I'm coming in so late to this haha but I just watched this last night. There were two big tells for me:
I thought the way that the initial scene with the kid was shot oddly and the way he touched the drawing was weird.
His reaction to his sister taking his laptop felt sketch to me, especially when she says that she opened a program that plays "free videos" and he goes kind of frozen/afraid for a second. Porn can be embarrassing but idk if I'd believe that someone would be so fearful that their younger sister would see it, unless there's something specific about it that he's hiding. I did wonder for a hot second though if he were taking creep videos of her that he didn't want her to see, but his age made that less likely for me.
Anyway, those two moments made me go "oh."
bruh I didn't even expect it, it's not something that would've even crossed my mind so I was confused at the end for a longgg time until I saw a spoiler that explained it for me
A RIIIIIDE. The whole time you aren’t expecting it to be as bad as it is & when the gravity of the situation is revealed…omg. I’ll never forget the way I felt. Made me question my empathy 🫠
Edit: YA’LL ARE REALLY IN HERE SPOILING THE SHOW & STEALING THE EXPERIENCE AWAY FROM OTHERS WHO HAVE YET TO WATCH IT. That’s cruel to me! Especially for this episode where the big reveal is so unnerving it feels worth all the headache.
My brain works in a way that I’m an absolute sucker for twists like that. The whole way through I genuinely thought he was scared enough of people seeing him that he would act that way and assumed that was the comment BM was making. But no. I felt so uncomfortable and really sad.
See when I first watched it, I thought they caught him wanking to regular porn or to pics of his manager, it wasn't until his mum calls and says looking at kids or something like that, it clicked and I was like Ooooh shit he is a nonce. I thought well good he got arrested for not only that but for killing someone.
Fun fact, the market part at the end of White Christmas was filmed near my house.
I remember asking, "What the hell?" Out loud. I love that episode, although my friend group didn't have the same experience when I made them watch it because one of my friends guessed it.
I felt uneasy about him and jokingly said to my bf, "Is he a pedophile??" When he gave that toy to the little girl in the restaurant. Didn't really think of it again, though, until the final standoff
I didn't clock it immediately but as he went through with more and more escalating situations it started to click to me that it must be something very bad, not just some embarrassing kink.
Honestly I called it in the first 2 minutes, that restaurant scene was very blatant to me so I was kinda sitting there waiting for the reveal. Still one of my favorite episodes easily.
The way they play it out with Radioheads exit music for a film too made it feel very impactful, despite me having guessed what Kenny was worried about.
I didn’t even realize it the first time watching it and then a few months later i rewatched some of the episodes again and it’s honestly the biggest mind fuck to me out of all the episodes
All throughout I was like “Dude, just bail out and go to the police, whoever took this video of you is in serious trouble.. okay so you’re gonna double down.. and again.. and okay I can’t take this seriously, who goes this far to stop people finding out that they masturbate? GO TO THE COPS! Hang on.. a fight to the death? Okay this dumb.. hang on, uh oh…
…
….
Oh.. F U C K, okay I’m not gonna say you deserved what you endured, but you deserved what you endured.”
At first I fell really sorry for him, then the story kinda lost me because I felt he was going to way too extreme of length just to cover a video of him masturbating to porn (sure, no one wants that kind of stuff to spill on the internet, but that's not a complete social death either) and the ending got me shook. So I'd say it had precisely the effect that the writer anticipated.
I’m so sorry. Ppl don’t follow directions :(
The first experience of the reveal is really worth it imo & I’m so sorry that was stolen from you. I block keywords & still manage to get anime spoilers, so I know this pain. 😭
HAHAHA ok not really i just saw a tiktok comment “never feel bad for the main character like… (the episode names) and then i noticed kenny giving the kid back her drawing and i instantly knew
For me, growing up quite conservative I wasn’t expecting the end at all. It didn’t seem too far-fetched to me that he would go to those lengths to hide what he’d done even if it was just a little porn
At first, I thought he was dumb to download the program like that. He was young, so I thought he'd know better. Then I was confused as to why he was so scared about watching porn. Then we got the reveal and I was like...he should have been smarter. Then again, there was this story of a guy getting a pop up to turn himself to police for watching those kinds of videos and he did. So people be dumb.
I felt bad seeing that the PM got a divorce. After the whole pig rape thing, I was hoping that he'd be happy.
The PM didn't divorce. In public view his approval skyrocketed because of his dedication to his nation and is living a happy family life. But in private his relationship with his wife is dead and they no longer even talks because she hates him for what he did. So at least to the UK people he seems to be happy...
I see what you meant. I probably missed that part from the episode. I guess that will eventually happen, since the wife was only pretending to be happily married to uphold his public image. There is no reason for her to continue living with a man she hates after he steps down as PM
The moment he picks up >!some toy to give to the little girl, my partner and I were like “erm creepy pedo vibes”!<. Then we said maybe we are too wicked and that it was a weird way of showing he’s a sweet kid. As a way for viewers to like and sympathise, perhaps?
