Unsettling Connection Between Black Mirror and Severance, Explained

Modern TV has been full of pretty disturbing shows about the not so bright future recently, and Black Mirror ’s fresh seventh season is the newest reminder of that.

The sci-fi series, inspired by many issues the world has been dealing with since forever, actually went on to serve as someone else’s inspiration too, including Severance ’s creator and showrunner Dan Erickson.

Unlike Black Mirror, Apple TV+ ’s hit sci-fi drama delves into only one worst case scenario technologies might bring along at some point; the main idea, however, emerged from Black Mirror’s specific episode.

How Severance Connects to Black Mirror’s White Christmas

Black Mirror’s season 2 episode 4 titled White Christmas disperses into three different stories occurring sometime around Christmas Eve.

It stars Jon Hamm as Matt, a man that tells a stranger about his job as a “cookie” creator — even with a sweet-sounding name like this, it’s actually far from what people expect to be.

When Matt delves into the matter, it’s revealed that “cookies” are normal people’s digital clones brought to life to eventually become their host’s personal assistant, but still kept in an egg-shaped device without too much freedom to take advantage of.

The episode then goes further with more shocking revelations, reflecting on the matter of modern-day slavery, which is what Dan Erickson had in mind coming up with Severance’s plot line.

In an interview with The New York Times several years ago, the showrunner recalled “feeling so cold and afraid after seeing that, this devastating idea of having to experience this endless solitude”.

This eventually turned into the concept for innies that in Apple TV+’s show are locked up in Lumon Industries’ office without any possibility to explore the outer world and thus feel like a complete person.

Severance Fans Connect the Dots After Dan Erickson’s Revelation

Even with White Christmas being there for quite a long time, those who watched both Severance and Black Mirror were never able to see the connection until recently.

“Makes a ton of sense now that I think about it. The idea of enslaving part of your consciousness is just…terrifying”, Redditor mdavis360 confessed in a thread.

Many also admitted, without much consideration of its influence on Severance, that the episode is simply one of the best stories Black Mirror ever put on the screen.

“"White Christmas" is like four or five great Black Mirror concepts that all crash and overlap each other in one tight 75-minute episode. It's one of my favorite episodes of any TV show in the last 20 years”, Slugggo revealed.

Things went even further for some other fans of Netflix ’s sci-fi hit, as ArchDucky recalled the episode’s everlasting effect. “The ramifications of the world presented at the end of "White Christmas" f**king broke me. I couldn't sleep that night. I had to call in sick the following day to work because I couldn't sleep. To this day I still think about it”, they said.

Meanwhile, Black Mirror’s season 7 is on Netflix now. And you can watch both seasons of Severance on Apple TV+.