Two-time Academy Award–nominee Paul Giamatti joins Black Mirror, playing true to his Sideways niche as a compelling curmudgeon in "Eulogy."
The fifth episode of Season 7 centers on a lonely old man named Phillip Connarty (Giamatti), who is contacted by a company called Eulogy to alert him that 1) Someone he knows has died, and 2) His memories could be valuable to the next of kin for "an immersive memorial" at the funeral.
The male voice on the phone to Philip's quiet, cluttered, seaside home says, "You won't have to write anything. The Eulogy system curates your recollections and uploads them for the memorial."
Philip is resistant. But before he can tell Eulogy to get lost, a drone appears dropping off all the equipment, including a guide disc, that he'll need to revisit his hazy, bohemian twenties in a Brooklyn artists' co-op called "The Coop." That was when he knew and loved Carol Royce (née Hartman). But as the system guides Philip to use physical prompts — like photographs — to surface memories, what is uncovered is jealousy, misunderstanding, and heartbreak.
Who is Phillip's guide through Eulogy?
Phillip's guide through the Eulogy process is a pleasant English-sounding avatar (Patsy Ferran), who initially is cajoling, even as the gruff American resists every step. But as the story of Phillip and Carol unfolds, the avatar's tone gets sharper. The more Phillip snarls about times he felt Carol let him down, the less understanding the guide is of him. She begins to push Phillip to consider Carol's perspective. Did she want to switch from playing cello to keyboard to play in his band? Did she desire to spend Halloween with some Beetlejuiced creep who was not her boyfriend? And most, pressing of all, why did she leave him once he proposed marriage?
Why is the Eulogy avatar so invested in this decades-old breakup? It's because the guide is modeled after Carol's surviving daughter, Kelly Royce.
Is Kelly Phillip's daughter?
The virtual assistant is a cookie, a digital replication of a human's consciousness used as a super-advanced — but arguably unethical — version of AI in a variety of ways: household monitor ("White Christmas"), robo bestie ("Rachel, Jack, and Ashley Too"), and torture device ("White Christmas" and "Black Museum"). Here, the cookie is used to guide mourners through their memories of Kelly's mother, Carol.
Cookie Kelly's identity wasn't supposed to be a mystery. But impatient Phillip opted to skip the introduction, which included who he was talking to. More than simply an AI assistant, she's a reflection of the daughter of Phillip's long-lost love. Even when Kelly goes from being a voice in Phillip's head to a full-bodied companion in his mind as he tours through old memories, her face doesn't ring any bells. He's never met her, and he has put great effort into eradicating the memory of her mother's face. While Phillip may be oblivious, Black Mirror fans might suspect there's more to Kelly's appearance than meets the eye. But the real twist of this episode is that Kelly is not Phillip's daughter, though she could have been — albeit not biologically.
For decades, Phillip's recollection of Carol has festered with resentment, so he's long missed some telling clues dropped in their last night together. He recalls the fancy restaurant, the champagne he ordered, and how she didn't drink a sip. He remembers she'd put on weight. But even after Carol ran away from his marriage proposal, Phillip didn't put together the clues that she was pregnant. The baby wasn't his. As Kelly's cookie reveals, Carol had a one-night stand as revenge for Phillip's affair with Emma. The biological dad was never a big figure in Kelly's life. But Phillip could have been, if only he'd found the note.
In a very Sleepless in Seattle move, Carol left a note at the hotel, spilling these secrets and offering Phillip one more chance to reconnect the following day at the stage door. But in his raging sense of rejection, he trashed the hotel room and overlooked the note with her nickname for him on it, "Philly."
What are the clues to Cookie Kelly's identity?
The first comes on the phone call. The man on the phone is from the UK and his voice is British. At first, the guide (Ferran) being British may not mean anything beyond it being the default setting of the UK-based company's app. However, the caller also mentions the service has been employed by Carol's daughter, Kelly Royce. And as Eulogy is meant to help the grieving remember the departed, it'd make sense in the world of Black Mirror for that virtual guide to be modeled after someone close to the recently deceased.
