The fifth episode of Black Mirror season 7 is a testament to how we fail to notice the small details when we are living in the moment. A lot of things are happening around us, and we cannot pay attention to every single one. It is only when we revisit those memories that we are able to see these details more clearly. And if we are lucky, we also sometimes develop a different perspective on how we look at those moments. This was something Philip Connarthy went through when a company called Eulogy contacted him so he could help them curate an immersive memorial for his past lover Carol Hartman, who had passed away last Wednesday.
At first, Philip was quite hesitant with the idea of revisiting his past because his relationship with Carol had ended tragically. However, he changed his mind and decided to help Carol’s family, especially her daughter, Kelly Royce, to prepare an immersive eulogy when he heard that the family was having a hard time finding people who truly knew Carol in her youth. I guess Kelly always knew that no one would have remembered her mother better than her past lover, which was why she requested Eulogy to contact Philip. The company sent a kit to Philip, which had an interactive immersive disc that helped Philip revisit his memories. This button-shaped interface was quite similar to the devices we came across throughout Black Mirror season 7, especially in episodes 3 and 6. It seems like digital assistants and simulated realities are the recurring elements in this season, through which the narrative is trying to point out how these digital consciousnesses are helping humans to cope with harsh reality and deal with loneliness in their lives.
Spoiler Alert
Philip and Carol made mistakes in their youth
Eulogy sent Philip a digital copy of Kelly to guide him down memory lane. He pulled out old photographs of Carol he had; however, most of these pictures had been defaced by Philip himself, who was heartbroken after Carol turned down his marriage proposal, or at least that’s what he believed his entire life. As soon as he came back to America, he’d punched holes in all the photographs he had with Carol. In a fit of anger, he’d wiped clean her existence from his life, as a result of which he couldn’t even remember her face in old age. None of the pictures Philip had in his possession had Carol’s clear face in them. Well, that’s a tragedy.
As Philip took a closer look at these photographs, Kelly, the AI Guide, made him realize how much Carol loved him till the end. When she first came to America, she was already engaged to someone in London, yet she hid it from Philip because she had fallen in love with the American and wanted to start a life together. Carol was an excellent cellist and wanted to be a musician, but things didn’t pan out as she had planned. During a Halloween party in 1991, Carol and Philip had a little fight because of which she didn’t crack the audition at the Brooklyn Philharmonic. In Philip’s eyes, it wasn’t such a big deal, but Kelly the Guide, who could see things from a different perspective, understood how Carol might have felt when she didn’t get the audition. She must have been devastated. Carol didn’t find any work in America, and because of which she had to go back to London, where her friend Amanda had arranged a side gig for her. I guess this was the same Amanda whom we saw in the first episode of season 7. Anyway, this little fight, because of which Carol failed her cello audition, was one of the reasons Carol had to leave Philip. It was the first crack in their relationship that separated them physically, but even while describing the incident to Kelly, Philip failed to see the bigger picture.
The episode portrayed Philip as a self-centered lover who only cared about his own feelings. Even when Carol was constantly traveling with the orchestra, she would send postcards to Philip to tell him how much she missed him. Yet, the man ended up cheating on her with Emma, the girl who worked with him at the bar. When Carol made an expensive international trunk call on Philip’s birthday, all she could hear was another woman’s voice, which broke her heart completely. In angst, she ended up sleeping with another musician named Brian from her orchestra and got pregnant. When Carol missed her period, she was quite ashamed of what she had done. She loved Philip from the bottom of her heart and didn’t want to cheat on him. But what’s done was done, and she wasn’t quite sure if Philip would ever be able to accept her and her child with open arms. She left a letter for him, but Philip, who couldn’t think about anything else other than his own feelings, failed to read the letter and blamed Carol for walking out of his life. He burned his memories of her to the ground and promised to never contact her again, and yes, that was the end of their relationship.