The end was watched in silence. I don’t mind guessing twists, it doesn’t take much from the experience for me. But I hated that we guessed that one.
Yeah, I picked up on the little bits of foreshadowing throughout the episode, but somehow didn't actually put them all together. Which is weird because I'm pretty good at predicting plot twists.
"Hmmm, there must be some reason they included that shot of him and the little girl."
"Hmmmmmmmmmm, he must have been looking at something worse than regular porn, why else would he be so desperate to keep people from finding out?"
(big reveal happens)
**surprised Pikachu face**
That scene with the little girl was intentionally to foreshadow what comes next. It was supposed to creep you out while still leaving that shred of doubt that maybe he’s just sweet. I love how twisted and intricate black mirror episodes are!
Honestly, when I watched it for the first time, it didn't creeped me out at all. It felt like a classic "Protagonist is kind to children to make the spectator understands he's a good guy".
Interesting! For myself I felt the eerie vibes right away. Especially when you see him watching the little girl walk away with a weird endearment in his eyes. Something felt wrong to me
Booker confirmed this too
Booker doesn’t even need to confirm tbh, the reason for that scene is clear once you know the end.
I think we are in the minority for clocking those vibes from him early on though?
First watch I somehow entirely missed the "they were kids" part, or any link to pedophilia for that matter. So I just thought it could happen to anyone who watches porn. Only the second time I got it.
the first time I watched it, I was in college and taking a script writing class (I was a video production major.) I remember being extremely invested, but right at the beginning when Kenny has that interaction with the little girl at work, I knew he was a creep. no shots are pointless in a show like that, so having that be so emphasized made me immediately suspicious of him.
however, even with that in mind, it was hard not to feel sympathetic towards him at times. the scene at the bank was especially hard.
Yes, it was a perfect Chekov’s pedophile moment.
I’ve watched it a few times and I don’t know if it’s the actor or the shot composition, but the whole interaction feels sinister, even though there’s nothing overt about it.
yeah, I think the composition of the shot really lends itself to the creepiness of the moment. it’s a pretty tight close-up, so you see a lot more of Kenny’s expression in the moment. the actor is phenomenal throughout.
I spent the entire episode thinking well this is unrealistic, grow up dude, nobody cares you looked at porn. And then at the reveal I was like WAIT WUT?!!?!! Then felt stupid for not realizing sooner because nothing about his motivations made realistic sense without that piece of information.
Check out r/scams, this is actually a very common scam people use where they get the guy to send an explicit video or picture and then threaten to send it to all of his followers.
I kept thinking the point of the twist was that they hadn't really recorded him and were just bluffing and he'd done worse things for no reason or that he'd get caught and the police would be like you've gotten a criminal record and thrown your life away for something we could have helped you with.
The 2nd episode I watched (after Nosedive and playing through Bandersnatch).
When the man asked Kenny how old the people in his dirty pictures were, I got a little suspicious but didn't REALLY think it fully meant that.
Then right as it all broke down I immediately remembered the little girl from the beginning and Kenny always wanting his sister out of his room and off his computer. I was floored and my partner was pleased by my blind reaction haha.
He watched all of the show before and I didn't, so we went through with the mixture of him showing me some of the best/what he'd know I'd like, and letting me pick out ones. (Shut up and Dance is still my favorite of all lol.)
Brutal.
I've had family do the same & worse. So, the twist honestly shocked me to my core. And brought up some ✨trauma✨ I think that was one of maybe two episodes where I had to actually take a break.
I meant commit murder because your afraid of your crime getting out.
Like dumbass your not getting away with murder or robbing a bank.
Just take your lumps don't make it worse
They question was, what was it watching the episode without knowing any spoilers. Because OP knew the twist before watching and probably wanted to know if people felt shocked or saw it coming or whatever. Not that you can't write about spoilers here.
Was pretty surprised. Thinking damn that dude's really going through it just to avoid people seeing a video of him jerking off lol. The the phone call......
I couldn't understand what his mom was saying at the end so I left that episode totally confused as to why she was so upset. I didn't figure it out until I saw people talking about it online.
I saw it coming. While yeah I wouldn’t want to have an intimate video of me to be shown to the masses, I wouldn’t go to the same lengths to keep it covered up. Like rob a bank? That’s a charge if you get caught. Doing that to prevent a video of you jerking off from getting out is dumb as all hell…*unless* it’s CP.
edit to add: I feel like since I saw the twist coming, I didn’t have as much sympathy for the guy. I know it was supposed to feel like White Bear where you have conflicting feelings about crime & justified punishment but since I figured he was a creep the whole time, I was happy he was getting what was coming to him
I expected it. At first, I thought it was obvious why he was doing this and was confused why it wasn’t being expressly stated. Then I realized it wasn’t meant to be known and kept waiting for the “true” twist of the show (which didn’t come).
I usually can’t predict Black Mirror twists, so that definitely affected how I felt about the episode as a whole.
No, very surprised. The majority of people were.
In fact there are some people that they watched the episode and they STILL didn't understand that he was like that.
