Eulogy

with episode five titled Eulogy. Now, I'll tell you what this episode was, you know, a bit of a tear jerker kind of you know, provocative, made you think a little bit, and it is definitely a story of what happened really when perception does not match reality. I mean, I know we've heard it said right that perception is reality, But what happens when it isn't what happens when what you perceive to have been isn't actually what happened at all.

And that's kind of what this episode is about. Now we see in this episode the same thing that we've seen in several other episodes, and that is a repeat in a matter of speaking of technology being used. And in this case, I thought this was pretty stick and

awesome how this ended up playing out. Now, they used this little tech thing that attaches to the side of your head, right there on your temple, and that's kind of what it uses to, you know, connect in essence with your brain and allow you to to see in a you know. Well, how they ended up using this in this was see and go into the pictures. I thought was awesome. So this episode starts, and by the way, before we go any further, spoiler alert, we are going

to be talking about eulogy. So if you have yet to see this episode in Black Mirror, head on over to Netflix watch it, and then come on back for the discussion. So let's go ahead and get into it now. This episode started off pretty basic, pretty simple, and whenever I seen the actor that was in this, I was like, Ooh, I like this guy. This is h you know, Paul Giamaidi. I'm probably butchering his last name, but whatever, I mean. I've seen him in quite a few different things. An

awesome actor, he really is. I like his screen presence, I like his you know, just what he brings to a character, I really do. I like it. I like the guy. I like him a lot. And it starts off with him and he is in America, which is actually kind of odd. For this series. I mean, not a lot of you know, what goes on in Black Mirror actually takes place in America. You don't really see that. You know, this is more or less something that takes place in Great Britain or in some other utopian place,

you know, not really in America. So it was kind of neat to see one kind of I guess take place in America. I mean, did it really I don't know, probably not, but at any rate in the episode, that's what it is. I mean, it's taken place in America.

Kind of cool. I thought that was nifty. But he's, you know, walking around in his apartment, you know, things are, you know whatever, and he gets a telephone call a random and it's asking him if he knows Carol, and I forget what the you know what the last name that they use and he's like, no, I don't know a Carol and it's like Carol this name and it

is like, well, no, I really don't. Can't say as if I recall Carol something or another, and then it was like, well her middle name was this, and he's like, oh, yeah, yeah,

I know I know that Carol. And they're introducing this as a you know, eulogy telling him that Carol had passed away, and this was uh Phillip's ex girlfriend, and it's like she passed away, she had a daughter, her name was Kelly, and upon Kelly's request, trying to get as much information, you know, pictures, any other type of memory, kind of filling the gaps of Carol's life. This is what we're doing. Do you happen to have any pictures or anything else of Carol that you would like to

include in the eulogy. And this is a guide that is talking to him and he's like, well, you know, not exactly. She's like, well, how about we just send you this package and then we'll go from there. And it's like okay. And next thing you see is, you know, this drone flying in. You know, now obviously time passes, but you know whatever, this drone's flying in and dropping

off a package from DHS No DHL. I'm sorry. Now as soon as this, you know, I see this thing coming in and I'm like, oh wow, you know, now I know that these things, or at least from what I have read that these things are a thing, right, you know, But where I'm from, you don't see drones delivering packages. You know, for me, that's just a little

on the huh. You know, and especially considering where Paul lives in this episode that you know, you really wouldn't think that this would be something he would get a drone delivering a package. But I'm like, okay, you know whatever, But I thought it was kind of neat. I've never seen that before. I really haven't. I mean, granted, I mean, I'm sure that there's YouTube videos out there on this. Okay, sure, Now this is assuming that it does, you know, exist.

