Black Mirror season 7 episode 4 review: Plaything rating and what happened at the end?

• Peter Capaldi stars in Plaything - while Will Poulter returns
• It is the fourth episode of Black Mirror season 7.
• See what we made of the episode in our review.

Synopsis: In a near-future London, an eccentric murder suspect is linked to an unusual video game from the ‘90s - which hosts a society of digital life forms.

Black Mirror delivers its first clunker of the new season in the middling Plaything - despite a wild performance from Peter Capaldi. See my rankings of every episode of Black Mirror.

From the off you can tell this is going to be a more ‘British’ episode of Black Mirror. It is tapping into the same police procedural vein as Hated in the Nation from season three.

Peter Capaldi is a whirlwind from the off and there are some intriguing early elements - like the DNA swabs that all police seem to carry around. It also reveals itself to be a sort of spiritual successor to 2018’s Bandersnatch - with Will Poulter back as eccentric game designer Colin Ritman.

The episode unfolds through multiple timelines as Peter Capaldi’s modern Cameron Walker recounts the story of the body in the suitcase. It is split between 2034 and 1994 - with Lewis Gribben playing a younger version of the character.

Similar to Hotel Reverie it is a take on the idea of digital lifeforms - but in a less immediate way than that episode. Ritman has created creatures called Thronglets, which make up the Throng, and after he shows it to Cameron, he steals the disc for himself.

An acid trip seems to convince Cameron that he can understand the Thronglets language and writes down a ‘shopping list’ from them. However after leaving Lump, a drug dealer who occasionally barges his way into his life, at his flat, Cameron returns to discover the Thronglets are being killed.

In a burst of rage he kills Lump - who is revealed to have been the body discovered in a suitcase. A grisly scene shows young Cameron covered in blood and using a saw to chop up the body before hiding it in the woods.

Plaything ending explained

After explaining about the murder, 2034 Cameron tells the police about how he has continued to care for the Thronglets. Regularly upgrading his setup until they reveal they want to co-exist with humans.

He shows the police the ‘home surgery’ he performed on himself to allow the Throng to ‘port’ themselves into him. Cameron claims to be a ‘messenger’ for the creatures and continues to demand a pen and a piece of paper.

Cameron draws a shape and shows it to the camera in the interview room allowing the Throng access to ‘the state computer’. The computers and phones stop working, leading to DCI Kano (James Nelson Joyce) attacking Cameron before the Throng sends out a signal that knocks the whole world unconscious.

In the final moments of the episode, Cameron stands over Kano and extends his hand towards him.

Plaything is not the worst episode of Black Mirror ever, but it does feel distinctly middling. It is fine, but never manages to offer more than that despite Capaldi’s over-the-top performance.