A hidden scanner in Black Mirror Season 7 episode could haunt you forever, and it's just a click away

Indian Express

24-04-2025

Black Mirror Season 7's Plaything rolls out the creepiest tech yet
At the end of episode four, Plaything, a QR code flashes on the screen. Scan it, and you're taken straight to the App Store or Google Play, where you can download the actual Thronglets game. And surprisingly, it's not even a watered-down version of what you saw in the show. Instead, it's the real deal, the full-on game played by the protagonist. 'Be warned: the Throng is judging you.'
The game kicks off with one little egg. You hatch it, and out pops your first Thronglet. You feed it, take care of it, bathe it, play with it and enjoy the total classic virtual pet vibes. But, living up to the theme of Black Mirror's episode, they soon start multiplying. Fast. And suddenly, you're not just raising pets, you're building a society. You're making homes, setting rules, and making hard choices. 'Hatch and evolve hundreds of cute creatures: Thronglets! Feed, bathe and entertain them to watch them multiply. One becomes two, two becomes four, and so on. Soon there will be so many, you'll call them a throng,' the game's description reads.
The best part? You won't need to spend hours figuring stuff out, there are enough directions on-screen to guide you through, even suggesting how to communicate with your Thronglets. There's a moment early on where the game asks if you want to build a bridge the slow, ethical way (chopping wood), or take a shortcut by harvesting the bones of your own dead Thronglets. It's played off as a joke, like the 'bug' in the game is actually a literal insect, but the moral hit is real. And if you go back on your word? They remember.
The more your Throng grows, the messier it gets. You're not just playing for fun anymore. The guilt creeps in as you watch your Thronglets die. You're juggling their mental health, housing, work-life balance, and whether the circumstances you have created are actually killing them. That stings. But that's still not the end. The first world is a tutorial, but world two throws you into the deep end. Tons of items, overlapping systems, and the kind of stress that makes you question your in-game morals. By the time you hit the final stage, you're dropped into a cut-scene-heavy finale with multiple dialogue options. And it hits you: the Thronglets have been judging you the whole time. Will they be proud of the leader you became, or horrified?
For Netflix users, the game is completely free. The app currently holds a 4.5 rating with over 200 reviews.
What is Black Mirror episode Plaything about
In episode four of Black Mirror season 7, Scottish actor and director Peter Capaldi steps into the shoes of an old loner, Cameron, who gets arrested by cops for trying to shoplift some alcohol. Soon after, he becomes a suspect in a murder when police take a spit sample under the 'Bio-Identity Act of 2029' — something way beyond understanding for now. But since some of the show's older concepts have already started turning real in today's world, can we even question it? After his arrest, Cameron opens up about his obsessive gaming habits from the '90s, back when he was a young game reviewer. He's later seen stealing a copy of his colleague Colin Ritman's (Will Poulter) game, Colin being a programmer working on something he plans to scrap. And once stolen, the only copy left ends up with Cameron.
Cameron recalls taking LSD for the first time while completely hooked on the game. While he's tripping, he starts to believe he's understanding the Thronglets better. Their random chirps? Suddenly sounds like real communication to him. He hears them asking for more power, more speed. So, he upgrades his entire setup to give them exactly that, even takes more drugs just to stay in sync with their voices. Later, Lump (the friend who gave him drugs for the first time) finds the digital world Cameron's built and messes around like it's just a game. He ends up killing a bunch of Thronglets for fun. Cameron snaps, strangles him to death, chops up the body, and dumps it far away. That's the cold case the cops dig up years later. When they confront him, Cameron shows them a port he's surgically installed in his brain. The Thronglets live inside him now. He calls them 'a benign parasite.' And then comes the twist, Cameron actually wanted to get caught.