I know, this is technology that they are working on utilizing. I don't know how far into it that they are. I really have no idea, but to actually see it, I was like, that's that's kind of pretty neat. Nothing that I have seen where I'm at. Maybe you've had a different experience, you know, offered you know, some places in the city. Yeah, they do drone deliveries. It's just to me, it's it's alien, right, it's foreign, it is it is to me. I mean, are things different where

you're at. Let me know. Let me know down in the comments below. Send me an email Hoh at Black Mirror podcast dot com. Because I'm kind of curious, you know, is this something that's commonplace where you're at but any rate, any rate, So he opens up this package, right, and it's kind of a brochure explaining what eulogy is, what

they do. He doesn't really read it. It's just kind of like a okay, yeah, there's words here, and he puts it down, you know, and sees this this little disc you know, the the the uplink into into his brain. But he doesn't you know, know it at the time, and you know, he's talking into it, and you know, he gets the the little intro and he he's like, look, I don't want to hear about it, just you know, let's get the intro. What do you want? What do you want me to do? Because you know it's what

I have, what I remember. I don't really see this helping you out. But the guide kind of talks him into at least looking and he finds, you know, he goes up into the attic, I don't know, down into the basement. I have no idea where he actually ends up going. I don't remember, but he opens up a box and he sees some stuff in there, and I guess he grabs three different pictures and in this picture, it's like, it's not really much of a help, right because in what of the picture it's her back is

to the camera and you can't see her face. But what is awesome is what kind of happens next because the guide is like, do you want to go into the photo? And he's like, what are you talking about? Do you want to go into the photos? It's easiest instead of explaining it to you, I'll just show you

what it is I'm talking about. And then she's like, placed a little disc on your temple and then you can we'll go from there, right, And so he does and just like in the entire history of you, you know, the eyes well not just entire history of you know, I guess there's been several different episodes, and you know one of them is Striking Vipers, I guess, and you know, the eyes kind of go cloudy in a way because now instead of using his eyeballs, it's his it's his

mind's eye. And this was so cool how they ended up using this technology, right, I mean, I thought this was wow because instead of just looking at a two D image, a two dimensional picture, he was in the photographs as in you know, as if everything that was there is now in a three D environment that he can walk in and around and really see what was there. I thought that was awesome. I'm like, dude, that was

so cool. I mean, now, the first time I've that, I could recall in Black Mirror that they've used the technology as in, you know, some sort of an uplink to blend a two D fot into a three dimensional world. This is the first time that I've seen this, you know, a little bit different than what they had in Oh, what show was that Hotel Riverie, Yeah, a little bit different than that. But I just how they ended up

using the technology in this episode I thought was absolutely amazing. Now, I mean, for me, I'm not I'm not much of a picture guy. I don't take a lot myself and I kind of avoid, you know, having pictures taken of me. I'm just I just I don't know, I don't have a reason. I'm just I'm not. I'm not about the photograph life. I'm not, you know, I mean, I know that there's a lot of people out there that are, don't get me wrong, but it's just I've never been

that guy. You know. I don't take a lot of pictures. Even though I got a you know, a cell phone like most of us do, and that cell phone has a pretty stake and awesome camera. I know I've kind of played with a little bit, but I really never used it outside of work. I mean, I've used it for work a couple times, but just for me, I've not really I just I just don't do that. But how awesome would it be? Sorry about that, I had a frog in my throat, had to cough, let me

take a quick drink. But how awesome would it be? Because even though I'm not much of a picture guy, I can still appreciate the technology. And it's not like there aren't pictures that I've had that has you know, been taken of me or other people that I know that this type of technology wouldn't be just absolutely amazing. It would be and how awesome would it be, you know,

to take a picture. Think back different photos that either you've taken of somebody else, of you know, yourself, with somebody experiencing something that you wouldn't mind experiencing again, or at least seeing in three D. You know, I've said that I'm not much of a picture guy, but you know, even though I mean, there's definitely some pictures that wouldn't just be absolutely amazing to experience in three D. I mean, your mind's eye only goes so far, right, There's only

