Black Mirror season 7 episode 6 recap: what happens in USS Callister: Into Infinity?

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 6.

The episode opens on Nanette Cole, the clone from the first USS Callister episode, as she dreams about how Captain Daly tortured her. She wakes up as a call from the bridge asks if the Captain is there, to which she replies she is. They've got a target and they request her to come.

It cuts to three men sitting on a snowy planet. They’re waiting for a fourth to join, but a portal appears. It’s Nanette and Nate armed in full gear with guns. They tell the men to hand over their credits. One of the men asks why they don’t have player tags like everyone else and draws his guns. They shoot him and the other two men hand over their credits. Nanette says it’s not just a game for them and one of the men takes a swipe at her before Nate shoots him. Nanette’s bleeding and the final man says there’s not meant to be blood in the game. He hands over his credits. They shoot him anyway and as he’s shot in the head, he turns back into reality where he’s sitting at his desk at home playing Infinity. Meanwhile, Nanette and Nate teleport back to the USS Callister.

Nanette puts the credits into the ship, but it’s only 34 and the crew say it won’t buy them much fuel. Kabir says because they’re monetizing the game so much more now, everything is more expensive. Nanette stays positive and says she’s going to take a rest and come back with a new plan. Nate follows her and says the game is getting worse and they lost Shania four weeks ago. Nanette says there’s 30 million players in Infinity and only five of them now. She’s worried they’re all going to die.

It cuts to real life where Nanette arrives to work at Callister Inc. Her pass is denied and she goes to Elena at the front desk and notices a memorial for Davy. To this, she recalls how she was in his apartment when he dropped dead at his computer. Elena says it’s Nanette’s fault, but she’s referring to her pass expiring, not Daly's death. Nanette asks about the memorial since he died months ago and Elena says Walton put it there to impress a journalist from the New York Times.

As Nanette goes to her desk, she passes by the crew from the ship who work there, too. She looks in her bag at a coffee cup lid labelled Nanette that she has sealed in a ziploc bag. Kabir receives messages in the games' complaints log reporting two people without player tags robbing them. He goes to tell the boss now, Mr James Walton. But, Walton is only interested when Kabir reveals that they don’t have player tags, which means they’re not paying their subscription fees. Kabir tries to tell him it’s more serious than that, but he's not interested.

Nate appears and tries to speak to Walton about getting a promotion from just an intern. Again, Walton isn't listening as he prepares to meet the journalist and gives Nate his drink order instead. Kris El Masry introduces himself from NYT. They head into his office. Nanette is watching nervously from her desk and decides to hack into the cameras in Walton's office from her computer to listen in.

Kris starts by asking about Robert Daly. Walton says he’s sad about his passing as they’d known each other for a long time, but he’s still the heart of Infinity. Kris asks about Infinity and the players being unhappy with rising prices. Kris then brings up the complaints in the forums about the anonymous players robbing other players. He then asks about how one of the players bled when that shouldn’t be able to happen. Walton has no answers.

Kris goes back to talking about Daly and says he wants to show Walton something. He has footage from the first responder’s bodycam of when Daly’s body was found. Kris zooms in and asks about the banned DNA digital cloner on Daly’s desk. When Walton says he doesn’t know what it's for, Kris explains it’s to make sentient digital clones of real people. To this, he asks Walton if illegal clones were copied into Infinity. Walton says no. Kris says if there were clones and they’re bleeding in the game, then the whole company is liable. Walton is angered by this and tells him not to print any of it. Kris says he can’t prove it, yet, so he won't. The whole time, Nanette is listening.

It cuts to the USS Callister. Nanette is repairing her damaged uniform. She finds a player, Pixie Bunkin, playing on her own with 466 credits. She calls Nate to meet her at the bridge. Karl wants to join them, but Nanette won’t let him. She says there’s too much at stake and if they get caught, they’ll get deleted. Karl asks if he can at least sit in the chair while Nanette is gone and she says he can, but not to touch anything or give orders. Kabir sends them down to the target.

In the real world, Walton tries to find Kabir, but he’s left a post-it note on his computer saying, ‘I quit.’ Walton panics and Nanette comes into his office offering to help. She asks for unrestricted access to get an ID on the anonymous players. He gives her access to whatever she wants and she says she wants access to Kabir’s complaint log system. Meanwhile, in Infinity, Nanette and Nate spot Pixie. They split up and as Nanette approaches, she triggers a trap that blows her against a tree, breaking her mask. She drops her gun and Pixie is closing in.

Back on the ship, Karl is still in Nanette’s chair and while the others aren’t watching, he presses a button to start a party. The crew notice the invite request on the screen and cancel it, but now an inbound ship is on its way. They need to leave so they call down to Nanette to get them out. As Elena’s voice reaches her, Pixie is alerted to where she is. Meanwhile, A ‘MetallicaFan’ player tag makes contact with the ship.