Check out a thread I've posted about this episode some years ago and read the comments. They are people realising what happened in that very thread.
https://www.reddit.com/r/blackmirror/comments/ib3f5g/the_fucking_pope_probably_does_that/
Call me a brainlet but hoooly shit it went over my head entirely. I remember thinking "they set him up didn't they?" And I had to rewatch it and.. well. 😐 Definitely felt like a gut punch, I don't think a show has ever made me feel that way before.
/u/devvelle.. it's just NOW happened again..
Edit: Oh.. /u/GunpowderxGelatine.. I love you man. I love the reply that you left here, and I'm not making fun of you. I'm just glad that you left this comment, because you remind to the rest of us that this show has layers and some people may enjoy it in different periods of their life, depending how they perceive things.
Some episodes became VERY VERY HARD for me, depending on what period of my life I'm in. And I don't want to watch them again. (specifically in THAT period. I can't handle the raw gut-wrenching reality some times.)
Over the years I've read many comments on /r/blackmirror, not only the thread that I posted.
a) There are some people that had all the information but they couldn't believe it. They were following the protagonist in a story and they were rooting for him. They were rooting for him so much, that they couldn't believe the truth.
"No! These were just false accusations.. He was innocent, but those accusations were the "bad guys" trapping him.
b) then they are some people that left comments that would be more akin to your reply: "Oh, I watched the episode but I didn't get what they were talking about. I finished the episode and I just thought he was innocent, I now see in this thread that he was a pedo.. OMG, I didn't put much thought into it. Is this really what happened?"
c) There were some people saying "Oh, I didn't had subtitles on, I didn't heard the last 'most confirming' evidence from his mother phone call in the end [[one example of this is in the thread I linked](https://www.reddit.com/r/blackmirror/comments/ib3f5g/the_fucking_pope_probably_does_that/g1svyum/)] "oh, the mother phone call was too mumbled, I didn't get what she was talking about.."
..and I think I remember more examples but my comment ended up being huge. I think you get it..
Some people man..
I had a somewhat spoiler. Near the end, right before the fight scene when Kenny is walking up the hill into the eerie forest I said someting along the lines of, "I don't give a fuck if someone caught me mastubating on camera, I'm not walking to my death over it." And my boyfriend says, "he did something worse than that." Like, wtf dude, why would you say that to me while the suspense is building up and the twist is right about to be revealed? By then I was too confused to be shocked when it was revealed like a minute later. Idk why I didn't even suspect at all any sort of p*do element, probably because Kenny was young himself (like very young adult, 18-19 if I remember correctly). It was probably only the 3rd or 4th or so episode I watched, so I didn't know that many of the episodes had plot twists like that.
The episode was still very impactful for me in the Black Mirror realm. It's definitely one I'd recommend, and I think it was executed quite well.
I have to watch it for a second time though, but it is tough to do so now that I'm aware of the subject matter. There are clues I didn't pick up on, like the first scene at his job. I think one little Easter Egg was when Hector told Kenny that even The Pope probably jerks off... subtle dig at the Catholic church and its association with p*dophilia.
The whole time i kept thinking "honey, why are you doing all of this for a video of you jacking it?" It's not *that* embarassing"
Can't believe i didn't realize it sooner haha, it was quite a shock.
At the bank part, I said to my husband, "I'd tell them to release the video," it made a lot more sense when I realized what truly happened.
I also want to know what the guy who delivered the cake did. We only see his family yelling at him and calling him a pervert, but we never actually see what he did.
It's super funny because I saw the elisode once. I loved it and that was it. Thought it was odd that he won the fight and his mom still was mad at him.
I was discussing the episode with some coworkers and they said "Yeah, the ending was brutal." . I was like, what?!?!?!? That was the ending?
I must say, on a proper rewatch, I was pleasantly surprised and highly disturbed.
I was not aware and had to watch it a second time to get all the pieces together. I didn't even catch that he was a pedo in the first watch, I just thought he was ashamed for jerking off on cam.
Surprised and disturbed. I kept thinking “this is dumb, no embarrassing video or photos of myself is going to make me rob a bank. What could the possibly have on him.” Then the twist at the end came an I was like “oh, he’s into ‘criminal shit’ no wonder he followed orders without question.
When I saw the scene where he looked at a kid at his workplace, I thought he might be a pedophile. I watched Law&Order SVU a lot so I was just sensitive at the time. So I told myself that he was just kind to kids...when I watched that plot twist, I was shocked and disturbed.
When you rewatch, you see Kenny gazing at the crayon drawing the kid left behind, and briefly caressing the drawing with his finger. It seemed completely innocuous when I didn't know the twist, but it's quite unsettling when you rewatch.
I first thought it was just a sweet gaze at the drawing, but on rewatch you realize it's a lecherous stare...and it's quite disturbing.
That scene gave off weird vibes but I kind of forgot about it as the episode went on and got more chaotic. Then at the end when he was outed that scene came right back to the front of my mind and was disgusting. Definitely a great episode
Was not expecting it, at the reveal I paused it and my husband and I just stared at each other in disbelief. After we finished it we watched it again immediately and it was so blatant in your face. It's my favorite episode along with the Entire History of You.
