Black Mirror season 7 episode 2 recap: what happens in Bête Noire?

Black Mirror season 7 is a thrilling and futuristic anthology series from the brilliant mind of creator, Charlie Brooker.

Each episode of Black Mirror tells a different twisted tale of modern sci-fi dystopias. Over six episodes in season 7, an anthology of captivating realities is built piece by piece. From AI to infinite timelines, different themes, characters and plots unravel over the course of each unique episode. Tackling these futuristic and complex themes can quickly become complicated though, leaving much to be studied and understood.

Here's a recap of everything that happened in Black Mirror season 7 episode 2.

It opens on a young couple, Maria and Kae. Maria is trying out some food samples she’s taking to a focus group at work. On the kitchen side, Kae takes off his cap, which says Barnies on it.

It cuts to Monday and Maria arrives at her workplace, Ditta. In the office Nick and Luisa argue over him stealing her vegan milk. Yudy asks Maria to come and try out the chocolate bar she asked her to make in the test kitchen. Maria says it looks like a regular Huckle Buck, but with no nuts or nougat. She says she doesn’t want to get her epipen for her nut allergy.

It cuts to a focus group gathering round a table. Sitting in a concealed room, Maria is joined by Nick, Luisa and Yudy to watch. The group is interrupted by a woman entering late. Maria sits forward in recognition as the woman introduces herself as Verity Greene. Nick asks if she knows her, and Maria explains she went to her school, but Verity looks very different now.

The focus group are introduced to the chocolate bar, a fresh take from their head of flavour. It’s the Huckle Buck with no nuts and nougat, but they’re not told what they're trying. Firstly, a man says it’s ‘rank’, while another says he likes it. Verity tries another one and says the second one is tens times better, prompting them all to try another and they all agree that now, they like it.

In the toilets afterwards, Verity comes in and says hello to Maria. Verity asks Maria if she’s also there for the tasting thing, but Maria explains that she works there in R&D. Verity seems surprised, but goes on to explain she loved the tasting and is going to apply for the research assistant job in R&D. Maria looks uncomfortable and tells her she doesn’t think there’s any jobs going, but Verity said it says so on the website.

Verity talks about how she loved a lab at school and reminds Maria that she was a geek, while Maria was popular. Maria says she has to go and then heads back to her desk checking that there is a job on the website, and there is. Surprised, she goes to see her boss, Gabe, about the hiring. He says they’re expanding. He also says Ditta is impressed with Maria’s mallow concept and he’ll be in Thursday to try it.

That evening, Maria tells Kae about Verity appearing at her office looking for a job. He doesn’t see the issue, but Maria calls her the ‘school freak’. She explains Verity was really clever, but had no social skills. And then tells him there was a rumour that Verity did something sexual with a teacher. She explains that when this one girl, Natalie Caine, heard about the rumour she made it worse. She’s confused why Verity wants to work with her when she was so clever with computers.

It cuts to Tuesday. Verity is in the office interviewing for the job and she gets hired immediately. Maria goes to ask Gabe about it and he says she’s overqualified, but Maria isn’t sure if her resume is legitimate. She then explains that Verity was odd at school, but Gabe promises to ask around. At home that night, Maria tells Kae about what's going on at work and he asks if she’s got beef with Verity but she says she doesn’t, though her face says otherwise.

It cuts to Wednesday, Gabe jumps in the lift with Maria and explains he looked up Verity and everything checks out. He then tells her he told Verity she can learn the ropes with Maria. In the office, Verity is giving everyone flapjacks and they’re praising them. It cuts to Maria showing Verity her mallow concept, the Doubloon. She tasks her with listing all the ingredients to give to the test kitchen to make. As Maria starts verbally listing them, Luisa is angry in the kitchen that someone has drunk all her almond milk again. Maria can’t focus on telling Verity to use carrageenan, as Ditta doesn't eat meat, so she says she’ll email Verity instead.

While she’s emailing, the rest of the office are talking about their favourite fast food chicken restaurants. Nick mentions Bernies was his, but that they went bust. Maria corrects him and says it’s called Barnies. They tell her she’s wrong and she starts to get angry. She says she knows for a fact because Kae worked there and still wears the cap.

They agree to look it up and when they do, Maria is wrong. When she goes home to look at the cap, it now says Bernies. She shows Kae, but he says it’s always been called that. She tells him it’s changed, but he says it hasn’t. Maria then says she’s annoyed at Verity making friends with everyone and he defends her, which she doesn’t like. They argue and she walks off.

On her computer, Maria looks through old school photos and sees Verity watching her in the background. She hovers her mouse over one of the girls and it says Natalie Caine. She looks at the contact on her phone for Natalie. They haven’t messaged since Christmas four years ago, but she sends her a message asking to catch up.

It cuts to Thursday. Mr Ditta is in the office. Gabe introduces Maria as ‘of chilli flake Bête Noire fame’. He goes to try the miso Huckle Buck and loves it on first bite. Then, he tries Maria’s Doubloon. When he tries it, he loves it, and she explains it’s made from a plant-based ingredient called carrageenan, derived from seaweed. As she explains it, Yudy behind her looks worried. As Mr Ditta leaves, Yudy explains she used beef gelatine in the mallow. Gabe says Ditta is Hindu and they just fed him beef. Maria explains she specifically put carrageenan, but Yudy says Verity didn’t have it on her list.

When they’re called into Gabe’s office together, Maria explains how she told Verity non-pork gelatine and specifically carrageenan, but Verity denies it. Maria explains she wrote it in an email and Verity asks her to stop shouting, even though she isn’t. Though Gabe agrees she’s been raising her voice. Gabe asks to see the email. And in the email, it somehow says non-pork gelatine, even though she typed carrageenan. Gabe asks Maria to apologise to Verity, so she does.

