USS Callister, one of the best episodes of Black Mirror season 4, is finally getting a sequel to give all the key characters a conclusive ending. The story revolves around a video game company, Callister INC, that, in the near future, has developed a multiplayer online gaming platform called Infinity that gives gamers access to a virtual universe where they can compete against each other. With the wearable device called the “Disk,” the players can transfer their consciousness to the simulated reality, enabling them to take control of a spaceship and conquer the infinite universe. The first episode of season 4 mostly focuses on Robert Daly, the developer of the game, who can better be described as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. In his pursuit to seek revenge on his fellow colleagues, Robert ends up being the real villain of the story. With that said, allow me to narrate all the key events of the episode to prepare you for its upcoming sequel, USS Callister: Into Infinity.
Spoiler Alert
Robert Never Got His Due Credit
Robert Daly and James Walton’s story was a classic Silicon Valley one. Robert had always been the brains, while James Walton was the face of the company. They started the company together, much like Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, but Robert never got his due credit. Robert, being a video game nerd, designed “Infinity” from scratch. He grew up watching a television show, Space Fleet (inspired by Star Trek), and wanted to create something similar as he grew up. However, no matter how impressive his invention was, Robert never got the appreciation he deserved. Robert had always been an introvert… the shy guy who couldn’t sell the idea to the investors. Robert knew how to code, but he couldn’t strike up a decent conversation with anyone, which was where James stepped in. He pitched Robert’s brainchild as “their” idea and laid the foundation of the company, declaring himself as the CEO, while Robert was made the CTO, who handled the technicalities of their product. As the company grew further, James started treating Robert like a golden goose and neglected his contribution to their success. Robert, fuming with anger, wanted to revolt, but he didn’t have the courage, or maybe he didn’t want to jeopardize what they had created. Even though it was Robert who did all the hard work, he knew that he needed James to make the business profitable, and therefore locked himself in his room trying to find another way to vent his feelings.
Robert created a space fleet mod
If you have ever played games on your PC, then you might be aware of what mods are. I mean, I am not a gamer, but in very layman terms, they modify your game, or add on content to the original game, where you get custom maps, characters, weapons, etc. So Robert, deprived of any fame and credit, started working on a secret project and created a Space Fleet Mod that wasn’t a part of the Infinity’s virtual universe. It ran on his personal computer but was still connected to the internet just to get some future updates and patches to the base version of the game. In USS Callister, we didn’t exactly get to see what the original game looked like, as the entirety of the episode focused on the Space Fleet Mod, so it’s likely we’ll find out more about Infinity in the upcoming sequel episode. In this mod, everything, from the characters to the starships and villains, was inspired by Robert’s favorite TV show, with him playing the captain, the lead protagonist of the show, something he always aspired to be. Even the name of his company, Callister, was a little tribute to the Space Fleet, though James hardly ever noticed or bothered to ask.
Robert wasn’t exactly the hero in real life. I mean, he was the guy who literally created the game, but no one cared about his accomplishment. Everyone considered James the main guy, and Robert couldn’t do much to change people’s perception because he was an introvert. So, he created his alternate reality where he was the hero and James was his subordinate. In this simulation, Robert became everything he wanted to be in life: a leader, a fearless warrior, and the man in charge who always takes the trophy home.
USS Callister revealed that Robert had an advanced DNA tracing machine through which he could upload anyone’s DNA onto his computer and make digital clones of them. Obviously, he uploaded them into his game so he could control the clones of the real people in his office and take revenge on them for treating him like a loser. I wouldn’t have considered Robert a loser, not until I found out that he would go to any length to claim his superiority. It’s true that all the people whom he had cloned from his office treated him like trash and saw him as a creep, but Robert proved them right by treating them the same way in his virtual universe. In the episode, he made digital clones of his friend, James, and all the other people who worked in his office and turned them into characters from his favorite TV show. Robert wanted to be their boss, where he was respected by everyone around, and the simulated reality gave him the chance to make his desires come true. The thing is, Robert had a choice to behave like a noble leader in the simulation, but he decided to treat these people the same way they treated him in the office, making him no different than the others. However, things went a little too far when he uploaded a digital copy of Nanette Cole, the new engine architect.