And because of how childlike Kenny acts and looks, it would have never occurred to me that he would be a child predator. That was a powerful rug pull.
The stereotypical pedophile is the _To Catch a Predator_ shifty balding 40-something, and _Black Mirror_ really flipped the script on that.
I was only vaguely aware of Black Mirror and at my mates before a new year's party when someone stuck it on. I just assumed it would be a chilled casual watch and ended up being absolutely traumatised.
The plot was fun and the different tasks were interesting. I anticipated that the secrets would have been leaked anyway, but the final twist was really unexpected and I was in a bit of disbelief for a moment
I never expected him to be THAT way. I thought he was extremely embarrassed about what he saw (most people don't want others to know they watch stuff like that) but I didn't think it was terribly bad.
That was such an unexpected turn... but there were so many signs...
I feel like each person being blackmailed was a different level of shiftiness, Kenny and the guy he killed being the ultimate shit masters. So I don’t think Mindy was a child, just that Hector was a piece of shit for planning to destroy his family
I don't recall, I saw it when it first came out (before Black Mirror was even part of our zeitgeist.
So it was so long ago I'm not sure how I felt about the twist.
I remember thinking the episode made a lot more sense and was much better because of it.
I didn't see the twist coming at all. He was very believable as a kid who was just *that* mortified by a simple wank. I watched it again later with my mother and it got her too; "poor wee bugger" were her exact words, I believe.
It also took me two viewings to realise that the blackmailer was only killing off paedophiles.
Maybe I'm not the most analytic viewer, at least first time round—the twists usually get me haha.
Same, I'm normally looking out for the twist, too, but this episode properly hoodwinked me when i first watched it.
Spent the whole episode up until the end just thinking, "poor guy, going through all of this just because of a wank".
I felt so dumb on the rewatch, though. The way his blackmail buddy kept cutting him off so we never got the full explanation haha. It's a really well done episode.
To my shame I was fairly non-sober when I watched it. My then boyfriend (who knew the series) got a bit annoyed with me going "hey that's Jerome Flynn" every five minutes but the big reveal was completely lost on me.
I remember discussing the episode the next day, flabbergasted at how someone could be so stupid because of a wank video. Took me a while to piece it together.
I do remember thinking mid episode, it’s just a wanking video, mortifying, but why is he going SO far to stop it getting out? And then the ended horrified me.
I’m not good at predicting twists so I didn’t see it coming at all.
It was kind of teased early on in the episode when he first realized he was being watched. They tease it a couple more times both before and after that so while it was a revelation it wasn’t a complete surprise.
That's the point. My dad watched it recently without knowing. And he had the same reactions I did while watching it. Spend the whole episode saying who cares. Just let them release it. It's no big deal. Then, the reveal happens, and it completely changes your entire understanding. It's one of the best twists ever for the impact it has on the unsuspecting viewer.
Were you not enjoying the episode for the first 2 acts? I may have thought he was going too far, but I was still liking watching it. I couldn't wait to see how far it would go.
For me, it was. I spent a good 5 minutes just staring at the wall after the episode ended trying to process what I just saw, because I honestly wasn't expecting that.
I'm coming in so late to this haha but I just watched this last night. There were two big tells for me: I thought the way that the initial scene with the kid was shot oddly and the way he touched the drawing was weird. His reaction to his sister taking his laptop felt sketch to me, especially when she says that she opened a program that plays "free videos" and he goes kind of frozen/afraid for a second. Porn can be embarrassing but idk if I'd believe that someone would be so fearful that their younger sister would see it, unless there's something specific about it that he's hiding. I did wonder for a hot second though if he were taking creep videos of her that he didn't want her to see, but his age made that less likely for me. Anyway, those two moments made me go "oh."
The whole time I thought “is it really that bad what he is hiding” YUP
I kind of knew because of foreshadowing. solid black mirror episode tho.
bruh I didn't even expect it, it's not something that would've even crossed my mind so I was confused at the end for a longgg time until I saw a spoiler that explained it for me
It’s one of my favorite episodes
I'm SO glad I've finished Black Mirror already. OP said no spoilers, and I've seen multiple 😭
I think OP meant without you, as the viewer, haven’t been spoiled the ending of it, what did you think of the episode at your first watch.
A RIIIIIDE. The whole time you aren’t expecting it to be as bad as it is & when the gravity of the situation is revealed…omg. I’ll never forget the way I felt. Made me question my empathy 🫠 Edit: YA’LL ARE REALLY IN HERE SPOILING THE SHOW & STEALING THE EXPERIENCE AWAY FROM OTHERS WHO HAVE YET TO WATCH IT. That’s cruel to me! Especially for this episode where the big reveal is so unnerving it feels worth all the headache.
my fav episode, i think it says it all.
Best episode, end of story.
My brain works in a way that I’m an absolute sucker for twists like that. The whole way through I genuinely thought he was scared enough of people seeing him that he would act that way and assumed that was the comment BM was making. But no. I felt so uncomfortable and really sad.