When Phillip talks about the first time he met Carol, he makes a snide remark about her "character," noting that she never mentioned she was engaged when they met. While Kelly doesn't say anything, her face gets pinched with displeasure at the remark. This suggests she knows Carol.
When Phillip talks about his band The Head, the guide gets irritable, as he is dismissive about Carol's preference for the cello to the keyboard. He blames Carol for the band's failure, noting that her "heart wasn't in it."
The guide responds, "Maybe you should have let her play cello," adding, "The cello was important to her. She played it her whole life, taught her daughter to play it." That's an interesting and very specific fact! But Phillip is so aggravated he blows past it with an insult, asking if she was coded to be "mildly annoying."
Here comes another clue. She says, "I wasn't really coded, more generated." Phillip interrupts with another insult: "generated from some digital asshole." She looks hurt. After his abrupt apology, they move on together. Things only get more heated.
With Carol not around to channel his anger at, Phillip takes it out on Cookie Kelly, who gives it right back. "What did she do that was so awful," the guide demands, "so heinous that you became this wounded dog?" This leads to the story of Phillip's fateful trip to London to visit Carol. As he furiously recalls the night he proposed and Carol ran, the guide presses him on what it meant that Carol wouldn't drink the champagne. Then she says, "She was pregnant with me. Kelly Royce's daughter. The one she taught to play cello."
Cookie Kelly goes on to explain that she's a "disposable avatar, a temp guide, an echo really. I'm programmed with her thoughts and opinions, so I can decide what she'd like to include [in the memorial] without her having to be exposed to everything herself. Which as you can imagine, might be upsetting."
"Crocodile" tech finds better use.
In Crocodile (Season 4, episode 3), the computer interface is a "memory dredger" or "corroborator," placed on a user's temple, which allows an outsider — in that case, a claims adjuster for Realm Insurance — to view the memories of the subject. In the episode, a collection of memories from various witnesses is used to build evidence of what really happened. While looking into a car collision claim, one investigator accidentally stumbles across a murder cover-up, a discovery that proves fatal for her and her family.
In "Eulogy," similar tech allows Phillip to revisit his bohemian youth. Through Eulogy's system, he is able to stroll back into the old apartment building where he and fellow artists flopped, created, and partied. He's able to return to the rooftop where he first met Carol. But as he's destroyed her face in every photo — in a very dramatic breakup move — he can no longer access what her face looks like.
The end of "Eulogy," is surprisingly sweet and even upbeat for Black Mirror. Through Kelly's coaching and Eulogy's software, Phillip is able to recover one precious memory in full. Playing a cassette tape Carol made for him, he remembers standing in the hall of the apartment building, listening to Carol play the cello she loved so much. He steps into the photo, and takes the place of his younger self. This time, he can see the face lost to resentment. And there she is, glorious and shining. But in the episode, this rediscovery plays intercut with his arrival at the funeral all the way in London. There, he sees the real Kelly. Who doesn't know much of him at all, but plays the cello in memory of her mom. She looks up, and seems to nod to him at the back of the church.
What does the end of "Eulogy" mean?
That's up to the eye of the beholder. Has Eulogy changed Phillip's view of Carol enough that he can reach out to Kelly? Sure, the wounds aren't healed. But by the end, he's able and willing to see Carol's face again. He recognizes that the troubles in their relationship were not all on her. And he yearns to say goodbye, enough that he flies internationally to go to her funeral. But is that all? Could it be that his time in his own mind with the virtual Kelly has him hopeful that it's not too late to be her dad? I think so.
One of the most optimistic episodes of Black Mirror, "Eulogy" shows how grief can be a bear, but can also bring people together. Sure, this Kelly won't have had the heart-to-heart talks that Phillip had with her cookie. But that means he might have a second chance to be a bit more tender this time. A second chance to make a first impression, and a second chance to be the dad he might have been.
How to watch: Black Mirror Season 7 is now streaming on Netflix.
Topics Black Mirror Netflix Streaming
