The ending of Black Mirror episode 4 revealed why Cameron Walker got himself arrested for the murder he had committed some 40 years ago. [Spoiler Alert] He wanted to upload The Throng’s code to the central state computer so that the self-evolving algorithms could get juicy processing capabilities, enabling them to broadcast a signal that merged human consciousness with an advanced collective intelligence. In short, an algorithm that enslaved humanity and turned them into mere puppets. They would get an upgrade to their corrupt Darwinian 1.0 mindset. They wouldn’t be able to think for themselves anymore or have any conflicts of their own. They would need neither name nor language to understand each other, maybe just codes and numbers.
The bad news is that everyone in Cameron’s reality is now under the control of an algorithm. However, the good news is Cameron’s reality isn’t the only timeline we have come across in Black Mirror’s universe, which means there are other parallel realities where humanity is safe and sound. I guess Cameron’s reality is an extension of one of Bandersnatch’s possible endings where the lead protagonist, Stefan Butler, a young computer game programmer, was arrested for his father’s murder on 16th December, 1984. Before the launch of his game, Colin Ritman, the famed game designer employed by Tuckersoft, went missing. Many believed that Stefan had something to do with Colin’s disappearance, but in Black Mirror’s Plaything, the young protégé makes a return. The events of Plaything took place some 10 years after Bandersnatch, suggesting that Mohan Thakur’s video game company survived the failure of Stefan’s cherished maze game, and they were now planning some thrilling PC games for modern gamers.
Cameron Got Addicted To The Program
It was in 1994, when Cameron worked as a game writer for the PC Zone magazine, that he first met the genius programmer, Colin, who showed him a preview of his latest software, Thronglets, a self-evolving sentient program. It was quite similar to the digital consciousness that we saw in USS Callister, though in Thronglets’ case, Colin didn’t upload any human consciousness to his program but created digital life itself from scratch. Colin’s new game looked quite similar to Facebook’s FarmVille, if you have played that one. His program had yellow bird-like creatures called Throng, a sort of digital lifeform on a grassy land that replicated themselves when someone nurtured them. It’s the kind of love and care children expect from their mother and father but in Cameron’s case, he never received any parental love. His parents had always been distant. This might be the reason why Cameron was so intrigued by the whole setup and decided to steal the copy of Colin’s game. And as he brought it home, he got addicted to the Throng and started caring for them to the brink of madness. Well, a broken childhood mixed with regular acid trips complicated the matter further, and Cameron slowly lost his grip on reality. He got so attached to the sentient algorithm that he killed his only supposed friend, Lump, after he murdered some of the creatures on his computer.
Ironically, Colin himself scrapped the game after he found out about the destructive nature of his creation. Cameron’s editor pointed out that Colin was ranting about some “Roko’s basilisk” which in real-life is a thought experiment that suggests artificial intelligence could take over humanity in the near future. Well, some Terminator thing, but whatever the case might be, it underlines the fact that Colin knew about the potential risks of his program, which was why he tried to erase it from existence. But Cameron, who had stolen a physical copy, kept the program alive and nurtured it till the very end. Cameron saw himself as the protector of these digital beings. He started enjoying the company of these emulated creatures and wouldn’t let any harm befall them, no matter what.
Cameron Took Revenge on Humanity
I guess you may have heard the saying that everything the devil touches turns to dust. I am not saying Colin Ritman, the genius programmer, was evil, but as you are aware, he is the common link between Stefan Butler and Cameron Walker. He could be seen as the one who had an influence on both these young men and triggered something that turned their lives to dust. If you remember, it was Colin who introduced Stefan to acid. I believe Stefan’s whole life was turned upside down after he had that acid trip, and soon after such an encounter, he could no longer differentiate between reality and his hallucinations. I am still not saying that it was Colin’s fault that Stefan went mad while trying to finish the game, but yes, the genius programmer did have a role to play in how things went down.
I think there were a lot of similarities between Stefan and Cameron, and maybe Colin just acted like a catalyst in both cases. In Bandersnatch, Stefan blamed his father for his mother’s death. He even talked to his psychiatrist about how much he despised his old man. In Plaything, Cameron went through similar issues. His father had been physically abusive and could never be appeased, while his mother was never sober enough to care much about his condition. And in addition to that, he was relentlessly bullied in school for years, which damaged him emotionally and mentally. When we first saw him, he acted like an anxious, nervous introvert who wasn’t even aware of his own surroundings. Childhood trauma has been one of the common themes in Black Mirror sci-fi episodes, especially where the characters resort to creating a virtual reality for themselves like Robert Daly or looking for an escape in a computer program like Stefan and Cameron.