Nate starts shooting at Pixie, demanding her credits. As Nanette reaches for her gun, Pixie stands on it. She asks her where her player tag is and Nanette says to just kill her. As she goes to do it, Nate blasts Pixie out the game. But, as they try to leave, Pixie loads back in. Nate kills her again, but she keeps coming back.

On the ship, MetallicaFan wants to talk and asks where their player tags are. They say they like Metallica and he asks their favourite song, to which they say Exit Sandman. Then Karl remembers it’s Enter Sandman, but it’s too late, they’re already being shot at. Nate and Nanette are still being chased as they make it back to the portal, but as Elena tries to get them out, the ship is still being shot at. Just in time, they make it back to the ship. They put in the stolen credit stick which gives them enough to hyper warp away from danger.

At the office, Nanette is looking through Kabir’s complaint log and sees one from Pixie with a video attached. She begins to watch. Elsewhere, Nate spills a coffee and says ‘sweet goddamn’, then in the game, she hears the same voice and phrase. Then, she sees herself on the floor, begging for credits.

Nanette goes to Walton and says she’s ID’d the bandits as Nate and herself. She tells him that she thinks Daly cloned a bunch of the staff and he asks her why she thinks that. She explains that she was in Daly’s apartment when he died. She tells Walton that someone stole intimate images from her PhotoCloud account and then blackmailed her with them to break into Daly’s apartment for them. She was tasked with stealing ziploc bags of all the DNA samples and shows him the coffee cup lid of hers. She says there were loads of them, including Walton, and someone named Tommy who she doesn’t know. Walton says that Tommy is his son.

Nanette says she retraced the call that blackmailed her and it came from the Infinity build inside Daly’s computer. She explains that it was the copies of them that made the call. She thinks that’s who’s in Infinity now. Walton wants Nanette to locate them, but she says she needs access to Daly’s computer.

Back on the ship, the crew are trying to figure a way out of their situation. Karl suggests flying out of Daly’s computer, but Kabir explains his universe was deleted and the wormhole is sealed off. Then, Nanette has an idea. She talks about Daly’s own modded version of the game. She suggests they access the game’s source code and make their own private version of the game. Then, they wouldn't need credits and there would be no other players or threats.

To get to the source code, Kabir shows them the Heart of Infinity, an engine at the center of the universe. He explains to access it, though, you’d either need to be Daly or Walton, both of whom died in the game. Nanette says Walton is still alive in the real world. She wants to contact him, but Kabir says they’d get killed. Karl says they could look in his room, but none of them knew Walton had a room on the ship. Meanwhile, at the office, Walton unpacks Daly’s computer for Nanette.

On the ship, they go to Walton’s room and Nanette says that the ship reset itself when they went through the wormhole giving rooms to everyone alive at that exact moment. Kabir says Walton died before that happened though fixing the thrusters to carry it off and Nanette says maybe he’s still alive. She says if any part of him survived, it would’ve spawned as a new player. Now, they just need to find him and Nanette knows how.

In the real world, Nanette looks through Daly’s crash log and has a list of all the names he cloned. In both the office and the game, both Nanette’s look up the planet that was created when Daly’s computer crashed and both find it. On the planet, Walton is wearing just a rag round his waist and he’s eating a live creature. The portal turns up and Nanette appears. Walton grunts at her. She introduces herself and he returns to normal. In the office, Nanette and Walton enter the game.

They land on the same planet as their clones and watch them as the Walton clone grabs his things to leave. Walton asks if they’re going to kill their clones in the game and Nanette says no, but the Nanette clone spots them and shoots towards them, telling them to come out from hiding. They introduce themselves.

Finally, they go back up to the ship together as a four. Kabir explains everything that’s happened to them inside the game to the real Nanette. About how Walton was fixing the thrusters so they could get through the wormhole and kill Daly, but he got incinerated. Then they figured out he respawned. While the two Nanettes talk to each other, the clone reveals they need access to the Heart of Infinity with Walton’s permission. But when they go to ask, Walton grabs a gun and opens fire. Nanette begs him to stop, pleading that they’re human, but he says they’re illegal and it’s a game. Karl sacrifices himself, getting killed, but gives the Nanette clone a chance to shoot Walton out of the game.

Before Walton can come back in Nanette exits the game and takes the system from him and leaves. Walton follows her out and says they need to kill them, but Nanette says she quits. He begs her to help him, offering her money. But as she steps out into the road, she’s run over. Walton takes her things and runs back into the office, leaving the man that ran her over to call for help.