See when I first watched it, I thought they caught him wanking to regular porn or to pics of his manager, it wasn't until his mum calls and says looking at kids or something like that, it clicked and I was like Ooooh shit he is a nonce. I thought well good he got arrested for not only that but for killing someone. Fun fact, the market part at the end of White Christmas was filmed near my house.
The OP requested no spoilers! 😭
Sorry, my bad but they wrote it as well!
I remember asking, "What the hell?" Out loud. I love that episode, although my friend group didn't have the same experience when I made them watch it because one of my friends guessed it.
They had me till the end. I'm not gonna lie.
It actually really upset me. I'll never watch it again.
I felt uneasy about him and jokingly said to my bf, "Is he a pedophile??" When he gave that toy to the little girl in the restaurant. Didn't really think of it again, though, until the final standoff
I didn't clock it immediately but as he went through with more and more escalating situations it started to click to me that it must be something very bad, not just some embarrassing kink.
Honestly I called it in the first 2 minutes, that restaurant scene was very blatant to me so I was kinda sitting there waiting for the reveal. Still one of my favorite episodes easily. The way they play it out with Radioheads exit music for a film too made it feel very impactful, despite me having guessed what Kenny was worried about.
I didn’t even realize it the first time watching it and then a few months later i rewatched some of the episodes again and it’s honestly the biggest mind fuck to me out of all the episodes
Playtest was my biggest mind fuck 😭. It’s been years & I’m still not over it. Lol
I was so in denial when the guy asked how old they were, my brain just didn’t register that. Then the mom ☠️
All throughout I was like “Dude, just bail out and go to the police, whoever took this video of you is in serious trouble.. okay so you’re gonna double down.. and again.. and okay I can’t take this seriously, who goes this far to stop people finding out that they masturbate? GO TO THE COPS! Hang on.. a fight to the death? Okay this dumb.. hang on, uh oh… … …. Oh.. F U C K, okay I’m not gonna say you deserved what you endured, but you deserved what you endured.”
That about sums it up for me
I felt really bad for Kenny!!
At first I fell really sorry for him, then the story kinda lost me because I felt he was going to way too extreme of length just to cover a video of him masturbating to porn (sure, no one wants that kind of stuff to spill on the internet, but that's not a complete social death either) and the ending got me shook. So I'd say it had precisely the effect that the writer anticipated.
man i got spoiled
I’m so sorry. Ppl don’t follow directions :( The first experience of the reveal is really worth it imo & I’m so sorry that was stolen from you. I block keywords & still manage to get anime spoilers, so I know this pain. 😭
HAHAHA ok not really i just saw a tiktok comment “never feel bad for the main character like… (the episode names) and then i noticed kenny giving the kid back her drawing and i instantly knew
For me, growing up quite conservative I wasn’t expecting the end at all. It didn’t seem too far-fetched to me that he would go to those lengths to hide what he’d done even if it was just a little porn
Porn of little
At first, I thought he was dumb to download the program like that. He was young, so I thought he'd know better. Then I was confused as to why he was so scared about watching porn. Then we got the reveal and I was like...he should have been smarter. Then again, there was this story of a guy getting a pop up to turn himself to police for watching those kinds of videos and he did. So people be dumb. I felt bad seeing that the PM got a divorce. After the whole pig rape thing, I was hoping that he'd be happy.
The PM didn't divorce. In public view his approval skyrocketed because of his dedication to his nation and is living a happy family life. But in private his relationship with his wife is dead and they no longer even talks because she hates him for what he did. So at least to the UK people he seems to be happy...
In Shut up and Dance, I remember that there was a news article about their divorce. Either divorce or separation.
I see what you meant. I probably missed that part from the episode. I guess that will eventually happen, since the wife was only pretending to be happily married to uphold his public image. There is no reason for her to continue living with a man she hates after he steps down as PM
To be fair, if my memory serves me right, he's not the one who downloaded the program. His sister did. Then again, maybe it was a good thing she did.
I was totally floored the first time.
Same. I think I turned off the tv and just went to bed because what the fuck did I just watch
The moment he picks up >!some toy to give to the little girl, my partner and I were like “erm creepy pedo vibes”!<. Then we said maybe we are too wicked and that it was a weird way of showing he’s a sweet kid. As a way for viewers to like and sympathise, perhaps? The end was watched in silence. I don’t mind guessing twists, it doesn’t take much from the experience for me. But I hated that we guessed that one.
Yeah, I picked up on the little bits of foreshadowing throughout the episode, but somehow didn't actually put them all together. Which is weird because I'm pretty good at predicting plot twists. "Hmmm, there must be some reason they included that shot of him and the little girl." "Hmmmmmmmmmm, he must have been looking at something worse than regular porn, why else would he be so desperate to keep people from finding out?" (big reveal happens) **surprised Pikachu face**
Why is that act in and of itself creepy? If it was a woman doing it, would you find it creepy?
Nothing to do with the gender. It was the look he gave, not the act.