so much detail you can draw from a picture. There's only you know, even being somebody that can think three D still to be able to go into a picture with all the clarity that that picture can provide and it's like wow, to walk around it in that environment and to really see I mean, that would just be awesome. How many pictures do you have that utilizing this would just blow your mind? I'm sure we all have a couple. I'm sure we all have numerous or something like this

would just be holy count. I mean, like, I can see how it could be a negative too. I mean just like in you know, back in the first season with the entire history of you. Yeah, it could be used in the negative as long as you don't you know, it's it's all about our own mindset, isn't it. It's all about our own mindset, our own perceptions into different things that has happened as to whether it would be a good thing or a bad thing. But it's on

an individual basis. But wouldn't it still be awesome you take some pictures of your most cherished moments, even like in this case, and eulogy was somebody whom is no longer in your life, but being able to see them clearly as they were in three D. You know, my father passed away a long time ago, you know, like nineteen by nineteen years ago, and yeah, I've got pictures that I've seen, you know, pictures that I still have a picture that I have, like right underneath my TV.

So whenever I'm sitting there watching something on the TV, below that on one of the shelves is a picture of my father. So I get to see him in two D quite often, but to be able to see him would just be so cool. I mean, that'd be awesome, you know, I mean it just, yeah, are there people in your life that you miss do you like to see again? And this could be a technology that could

be used in that way. So he's he's looking at these pictures and one of them is like, you know, her her back is turned to the you know, the person who took the picture, and he's like, you know, I don't see her face, and that that hit because you know, you come to find out that Philip and uh, what's her name, Carol is? You know, they were you know,

they were together for a time. I don't remember how long they were together, but they were together and then things just ended up happening and you really don't know what ian definitely not at this point, but it's like, you know, it's it wasn't the best of things, and it was you know, we learned that after they separated that you know, Philip's life just kind of went into the toilet, right, I mean that's kind of the perception of what you get that, you know, and he's blaming

her one hundred percent, absolutely is blaming her for everything. And after these three pictures, you're really not getting any clearer of an idea of their relationship per se. And Philip is still not able to see Carol's face, and and the guide is like, well, do you have anything else? Maybe there's more that you have that can help out, and maybe we'll be able to piece up, you know, piece together enough things that will jog your memory and

you'll be able to see her face. Wouldn't that be dies? Right? And he goes back to you know, where he's got everything, and he's like, that's not going to help because with all of the photos that he has, and you get the idea that there's quite a few, you know, I think there's like, you know, a dozen or so pictures that he's found, but in every one of these pictures, he is either cut out her face or has marked on it in some way to where you cannot see

the face at all. And so Philip, I mean, he's taken this time to really remember what she looked like, and he's not even able to see her face. I mean, how how horrible is that, you know, somebody that you truly loved, truly cared about, regardless of the pain that you felt in the moment, looking back, and not being able to remember what they looked like. It's got to be hard, you know. I mean I mentioned that, you know, I've got a picture of my father, you know, right

underneath my TV. But in all honesty, it's like, I don't remember what my father sounded like. I really don't, you know. I mean, in time, those type of memories fade. And even though there are times whenever I'll hear his voice, there's not a tone, you know, it's more or less a something that I know that he would say or something of that nature. But it's not him. It's my interpretation of his voice because I just don't remember what

he sounds like, you know. So to have somebody that you cared so much about not being able to see them anymore, ouch not being able to remember what they sounded like or what they looked like. And so he's, you know, going through these memories, and as they're going through these pictures, you kind of a little bit clearer of an idea of what really happened between Philip and Carol.

