In one of the more contemplative episodes of Black Mirror Season 7, we find Paul Giamatti in a low-key remake of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. But the twist here is interesting and more elegant than it might seem at first. While the episode “Eulogy” — written by Charlie Brooker and Ella Road — might not be the edgiest or even the most original episode of Black Mirror Season 7, it nonetheless revives an interesting science fiction premise, which, yes, was made into a classic premise from Charlie Kaufman back in 2004.
Both “Eulogy” and Eternal Sunshine deal with the erasure of memory because of a particularly painful breakup. Both stories deal with a speculative kind of technology that allows characters to explore those memories from different points of view. But what Black Mirror does with “Eulogy” is to twist the Eternal Sunshine premise in one specific way: The memory erasure isn’t caused by technology, but rather, the tech becomes the solution.
Spoilers ahead.
The premise of “Eulogy” is somewhat straightforward at first. A man named Phillip (Paul Giamatti) receives word that his old girlfriend, Carol, has passed away. The family wants his help in curating a digital memorial for her, so Phillip is encouraged by an AI Guide (Patsy Ferran) to literally enter old photographs to revisit and reconstruct old memories. And it's here where Black Mirror inverts the memory erasure plot from Eternal Sunshine. Phillip can’t remember Carol’s face, not because some sci-fi tech has erased her face, but because he has specifically blocked out all memory of her and even cut her face out of all his old photographs.
In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind — which Black Mirrored before Black Mirror was even a thing — Joel (Jim Carrey) has his memories of Clementine (Kate Winslet) erased through a very specific procedure. Naturally, this memory erasure process requires a real-world component, too. Not only does Joel have to get this brain zapped, but he has to remove photographs and all physical evidence of Clementine from his life. But the larger rub of Eternal Sunshine is that even if you do erase the memories, the pain and love remain.
Black Mirror’s “Eulogy” delivers a similarly powerful message. Like Joel, Phillip has erased parts of his memory of Carol, but the feelings linger. What “Eulogy” does is to dive into the ways in which memory often alters the truth and omits very specific details in order to for someone to cope with their own failings. As the Guide makes clear, Phillip wasn’t entirely the victim in his breakup with Carol all those years ago. And though nothing criminal or horrible is revealed in this episode, the messiness of young love and early dating is explored through a fairly believable type of sci-fi tech.
There’s also a sense of realism to “Eulogy,” in that there’s not exactly a happy ending for Phillip, but rather, a new way for him to access his memories. When the Guide is revealed to be an AI avatar of Carol’s daughter, his hubris is exposed in a way that is both crushing and tender. Now, she’s not the daughter he never had with Carol, but rather, a representation of a path not taken.
While Eternal Sunshine’s memory erasure story was about forgiveness and pain, Black Mirror’s take on this story is mostly about how we process regret. It’s tempting to say that technology often amplifies pain artificially. But, in this story, the gentle AI tech is what saves Phillip’s soul.