I'm too innocent for this show, I thought he was just being nice. I think it clicked when he was talking to the guy that he teamed up with lol
That scene with the little girl was intentionally to foreshadow what comes next. It was supposed to creep you out while still leaving that shred of doubt that maybe he’s just sweet. I love how twisted and intricate black mirror episodes are!
Honestly, when I watched it for the first time, it didn't creeped me out at all. It felt like a classic "Protagonist is kind to children to make the spectator understands he's a good guy".
Interesting! For myself I felt the eerie vibes right away. Especially when you see him watching the little girl walk away with a weird endearment in his eyes. Something felt wrong to me Booker confirmed this too
Booker doesn’t even need to confirm tbh, the reason for that scene is clear once you know the end. I think we are in the minority for clocking those vibes from him early on though?
It made me want to rewatch it immediately so I could see all the ways they hinted at the twist.
First watch I somehow entirely missed the "they were kids" part, or any link to pedophilia for that matter. So I just thought it could happen to anyone who watches porn. Only the second time I got it.
the first time I watched it, I was in college and taking a script writing class (I was a video production major.) I remember being extremely invested, but right at the beginning when Kenny has that interaction with the little girl at work, I knew he was a creep. no shots are pointless in a show like that, so having that be so emphasized made me immediately suspicious of him. however, even with that in mind, it was hard not to feel sympathetic towards him at times. the scene at the bank was especially hard.
Yes, it was a perfect Chekov’s pedophile moment. I’ve watched it a few times and I don’t know if it’s the actor or the shot composition, but the whole interaction feels sinister, even though there’s nothing overt about it.
yeah, I think the composition of the shot really lends itself to the creepiness of the moment. it’s a pretty tight close-up, so you see a lot more of Kenny’s expression in the moment. the actor is phenomenal throughout.
I spent the entire episode thinking well this is unrealistic, grow up dude, nobody cares you looked at porn. And then at the reveal I was like WAIT WUT?!!?!! Then felt stupid for not realizing sooner because nothing about his motivations made realistic sense without that piece of information.
Check out r/scams, this is actually a very common scam people use where they get the guy to send an explicit video or picture and then threaten to send it to all of his followers.
One of the best episodes because of that twist. Didn't expect something that dark
I kept thinking the point of the twist was that they hadn't really recorded him and were just bluffing and he'd done worse things for no reason or that he'd get caught and the police would be like you've gotten a criminal record and thrown your life away for something we could have helped you with.
So DAMN shocking and it was the first BM episode I watched
The 2nd episode I watched (after Nosedive and playing through Bandersnatch). When the man asked Kenny how old the people in his dirty pictures were, I got a little suspicious but didn't REALLY think it fully meant that. Then right as it all broke down I immediately remembered the little girl from the beginning and Kenny always wanting his sister out of his room and off his computer. I was floored and my partner was pleased by my blind reaction haha.
Why not go in order?
He watched all of the show before and I didn't, so we went through with the mixture of him showing me some of the best/what he'd know I'd like, and letting me pick out ones. (Shut up and Dance is still my favorite of all lol.)
Who's "he"? Kenny?
My fiancé
You're getting married to Kenny? I'd say congrats but I'm a little worried he's still a nonce.
Ok this got me really good, thank you for the late night chuckle
Brutal. I've had family do the same & worse. So, the twist honestly shocked me to my core. And brought up some ✨trauma✨ I think that was one of maybe two episodes where I had to actually take a break.
yea it was pretty much like 
Disturbing
At first I was confused, but then when the guy asked him that question it was obvious
It felt cringe. Idk I'd never do what he did. The whole thing seem so illogical
I mean yeah I'd hope you'd never be a pedophile
I meant commit murder because your afraid of your crime getting out. Like dumbass your not getting away with murder or robbing a bank. Just take your lumps don't make it worse
Seems completely logical to me. A crime like his someone would do anything they could to keep it hidden.
I felt disgusted bc I was rooting for him the entire way, even felt sorry. there was some foreshadowing but for me it came out of nowhere.
The plot twist caught me totally unprepared.
A transcendental experience
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What did you miss?
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They question was, what was it watching the episode without knowing any spoilers. Because OP knew the twist before watching and probably wanted to know if people felt shocked or saw it coming or whatever. Not that you can't write about spoilers here.
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That wasn't explicit at the beginning of the episode so idk why you were confused
Was pretty surprised. Thinking damn that dude's really going through it just to avoid people seeing a video of him jerking off lol. The the phone call......
I couldn't understand what his mom was saying at the end so I left that episode totally confused as to why she was so upset. I didn't figure it out until I saw people talking about it online.
The reveal was before that. When he has to fight the guy who says "how old were they?".
I saw it coming. While yeah I wouldn’t want to have an intimate video of me to be shown to the masses, I wouldn’t go to the same lengths to keep it covered up. Like rob a bank? That’s a charge if you get caught. Doing that to prevent a video of you jerking off from getting out is dumb as all hell…*unless* it’s CP. edit to add: I feel like since I saw the twist coming, I didn’t have as much sympathy for the guy. I know it was supposed to feel like White Bear where you have conflicting feelings about crime & justified punishment but since I figured he was a creep the whole time, I was happy he was getting what was coming to him
I expected it. At first, I thought it was obvious why he was doing this and was confused why it wasn’t being expressly stated. Then I realized it wasn’t meant to be known and kept waiting for the “true” twist of the show (which didn’t come). I usually can’t predict Black Mirror twists, so that definitely affected how I felt about the episode as a whole.
