The highly anticipated return of Black Mirror is here, and the revered Netflix title comes out of the gate swinging.

In the Season 7 premiere titled “Common People,” Rashida Jones stars as Amanda opposite Chris O’Dowd as her husband, Mike. Tracee Ellis Ross is also featured in the episode as Gaynor.

What is the “Common People” episode about?

According to an official synopsis, “When a medical emergency leaves school teacher Amanda fighting for her life, desperate husband Mike signs her up for Rivermind, a high-tech system that will keep her alive — but at a cost.”

The medical emergency

Following a trip to The Juniper, the place where Mike and Amanda spent their honeymoon, Amanda suffers headaches, which ultimately leads to her passing out in front of her class of elementary school students.

Soon, Mike discovers that his wife has suffered an injury to her parietal lobe, and the likelihood of her ever regaining consciousness is slim to none — until he’s introduced to Rivermind.

Ross’ Gaynor is the one who presents the option that really does sound too good to be true, with a no-cost surgery and monthly payments of $300 to help Amanda regain her state of mind.

Gaynor warns of side effects like more sleep; however, she doesn’t give Mike some of the other effects the tech system will have on his wife.

Strange occurrences are a result of Rivermind

After Amanda passes out in the middle of an argument over finances (they can barely keep up with the Rivermind payments) on the way to their anniversary trip to The Juniper, she and Mike meet with Gaynor, who advises them to upgrade to Rivermind Plus to prevent it from happening again in the future.

Since upgrading isn’t an option, Mike and Amanda take the risk of her passing out again. But then, she becomes a walking advertisement, randomly blurting out ads that apply to whatever situation she’s in.

The first occurrence happens during class when Amanda doesn’t even realize that she’s recommended cereal to her students during a lesson on honey. She does it during sexual intercourse with Mike, and soon after, she advises Christian counseling to a student. Amanda is forced to decide because if she’s unable to control the outbursts, she will be fired.

Upgrading once wasn’t enough

While Amanda is no longer blurting out advertisements, another mishap will soon be caused by her being on Rivermind. Little does she know, Mike has created an account on Make Stupid Money, a program he has witnessed his co-worker watching, where people get money for doing dumb things via the streaming channel, to get her on Rivermind Plus.

Amanda is sleeping much more than usual, and soon Gaynor reveals this is because her brain is being used to power the grid. 

Gaynor suggests Rivermind Lux, which costs an additional $1,000 monthly, another upgrade to help with Amanda’s sleeping problem.

How does the episode end and does Amanda die?

To pay for the booster packs, which increase experiences like pleasure and serenity for Amanda, Mike sinks further and further into desperation mode, doing everything from placing a mousetrap on his tongue to placing a sex toy up his rear end to pay for his wife’s upgrade.

At his wits’ end, he removes his mask to hide his identity on the streaming platform, which ultimately leads to his co-worker placing a screenshot of his face on the board at work.

Mike attacks the man and loses his job. Before he knows it, he and Amanda have no further options as Gaynor says that without the payments, she’ll no longer have access to the upgrades.

The episode closes with Mike and Amanda carrying out their agreement to kill her to put an end to the Rivermind madness. 

Black Mirror’s Season 7 is now streaming on Netflix.