Black Mirror’s ‘Beyond The Sea’ is a scary reminder that human emotions can be a grotty weapon if left unchecked

The tagline from Alien was “In space; no one can hear you scream.” With Black Mirror’s “Beyond The Sea,” there are many instances where two men would surely want to. Previous stories within the Black Mirror pantheon, such as “San Junipero” and “Hang The DJ,” showed us that an emotional concept like love is heavy enough to cross through whatever walls technology might build up. Well, “Beyond The Sea” is not one of those feel-good stories – instead, it’s a relatively straightforward exercise on how tragedy and jealousy can crater the lives of three people.

In 1969, two men named David (Josh Hartnett) and Cliff (Aaron Paul) are in the middle of a six-year mission in space. To keep things going fine with their family lives on Earth, they can transfer their consciousness into robotic replicas of themselves. Concerning their lives, David and Cliff couldn’t be any more different. David lives in a beautiful house with his wife and two children, sketches them, and goes to the movies as a family outing. Cliff is a little bit colder. He’s moved his son and wife Lana (Kate Mara) to the countryside – Cliff’s approach is more machine-like in an ironic sense where Lana feels lonely and isolated.

Both men have a current routine – they adjust the ship, greet each other, and go back home for a brief time before returning. One thing that director John Crowley and writer Charlie Brooker does is give viewers a small taste of the world outside these characters. A fleeting sense of anti-replica sentiment is going on, which comes to a head in an incredibly tragic fashion. David’s replica gets destroyed, and his family is brutally murdered by the hand of cultists. Thus, Harnett’s sophisticated and confident attitude as David in the first part of the episode goes downhill as he’s lost all attachment.

There is a sense that things will go downhill fast, and “Beyond The Sea” obliges this notion quickly. Cliff is faced with a dilemma – he needs David to complete this space mission, but he somehow has to get David back on track. The bright idea of David using his replica to experience the real world again (like a rental) emerges. However, the waters get muddied when David starts to grow an attachment to Lana. Paul plays Cliff, and the replica version of David is pretty straightforward. You’ll almost want the episode to explore the backstory of how Cliff and Lana got strained in the first place.

Is it just fundamental marital problems? Was there a specific point in their relationship that drove them away? You could chalk things up to Cliff taking his whole life for granted, and that’s the thing David preys upon – he’s lost everything and is witnessing a guy not care about what he has. Speaking of that notion, who is David to make that choice? Although David bonds with Lana over reading material and painting, he has his flaws due to the unheated trauma he’s experienced. All three characters aren’t inherently evil but are victims of horrible circumstances.

Even though both of these men can experience the world through a robot body, there’s a coldness to everything. Just imagine only being around your loved ones in this form and constantly leaving them to return to your body in a confined space. With somebody like David, that has to weigh on your psyche; it’s a ticking time bomb. Cliff’s predicament is highlighted in the haunting last frames of finding his family dead by Cliff’s volition and then having to finish this mission with him.

“Beyond The Sea” might be one of the hardest-hitting endings in Black Mirror’s history. Sure, technology is a vehicle in this story, but the more affecting thing is the volatility of human emotion.