Summary
Netflix’sBlack Mirrorcan easily be considered the modern dayTwilight Zone. It’s an anthology TV series where each episode is set in some sort of altered reality while focusing on an aspect of the real world and creating a kind of dystopia centered around it. ManyBlack Mirrorepisodes dissect aspects of reality like politics, technological advancements – such as AI tech – and quite often social media. A lot of the time, even if social media isn’t the central theme of aBlack Mirrorepisode, chances are its involved somehow.
As for season 3, episode 1, titled “Nosedive”, social media is entirely what the episode’s about. Starring Bryce Dallas Howard as the protagonist, Lacie Pound, “Nosedive” explores what the world would be like if social media was used for people’s worth in its entirety, from one’s career to deciding who someone could be friends with. “Nosedive” is one ofBlack Mirror’s most memorable episodes for its insightful take on modern society and for how frighteningly close the real world is from entering its inescapable dystopia.
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What Happens In Black Mirror’s “Nosedive”?
The episode follows Lacie Pound, who lives in a cozy apartment with her brother Ryan. Ryan appears to be unemployed and is constantly playing video games with his friends. Lacie, however, has a standard desk job in an office building attached to a café.
When Lacie’s not working – or sometimes while she is – she is mainly focused on her phone, which she only uses for an unnamed social media app. The app allows people to post photos and videos from their daily lives (similar to something like Instagram) where other people can rate the post and the user on a five-star scale. With each good rating given to a user, their overall rating goes up. Ryan is rated a 3.7 while Lacie sits at a comfortable 4.2.
This rating app has such a large prominence in the world that every user even has a digital contact lens that displays someone else’s name and rating when they see them in the real world. Even Lacie’s work requires their employees to have a rating of 2.5 or higher. With every interaction someone has with another, they’ll instantly give them a rating based on how their encounter played out. For Lacie, she tries to be overbearingly nice to everyone and is constantly giving out five stars, which is often reciprocated.
As Lacie tries to figure out how she can boost her rating in order to score a new apartment, her childhood friend Naomi – who is a 4.8 – calls her up. The two have drifted apart significantly, but after a notalgic post by Lacie on the app, Naomi comes to the realization that she wants Lacie to be her maid of honor for her wedding, which involves giving a speech to hundreds of guests that are 4.5 and higher. Just before the call, Lacie learned that receiving high ratings from people who are rated well are more effective in boosting her own score.She then sees the opportunity to attend the wedding, give the speech, and reach the appropriate rating to afford a new apartment.
As she is ready to leave for the wedding, Ryan reminds her that Naomi was always more of a bully to her than a friend. Blinded by the possibility of achieving a 4.5, she ignores her brother’s accusations, and even submits a non-refundable deposit on her new apartment. After a fight, they exchange poor ratings to each other. As she storms out of the house, she bumps into a woman who is a 4.8, causing her to spill coffee on herself. The woman proceeds to give Lacie a one-star rating. After that, she encounters a number of instances, including missing her flight, that eventually pushes her rating down to a 2.8.
Lacie quickly learns that her low rating restricts her from things like renting a decent car, and even affects how others interact with her, often doing what they can to avoid her. She’s unable to charge her electric rental car and tries to hitch a ride, but finds little success as no one wants to stop for her. That is until she meets a woman named Susan who is driving a truck and has a rating of 1.4.
What Happens At The End of Black Mirror’s “Nosedive”?
Susan tells her that she was once a 4.6, and worked hard to get there. She talks about her late husband, who died of cancer after being denied proper hospital care because of his low rating. After that, Susan became more honest, letting go of her desire to please everyone and not caring about her rating anymore. Soon, she lost most of her friends and dropped below a 2. But she was happy and finally free.
At this point, Lacie is going to be late to the wedding, and hitches one last ride in an RV full of people going to the same location as the wedding. However, Naomi notices her rating dropped below a 3 and revokes her invitation from her wedding. Lacie is more determined than ever to make it to the ceremony and does everything she can to make it there, even if it means her rating drops.
She finally arrives, a complete mess – emotionally and physically – and forces herself onto the mic to give her speech. The speech she planned, however, goes awry as she starts to realize Naomi was never a good friend to her, and she begins insulting her and her high-rated guests. In response, the guests down vote her over and over, causing Lacie’s rating to plummet to below a 1. She’s eventually escorted out by security and taken to a jailhouse where her contact lens is removed, and she’s placed in a cell.
As she sits in the cell, she strips down to a bra and looks up to see dust fluttering from the ceiling, to which she laughs with tears coming down her face. She looks over to another cell to see a man staring at her. The two quickly begin yelling profanities at each other and exchange insults, but neither of them seem to be particularly angry with each other. Instead, they find a sort of solace in being able to talk so freely,without the worry of someone giving them a bad rating. The episode ends as they are both screaming, “F*** you!” simultaneously.
Completely disconnected from the digital world and the rest of society that’s run by the unnamed social media rating app, Lacie is finally free to be herself, hence her being unafraid to show her body and screaming insults at another person. She no longer has to display her fake, people-pleasing self and can do, wear, and say whatever she wants, ironically while in a prison cell.
Black Mirror’s"Nosedive" suggests howsocial media is turning into a dangerous devicethat forces people to compare their lives to others instead of being grateful and focusing on the one they have. The episode also displays how social media can influence society’s collective idea of someone’s worth by being subjected to their online presence, even if it’s completely different from the person they are in real life.
