LogFAQs > #883072120

8. San Junipero

I wrestled with this one for a while. San Junipero is so nearly perfect. It is exquisitely acted, the concept is phenomenal, and the setting is unique, fun, and believable. By all rights, the episode was fully on track to be a top three finisher. So, what happened? Why is it in the middle of the pack? The answer, for me, lies in my opinion that, regrettably, San Junipero executes the perfect vault but fails to quite stick the landing.

I really have to start with the positives here, because man, so much about this episode is great. I loved trying to figure out what exactly was going on for the first half of the episode... I was originally thinking it would be a flashback sequence, but as it wore on and on and it became more abundantly clear that something weird happens at midnight, my mind was racing trying to nail down the twist. In no way did I see it coming that they were both practically on their deathbeds. The setting itself was also profound, with these garish, cartoonish representations of an era the denizens of the city probably only barely remember, and the Quagmire demonstrating the danger of letting go completely.

Additionally, I adored the performances from Mackenzie Davis and especially from Gugu Mbatha-Raw. Davis brought a perfect tragically adorkable air to Yorkie, befitting a confused lesbian discovering herself after having been trapped in a quadriplegic body for most of her life. For my money, one of the most impressively acted scenes in the entire series is the argument between Yorkie and Kelly where Kelly reads her the riot act, tearing up while explaining that she had been married for 49 years, and that Yorkie could not begin to understand what that was like. Gugu Mbatha-Raw infused that scene with as much heartbreak and power as you would expect from someone who actually HAD lost a husband of 49 years, when she herself is only 34, so I thought that was just absolutely breathtaking.

However, that scene which elevated San Junipero beyond its already lofty standing and set the stage for a great ending, was undercut what is in my mind a tragically rushed finale. That scene, that revelation about her daughter and her fear of the unknown after death, was SO powerful that I found it profoundly jarring that 30 seconds later, it's revealed that she decided to stay after all and they lived (?) happily ever after. I am not saying Black Mirror made the wrong call by going for a happy ending. That's fine, have Kelly stay. The way it was handled, however, felt to me like they suddenly ran out of budget for an additional five minutes of the episode that seemed to be missing. It is fair to say we can surmise that, in her final days, Kelly decided that she would allow herself to enjoy her new life with Yorkie (sort of like remarrying, in a sense), and that maybe she decided it was okay to let go of her husband forever or that it was better not to know what came next. I think that is a perfectly valid direction for the episode to go, but I frankly found it extremely disappointing that the last time we see the two leading ladies talking, they are having an extremely heated argument about the most important aspect of Kelly's entire life, and the next time we see them, Yorkie's just picking up a giggling Kelly from the beach house to go party. An entire scene seems to be missing. It felt entirely unearned, the way it was handled.

So, there you have it. It's been interesting seeing some review San Junipero as top three (which I can totally understand) while some call it boring or similarly criticize the ending. To me, the episode isn't boring at all. It was so close to being almost perfect, and it's still great. However, Black Mirror episodes have a tendency to end on notes that linger for a long time, and this one sadly left me craving just a little more explanation.
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-Shred