You know, he's talking about, you know, being at this party and this was the first time that those two were together, and he's remembering it and it's like the biggest positive thing that had ever happened to him in

the relationship. And then you see another picture with and I guess there was like three pictures of this Halloween party, and he's talking about how he was or I'm sorry, how Carol was spending time with another guy that was just all over him and he was upset about that, ignoring the fact that he had his coworker that was

right there by his side hitting on him. But that was something that he didn't remember in the moment, completely blaming Carol for the strife that happened later on that night, and the guide even pointed out to Philip that, hey, you know, you look at Carol's body language, and she's not all into him. He's you know, she's leaning away, She's wanting to get away from him. And yet the only thing you can remember is that she sat right next to him, but not taking into consideration that she

didn't want to be there. Her body language was clear, you know, So, I mean, this is another case how his perception of the event did not match reality. And then the guides even pointing to him and pointing out, I'm sorry, pointing out to him that hey, you know, here you're looking down on Carol for sitting next to a guy and focusing on how that hurt you. But what you're ignoring is the fact that you had a female. You had a woman that was all up on you.

Regardless of how platonic you want to say that it was, how meaningless this interaction was, it was still something, and you're ignoring one and only focusing on the other. You know, looking back in you know relationships that I've had, isn't this how we kind of do it. I mean, I know, I have, you know, And maybe we do it to protect ourselves emotionally. Maybe we do it because you know, nobody wants to be the victim in their own story. Nobody wants to be the aggressor in their own story.

Nobody wants to be the villain in their own story. So you vilify somebody else and you vindicate yourself, and all too often, I mean, do we have to tell ourselves lies in order to do it? We can't just look at past events, things that happen between two people and say I did nothing wrong. Sometimes we gotta be honest with ourselves. And yet you know, I screwed that up too, and we come to find find out the

Philip wasn't able to do that. He ignored what he did, not even thinking about it, focusing only on what Carol did. And it's like, dude, how many of us do that? I mean, I know I have, And don't get me wrong, I mean, I get it. Nobody wants to be the villain in their own story. We want to be the hero.

And whether it's to protect ourselves, protect our own image, or whether it's whether it's just because hating somebody is a lot easier of an emotion to deal with than the hurt and the sorrow that comes around comes along with missing somebody. Maybe that's what it is. Maybe it's more of a defense mechanism. I'm guilty of it. I'm sure we all are in you know, some ways, shape or form. I'm sure that we're all guilty of that.

So he's looking at pictures and you know, here you have a picture of her in a band, but she's not playing the cello because she is a huge cello fan. That's what she wants to do. Oh yeah, and by the way, no, I think I think the band picture was first. So yeah, the band picture, she's playing the cello. And or in the band picture she's not playing a cello. She's playing a keyboard. I apologize, she's playing the keyboard. And the guide was like, why is she playing the keyboard?

And Phillip's like, well, the cello didn't fit the sound of our band. And the guy's like, well, why didn't you change her sound to suit Carol? Why didn't you do that? And he was like, well, she never complained about it. I mean she was you know, she was a musician that could play anything. She was fine with it, and it's like, how do you know did you ask

her type of thing? Right? I mean? And you're really getting the idea that Philip, even though he claimed he loved her, it really didn't seem as though he was able to what's the word, I'm looking for, sacrifice what he wanted for the sake of Carol. Like, he really wasn't happy about doing that. He didn't want to do that. He wasn't able to sacrifice. He wasn't able to change for the sake of her. He expected her to change for him, but that didn't match the reality he had

drawn about their relationship, so he forgot that. And then that's whenever we go to the Halloween thing, you know, the Halloween party, and you know, we come to find out that you know, they were up way too late, and he and Carol missed an opportunity that very much could have been life altering for her because it was an experience that she wanted right. But instead she got an offer to play in a play. That's funny. I

don't remember what the play was. What was the play? Ah, it doesn't matter, But what's important is this play put her in London a bit of a trip, so they had to separate for a time. And then you hear about, you know, well, okay, you see another picture and it's a picture of him laying on a bed flipping off the camera. Oh sorry, And the guide asks Philip, okay,

who's taken the photo? And he's like, oh crap. It was this gal I forget what her name was, the same one that was being all frisky with him whenever he was at the bar working during the Halloween party, the same one, and he like, you know, there was nothing going on. He's trying to, you know, give himself cover that there was nothing going on. It was just

