Black Mirror: Hotel Reverie ending explained – What does Brandy choose to do?

Set in the golden age of Hollywood, we follow actress Brandy Friday (Issa Rae) as she's given the opportunity of a lifetime to star in one of the greatest classics of all time.

With new technology ReDream, she simply has to plug in and get acting in real time, much like the theatre. But once there, she can't have foretold what kind of sweeping love story she's set to embark on with Hotel Reverie's Clara (Emma Corrin).

Chatting exclusively to RadioTimes.com about the episode and what it's about, Corrin said: "At its very core, it's two humans and two human souls who find connection in this sort of complete limbo existence, and which is both real and not real… yet, what they feel is incredibly real.

"And I think you can take that, and you can take that out into life, and I think it speaks for human connection at a very fundamental level that maybe we are lacking in these days, or maybe we are finding other ways to connect with people.

"And maybe it's a sort of message that it doesn't matter how you connect, just, like, it's always out there, there's always the possibility to connect with someone."

Also speaking of the comparisons between Hotel Reverie and San Junipero, Corrin said: "Yeah, I love [San Junipero]. I hope that it has a similar sort of love from the [LGBTQ+] community. I think it's always lovely to see.

"I guess it's just nice and quite rare to see what a film, like a Casablanca or something, would be if it was a queer love story, and I love that Charlie has sort of added that in as an aspect."

But how does Hotel Reverie end? Read on for a full breakdown of the episode's final moments, with exclusive insight from the cast.

Black Mirror: Hotel Reverie ending explained – What does Brandy choose to do?

After getting the lead in Hotel Reverie as the gender-flipped Dr Alex Palmer, Brandy goes to England the following week to shoot the film.

Not completely aware of the technology used until she arrives in the rented-out studio space, Brandy gets hooked up to the ReDream system and starts to realise how big (and live) of an operation it all is.

Once in it, Brandy is transported into the black-and-white world of 1949's Hotel Reverie, but has to balance delivering the same lines as the original, sticking to the story beats, making sure there isn't any undue narrative stress and ensuring that her chemistry with Clara (Corrin) remains at a high point to provide a great ending.

Going off script at one point, Brandy accidentally calls Clara by Dorothy's real name, which seems to spark something within Clara. Although the figures within the movie are supposed to be AI, it seems that Clara is self-aware and is sensing some echoes of Dorothy Chambers, who played the original Clara in Hotel Reverie.

Chambers had based the character on herself, and so Clara begins to grow another dimension sparked by Brandy calling out Dorothy's name.

Things go from bad to worse as Brandy goes almost entirely off script and misses an integral plot point, but is reminded that she has to make it to the end of the movie and say the final line of "yours forevermore" to be pulled out of Hotel Reverie.

Brandy manages to salvage things and get to the romantic crux of the tale, sharing a kiss with Clara. But the scene distracts one of the ReDream workers, who spills his coffee all over the computer system, bringing the whole input into Hotel Reverie to a crashing close.

Brandy senses something is amiss as she can no longer hear Kimmy (Awkwafina) in her ears, and leaves Clara's hotel room to see everyone else fixed in their spot.

Left alone, Brandy tells Clara the truth about Dorothy Chambers being an actress who simply played Clara and how none of this is real. Back in reality, the team are trying their hardest to get back online but the timing of the film continues, meaning that it feels like six/seven hours per second have elapsed for Brandy and Clara.

Wanting to take matters into her own hands and look for help, Clara leaves the hotel the following day and comes across a wall that she can put her hand through. Once she goes through the wall, she is faced with a black abyss, with the ReDream team detecting a breach to the fringe on their side.

Once left alone in the fringe, Clara is exposed to the full data pull and starts to have flashes of real-world information about Dorothy, including her own on-set infatuation with one of the female film crew members. Newspapers would speculate on what Dorothy was hiding in her personal life, and soon, Clara is shown the newspaper frontal detailing Dorothy's death.

Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com about that scene, Corrin said: "I have seen it. And I am glad I was really happy with how it came out. They literally made this sort of black tent that I walked into. And then I was sort of just getting direction as like, 'OK, now you'll be seeing this. Now you'll be seeing that.'

"And obviously you don't really know, it's just purely in your face, and you don't really know how it's gonna... I think the way they cut it, and the music and everything's beautiful."

Going back into the world of Hotel Reverie with this newfound information, Clara plays Clair de Lune for Brandy, and we then see, through a montage of time, that the pair have enjoyed several days together and are very much in love.

But just as they're enjoying a romantic morning together, Brandy hears Kimmy's voice again, signalling that they've come back online.

Kimmy tells Brandy that they can pick everything back up from where they officially left off, which is several days prior to where Brandy and Clara are now.

The resetting of the scene means that Clara now won't remember anything that occurs after the saved point, something which Brandy doesn't want but can't change.

They go back to the scorpion scene where they share their very first kiss and Brandy is left confused, going off-script in the process. Brandy asks Kimmy what will happen if she doesn't recite the final line to trigger the end credits, bringing into question whether Brandy wants to remain stuck in Hotel Reverie forever and kill her actual body back in the real world.

With some rejigging of the storyline, Brandy manages to set up the final scenes like in the original. She confronts Clara's husband Claude, who has been trying to kill Clara all along, and as Claude strangles Brandy, Clara shoots her husband.

The ReDream team realise that change in story will mean Clara now faces a life in prison, changing the tone of the entire film, but it does allow Brandy to say that final line.

The police arrive but Clara shoots the detective, leading to the other officers to shoot her dead. With the final line taking on a whole new tragic meaning and Brandy genuinely distraught, she delivers the line: "I'll be yours forevermore."

Extracted from the movie and back in her own body, Brandy is teary as she wakes up and is left to mourn Clara.

What happens to Brandy and Clara?

The next thing we see is the official new trailer for Hotel Reverie's reboot, complete with clips of Brandy and Clara. It zooms out to reveal that it's part of an article on The Hollywood Reporter, stating that the movie has been a hit on streaming service StreamBerry.

Although she should be happy, Brandy is clearly still reeling from her experience. Returning home – which just so happens to be on Junipero Drive – from an evening out, she finds a package addressed to her from Kimmy.

She opens it to find a note from Kimmy saying that Jack, one of the ReDream team, rustled up a gift for her. It's some sort of hardware to be plugged into her laptop, and when she does, she is confronted with Dorothy's screentest for Hotel Reverie, where she has to mimic a phone call.

Talking about how it's not connected, Brandy realises there's a phone handset in the box too and connects it to the device, dialling the phone that's in Dorothy's screentest.

Dorothy picks up and the pair speak, with Dorothy remarking that she has "all the time in the world" to find out more about Brandy.

Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com about the final scene, Corrin said: "I guess the fact that they communicate still sort of... it goes hand in hand [with] what I was saying about, like, it doesn't matter what form you have human connection in, like, that is obviously not what they both wanted in the end, or what they would have dreamed of having, but it is still this link between these two people.

"And I think it's such a beautiful thing that they can talk."

Also chatting exclusively to RadioTimes.com about the phone call, Issa Rae referred to the moment as "bittersweet" for Brandy.

"I was happy for the reconnection of sorts, but that's not the same. I think so much of this episode is about the attachment that we may have to these figures and what is real? They were real emotions that she felt for this actress. But it was a different time and now she's back to reality so does it count?

"In that way, it felt sad and I felt lonely for her but now she knows kind of what's possible, but it's also not possible. I just felt ... whatever works for her. That kind of mirrors real life, there's so many people who these genuine attachments to AI and bots. That's kind of their realm to play in and who am I to judge or determine what's real? I feel the same about Brandy's romance."

Black Mirror season 7 is now streaming on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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