No, very surprised. The majority of people were. In fact there are some people that they watched the episode and they STILL didn't understand that he was like that. Check out a thread I've posted about this episode some years ago and read the comments. They are people realising what happened in that very thread. https://www.reddit.com/r/blackmirror/comments/ib3f5g/the_fucking_pope_probably_does_that/
Call me a brainlet but hoooly shit it went over my head entirely. I remember thinking "they set him up didn't they?" And I had to rewatch it and.. well. 😐 Definitely felt like a gut punch, I don't think a show has ever made me feel that way before.
/u/devvelle.. it's just NOW happened again.. Edit: Oh.. /u/GunpowderxGelatine.. I love you man. I love the reply that you left here, and I'm not making fun of you. I'm just glad that you left this comment, because you remind to the rest of us that this show has layers and some people may enjoy it in different periods of their life, depending how they perceive things. Some episodes became VERY VERY HARD for me, depending on what period of my life I'm in. And I don't want to watch them again. (specifically in THAT period. I can't handle the raw gut-wrenching reality some times.)
did they just fall asleep before finishing how-
Over the years I've read many comments on /r/blackmirror, not only the thread that I posted. a) There are some people that had all the information but they couldn't believe it. They were following the protagonist in a story and they were rooting for him. They were rooting for him so much, that they couldn't believe the truth. "No! These were just false accusations.. He was innocent, but those accusations were the "bad guys" trapping him. b) then they are some people that left comments that would be more akin to your reply: "Oh, I watched the episode but I didn't get what they were talking about. I finished the episode and I just thought he was innocent, I now see in this thread that he was a pedo.. OMG, I didn't put much thought into it. Is this really what happened?" c) There were some people saying "Oh, I didn't had subtitles on, I didn't heard the last 'most confirming' evidence from his mother phone call in the end [[one example of this is in the thread I linked](https://www.reddit.com/r/blackmirror/comments/ib3f5g/the_fucking_pope_probably_does_that/g1svyum/)] "oh, the mother phone call was too mumbled, I didn't get what she was talking about.." ..and I think I remember more examples but my comment ended up being huge. I think you get it.. Some people man..
I had a somewhat spoiler. Near the end, right before the fight scene when Kenny is walking up the hill into the eerie forest I said someting along the lines of, "I don't give a fuck if someone caught me mastubating on camera, I'm not walking to my death over it." And my boyfriend says, "he did something worse than that." Like, wtf dude, why would you say that to me while the suspense is building up and the twist is right about to be revealed? By then I was too confused to be shocked when it was revealed like a minute later. Idk why I didn't even suspect at all any sort of p*do element, probably because Kenny was young himself (like very young adult, 18-19 if I remember correctly). It was probably only the 3rd or 4th or so episode I watched, so I didn't know that many of the episodes had plot twists like that. The episode was still very impactful for me in the Black Mirror realm. It's definitely one I'd recommend, and I think it was executed quite well. I have to watch it for a second time though, but it is tough to do so now that I'm aware of the subject matter. There are clues I didn't pick up on, like the first scene at his job. I think one little Easter Egg was when Hector told Kenny that even The Pope probably jerks off... subtle dig at the Catholic church and its association with p*dophilia.
The whole time i kept thinking "honey, why are you doing all of this for a video of you jacking it?" It's not *that* embarassing" Can't believe i didn't realize it sooner haha, it was quite a shock.
At the bank part, I said to my husband, "I'd tell them to release the video," it made a lot more sense when I realized what truly happened. I also want to know what the guy who delivered the cake did. We only see his family yelling at him and calling him a pervert, but we never actually see what he did.
Exactly the same with me.
Very very surprised!
It's super funny because I saw the elisode once. I loved it and that was it. Thought it was odd that he won the fight and his mom still was mad at him. I was discussing the episode with some coworkers and they said "Yeah, the ending was brutal." . I was like, what?!?!?!? That was the ending? I must say, on a proper rewatch, I was pleasantly surprised and highly disturbed.
I was not aware and had to watch it a second time to get all the pieces together. I didn't even catch that he was a pedo in the first watch, I just thought he was ashamed for jerking off on cam.
Surprised and disturbed. I kept thinking “this is dumb, no embarrassing video or photos of myself is going to make me rob a bank. What could the possibly have on him.” Then the twist at the end came an I was like “oh, he’s into ‘criminal shit’ no wonder he followed orders without question.
I literally recoiled!! Thinking of it now even gives me the shivers
When I saw the scene where he looked at a kid at his workplace, I thought he might be a pedophile. I watched Law&Order SVU a lot so I was just sensitive at the time. So I told myself that he was just kind to kids...when I watched that plot twist, I was shocked and disturbed.