a whatever, you know it. It wouldn't have even been an issue had Carol not called and Emily I think Emily was her name, picked up the phone and they had an argument, a screaming match between the two, and it was just it was bad, right, you know, And you come to find out that, you know, maybe Philip wasn't as blameless in this whole thing as he would have liked to have believed. That he was bring some

things into context. And then I believe it was about three weeks after this, after this fight, you know, Philip definitely realizes that, hey, you know, he loves Carol with everything that he is, with every inch of his being. I guess you can say he loves her and he wants to spend the rest of his life with her. So he makes a plan. He's going to fly out to London. He talks to Carol, she knows that he's

on his way. He sets up a hotel room, he gets a reservation at a very fancy restaurant, orders a bottle of champagne because he tells the the employees, the people that work in this restaurant, that hey, I need a reservation because I'm going to propose to my girlfriend. And when he's there, he's drinking and he's upset because she's not drinking anything. He proposes. She doesn't respond, she can't even look him in the eye. She's got her

eyes downcast. And he's getting upset. Right, he's getting He's like what the hell? And he's like, say something, respond instead of just completely leaving him hanging. And she gets up and she walks out. He polishes off the rest of that bottle, right, you know, I mean he's self pity polishes off the rest of the bottle, and then he goes back to the hotel. She has packed up her things and she's left. He kind of destroys the

destroys the the hotel room. But you know, they're talking back and forth, and this is where we get revealed whenever he is inside the the picture, you know, the the advertisement for the hotel that I'm sorry, not the hotel, but the restaurant that they went to where he proposed.

And this is where we find out that the guide is none other than Carol's daughter, Kelly mind blown right, And what Kelly ends up saying is, no, I'm not actually Kelly, but Carol was pregnant with me when she was there, Because it was Kelly the pointed out that Carol wasn't into that guy in the picture during Halloween. It was Kelly that pointed out that Carol was pregnant,

That's why she refused to drink. And also pointed out that Carol had left a letter that apparently Philip never seen, never read, and had he seen it, had he read it, he would have heard her out. Maybe something else could have happened. And while they were in this well, okay, so he had seen that he got this camera for the trip down to London, but he didn't take any pictures because there was nothing to celebrate, nothing to immortalize,

if you will, and nothing happened of it. And he looks at the camera and it's a disposable camera from back in the day, right, things that we used back in the day. And he looks on top of this camera and he sees something that probably made his heart stop, right. He's seen that there was a picture taken on this camera and he's like, oh, so it takes the camera. He has the one of those one hour photo places and is like, can you process this this camera? It's like, dude,

I haven't seen one of these in ages. Yeah, okay, I don't need a history lesson. Can you do it? And he's like, give me a bit. He goes, I want to have to go through all of this role. The only thing you're going to get is the one photo that's on here. Are you sure? Yes? Do it? Do it now? So he does, gets it processed, and what you have, what you see? What he gets back whenever he gets this developed is the ruin of the

hotel room. After he got back to the hotel room, seeing that she had packed her stuff and taken off and he's in the photo. He is explaining what he was feeling during this and that's whenever he sees the letter that Carol had written to him. Holy crap. And he is trying with all his might to pick up this letter that's in the photograph, and Kelly the Guide is like, oh, you can't do that. It's just a photo.

It's not how this thing works. After he gets out of that picture, then he remembers because she prompted, and what he did and the whole He finds the letter and after reading what Carol had wrote, it changed everything because he found out what was really going on. He found out why Carol did what she did. He found out that Carol wanted them to move on and stay

a couple and work through this. But because he was so wrapped up in grief in the moment, he was blinded by what was really going on, and instead of having a happily ever after, or at least the chance at a happily ever after, he instead got a totally different outcome, totally different direction in his life. How many different instances in our lives do you think, where the reality that if people were to at least come together in some way, some shape or form and are really

able to communicate what's going on. How often do you think that would really change the outcome of a situation, change the relationship between two people. I mean, how often do you actually think that would benefit I mean, sometimes you get two extremes, right, I mean you get people who share too much and you get people who just

