Black Mirror: Plaything ending explained – What did Cameron do?

The fourth episode, Plaything, is a pretty unique instalment, following a man called Cameron across two time-frames - one in the near future, in which he is played by Peter Capaldi, and the other in the 1990s, in which he is played by Lewis Gribben.

This trip to the past allows it to reintroduce two characters from a previous episode, Bandersnatch, in the form of Will Poulter's Colin Ritman and Asim Chaudhry's Mohan Thakur.

However, the story itself is completely different from the one explored in that tale, focusing on Cameron's journey after he comes across a new artificial life-form, simply known as the Throng.

But how did things play out for Cameron and what actually happened in that final sequence?

If you're at all confused, never fear - so was Gribben.

He told RadioTimes.com in an exclusive interview that he was "so confused" by the episode's ending, and that he "couldn't fully grasp it".

"Even at the read-through, because we read it aloud, all of Peter's stuff with the policeman and the interrogations, I was just like, 'I have no clue what this man is going on about.' And I played the younger version of him, and it's just like, 'I have no clue.'

"You do see people like that who are just, like, they feel a bit mentally, like, deranged and stuff, and like they're going on tangents. And there probably is sense in there, but you don't get it fully - even watching that was like, I still don't get what he's going on about. I kind of got it. But it was alright. It was a mind-bender."

Read on for everything you need to know about the ending of Black Mirror season 7 episode 4, Plaything.

Plaything ending explained: What happened to Cameron and who did he kill?

At the start of Plaything, Cameron was arrested for trying to steal a bottle of alcohol. As the police visited the scene, they took his DNA, and found that it was on file for someone who had committed a murder years before.

As Cameron spoke with a detective, DCI Kano, and a psychological evaluator, Jen Minter, he revealed how he had ended up there.

As a young adult he had been shy and timid, having been exposed to the violence of his father from an early age, and having struggled to ever make friends.

He had started work writing video game reviews for PC Zone in the 1990s, when he was sent by his editor to meet with Colin Ritman, who had asked for him by name. Ritman had recently returned to work at video game company Tuckersoft after a very public mental breakdown, and had been working on a secretive new game he wanted to show to Cameron.

However, when Cameron arrived, Colin revealed his project wasn't a game in any traditional sense of the world. He had created artificial life called Thronglets, making up a Throng.

In the 'game' you could feed them, give them water, bathe them and allow them to replicate, growing and developing as a virtual species at pace. They have even developed their own language independent of Colin's work.

Enthralled, Cameron took the Thronglets disk from Colin's computer while he was out of the room - although he believed Colin had actually wanted him to take it. It was later revealed Colin had had another breakdown, and Thronglets would never be released.

While experimenting with it, Cameron was visited by his only friend, someone he only ever knew as Lump. Lump needed somewhere to stay while he sold LSD in the city, and he and Cameron tried it that evening.

While high, Cameron realised he could understand the language of the Throng, and they taught him things way beyond normal human comprehension. He bought the rest of lump's stash and continued to experiment.

Later, Lump visited again while Cameron had to go to work. He found Thronglets on Cameron's computer, and set about killing the Throng, using virtual fire and bricks to do so.

Cameron returned and was horrified to see what Lump had done. The two fought as the remaining Thronglets watched through a webcam. Cameron killed Lump, chopped up his body, put the parts in a suitcase and dumped it in the woods, leaving out his head, hands and any identifying marks.

He had then spent the subsequent years taking LSD, communicating with the Throng and helping them to develop and thrive - purchasing a new technology as it was developed and using it to advance their capabilities. He even surgically grafted a socket into his own body, so he could merge with the Throng.

What did Cameron draw at the end of Plaything?

Throughout the episode, Cameron had been asking to get access to a pen and paper in order to draw. He said it was something he did at times of stress, and that it would help him to explain the story he was telling more cohesively.

However, when he finally was given a pen and paper, he used it enact his plan. He drew a QR-style code, which he showed to the security camera. This automatically triggered the state computer, which transmitted a signal to every device in the world.

It turned out this was why Cameron had tried to steal a bottle at the start of the episode - he knew he would get arrested, that they would find out he had committed a murder years before, and he would be put in a room with cameras wired up to the all-powerful state computer.

Cameron explained that this would allow the Throng to merge with humanity and transfer into their brains as though they were computers. Cameron had already undergone this procedure manually, by surgically grafting a port into his neck, so he was unaffected by the signal.

As the signal was transmitted a loud noise was heard, and everyone across the world collapsed as the data flooded into their heads.

What did the Throng do to humanity?

In truth, we don't really know. The ending is left purposefully ambiguous, with Cameron reaching his hand down to help DCI Kano up after he has been knocked out, and seemingly in some way altered by the Throng's signal.

Cameron says that the Throng will merge with humanity, bringing them a vast collective intelligence and ending conflict for good. Humanity will be peaceful and upgraded, he says.

The only example of this we have is Cameron himself, who uploaded the Throng to his own mind some time ago. He seems to be essentially similar to his former self - his obsession with the Throng started long before he merged with them.

But can the Throng be trusted? Can Cameron? The singularity event he has enacted could bring about humanity's golden age or its downfall - but for now we'll have to keep guessing which it is.

Gribben gave his own interpretation when speaking with RadioTimes.com, saying: "I think it was a thing of, like, 'We have to lose that violence inside of us.'

"I kind of got the idea of... it's just like losing that kind of aggression and losing that thing of your impulses, getting rid of the bad side of you so that we can have peace by basically just wiping everyone's brains and making them docile, so that there's peace.

"Which is a weird commentary on, like, maybe we should all just be happy and dumb and not have violence or have opinions. We should all just erase all sense of... I don't know. It's a weird kind of political way of saying, 'If we don't have opinions, we can all live together?' But in that extreme way where everyone gets their minds erased."

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