Back on the ship, clone Nanette is upset about what happened. Clone Walton goes to her to explain what’s inside the Heart of Infinity. It cuts to 12 years ago. Walton arrives at Daly’s house to meet him for the first time. He goes to see the game and Daly shows him his Space Fleet collection that inspired Infinity. Then, he puts him inside the game. Walton convinces Daly to expand the game and says they’ll launch it for online play.

While Daly struggles to keep up with the demand Walton has on him to make the game bigger, Walton shows him the DNA cloner that was outlawed, but that he had invested in. And so, he makes a clone of Daly to put inside the game engine. And that clone is trapped inside the Heart of Infinity, building the whole game. Nanette realises then that real Nanette is in trouble and tells Elena to contact the real world. Nanette’s phone rings and a doctor picks up. She tells her that Nanette is in a coma and has suffered severe brain trauma. The doctor tells her to come and say goodbye.

Instead, they head to the Heart of Infinity. Meanwhile, Walton goes back in the office and picks up one of Daly’s old Space Fleet comics about vengeance. He calls Kabir and asks for help. He offers him money and Kabir agrees. First asking him how to get back into the game, which Kabir explains he puts the nubbin back on and says resume game and he’ll go back to the same place he was, on the USS Callister.

It cuts to the ship and Nanette asks to be sent into the Heart. She arrives outside Daly’s old garage where he started Infinity. The door opens and Daly’s working inside. He introduces himself. Back on the ship, Nate blames Walton for what’s going on and he removes himself to go back to his quarters. Inside, the real Walton knocks the clone Walton out to take his position in the game.

Black Mirror USS Callister: Into Infinity ending explained

At the Heart, Daly explains he hasn’t had a single visitor. She says Walton sent her there to speak to him and that while she has reasons not to trust him, she needs a favour. He asks why he can't be trusted and Nanette explains that she’s met him before, but it’s complicated.

On the ship, Walton comes back in, but this time it’s the real Walton. When Nate approaches to apologise, he gives him a coffee order. Suspicious, he asks Walton to tell him Nate's first name, but he can't. Before Nate can grab him, Walton presses Invite All on the ship deck interface. Then, the Walton clone comes back out and real Walton says exit game and disappears.

They quickly realise that Walton sent a mass invite to everyone they’ve robbed in the game. Back in the real world, Walton follows instructions to spectate the game to watch the damage he's done. On the ship, all the players start arriving.

Meanwhile, Nanette has told Daly that he died in the real world. Daly wonders why he behaved the way he did and he thinks that Walton exploited him. Nanette asks Daly for her favour. She wants to transfer her and the crew to a private universe on a secure cloud server and lock it off so it can never be found. He agrees to help. On the ship, the crew dive into the Heart of Infinity to escape the players chasing them and trying to kill them.

Daly finds a floppy disk that he says only needs to go into the drive to save them. But, he wants to ask a question first. He asks if she’d like to just leave. He pulls up Nanette in a coma in the real world, but explains he could copy the clone Nanette across and merge their consciousnesses. He explains though that if she exits to her body, the ship will get wiped from the game, along with the entire crew. She'd have to pick an option. He says it’s like an episode of Space Fleet and Nanette chooses to save the crew.

Daly then says that’s what the Captain chose, too, in the Star Fleet episode and it was all just a test. He reveals there’s another choice, she can save everyone. He says then that he'll copy and paste them across. To this, she corrects him and say it’d be cut and paste if they were transferring them.

He reveals he wants to keep the Nanette clone in there with him. He says he’d treat her good, but Nanette says he might say that now, but he won't. Daly panics that he’ll be alone forever. While Nanette pleads to Daly to just cut and paste, he asks her to stop and then removes her mouth. When she pulls her gun out he lifts her up and smashes her into the wall. She grabs a weapon from the floor and throws it into his head, killing him.

To this, the computer says the kill switch has been activated and starts deleting the entire game. Meanwhile, the ship is still being pursued by Pixie and Nanette struggles to find the floppy disc to put into the drive to save them as the entire Infinity universe falls apart. She finds the disc just as the ship is about to be destroyed and completes the transfer. In the real world, as Walton celebrates because he thinks they’ve been killed, a fatal content error appears on his screen.

At the hospital, Nanette wakes up and the rest of the crew are inside her head. She looks at herself in the mirror and sees herself. On the ship, Kabir gets Elena to phone Nanette’s cell. She’s talking to them and tells them where she is, but when they already know, then she realises where they are. Meanwhile, Walton has called real-world Kabir to ask about the error. He explains it means the game’s been deleted. Infinity is gone.

Then, it cuts to a news report on the TV. Walton has been arrested after three months on the run. Nanette is watching, and the crew in her head are watching through her eyes, too. She says she’s making some progress on getting them out of her head. For now, they put on a show to watch together.

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