Black Mirror's Joan is Awful episode ending explained: A show within a show?

Season 6 of Black Mirror was released on Netflix on June 15, 2023, and its genius has yet again floored the audience. There are five episodes this time around and every episode has a different set of actors with a unique plot. Episode 1 of the show was titled Joan is Awful and the lead character was played by Salma Hayek.

The episode showcased the horror a woman faced when she realized her life was being broadcasted as a TV series on a streaming platform, Streamberry.

At the end of the Black Mirror episode, Joan was given the shocking information that she wasn't Joan but a reality TV star named Annie Murphy. She was told that she was only portraying the character of Joan and that the universe they were living in was a show within a show. Meanwhile, Joan was a real person who worked in a coffee shop and was frustrated that her life was being watched by 800 million people on Streamberry.

The official synopsis of this Black Mirror episode reads:

"An average woman is stunned to discover a global streaming platform has launched a prestige TV drama adaptation of her life — in which she is portrayed by Hollywood A-lister Salma Hayek Pinault."

This Black Mirror episode was directed by Ally Pankiw and written by Charlie Brooker.

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Black Mirror's Joan is Awful episode ending explained: Who exactly was Joan?

In the latest episode of Black Mirror season six, a woman named Joan's entire life was being broadcasted as a show. The live stream exposed all of her deepest and darkest secrets. Joan even tried to sue the streaming company Streamberry but that didn't work. When she tried to do the same to Salma Hayek, the actress playing her on the show, she realized that the actress wasn't herself but just a deepfake version of her.

When Joan tried to seek comfort from her boyfriend Marc, he rejected her. Unable to find a way out, Joan ate a bunch of burgers and a bottle of laxatives before emptying her bowels on the streets, near a wedding. Salma Hayek acted all of this out on the live stream of the show the next day.

Joan finally managed to get Salma's attention and when Salma wanted to take down her deep fake version, she couldn't as she had signed a contract. She also visited Joan and the two devised a plan to take down Streamberry. They snuck into the company's headquarters and found out that they were working on another show called Blank is Awful. The company's head explained that the company used the term "awful" in all their shows as that brought the most attention to them.

Joan and Salma then broke into the service room and met a producer named Beppe. In classic Black Mirror style, he explained that whatever they were watching was not real and Joan was not really Joan. He explained that she was in fact reality TV star Annie Murphy who was playing the character of Joan and that it was a show within a show. He tells them that the real Joan was out there somewhere.

Murphy then broke the server and everyone is launched in the real world. Joan is finally shown to everyone. The real Joan was a coffee shop employee who was frustrated with everything in her life, especially the fact that her life was basically a TV show. Annie visited Joan in the coffee shop. It's seen that both of them had matching ankle monitors as penance for the things they had done to go against Steamberry.

Season six of Black Mirror is available to stream on Netflix.