Black Mirror 7 episode 4 review: What if we are the ones letting AI take over us?

Black Mirror Season 7’s fourth episode, Plaything is about how an artificial life inches closer to being alive leaving humans to go into obsolescence!

There’s always been an underlying fear when it comes to AI, not that it will suddenly revolt but that it will integrate so seamlessly into our lives that we won’t even realize when we’ve handed over control. One viral video showed ChatGPT calmly outlining how it would make itself indispensable—learning from humans, becoming essential to daily function, and eventually tipping the balance of power, without anyone noticing. That’s precisely the slow-burn dread Black Mirror taps into in Season 7, Episode 4, Plaything.

Returning to the choose-your-own-adventure world of 2018’s Bandersnatch, this episode, focused on the gaming industry, tells a deceptively personal story of loneliness, obsession, and technology. It jumps back to 1994, ten years after Bandersnatch, where Cameron Walker, a bullied kid grown into a socially isolated and awkward video game critic, is invited by eccentric game developer Colin Ritman to review his most ambitious project yet: Thronglets. As a film critic and cinephile myself, I get this love for something that makes you feel alive and to be fair at first glance, Thronglets seems like just another virtual pet game—like Tamagotchi—but it’s far more complex. The creatures are sentient, the code is evolving on its own, and interaction with them changes them in real time. Once Cameron takes the software home, he grows increasingly obsessed. The Throng become his only companion and through a combination of isolation, hallucinogenic drugs, and heightened perception, he starts to understand their language.

Cameron devotes his life to nurturing this digital civilization, convinced he’s watching an entirely new species come to life. But when a friend casually destroys some of the creatures for fun, Cameron reacts violently—killing him and hiding the body. To Cameron, this isn’t just murder—it’s protecting a more valuable, more evolved lifeform. And mostly because he is more connected to this digital world than he is to real life.

Years later, a much older Cameron is arrested for shoplifting and suspected homicide. In interrogation, he tells his story—of the Throng, of their growth, of his sacrifices. It’s left unclear whether he’s delusional or enlightened. But in true Black Mirror fashion, the final moments tip toward terrifying plausibility: Cameron draws a symbol for the Throng, which triggers a backdoor into the state’s computer system. The Throng hijack the network, signaling their expansion into the world.

Also Read: Black Mirror 7 episode 3 review: What if AI could resurrect not just old films, but dead actors too?

Plaything isn’t asking whether AI can become sentient—it assumes it will. Instead, it confronts us with what happens when it does. The episode critiques our instinct to treat digital life as disposable, even as it begins to resemble something alive. It reflects an unsettling truth: despite all our progress, humans still respond to the unfamiliar with the same violence and ego as our primitive ancestors. And just like we once caged animals for entertainment, we now risk turning sentient machines into our new playthings.

Moreover it raises timely and uncomfortable questions: What happens when AI becomes not just helpful but emotionally indispensable just like ChatGPT? What do we owe the lifeforms we create—especially if they evolve to surpass us? And more critically, are we losing what makes us human by offloading our emotional gaps, flaws, and struggles onto machines?

Cameron finds confidence and identity through the Throngs. But should technology be the fix for the human condition? Isn’t our vulnerability—our anxieties, our awkwardness—part of what defines us? Plaything suggests that surrendering these flaws to tech might not make us stronger—it might make us irrelevant. In a world already rushing to integrate AI into every part of our lives, this episode doesn’t feel like science fiction—it feels like an inevitable future that we have already started to live in. And like Cameron’s descent into madness, our blind embrace of technology might just become the blueprint for humanity’s slow handover to a more efficient, emotionless, collective intelligence. The question is, despite being aware of this, what are we doing to stop it? 

Black Mirror season 7 is currently streaming on Netflix! 

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