The fourth episode of season 6 certainly keeps viewers on their toes.
Warning: this article contains full spoilers for Black Mirror season 6 episode 4, Mazey Day.
If you’ve been scouring the internet ahead of the release of this latest season of Black Mirror, one episode you may have struggled to find out much about more than any is Mazey Day, the fourth in the new run.
We knew ahead of time that the episode was about a member of the paparazzi named Bo, played by Zazie Beetz, and a troubled actress called Mazey Day, played by Clara Rugaard. Beyond that, not much had been unveiled.
The show’s creator Charlie Brooker has said that this was purposeful, as this episode “is best seen knowing nothing going in”. If you’ve now seen it, you will know exactly what he’s talking about.
So what actually did happen in Mazey Day, how did things play out for Bo and Mazey and just what technology was at the centre of this story?
Read on for everything you need to know about the ending of Mazey Day.
What is Mazey Day about?
!["Zazie]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2023/06/BM-FirstLook-7-5c58491.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"BM-FirstLook-7\"")
Mazey Day is set in the early 2000s and follows Bo, a member of the paparazzi who, at the start of the episode, sold photos which outed a famous actor having an affair with another man. The man subsequently killed himself, leading Bo to leave the game.
However, Bo soon struggles with her rent and needs a big payday. She thinks that this could be Mazey Day – a troubled actress who the press are obsessed with, offering big money for snaps of her.
However, what Bo doesn’t know is that Mazey, while on drugs, recently had a car accident, hitting a pedestrian and driving off, panicked. Mazey subsequently hides away from public life, ridden with guilt and flashbacks to that night.
Mazey engages a celebrity doctor, who decides to take her to a renowned rehab clinic and books the whole place out so that Mazey can have privacy. Little do they know that Bo is on their tail.
What is the technology the episode centres on?
!["Zazie]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2023/06/Screenshot-2023-06-14-at-14.03.29-f3284d0.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"Mazey")
When it comes to technology, Mazey Day veers closest to episodes such as The National Anthem or Smithereens, in that all of the tech involved is perfectly real.
There are no VR devices, no memory-storing contact lenses, nothing. Instead, this is a story very specifically centred around cameras and the role of the paparazzi, particularly in the early 2000s.
As Charlie Brooker himself said: “the story is set before everyone has a camera in their phone, and there is a crueller attitude towards people in the public eye.”
Wait… what just happened?!
!["Clara]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2023/06/BM-FirstLook-10-c765655.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"BM-FirstLook-10\"")
Ok, so if you’ve seen the episode, then here’s what you’ve all been waiting for, the moment the story lands that massive twist and totally evades expectations.
With Mazey hidden away at the retreat, Bo and her friend Hector arrive on the outskirts of the perimeter. They are soon joined by Whitty and Duke, two far more sadistic paparazzi who have put a tracker under Hector’s bike.
They manage to tunnel under the fence and break into a room where Mazey is being kept with a chain around her neck. While Hector, Whitty and Duke just continue to take photos, Bo attempts to free her, managing to remove her chains.
Then, at that moment, the moon shines overhead. It’s clear that something’s off. That’s right – Mazey is a werewolf!
A flashback shows that the man Mazey hit was in fact a werewolf, and when she got out the car to check on him, the wolf went on to bite her.
Mazey horrifically transforms, killing Whitty immediately and getting Duke as he tried to get under the fence. Hector steals Duke’s camera rather than save him.
Hector and Bo ride off together to a diner they previously visited and try to warn a policeman and everyone else in the diner. Mazey breaks in, killing everyone except for Bo, including Hector.
What happens to Bo and Mazey at the end?
!["Clara]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2023/06/Mazey-Day-bcaf691.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"Mazey")
Following the bloodbath at the diner, Bo manages to get hold of the cop’s gun, and uses it to shoot Mazey, transforming her back into a human. As she lies on the floor, bloody and probably dying, she asks Bo to shoot her and end it.
Bo doesn’t do so, and instead hands the gun to Mazey, allowing her to turn the gun on herself.
Mazey does so, and as she lifts the gun to her own head, Bo lifts up her camera, ready to take the shot of a bloody, naked Mazey, shooting herself in the head. Yikes…
Well, Charlie Brooker did promise horror this season. But it certainly doesn’t seem likely that many viewers saw this twist coming!
Caught up on Black Mirror season 6? Read our episode breakdowns below:
- Joan Is Awful – episode 1 ending explained
- Loch Henry – episode 2 ending explained
- Beyond the Sea – episode 3 ending explained
- Demon 79 – episode 5 ending explained
Read our interview with Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker, as well as season 6 stars Salma Hayek, Aaron Paul and Rob Delaney, in the latest issue of Radio Times magazine – out now.
!["Black]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2023/06/black-mirror-radio-times-cover-c4d142a.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C830" "\"Black")
Black Mirror season 6 is streaming now on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
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