Black Mirror season 7 episode 4 recap: what happens in Plaything?

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 4.

The episode opens on a man walking under an overpass wearing headphones. He goes into a convenience store, grabs a bottle of alcohol and goes to steal it. The shopkeeper locks the doors and tells the man the police are on their way.

When they arrive, the man is sitting on the floor. They ask him to remove his headphones and the camera on the police officer’s vest takes his photo. He confirms that his name is Cameron Walker. Then, they take a swab of his mouth. It alerts them that he's a high profile suspect and the police officer arrests him on suspicion of murder.

At the police station, the police officer explains to DCI Kano how Cameron wanted to show her a drawing he’d done and was upset when they took his keys. A woman approaches and introduces herself as Jen Minter. On the surveillance camera, they watch as Cameron asks for a pen and paper. Meanwhile, the officers that arrested him go to check out Cameron's flat. Inside, there’s mountains of old technical equipment and gaming consoles.

Back at the station, Cameron is still asking for a pen as he follows DCI Kano. He asks why they took his keys and DCI Kano explains to search his flat. He doesn't want them to touch anything. It cuts to the officers coming across a door bolted with a padlock and chain. Back at the station, DCI Kano shows Cameron a photo of a suitcase and asks if he recognises it. He says he does. Kano explains there was a body inside that they can’t identify and asks Cameron why he did it.

At Cameron’s flat, the police break into the locked room and inside is a desk with a computer covered by a tea towel. Loads of machines are pointing at the screen all wired up and filling the entire room. They can hear a weird noise. Back at the station, Cameron asks about the central state computer that's watching them. DCI Kano ignores him and demands the victim’s name. Cameron asks what Jen is doing there and she explains she’s there for psychological evaluation. To this, he starts talking about his childhood. An only child with a violent father, bullied at school, he says he only made a couple of friends. In 1994, he was playing games and writing about them.

It cuts to 1994, Cameron is much younger and playing on a computer in an office. His boss comes over, drops a copy of PC Zone on his desk and tells him he has something for him. He talks about a programmer called Colin Ritman that went mad, but that he’s back coding a new secret project for Tuckersoft. Colin has asked for Cameron to come personally to the office for an exclusive preview.

He arrives and a man called Mo greets him. He takes him to meet Colin. Immediately, Colin says that Cameron lacks confidence, but that he likes it. They sit down together and when Colin asks what they’re going to look at and Cameron says a game, he says no. He explains that most games are about conflict and killing and he thinks they should make software that improves us as human beings. He hands him a disc that says Thronglets on it. He explains it’s about creatures, sentient life, not a simulation. He says it’s not an actual game, in fact they’re actually real life forms that exist entirely in a digital world.

Colin explains that the experience begins with hatching a Thronglet that you then nurture and care for as it grows and expands. Then, it’ll replicate. Unpredictably, they’ll evolve in the code. As game sounds play, Colin explains that they’re trying to talk to Cameron. There’s no words, just sounds, that the Thronglets came up with themselves. When Colin steps out to take his medication, Cameron puts the Thronglets alpha build disc in his bag.

It cuts to modern day when Cameron is explaining why he stole the disc and he says he thinks Colin wanted him to. It cuts to the past and Cameron is playing Thronglets, feeding his first hatch, bathing it and looking after it. He explains they then replicated and the noises they made were like ‘digital birdsong’. He said he would spend hours playing it and they felt like his friends.

Jen asks him about the friends he mentioned he made in real life and he explains he only had one outside of work. It cuts to him younger and his friend turns up to stay. In present day, he explains he was called Lump, though he never knew his real name. He said Lump saw a soft touch and exploited it. Back in the past, Lump tells Cameron he’s in town selling stuff and he opens up a book with little paper tabs of acid inside. He holds two on his fingers.

In present day, Cameron explains that that was the first time he took acid, but it was incredible. He says when it happened, he could understand the Throng’s language. He said the first message he received from them was a greeting and a request for more equipment. He explains once the drugs wore off, he couldn’t understand them anymore. So, in the past, when he wakes up, he goes to Lump and asks him how much he can buy from him. After, he goes to buy all the equipment the Throng are requesting, sets it up, then takes more acid. He connects a camera and a microphone so they can start talking back and forth.