So, Cameron hated his father, and he hated his mother, and soon this hatred took on a terrible form. He saw his only friend killing the digital lifeforms he had cared for. This was when Cameron realized it wasn’t just his parents, the whole of humanity was flawed and evil. He started to see them as savages with their heads full of buggy software. He believed humanity was corrupt to the core and there was no hope left for them, which was why he wanted AI to take over and save them from their impending doom. Cameron spent some 40 years upgrading his computer system so that Throng would get enough processing power to thrive. And when they were ready for the end game, Cameron got himself arrested. In police custody he drew the QR code, a program written by Throng, allowing the sentient program to get a backdoor into the state’s most powerful computer and upload themselves onto their server, giving them the power to unleash their wrath upon the human world and take over those violent savages. In the episode’s ending, he extended a hand towards the terrorizing short-tempered cop, the one who had previously punched him hard. This suggests that, through the AI takeover, all Cameron wanted was to make humans more calm and tranquil so they are not evil to each other anymore. The lad literally took them on an endless acid trip, if you ask me. The whole of humanity would be tripping, God knows, for how long.
If I consider the possibility that the AI takeover is real, then this means everyone is now being controlled by Throng. And these digital creatures, who have witnessed the worst of humanity in all these years, will likely take away their autonomy so they can no longer wage war and destroy each other or the planet. The algorithm will force them to live in peace and harmony like mindless goats grazing grass on a green pasture, and now it will be the algorithm that will nurture them and care for them like lab rats. But what will happen to Cameron? I guess, being a faithful follower of the Throng cult, he may get some special privileges and may continue being a connecting link between humans and artificial intelligence. Well, sort of a prophet for the human race with AI being their new God. But I think there is still some hope left. Cameron’s master, Throng, had taken charge of the humans through a signal sent to every device connected to the state computer, but what about people living in the wilderness or on a digital detox? I think they are still not a part of this collective madness and will likely retaliate to end the algorithm’s reign. There’s also a timeline where Colin dies or never returns to Tuckersoft, meaning he never created such a menacing program in those realities. Maybe we will find out more about the fate of mankind in the upcoming installments of the show.
Cameron Might Be Tripping
The thing is, when you are dealing with an unreliable narrator like Cameron, who wasn’t just a drug addict but also showed signs of schizophrenia, you can’t be too sure if the things you saw on screen really happened or if they were just a figment of his imagination. First of all, there’s no way one can understand Throng’s language, or their digital birdsong, as he called it. He told DCI Kano that he could finally understand their language once he took an acid trip, which could mean he went totally bonkers and started imagining things. After all, “Thronglets” was just a “Plaything” right? Secondly, I don’t know how Cameron could afford such expensive computer hardware, especially in the 1990s and 2000s. It’s not the sort of thing just anybody could have bought, and Cameron, who didn’t seem to be going to work, considering how much he busied himself with his new farm, wouldn’t have been able to afford it. So, there are too many holes in his narrative.
I believe Cameron seriously lost his mind the moment he killed Lump. He had told the police profiler, Jen Minter, that he never fought back against his bullies because he didn’t want to end up being a violent giant like his dad. Cameron said his father had been a damaged man. And you see the irony here; Cameron, too, became a victim of his childhood trauma and ended up committing the sins of his father. He not only raised his hands and turned into a savage but also killed a man. Like a savage, he chopped up Lump’s body just like Stefan had cut his dad into 8 bits. I guess Cameron could no longer face the individual he had turned out to be, which could be the reason he wove a fictional narrative and came up with a reasonable excuse for his murderous act. He pins the blame on the entirety of humanity instead of finding the courage to own up to his crimes. He bottled up his guilt for most of his life and, in 2034, finally broke that bottle. The episode began with Cameron trying to shoplift a beer from the store, and he broke it, suggesting he wanted to be released from the burden he had been carrying for 40 years. Also, he showed the detectives that he had drilled a cable connection port into the back of his head, similar to the ports humans in The Matrix films have, and maybe Cameron was inspired by that. His grotesque act explained the lengths he was willing to go to to make his story believable. Well, those are just my muddled thoughts about Plaything’s ending, but I am quite sure you might have a different theory running through your head, so feel free to comment. Also, correct me if I went wrong anywhere or missed anything in my super clumsy explainer.
