This article contains spoilers for the Black Mirror episode Bête Noire.
Since it premiered on Channel 4 more than a decade ago, Black Mirror has become known as a TV show that really gets under viewers’ skin.
But with its new season, the dystopian drama is messing with viewers’ heads in a way like never before.
The second episode of the Netflix show’s seventh season is titled Bête Noire, and centres around a woman who feels she is being gaslit by a new colleague, who it later emerges is someone she bullied at school.
Slowly, the central character’s life begins to unravel as her new colleague continues to make her second-guess herself – by editing CCTV footage of them together, making tweaks to their email exchanges and even changing the name of a chicken shop she was once a patron of.
But as more fans have been sharing their feelings about the show on social media, it’s become apparent that Black Mirror is using this episode to have some fun at viewers’ expense too.
You see, there are two different versions of the episode that have been randomly distributed to Netflix users, with some seeing the name written on Maria’s boyfriend’s hat as “Barnie’s”, and others “Bernie’s”.
Two versions of the scene when Maria argues with her colleagues about the shop were also filmed.
One outcome sees Maria pointing out the shop couldn’t be called “Barnie’s” because that spelling wouldn’t make sense, while in the other, she argues that it has to be called “Barnie’s” because chickens “live in a barn” (although her co-worker quickly points out that’s not strictly true, either).
Black Mirror has become been known for its use of in-universe Easter eggs, of which there are plenty in Bête Noire.
The food company Ditta – where Maria and Verity work – is first mentioned in the preceding season seven episode Common People during one of Rashida Jones character’s “ads”.
It’s also been pointed out that “Barnie’s” itself is a Black Mirror reference, calling back to the infamous season three episode Shut Up And Dance.
Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker recently spoke to HuffPost UK about another subtle season seven Easter egg, which you can check out for yourself in the video below:
All seven seasons of Black Mirror are available to stream on Netflix now.
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