Content Warning: This article contains spoilers for the Netflix show Black Mirror.To say Black Mirror has become a cultural phenomenon would be an understatement. Renowned for its Twilight Zone-esque storytelling, it tells bizarre and often shocking tales about the pitfalls of modern technology. These ideas create interesting standalone stories that easily get the audience’s attention and hook them. By the time an episode wraps up, viewers are left combing the episode for hidden meanings. Many of these stories also hold surprising elements and twists that the audience can’t seem to get enough of, leading to some of the best episodes of Black Mirror.

Season 6 of the popular Netflix anthology show gave fans some of the weirdest Black Mirror episodes to date (for better or worse). Some of its storylines now make up the best Black Mirror episodes, and viewers may notice that there's no shortage of shocking reveals and messed-up plot points that make them especially memorable.

Watch on Netflix

15 "Beyond the Sea"

Season 6, Episode 3 (2023)

Aaron Paul and Josh Hartnett star as astronauts Cliff and David in "Beyond the Sea," a great Black Mirror episode from Season 6 depicting an alternate version of 1969. The duo is shown traveling in deep space on a six-year mission, and since they only need to do minimal tasks, they spend most of their time in their "replicas" back on earth. But when David's family is murdered and his replica is destroyed, things take a dark turn.

When Cliff makes the unfortunate decision to let David use his replica, it complicates the astronaut's sense of identity (further influenced by his attraction to Cliff's wife). The disturbing ending shows David tricking Cliff into staying on the ship as he murders his entire family, just to make him feel as helpless, isolated, and devastated as he has been. It's an ending that may have come as a shock to some, but was likely predictable for most who saw the signs of decline in David's mental state.

14 "Demon 79"

Season 6, Episode 5 (2023)

"Demon 79" is shocking in a meta kind of way, with the final episode of Season 6 underscoring series creator Charlie Brooker's divisive attempt at expanding the scope of the series. The darkly comedic episode follows the meek sales assistant Nida (Anjana Vasan), who experiences microaggressions in her work every day. When she encounters the demon Gaap (Paapa Essiedu) and learns she's the only one who can stop the world from ending, she has to make some tough choices.

Drawing inspiration from '70s horror flicks, classic novels, and even fashion trends, "Demon 79" is a true standout in the show, for better or worse. It was a big risk and only time will tell if there will be a kind of re-evaluation for the entire season, as well as if Black Mirror Season 6's change will affect the future of the show.

13 "USS Callister"

Season 4, Episode 1 (2017)

"USS Callister" is about Callister Inc. co-founder Robert (Jesse Plemmons) who finds himself bullied by other employees. Callister Inc. is a video game company, and Robert creates an offline, modded version of the game, "Infinity," for his personal use. The NPCs in his game are based on his real-life coworkers, who are subject to his juvenile and petty whims. However, these modded versions of his coworkers are self-aware and very much alive. Due to this revelation, the group tries to find ways to escape from his power.

"USS Callister" was certainly an enjoyable episode that referenced popular culture. It was also surprising in that, originally, the audience is led to believe that Robert is a good person who is simply mistreated by colleagues for no reason. However, when he adds a new employee into his game, the depths of his cruelty are revealed. This sudden pivot is a surprise to everyone watching the episode.

12 "Crocodile"

Season 4, Episode 3 (2017)

In "Crocodile," Mia (Andrea Riseborough) is haunted by a cover-up she helped with after a hit-and-run involving her friend Rob (Andrew Gower). When his guilt threatens her freedom, she does what she thinks is necessary. Unfortunately, Mia is later approached by an insurance investigator who uses a "Recaller" that can visualize her memories. Instead of seeing just the pizza delivery accident, the investigator discovers Mia's gruesome past, forcing the protagonist's hand once more.

This violence only leads to more death as Mia desperately tries to hide her dark secrets. While Mia has established a pattern at this point and audiences generally know to expect the worst from her, it's still shocking to see the series cross a line when the killer is faced with a (seemingly) final witness to her crimes – an innocent baby. And of course, the final twist with the actual final witness just seals the deal.

11 "Hang the DJ"

Season 4, Episode 4 (2017)

Black Mirror’s episode "Hang the DJ" is about a dating app that finds the best match for a person by pairing them with a variety of different people. This story in particular follows two people, Frank (Joe Cole) and Amy (Georgina Campbell), who date for a fairly short period. They realize that they sync well with one another on their first date, but after their date is over, they have to continue dating others to find their perfect match. These characters eventually find themselves dissatisfied with every other partner they have.