Robert Is A Creep
Nanette literally hadn’t wronged Robert in any way. She was nice and friendly to him and admired his work, yet Robert stole her DNA and made a virtual clone of her, turning her into one of his prisoners. I guess it wasn’t Nanette who was at fault here, but once again, James, who started flirting with Nanette, making Robert feel jealous. Maybe Robert, who had accepted himself as a loser, knew that Nanette was out of his league and that James would finally win over her, just like how he took over the company, which was why he decided he wanted to own the woman and brought her DNA home so he could do whatever he desired. This was the moment where you could see Robert the nerd turning into a villain. You finally witness the dark side of him. He’s no longer a hero but more of a pathetic villain who could cross any lines to torture people he didn’t like. And yes, he had turned the gym guy from the office, Karl Valdack, into the main villain of his game, because the beefed-up muscle guy often made fun of the CTO in front of others. It seems like Robert wanted to have the last laugh and made Valdack the antagonist of his virtual universe so he could capture and kill him millions of times over. He had also cloned a digital copy of James’ six-year-old son, Tommy, and killed him in front of his father’s eyes to take revenge. He made it loud and clear to the entire crew that he wouldn’t mind hurting their loved ones and turning them into monsters if they refused to submit to his will. The crew had no other option but to follow Captain Daly’s commands.
A Grit to Steal the DNA
It took some time for the virtual Nanette to realize what exactly had happened to her and how she’d ended up being a part of the USS Callister crew. The folks on the starship explained to her in-depth who Robert was and the things he was capable of. As soon as Nanette was hit with the truth, she wanted to kill herself, but things didn’t work like that in the virtual universe. I mean, even if any of these characters killed themselves, Robert would still have their DNA and could create another copy of their digital clone, so it wouldn’t solve the issues, right?
Nanette was on the verge of accepting her fate when she saw a silver lining in space. The Christmas update patch of the game had created a wormhole in the mod as it was still connected to the main server. Nanette believed that if they could travel to the wormhole then the system firewall would recognize the rogue coding and erase them, setting them free of Robert’s grasp. However, the core of the issues still remained the same. Robert had their DNA, which meant he could recreate the clones again even if they were deleted. So, in order to deal with this crisis, Nanette decided to contact her real self so she could blackmail her into stealing the DNA from the vault in Robert’s house, which she believed would solve all their concerns. Nanette had uploaded some really explicit photos of herself on the PhotoCloud, and she decided to send those images to her real self to get things in motion.
The Update Patch
During USS Callister’s ending, the crew set a trap for their captain, Robert Daly, and he fell straight into it. The thing is, Robert, the nerdy genius, never thought that simple folks like his juniors could ever pull such a stunt. He looked down upon them just like James ignored him in the office. I guess when you hate someone from the bottom of your heart, you eventually end up becoming like them. No matter who your enemies are, never underestimate them, and I think Robert learned this lesson the hard way. The crew told the captain they’d picked up a distress signal. It was a trap, but Robert, always willing to play the hero, took the bait and went straight to the surface of Skillane IV with Nanette. And while she kept him busy and tried her very best to seduce the guy, the crew teleported his omnicorder back to the ship. They needed the device to make contact with the real-life Nanette and blackmail her into stealing from Robert’s house. Things went as planned, and as soon as real-life Nanette sneaked into Robert’s house, she ordered a pizza to keep the guy busy while she stole the things her blackmailer wanted. She even replaced Robert’s disk with the fake one as instructed by her blackmailer so the crew would get enough time to fly the ship to the wormhole before the update ended.
Robert Daly Is Dead
In USS Callister’s ending, Robert returned online before the rogue crew managed to escape into the wormhole. And as soon as Robert found out about his crew’s plan, he boarded another starship and started chasing them down. The update was almost finished, because of which the wormhole was shrinking fast, forcing the crew to go through an asteroid belt that ultimately destroyed their shields. Their engines went down due to the impact, which was when James decided to sacrifice his life so that his crew, the new family, could have a chance to survive and escape the vicious captain. In the end, the crew finally made the jump, and the firewall scrapped Robert’s Space Fleet Mod. The rogue custom build was gone, and Robert’s controls were disabled. The firewall deleted his mod from the local server as well, with Robert’s consciousness still stuck inside it. Yes, this meant Robert’s brain was gone forever, and he was dead for good.
The Crew Are On The Main Server
In the end, Nanette and her new friends found themselves on Infinity’s online server, the one open to all players across the globe. The crew of the digital clones could now interact and play against the real player in the simulated universe. With Robert’s mod wiped out, their clothes and character skin returned to universal settings, or the game’s original code. In the end, Nanette took command of the USS Callister and directed the crew to fly the ship into the infinite universe and explore what it has to offer. USS Callister: Into Infinity, being a direct sequel of the episode, as the trailer suggests, will follow the crew on new adventures across simulated reality, where they will be dealing with a new crisis. I guess we can expect the return of some of the old characters as well, except for Robert, as he is already dead, and Jesse Plemons is likely not reprising his role. In the trailer, one can spot Nanette and her crew coming under attack and even a shot of James, which means he’s going to be a part of the game as well. One can even see two Nanettes standing next to each other, implying that her real self and digital clone are working together against a common enemy or something like that? Well, like I said, the possibilities are infinite, and we will find out more about the sequel’s premise once the episode hits our Netflix screens. So, stay tuned.
