San Junipero

"San Junipero" is the fourth episode in the third series of the British science fiction anthology television series Black Mirror. Written by series creator and showrunner Charlie Brooker and directed by Owen Harris, it premiered on Netflix on 21 October 2016, with the rest of series three.

The episode is set in a beach resort town named San Junipero, where the introverted Yorkie (Mackenzie Davis) meets the more outgoing Kelly (Gugu Mbatha-Raw). The town is part of a simulated reality the elderly can inhabit, even after death. "San Junipero" was the first episode written for the third series. Initial drafts were based on nostalgia therapy and designed as a 1980s period piece. The first script was about a heterosexual couple and had an unhappy ending, while the final version focuses on a lesbian couple and has an optimistic ending, atypical of Black Mirror. Filming took place in London and Cape Town across several weeks. The soundtrack interweaves 1980s songs with an original score by Clint Mansell.

The episode received critical acclaim, with particular praise for Mbatha-Raw's and Davis's performances, its plot twist, visual style, and its unusual uplifting tone. It received higher critical ratings than the show's other episodes, while some critics considered it one of the best television episodes of 2016. In addition to several other accolades, "San Junipero" won two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Television Movie and Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special.

In 1987, a shy young woman named Yorkie (Mackenzie Davis) visits the nightclub Tucker's in San Junipero. Kelly (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), a vivacious party girl, rebuffs the advances of Wes (Gavin Stenhouse) to talk to Yorkie. Kelly and Yorkie dance, but Yorkie becomes uncomfortable and leaves the club. Kelly follows and sexually propositions Yorkie, who declines, saying she is engaged. The following week, Yorkie returns to the bar and observes Kelly flirting with a man. Yorkie and Kelly reunite in the bathroom, kiss there, and later have sex at Kelly's beach house. Yorkie confesses that it was her first time having sex, and Kelly reveals that she was once married.

The next week, Yorkie visits another nightclub, the BDSM-themed Quagmire, looking for Kelly. Wes advises her to "try a different time". Yorkie visits Tucker's in a few different decades until she finds Kelly in 2002, but Kelly rejects her. After Yorkie leaves, Kelly follows and confesses she is dying; Kelly had avoided Yorkie because she feared developing feelings for her. The two have sex again, and Yorkie reluctantly tells Kelly she lives in Santa Rosa, California, so they can meet.

San Junipero is revealed to be a simulated reality where the deceased can live, and the elderly can visit, all inhabiting their younger selves' bodies in a time of their choice. In the physical world, the elderly Kelly (Denise Burse) visits Yorkie (Annabel Davis). She learns from Yorkie's nurse Greg (Raymond McAnally) that Yorkie was paralysed at age 21 after crashing her car when her parents reacted negatively to her coming out, and has been in a coma for 40 years. Yorkie wishes to be euthanised to live in San Junipero permanently, but her family objects; she intends to marry Greg so that he can consent for her. Kelly offers to marry Yorkie instead, and after she enthusiastically accepts, Kelly authorises Yorkie's euthanasia.

During Kelly's next visit to San Junipero, Yorkie asks her to stay full-time. Kelly says she plans to die without being uploaded to the simulation; her husband chose the same fate because their daughter died before San Junipero existed. Yorkie and Kelly argue, and Kelly leaves in her car, which she intentionally crashes. Yorkie catches up to her just as Kelly disappears, her visiting time over for the week.

Time passes and Kelly decides she is ready to enter San Junipero permanently. She is euthanised and buried alongside her family, and she happily reunites with Yorkie in San Junipero.