Although this show is straightforward with the concept, it is revealed towards the end that both characters were in a simulation – the 1000th one – where it succeeded because they figured out that they were in a simulation and escaped it together. Out of all the simulations, in 998 of them, they rebelled together. This makes them an almost perfect match in the real world. The show then shifts focus: they meet. It is overall surprising that the two of them turned out to be perfect matches when the entirety of the episode leads the audience to believe that they will not end up together and that their love story will end in demise as any clichéd one would, but it turns out to be pleasantly surprising when it’s confirmed that this was a simple simulation meant to test their compatibility. It's a rare Black Mirror episode that isn't completely depressing, which is what makes it somewhat shocking.

10 "Arkangel"

Season 4, Episode 2 (2017)

"Arkangel" is one of the more popular episodes of Black Mirror. It follows the story of Marie (Rosemarie DeWitt), a mother of a young girl named Sara. After a traumatic experience when Sara was younger where she wandered off, Marie resorts to a company that sells an implanted chip called Arkangel which tracks the user, records their memories, provides a view into their perspective, censors anything that raises their heart rate, and records data of their health. Marie becomes obsessed with the Arkangel and keeps a careful eye on her daughter, but it proves to be detrimental to Sara's mental health and developmental stages.

There were several surprising moments in "Arkangel," one being when Marie’s mother invades her teenage daughter’s privacy and secretly crushes a pill into Sara's smoothie to force an abortion. But the most surprising part, and what cements this as one of the most messed up Black Mirror episodes, was when Sara almost killed her mother towards the end. After discovering that her mother continued to invade her privacy and gave her the pill, she beat her mother with the Arkangel pad until she was bloody and unconscious. After that, Sara walks out of her mother's life to parts unknown.

9 "Joan Is Awful"

Season 6, Episode 1 (2023)

"Joan Is Awful" follows a seemingly average woman's wild journey when she realizes that a global streaming platform called Streamberry (an obvious parody of Netflix) is taking actual events from her life and turning it into a show. Her life begins to turn chaotic when her deepest secrets are exposed on the uncanny series, so she finds a way to stop the corporation that's ruining everything for her.

While its darkly humorous approach to the story softens the blow of its surprising moments, there's no denying that "Joan Is Awful" has quite a few of them. Whether it's Salma Hayek and Michael Cera's unexpected cameos or the twist about the quantum computer and the several simulated realities, they may not be effectively delivered, but they're still mostly unexpected.

8 "Mazey Day"

Season 6, Episode 4 (2023)

"Mazey Day" may be divisive, but there's no denying it's now among the most shocking episodes of Black Mirror. Set in Los Angeles, it follows Bo (Zazie Beetz), a paparazzi photographer who almost quits the exploitative industry, but goes back for one last job because she desperately needs cash. It doesn't take her long to track down the missing celebrity Mazey Day (Clara Rugaard), who's in some kind of rehab facility – or so she and her fellow photographers thought.

The situation soon turns nightmarish as Mazey transforms into an actual werewolf and begins to tear apart the paparazzi, chasing Bo and her friend to a local diner where the gory affair continues. At this point, the shock has dissipated and given way to fear, with the episode transforming into a horror fest in a truly unexpected showing from the anthology series.

7 "White Christmas"

Special (2014)

"White Christmas" is about two men – Joe (Rafe Spall) and Matt (Jon Hamm) – who have lived with each other for five years in a cabin; despite this, they know very little about each other. Matt talks about his past, such as what got him in the cabin, to begin with: a murder-suicide involving some man he was tracking virtually. He also discusses his job in the past, which was creating “cookies,” which were digital copies of actual people so that they could be personal assistants. These clones are "housed" in an egg and can experience years in a matter of moments. After hearing this, Joe opens up about his story, which ended with him killing the father of an ex-girlfriend and his supposed daughter freezing to death.

The big twist in this episode is when it's revealed that Matt was simply opening up to Joe to get testimony out of him regarding both murders. And Joe? He’s a cookie. The audience – like Joe – trusts Matt completely when he tries to befriend Joe. But as it turns out, Matt is simply trying to improve his own life while forcing a testimony out of a cookie.

6 "Playtest"

Season 3, Episode 2 (2016)

Black Mirror's video game episode, "Playtest" is an eerie storyline from the show that tries to predict the future. It's about a young man (Wyatt Russell) who finds himself stuck in London with a journalist after running out of money. As a means to make some money, he signs up for playtesting – as the title implies – a new psychological horror game using augmented reality. He signs up and promises to send pictures to the journalist, and after signing up, he is taken to a room where the gear – a headband – is placed on his head. Sometime after this, he is taken to a secluded house to test out the game, but the experience goes downhill from there as he is trapped in an endless waking nightmare.