Kelly Helped Philip To See Things Differently
A few months after Philip’s birthday and that ugly flight, Carol and Philip tried to mend their relationship and used their savings to arrange a flight for Philip so he could visit her in London. Philip tried to make it a big romantic thing and booked a luxury suite he could hardly afford. He even found out about a fancy restaurant through a flier, which he took Carol to for their dinner date. He had planned to propose to her here, but Carol had something else to say. She wanted to confront Philip about her pregnancy but failed to look him in the eye. Philip kept chugging down champagne to muster courage to propose to her, while Carol, looking at his drunk state, didn’t want to mess things up further. When Philip pulled out the ring, Carol didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t tell him the truth because he wasn’t in the state to understand. She went quiet and left the restaurant soon. Meanwhile, Philip thought she didn’t love him enough to marry him, which was the reason why she left. It was Kelly who, while revisiting Philip’s memory, helped him to understand and catch up on the details he had missed earlier. Carol didn’t drink his expensive champagne because she was pregnant and wanted to keep the child. She left because she knew Philip wouldn’t understand, and even though Philip told Kelly that he would have accepted the kid, Kelly could see through his lies. He wasn’t ready for such a conversation, and it took him some time to understand what Carol had been going through all this while. Philip accepted the fact that he wouldn’t have been able to handle the truth and might have said something he would have regretted his whole life. The thing is, it was a mistake. Just like Philip made a mistake by sleeping with Emma on his birthday. So if Carol could forgive him for that, why couldn’t Philip have done the same? This means even though Philip loved Carol, he wasn’t mature enough to accept her for who she was, and she really deserved someone better. Carol left a note in the hotel room, which Philip never read. He picked up everything and came back to America, hating Carol until her death.
Revisiting To The Past Changed Philip
As they were revisiting the dinner date, Kelly’s digital clone told Philip that she was Carol’s daughter. She was the one who had requested the digital company to contact Philip so he could help her curate an immersive eulogy for her mother. But as Kelly was telling Philip these things, all he could think about was the man Carol had slept with. He wanted to know more about him: who he was, what he did, and whether he was dead or alive. This says a lot about Philip and solidifies the fact that a jealous Philip, being a self-centered man, would have never been able to accept Carol and her child. However, when he found her letter in the present and read it, something changed inside him. It was the last physical memory he had of Carol, which made him realize that she was ready to forget everything that had happened in the past and was ready to start anew with him. She was waiting for him at the stage door after the matinee, but he never arrived. Blinded by his anger and the humiliation he thought he had faced, Philip just missed the letter and went back to America. His absence broke Carol’s heart. It destroyed her, but she respected Philip’s decision and tried to move on with her life. She never wanted to look back at this tragic relationship, but Kelly felt that it meant the world to her mother.
Philip Found The Memory For The Eulogy
During episode 5’s ending, it became quite apparent that Philip had been holding back a lot of memories, likely because he didn’t want to feel that pain again in his life. However, when he finally realized his mistake, he brought out the cassette with the piece of music Carol had recorded for him. He had a photograph of him watching the love of his life play the cello for him. It was one of the best memories Philip had of Carol, but he couldn’t remember her face, not until he heard the music that helped to jog his memory better. Philip could finally recall Carol’s beautiful face, and this scene intercuts with Philip visiting a church in London from America, where a memorial service had been held for Carol. In the ending shot, one could see all the funeral attendees wearing immersive discs while real-life Kelly played her mother’s original composition on the cello, the musical instrument her late mother had taught her to play. At this moment, all Philip could see was a reflection of Carol in her young daughter, and I think it made him feel content.
The Real Kelly Might Have Been Interacting With Philip
In episode 5’s ending, Philip exchanged looks with Kelly, and the way they nodded at each other could hint at the possibility that Eulogy didn’t send a digital copy of Kelly’s consciousness; instead, it was the real her who had been interacting with her mother’s lover with the help of the digital interface. I mean, that’s what these immersive interfaces are for, right? And as far as we know from USS Callister, creating clones of real humans is against digital human rights? So even though Kelly, the guide, told Philip that she was just a digital version of Carol’s daughter, I think she was just pretending to be an AI assistant so that Philip wouldn’t feel awkward talking to his lover’s daughter. And if she was real, then Philip found out about it in the end, and then, I guess, it marks the beginning of a new relationship between the two. Philip might finally be able to redeem himself by filling the void in Kelly’s life and being the father figure she never had. Her biological dad lived in Manchester and only visited her five or six times in all her life. It is likely that Carol wanted Philip to raise her daughter as his own, but because of all those misunderstandings, things didn’t work out between them. But now, when Philip has a pretty clear idea that it was his fault, to begin with, I guess he may be able to be there for Kelly and make up for the lost time. I think Philip never married anyone after he broke up with Carol. He didn’t seem to like the idea of having children of his own and lived a pretty lonely life at the place he had inherited from his old folks. So, in the end, it does seem like a win-win situation for both of them. I can only hope for the best.