can't share at all. And I mean, yeah, I mean you got to find that, you know, that balance between the two, right, And sometimes you need to deliver information without emotion because that's the only way you can do it and keep your sanity. And sometimes we just shut off entirely. But this is an instance where on really on both of their sides, if they would have done some communication, if they would have talked about things, because it really seems as though they didn't. They didn't really

talk about things. They didn't put it out there. I mean, did Carol? I mean yeah, Okay, so we know that they had a fight. We don't know what was said after the Halloween party, and it really does look like Philip was kind of oblivious to what Carol wanted, what she truly desired, things that was going on. I mean, really, was he the one that completely shut down and shut himself out and you know, really blocked Carol. Like truth he told he kind of looks like that, doesn't it.

I mean, it looks like Philip was his own worst enemy. Dang it? Right? Is that how it is? On our own story? Are we our own worst enemy? If we would consider somebody else instead of being completely selfish all the time? How much would it change? How much could it have changed? I don't know. So the story ends where Philip is actually able to see Carol's heart, and where he had completely refused before to participate in this eulogy,

let alone even go to the funeral. He does because in his moments of remembering things, he had found a cassette tape that Carol had recorded for him, and upon listening to this song that Carol composed herself, he was actually able to, for the first time in this entire episode, see Carol's face, and he was able to see her laugh. How awesome is that? That was so cool to actually see that. Like I said, this puppy was a bit

of a tear jerker. And after this happened, he goes to the wake the eulogy, and he hears the cello music playing, and whenever he's standing there at the door looking in, he sees Kelly playing Carol's song, and at the end of her playing the song, she looks up, she sees Philip, and there's a bit of a nod reconciliation, maybe because it's apparent that Carol still felt a lot

for him. But Carol's reality was different than Philip's reality though, too, because Carol thought that Philip read the letter, rejected her for what had happened and wanted nothing to do with him, or I'm sorry, I wanted nothing to do with her. That's what Carol thought to her dying day. That's what Carol thought. Again, another aspect where you know, perception didn't

match reality. And I mean, I understand why Carol wanted to just write a letter instead of talking, you know, instead of talking with I get that, you know, she just poured her heart out, you know, laid her self bear. Of course she doesn't want to talk to him. But this is another aspect of how much would have changed if she would have picked up a phone, either even a month, a week later something. This is a story of what happens when perception doesn't match reality, And boy,

how do. I tell you this, I would love to see the you know, some things two D images that I could experience in three D that would be absolutely amazing. And I'm not talking about VR. Don't get me wrong. There's some awesome things you can do in VR. There really is. I've been having fun in VR, but that's not the same, is it. I mean, could you do something like this in VR? I don't even know that that's

even possible. I mean, I'm sure in some way, shape or for because like if I remember correctly, you can you know, like go to different places, experience different landmarks and whatnot, you know those that have you know, things in them. But that's different than being in an environment and just kind of seeing a panoramic view of everything. That's just neat how they ended up using technology in this anyway, That's all I got for y'all today. That

is it. The next episode I am supremely excited about because the next episode we are going to be doing Uss Callister into Infinity, and this is an episode that I was extremely excited to hear about whenever I first heard about them doing season seven of Black Mirror because this is the part two to I believe it was episode one maybe of Black Mirror, episode one of season four maybe yep, episode one season for USS Caliser, Part two,

something that I'm definitely excited to watch. I cannot weigh anyway. That's all I got for y'all. Is that is it. Do me a favor and head on over to stinkpickle dot com s t I n K P I k l E dot com. Got some merch over there, support the channel, and I do appreciate each and every one of you. So you' allys, have yourself a great one and I will see you and the next one. Thank

you for listening to the Black Mirror podcast. If you would like to join the conversation, you can comment on this episode a sprinker dot com or go to the ho host show dot com, Forward, slash form and the discussion board for this