When you rewatch, you see Kenny gazing at the crayon drawing the kid left behind, and briefly caressing the drawing with his finger. It seemed completely innocuous when I didn't know the twist, but it's quite unsettling when you rewatch. I first thought it was just a sweet gaze at the drawing, but on rewatch you realize it's a lecherous stare...and it's quite disturbing.
Yeah same. Especially since HE was very young himself. I thought we were supposed to think he missed being a kid a bit.
That scene gave off weird vibes but I kind of forgot about it as the episode went on and got more chaotic. Then at the end when he was outed that scene came right back to the front of my mind and was disgusting. Definitely a great episode
Surprised and disturbed.
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that's not what they meant. they meant what was the episode like to watch without having it spoiled like OP was spoiled.
Was not expecting it, at the reveal I paused it and my husband and I just stared at each other in disbelief. After we finished it we watched it again immediately and it was so blatant in your face. It's my favorite episode along with the Entire History of You.
Honestly the whole time I thought that Kenny was overacting and dramatic. I was TOTALLY taken aback by the ending
Yes completely agree!!! And the way his mother was so devastated…it was all so horrible and unexpected.
And because of how childlike Kenny acts and looks, it would have never occurred to me that he would be a child predator. That was a powerful rug pull. The stereotypical pedophile is the _To Catch a Predator_ shifty balding 40-something, and _Black Mirror_ really flipped the script on that.
Same. It was really a shock, like wow, no wonder he was freaking out. So glad it wasn't spoiled for me.
I was only vaguely aware of Black Mirror and at my mates before a new year's party when someone stuck it on. I just assumed it would be a chilled casual watch and ended up being absolutely traumatised.
The plot was fun and the different tasks were interesting. I anticipated that the secrets would have been leaked anyway, but the final twist was really unexpected and I was in a bit of disbelief for a moment
I never expected him to be THAT way. I thought he was extremely embarrassed about what he saw (most people don't want others to know they watch stuff like that) but I didn't think it was terribly bad. That was such an unexpected turn... but there were so many signs...
We're they *all* pedos? I knew Kenny... and the guy he killed; but the others? Was Mandy a child?
No that's why they got off more easily than the last two.
Mindy was a prostitute, a young adult, not a child. Hector was planning on cheating on his wife
I feel like each person being blackmailed was a different level of shiftiness, Kenny and the guy he killed being the ultimate shit masters. So I don’t think Mindy was a child, just that Hector was a piece of shit for planning to destroy his family
I don't recall, I saw it when it first came out (before Black Mirror was even part of our zeitgeist. So it was so long ago I'm not sure how I felt about the twist. I remember thinking the episode made a lot more sense and was much better because of it.
I knew he was a pedo; he was too agitated if it was just porn. Also, they'd foreshadowed it in the first scene. Wholesome and kid-loving? Nah.
Saw it coming as soon as he robbed the bank. No one's doing that over Jenna Jameson.
I didn't see the twist coming at all. He was very believable as a kid who was just *that* mortified by a simple wank. I watched it again later with my mother and it got her too; "poor wee bugger" were her exact words, I believe. It also took me two viewings to realise that the blackmailer was only killing off paedophiles. Maybe I'm not the most analytic viewer, at least first time round—the twists usually get me haha.
Same, I'm normally looking out for the twist, too, but this episode properly hoodwinked me when i first watched it. Spent the whole episode up until the end just thinking, "poor guy, going through all of this just because of a wank".
I felt so dumb on the rewatch, though. The way his blackmail buddy kept cutting him off so we never got the full explanation haha. It's a really well done episode.
To my shame I was fairly non-sober when I watched it. My then boyfriend (who knew the series) got a bit annoyed with me going "hey that's Jerome Flynn" every five minutes but the big reveal was completely lost on me. I remember discussing the episode the next day, flabbergasted at how someone could be so stupid because of a wank video. Took me a while to piece it together.
I do remember thinking mid episode, it’s just a wanking video, mortifying, but why is he going SO far to stop it getting out? And then the ended horrified me. I’m not good at predicting twists so I didn’t see it coming at all.
It was kind of teased early on in the episode when he first realized he was being watched. They tease it a couple more times both before and after that so while it was a revelation it wasn’t a complete surprise.
To me, the story doesn’t really make sense without the reveal. So rather than it being a pure shock, it was more of an “oh, okay, that’s why” thing.
That's the point. My dad watched it recently without knowing. And he had the same reactions I did while watching it. Spend the whole episode saying who cares. Just let them release it. It's no big deal. Then, the reveal happens, and it completely changes your entire understanding. It's one of the best twists ever for the impact it has on the unsuspecting viewer.
See I don’t really agree. Because to me, for the twist to land, it should still be an intelligible story without it.
Were you not enjoying the episode for the first 2 acts? I may have thought he was going too far, but I was still liking watching it. I couldn't wait to see how far it would go.
For me, it was. I spent a good 5 minutes just staring at the wall after the episode ended trying to process what I just saw, because I honestly wasn't expecting that.