in the first place, so, they agree to let David finish.
Back on Earth, Lana steers clear of David-Cliff while he goes back to work on the painting in the barn. In space, Cliff tries to do his physical but the equipment isn’t working properly. He winds up with idle time, so he goes looking around the spacecraft. He wanders into David’s room, looking at the sketches on the wall. He sits down and looks through more sketches, some of his own house. Then he finds David’s sketch of Lana, and then another, and another, each more sexualised than the last. Uh oh, bro. On Earth, David-Cliff gets an alert, rushing back to space. He’s confronted by Cliff about the sketches. He says it’s only “a stupid drawing” and “fantasy.” Cliff punches David in the face, and David plays the victim, saying he has nothing while Cliff doesn’t appreciate what he has at home.

On Earth, Cliff is home and he destroys David’s painting. He asks Lana what’s been happening between her and David. He thinks his wife posed for David, but she denies it. She further denies touching David and yet her husband keeps yelling at her. “He draws from memory,” Cliff shouts. Lana swears on her and Henry’s life that nothing sexual happened between her and David. She admits that David wanted it, however, Cliff still blames her for letting David come back again. Cliff’s just unsettled by David’s claims, that he doesn’t touch or satisfy his wife. He’s totally paranoid, believing Lana confided in David. She continues to deny it. She does tell Cliff that when he’s there with her she’s lonely. “But you‘re a shadow,” she says. Lana tells Cliff that for a second it felt like he’d returned, the real him. He’s been disconnected and it took someone else inhabiting his body for him to understand that. In a way, David’s actions have brought about a measure of evolution in Cliff; hopefully, anyway, if Cliff starts being more present with his wife and son.

Back in space, David attempts to apologise to Cliff, who’s not totally willing to accept it. He wants to apologise to Lana in person, too. But Cliff isn’t just going to let David back in his body on Earth after what went on. He refuses David, telling him that Lana called him “a snake.” He says “For all time, she is mine.” That doesn’t work for David. He calls Cliff back from Earth later claiming something on the ship was damaged, which means Cliff has to go outside to fix things up. And while Cliff’s in the coldness of outer space, he finds there’s no damage. He rushes back to the hatch but can’t get back inside without David to let him into the spacecraft again. Suddenly, David lets him in. When Cliff is putting his things back on he sees his tag is missing. David obviously took the tag to pretend he was actually Cliff. So Cliff runs for the link and when he’s back on Earth he sees his hands are covered in blood. He goes through the halls downstairs where there are streaks of blood on the walls. He discovers Lana and Henry butchered in the living room; the screen spins similar to when David saw his family die, as Cliff weeps over his own dead family now. Later, Cliff returns to space where David sits waiting. They have all that time out there in space together now, neither of them with anything to go back to, except Cliff’s body. A haunting ending.