At the police station, Cameron says the more he spoke to the Throng, the more they understood and connected. DCI Kano asks again about the body and he says he’s getting to it. It cuts back and Cameron’s phone is ringing. It’s his boss asking for his preview of Thronglets for print the next day. He's on acid still. He says he needs to come into the office to write it because his computer is busy and as he goes to leave, Lump is there. He wants to crash for a few days. He lets him and stumbles his way into work. As he sits on the tube, he’s tripping out and sees the words, “they know” everywhere. He makes it in and starts writing up his preview.

At home, Lump is playing a video game. He heads into Cameron’s room looking for a lighter. In present day, Cameron begins to explain that humans consider other lifeforms to be less than them. It cuts to Lump taking the tea towel off Cameron’s computer and looking at the Throng. He immediately starts dropping rocks on them, killing them as the others scream and run. He blocks a group of them in and then starts adding fire, laughing. Cameron says they were getting treated like playthings.

At the office, Cameron’s boss receives a call from Mo at Tuckersoft. He comes over and tells Cameron that Thronglets isn’t getting released. He tells him that Colin had another breakdown and wiped the source code and all the backups. To this, Cameron rushes home. When his boss sits down to see what Cameron had written, it’s all in code.

When he arrives home, he sees Lump at his computer and hears the Throng screaming. Lump jokes that they hate fire. Cameron freaks out and throws a glass ashtray at his face to which Lump jumps at him. They begin to fight and Cameron strangles Lump to death.

In present day, Cameron explains how humans can still act like cavemen. It cuts to Cameron cutting up Lump’s body in the bath and then pulling it outside in a suitcase, putting it in his boot, and dragging it into the woods. DCI Kano shows Cameron a photo of the body in the suitcase and explains it has no hands, no head, no identifying marks. Cameron says he couldn’t go to prison because he needed to look after the Throng. DCI Kano asks for Lump’s real name, but Cameron again says he doesn’t know it.

Black Mirror Plaything ending explained

It shows Cameron coming back to the Throng after Lump's destruction and knowing the Throng witnessed what he did to Lump in retaliation. Cameron apologises to them, but he says they were scared of him now. So, he devoted his life to protecting them. He explains how he had to upgrade for them to help them evolve.

Cameron buys loads of different gear over many years as the Throng expands and more and more of them arrive. For this, he had to keep taking drugs to understand what they wanted. Jen asks him to describe the thoughts the Throng were sharing with him, but he says is is more complex than even their language and he'd need a pen and paper to show it in a diagram.

He then explains that apart from looking after them, they’ve also been working together. He said the Throng told him they wanted to co-exist with humans, but to do so they needed to study human minds physically. He says they designed a neurological interface that meant the Throng could connect to him directly, which he installed into his own head. He turns round and shows them it. He explains now that they’ve merged with him, his mind as the computer and them as the code.

DCI interrupts him again and asks who the body is, but Cameron continues to tell him he only knew him as Lump. He says he’s not there for anything, but to be the messenger and that’s why he stole the bottle that morning. So, he could come into the station and deliver the message from the Throng. He says for this, he needs a pen and paper. Jen and DCI Kano step out. Jen wants to give him the paper, but DCI Kano doesn’t. They agree to let him in hopes they’ll find out who Lump is.

On the paper, he draws what appears to be a pattern that he tells them is code. He shows it to the central state computer and explains that he couldn’t breach the firewall from outside, but now the Throng can gain access to the state computer’s power. It means they’ll have more processing capability than they’ve ever had. They can now make a signal transmissible to the human mind which will only need to be heard. Now, the Throng are going to trigger the global emergency broadcast system through the computer and every connected device in the world is going to transmit the signal.

As DCI Kano’s and Jen’s devices start loading something, Kano loses his patience and hits Cameron. Jen holds him back as Cameron explains that they don’t need to be afraid. He says they’ll merge with an advanced collective intelligence, an upgrade for everyone. DCI Kano continues to beat him. Suddenly, a high-pitched static plays out and DCI Kano’s head snaps backwards with his eyes rolling into the back of his head. Everyone drops to the ground. Then, the sound stops and Cameron offers his hand to DCI Kano to pick him up off the floor.

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