In the first fable of the new season, Plemons plays Daly, a socially-awkward computer genius who takes out his frustrations from work in a virtual reality game called Infinity. It’s no ordinary VR game, though. It puts Plemons in the role of Captain Daly, a Kirk-style leader of the USS Callister, a spaceship from classic TV show Space Fleet (basically Star Trek, if you didn't guess from the uniforms already).
The crew? They're copies of Daly’s real-life co-workers, played by the likes of Cristin Milioti, Jimmi Simpson and Michaela Coel. And since its Daly’s game, he controls every aspect of The Callister – often to very cruel ends. Imagine how you might treat your Sims after an exceptionally bad day.
However, the crew of the Callister eventually rebels and breaks free of Daly’s digital playpen into an online version of Infinity. And that’s where Aaron Paul comes in.
After making their escape – and locking Daly inside his offline edition of Infinity – the Callister happily greets a nearby ship via their comms system. However, the grumpy gamer, voiced by Paul, replies in the most Jesse Pinkman way ever: “Yeah, merry Christmas. Are we going to blow each other are we going to trade? Hello?! Do you have anything to trade at all?”
When it emerges that the Callister has nothing to offer, Paul tells the ship “Get out of my quadrant or I’ll blast you all to s***!” before starting a 10-second countdown. But a few moments later The Callister beams away, leaving the gamer shouting “Yeah, you better run! King of space right here!”
Unfortunately, this brilliantly crafted cameo doesn’t put Plemons and Paul on screen together. But still, it’s an unexpected end to a superbly playful Black Mirror episode.
And who knows, although Paul is only credited as “gamer voice”, who’s to say it wasn’t actually Jesse Pinkman enjoying some time away from the meth lab?
Black Mirror season four is now available to watch on Netflix
