SPOILERS AHEAD
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: If fans were expecting wild twists and turns in 'Black Mirror' Season 6, they've got what they wished for. While the official trailer of the hit Netflix series teased supernatural elements, it certainly lived up to its creator Charlie Brooker's promise. Despite being a sci-fi dystopian anthology, episode 4 was set at a time before the rise of smartphones that made cameras accessible for everyone.
Episode 4, 'Mazey Day', is about a cat-and-mouse chase between a paparazzi named Bo (played by Zazie Beetz) and the beloved Hollywood starlet Sydney Alberti (played by Clara Rugaard). Sydney is more prominently addressed as 'Mazey Day' because she is part of a film franchise of the same name. While the chase intensifies between the two, there is something unnatural about Mazey that causes a cataclysmic event as the episode nears its end. But what was the climax about? Are paparazzi truly devoid of sympathy? Or is it necessary to be cruel just because someone is in the public eye? The allegory and metaphors quickly catapulted to a closed ending.
Being a starlet calls for invasion of privacy
This episode begins with a celebrity named Justin Camley being pursued by Bo, who has explosive pictures of him having a romantic encounter with a man. Justin offers Bo money for the photographs but she refuses to take it and gets referred to as an 'animal' by him. While his suicide prompts Bo to immerse herself in self-reflection and quit being a paparazzo, she cannot help but take up her camera once again as greed takes the upper hand.
As Mazey Day goes into hiding after a tragic hit-and-run caused by her taking drugs, Bo convinces herself to go to any lengths to take her picture. As it turns out, whoever gets the first picture of Mazey Day would get paid $30,000. The amount can go up $40,000 if a picture can be delivered of her being a 'junkie'. Bo scours through her old interviews to find clues of her whereabouts. While Mazey Day is heavily guarded by her security and her doctor, Bo still manages to sniff out her location, almost like an animal. She and her associates follow Mazey to Cedar Wood Retreat and manage to get inside by crawling through the dirt just to take a few snaps.
How does 'Mazey Day' end?
The ending of 'Mazey Day' achieves a full circle moment between Bo and the starlet. The episode started with Bo chasing her and ended with Mazey chasing her down after transforming into her beast form. The depiction of Bo's efforts to find out Mazey's location was similar to Mazey's beast form tracking Bo to feed on her. Both Mazey and Bo were animals in their own way, surviving through life and making the most out of it.
If anything, with the ending of 'Mazey Day' dawns the realization that animals can never get rid of their true nature. Following the bloodbath that takes place at the diner, Bo manages to shoot Mazey by getting hold of a cop, which immediately transforms her back into human form. As she lies on the floor in her own pool of blood, slowly dying, she begs for a quicker death from Bo with the gun. However, Bo hands the gun to Mazey instead, permitting her to turn the gun on herself while she takes up the camera to click one last picture. Once again, she fails to get rid of her natural instincts as a paparazzo and ends up taking another celebrity's life.