What was surprising about this episode was that the viewer never truly knew when Cooper was back in reality. Each time he thinks he’s broken free of these horrors, the show reminds the audience that this is not the case. However, the shock sets in when a phone rings in his reality, and Cooper is killed by the telephone interference. It is revealed that Cooper had barely begun the playtest, as after less than a second of starting the augmented reality in that room, his mother had called him, and the phone call went through because he disobeyed the rules of turning his phone off – just so he could take pictures and send them to the journalist.

5 "Black Museum"

Season 4, Episode 6 (2017)

"Black Museum" features a museum loaded with artifacts that have some sort of criminal association. Nish (Letitia Wright) visits the museum and learns about the various devices that Rolo – the proprietor, played by Douglas Hodge –has a connection to. This episode delves deep into the stories surrounding the artifacts, and eventually, they come across the last artifact, which was a hologram of a man named Clayton who was presumed guilty of murder and summarily executed.

"Black Museum" is definitely one of the most interesting and best episodes of Black Mirror. It tells several stories in a span of one episode while surprising the viewers with a twist at the end: Nish is Clayton’s daughter, and she is out for revenge against Rolo. It was an unexpected twist, ending with Rolo being electrocuted like Clayton was.

4 "White Bear"

Season 2, Episode 2 (2013)

"White Bear" starts without any context whatsoever. The main character, Victoria (Lenora Crichlow), wakes up in a chair, unable to remember anything except for brief flashes here and there. As she exits what is presumably her home, she notices that the town is quiet, and everyone else is recording her. Upon this realization, a masked man with a shotgun exits a vehicle and starts chasing her. She is hunted from there on out, but she is not sure why.

Most viewers are likely surprised by this Black Mirror episode because of the lack of context. The audience knows that Victoria is being hunted – unfairly, as far as the audience is aware. However, once it is revealed that she was an accessory to murder, the atmosphere changes. Suddenly, it's a little harder to sympathize with her: the audience by now is in too much shock after discovering her criminal history.

3 'Black Mirror: Bandersnatch'

(2018)

Although not necessarily an episode of Black Mirror, this film was the most interesting entry to Black Mirror to date. Black Mirror: Bandersnatch is reminiscent of a video game as it's an interactive movie. Fittingly, it tells the story of an up-and-coming video game developer (Fionn Whitehead) who has a tight deadline before Christmas.

The surprising thing about this particular Black Mirror special is that it has multiple routes that the viewer can choose. And if the special were to end badly, it would revert the viewer to a checkpoint where you can try again for a better ending. There is a lot of content with Bandersnatch, and it's worth trying out the other routes.

2 "Shut Up and Dance"

Season 3, Episode 3 (2016)

"Shut Up and Dance" is about a young man named Kenny (Alex Lawther) who begins receiving threatening text messages that blackmail him into completing suspicious and mysterious tasks. What is he being blackmailed with? Before this incident, Kenny does something explicit in front of his laptop camera while a Trojan was installed, and the hacker threatens to send the video to other people such as his contacts unless he completes the tasks. Along the way, he meets other people who are in a similar situation.

Like many of the characters in the show, no one understands in particular why Kenny is willing to do dangerous tasks due to an explicit video of him. However, at the end of completing the last task – which was fighting someone to the death – it is unexpectedly revealed that Kenny masturbated to child pornography. It's one of the darkest Black Mirror endings that leaves fans feeling conflicted and disgusted.

1 "The National Anthem"

Season 1, Episode 1 (2001)

"The National Anthem" – which remains one of the most disturbing Black Mirror episodes – is about the trials of a British prime minister (Rory Kinnear) after a member of the royal family is taken hostage. The princess isn't being held for a ransom, but will be let go under one condition: the prime minister must engage in sexual intercourse with a pig, which must also be recorded on live television. Throughout the show, the British government does its best to avoid this outcome while searching for the kidnapper and the princess.

Unable to find a way out of doing the dirty deed, the show ends with the prime minister giving in and having sexual intercourse with the pig on live television. However, while the audience believes that the result of this led to the princess' release, the surprising reality is that she was released thirty minutes before the live broadcast. In the end, the sacrifice of his reputation and image was senseless and wholly unnecessary, which cemented the episode as one of the most unsettling and shocking from Black Mirror.

NEXT: The Best 'Black Mirror' Episodes, Ranked According to IMDb