Post — Aaron Ngo

Major Spoilers are included in this episode review. Please read with caution.

While technically classified as an episode of Black Mirror, “USS Callister” feels more like a movie running at about 76 minutes long, and how the story plays out. The story is about Robert Daly (Jesse Plemons), a gifted programmer / co-founder of Callister Inc. alongside James Walton (Jimmi Simpson). Daly, shy and reclusive, is not recognized by his co-workers, while Walton takes all of the credit for their successful online video game.

Daly ventures into his online game every night as Captain Daly of the USS Callister, the name of his ship on Space Fleet. It was his favorite show growing up. His crew are digital, but sentient, clones of his co-workers, including Walton, and they have adventures together.

This set-up makes it seem like Robert Daly is our ideal protagonist. He is timid, unrecognized for his work, and his co-workers do not see him as an equal. He was giving off vibes like Walter White from Breaking Bad, which probably should’ve been my first clue on the twist following the opening scene. He is the stereotypical nice guy, who’d normally get “sweet revenge” on his co-workers…

Yes and no.

At the end of the opening scene, when Captain Daly kissed both girls with such creepiness, the twist was inevitable. Captain Robert Daly is the villain of the story, and not our hero. This set-up essentially exposes how the “nice guy” route is even distrustful with how Daly exerts his control over his crew by removing their faces and turning them into monsters for his own amusement.

The main protagonist is Nanette Cole (Cristin Milioti), the newest employee at Callister Inc. She is honestly my favorite character. The first meeting between her and Daly was filled with a lot of tension, as his dark nature gradually unfolded for the audience. How he sprang into action to collect her DNA was just pure horror. I really appreciate how the writers of this episode flipped the script on us.

“USS Callister” was dark, but surprisingly, it had a lot of funny moments too, mostly from Walton. The episode was also a good take on the toxicity of men on the Internet. Daly, abusing his online powers, tortured his crew members and punished them if they did anything to upset him, especially Walton.

Overall, the writing, dialogue, and story were well-done. I felt the terror whenever Captain Daly logged into the ship, and having Cole take charge throughout the episode was fierce. She is a great actress on top of that too. I loved her performance on How I Met Your Mother, and how she finished out the story with her character taking charge. I’d recommend watching this episode that’s essentially a movie.

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