Black Mirror season 7 episode 1 review: Common People ending explained - what happened to Amanda and Mike?

• Chris O’Dowd and Rashida Jones star in Common People.
• Black Mirror season 7 released on Netflix on April 10.
• See what we made of the episode in our review.

Synopsis: When a teacher is left fighting for her life, her doting husband signs her up for a high-tech system that keeps her alive - but at a cost.

Black Mirror returns with a deeply affecting and biting episode to kick start its seventh season. See my rankings of all episode of the show here.

Common People sees Rashida Jones return to Black Mirror, having previously co-wrote the very first Netflix episode Nosedive all the way back in 2016. However this time she is on the acting side - and she is joined by The IT Crowd favourite Chris O’Dowd.

It starts off with a more optimistic tone than most episodes of the satirical anthology, however there is a creeping sadness that starts to sneak in. You can start to see the cracks showing in the façade of Amanda (Rashia Jones), even before the episode takes a tragic turn.

Black Mirror has long been fascinated by ideas such as copying brains and ‘backing up’ people’s consciousness on the cloud. Common People offers one of the more emotive takes on these familiar themes.

The episode also manages to offer a sharp critique on the for-profit medical industry with the ‘subscription’ based model of the Rivermind treatment and how tiers are stealthily added, while previous services are downgraded. It is a deeply insidious and yet plausible idea - capturing the way the punishing costs takes its toll on the characters’ lives.

One moment in particular that stands out is Amanda telling Mike to ‘take it easy’ on the beers because they can’t afford more until payday. As well as how increasingly exhausted he looks after taking on the extra shifts.

Tracee Ellis Ross is thoroughly compelling as Gaynor, a medical rep - warm and convincing, in a way that is perhaps more sinister than if she was more of a ‘salesman’. Especially in the scene where she tells Amanda and Mike about ‘Rivermind Plus’ upgrade.

And it leads to perhaps the funniest scene in the whole episode where Amanda suddenly begins to plug ‘Honey Nugs’ to her classroom during a lesson about bees. I found myself laughing out loud, being caught off guard by the surrealness of it all, however it soon became skin crawlingly chilling.

From the moment it is casually introduced early in the episode, the Dum Dummies hangs over it like Chekov’s Gun. And once the commercial adverts start becoming more and more intrusive in Amanda’s everyday life, it becomes inevitable that Mike will sign up in a bid to fund the Rivermind Plus upgrade.

However the wheels of capitalism will continue to turn and it will not come as a surprise when there is an even more ‘Lux’ package introduced. It is a scalpel sharp critique of our subscription-based world and the way we are treated by these companies.

Common People - Ending Explained

Mike eventually loses his job after his co-workers discover his Dum Dummies streams and he injures one of his colleagues during a fight, causing him to be run over by heavy machinery. Amanda loses access to Rivermind Plus (now redubbed standard) and you can see the physical effect on her, as she looks weak and ill and worn down.

After buying a brief 30 minute upgrade, Mike ends up suffocating her to death with a pillow once the time is up and she returns to regurgitating adverts once again. He goes to perform one last Dum Dummies stream for a ‘private buyer’ and is shown closing the door, while holding a box cutter.

It is a rare episode of the show that doesn’t end with some episode changing twist. But it is all the better for that.

Common People is Black Mirror at top form: tragic, acidly satirical and heart-breaking. What a way to start the season.