Maria then follows Gabe and pleads her case. He says she clearly has personal issues with Verity. He asks Maria if she wants to take some time off and that she can talk to him if she needs to. He then tells her to get off of Verity’s back. At home, Maria tells Kae that Verity changed the email, but again he defends Verity saying that maybe it was a mistake or she sent a draft.

She’s interrupted by a text reply from Natalie, though it’s actually from Natalie's husband. He explains that Natalie died a few days ago. She calls him and he explains that Natalie killed herself. He goes on to tell her that in the weeks leading up to it, she wasn’t acting rationally and seemed paranoid. Maria keeps asking him if Natalie had been in touch with Verity Greene, while her boyfriend tries to stop her, she persists until Natalie’s husband hangs up the phone.

It cuts to Friday. Maria turns up to the office and no-one is there, until Verity shows up and asks her why she's not at the team meeting that’s happening downstairs. Maria says she didn’t see the email. Verity asks her if she has a problem with her and asks what she thought of her at school. Maria says she didn’t know her at school, to which Verity says people used to say things about her and the teacher. She explains the teacher was nice to her, but then he got transferred and she had nothing. Maria says she never had a problem with her and apologises that she had a hard time at school.

Black Mirror Bête Noire ending explained

To this, Verity comes round to the kitchen and takes Luisa’s almond milk out of the fridge, keeping eye contact with Maria, and drinks the whole thing, dropping it to the floor and walking away. Everyone comes back from the meeting and Gabe asks Maria why she didn’t come. Maria says it must’ve gone in her spam folder. Then, Luisa comes back and is angry about her almond milk. When she asks the office who did it, Verity shrugs and looks at Maria.

Immediately, Maria points at Verity and tells them she did it. To this, Verity acts sad and asks her why she’s acting that way. She says she didn’t want to say anything because Maria is so intimidating but Maria was the one who drank it all. To this, Maria says she couldn’t have drunk it because she’s allergic to nuts. Gabe says to settle it, they can check the camera.

As they go to watch it, Verity is holding onto her necklace while she says it wasn’t her, it was Maria. And when they play the tape, it shows Maria grabbing the milk from Verity’s hands and drinking it all. Maria says she couldn’t have done that because she’s got a nut allergy. Again, Verity holds her necklace and says there’s no such thing as a nut allergy. To which Gabe then says, what’s a nut allergy? When Maria tries to explain, none of them know what she’s talking about. So, she searches it on the internet and the only response that comes back is ‘not allegory?’ Maria realises Verity is changing things through her pendant necklace and goes to grab it, but Gabe stops her. As Verity looks at her, she winks, which sends Maria into a frenzy.

It cuts to Gabe firing Maria. As she looks out to the office, everyone’s standing around Verity as she’s crying. Outside after work, Maria is waiting in her car for Verity and follows her when she leaves. Verity drives into a gated private home and Maria sneaks in on foot. Verity goes to her bedroom and puts loud music on, so Maria breaks in downstairs. There’s huge servers taking up an entire room. Maria heads upstairs and she sees Verity close the door to her en-suite. She sneaks into her bedroom and searches for the pendant, but it’s nowhere to be found.

Around her room, there’s photos of Verity as an astronaut, on the cover of Vogue, posing with Harry Styles and she finds the pendant on charge. When she tries to interact with it, it denies her fingerprint. She hears Verity coming out of the bathroom and drops to the ground, sliding under the bed.

Verity sits on top while she dries herself and while Maria tries to activate the pendant again, it buzzes and she gasps. Verity tells her to come out, so she does. But, she's holding the pendant and tells her she knows it changes reality somehow. Verity explains it’s a remote that connects to the quantum compiler downstairs and that’s what changes it. She doesn't need the pendant Maria has because she’s got loads of copies. She explains it’s not changing anything exactly, just re-tuning the corporeal frequency to a parallel reality that where whatever she says into the remote has always been true. In a world of infinite timelines, she picks one that she wants to be a reality. One where Maria is the only person that knows what’s going on.

Maria asks her how and Verity explains she built it. She says she can change small things like the colour of Maria’s top, and she does. She then makes her speak Chinese, moves them to the office, and then takes it all away. Maria says she doesn’t understand and Verity says she doesn’t care. All she wants to do is hurt her. Maria asks her why and Verity tells her because Maria started the rumour. Verity explains that Natalie Caine told her it was Maria, just before she jumped to her death. Maria admits it and says she doesn’t know why she did it. She says it wasn’t her fault that Natalie ran with it and everyone else went with it, too. Verity explains that she was lonely and bullied.

Maria says she could use the pendant to be anything, like become Empress of the Universe, and Verity says she’s done that, she’s done it all and been it all, but her past still follows her. She says it took her five weeks to break Natalie, but Maria has only been five days.

Verity then asks Maria how she'll take her own life. But, Maria jumps at Verity and they start fighting. Verity grabs the pendant and tells it that armed police are there and that Maria has come with a knife. Both appear and Maria drops the knife and holds her hands to her head. As she’s turned around and facing Verity, Maria grabs the policeman’s gun behind her and shoots Verity in the head, killing her. She quickly hides behind the bed and looks at Verity still holding the pendant. She grabs it in her fingers and says “the pendant works for me”. This changes control of it, allowing her to speak into it and telling it that Verity shot herself and the policeman saw it all. They change their attitude to suit and she tells the pendant that they work for her now. She tells them they worship her because she is the Empress of the Universe. Suddenly, she’s surrounded by worshippers and everyone’s bowing down and shouting her name.

All episodes of Black Mirror are available to stream on Netflix now.