(Photo: Netflix)
Last week, Netflix released the much-anticipated interactive Black Mirror episode Bandersnatch, and it was just as creepy as anticipated.
It was also filled with Easter eggs from previous seasons, and the internet has been working hard to discover them all.
Here are all of the Easter eggs from Bandersnatch, but if you haven’t seen it yet, stop reading now and go watch it immediately. Serious spoilers are ahead, and the episode is fantastic.
Ready? Let’s begin.
1. Metalhead
The Tuckersoft game Metl Hedd is a nod to the Season 4 episode Metalhead. You can check out the game right here on the Tuckersoft website.
2. Nosedive
When Stefan first visits the Tuckersoft office, developer Colin Ritman shows him a demo of his new game Nohzdyve, which references the Season 3 episode Nosedive starring Bryce Dallas Howard.
There’s also a secret ending featuring the episode: We see Stefan listening to a tape that’s playing weird noises, and if you run those sounds through a ZX Spectrum emulator, it gives a QR code that takes you to a page on the Tuckersoft website where you can download Nohzdyve. Neat, huh?
Plus, if you click on the ad with the stars at the bottom of the page, you can find out your rating on the site rateme.social, just like in the episode Nosedive.
I did it and found out my rating is a humble 3.1. All I can say is I’m proud to be a loser.
3. San Junipero
Stefan’s psychiatrist, Dr. Haynes, has an office is in Saint Juniper’s Hospital, referencing the episode San Junipero.
4. Black Museum
Another play on names: Stefan’s psychiatrist is Dr. R Haynes, which could mean that she and Rolo Haynes from Black Museum are related.
5. White Bear
The same bracket symbol Stefan is being haunted by is seen throughout the Season 2 episode White Bear.
6. Hang the DJ
On the Tuckersoft page for the game Terror on Rannoch B, there’s another ad at the bottom of the page for the dating service Coach…which is the service used in Hang the DJ.
So. Creepy.
I went ahead and clicked on the ad and tried out the “system” with myself. Apparently, my relationship with me expires in nine years. Yay.
7. The National Anthem
In one of the possible endings in Bandersnatch, we jump from the ’80s to modern day, where a young woman named Pearl Ritman — Nohzdyve developer Colin Ritman’s daughter — is adapting Stefan’s game.
When she’s being interviewed on television, various headlines run across the bottom of the screen, with the first one reading: “Former PM Michael Callow wins celebrity bake-off.”
If you’ll recall, Michael Callow is the British Prime Minister who was blackmailed into having sex with a pig in the Season 1 episode The National Anthem.
What’s more is that Bandersnatch teases a game called Pig in a Poke with a poster as a reference to the act, and the Tuckersoft website has a description of the game, reading:
“Who’d have thought a ramble through the countryside would be so fun? You must escape from flying arrows and giant bees, squishing the little mice as flowers bloom all around you.”
8. Hated in the Nation
The second headline in the same news broadcast reads: “Granular to unveil prototype ‘pollinator drone.’” You may remember this from the Season 3 episode Hated in the Nation, where robotic bees are hacked to go haywire, killing a lot of people.
9. The Waldo Moment
Yet another headline says: “Liam Monroe enters Buckingham Palace.” Liam Monroe was the Conservative Party politician in The Waldo Moment, in which a cartoon bear named Waldo actually gets involved in politics — but only to mock politicians.
However, his mockery only made Conservatives even more powerful, and apparently ended up putting Monroe in British state power.
10. Crocodile
Another headline that says: “U.K. police test groundbreaking memory recall device” references the Season 4 episode Crocodile, where a device dubbed the Recaller is used to reconstruct crime scenes.
It may also refer to An Entire History of You from Season 1, where people have implants that allow them to replay memories.
11. USS Callister
We see a headline that announces the cast of Space Fleet reunited at the Emmy Awards, which is the Star Trek-like show that Robert Daly is obsessed with in USS Callister.
The video game Valdack’s Revenge is also produced by Tuckersoft, and the poster is even on Stefan’s bedroom wall. See it here on Reddit.
12. Fifteen Million Merits
On Tuckersoft’s website, there’s a poster for a cycling game called Rolling Road. The description reads:
“Think you’ve got what it takes, hot shot? See if you can ride your bike day in, day out, going absolutely nowhere, but everywhere at the same time.”
Clearly, this is a nod to Fifteen Million Merits, where everyone is forced to cycle on a stationary bicycle to accumulate merits…and the term “hot shot” is the name of the singing show.
Another reference to the episode is the fact that in Bandersnatch, Stefan’s dad smokes a brand of cigarettes called Wraith’s Gold Band, and one of the judges from Hot Shot in Fifteen Million Merits is named Wraith.
13. The Newspaper
In the newspaper we see when Stefan kills his dad, multiple previous episodes are mentioned.
- “The Love Machine” = Hang the DJ
- “Space Fleet” = USS Callister
- “15 Million Talent Team” = Fifteen Million Merits
14. TCKR Systems
We’ve been seeing TCKR Systems in multiple Black Mirror episodes, including San Junipero where they created the technology that sent the elderly to an alternate reality, and in Black Museum, where museum proprietor Rolo Haynes worked for them.
Now, it’s appearing in Bandersnatch as Tuckersoft, which is where Stefan works.
14. Playtest
Here’s a different one: All the way back in the Season 3 episode Playtest, Bandersnatch made a cameo appearance on the cover of a magazine.
Why so many Easter eggs? Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker says Bandersnatch could actually be the origin story for all of the episodes in the series.
He told the Hollywood Reporter:
“Well, I think you will find — as [‘Bandersnatch’ games developer] Colin Ritman explained — that there are many, many realities and universes, so I guess this probably opens up one of them. With the Easter eggs and with the wide mythology surrounding the show, it’s useful for us to think of it that it’s a nice nod for superfans who notice that Tuckersoft becomes [Mirror-verse tech company] TCKR. It can function like that.”
