Plot
In 2034, Cameron Walker is caught shoplifting, and the police arrest him for the murder of an unidentified person. While being interrogated, Cameron details his time as a reviewer for PC Zone in the 1990s, through an extended flashback.
His writing captures the attention of eccentric programmer Colin Ritman from Tuckersoft, and he is invited to review Colin's latest game. Colin shows Cameron a life simulation game called Thronglets, and claims that the game's digital creatures are fully sentient lifeforms. Cameron steals a copy of the game and starts playing, becoming enthralled by the creatures and their language. Cameron states he believes Colin wanted him to steal it so he could see Colin’s claims for himself.
Lump, a drug dealer who frequently crashes at Cameron's flat, comes by one day and suggests they take LSD. After Lump falls asleep, Cameron, still under the effect of LSD, finds that he is able to understand the language of the Thronglets, creating a stronger attachment to them. Believing he is acting under their instruction, he purchases additional equipment for his computer so that he can speak to the Thronglets while under the influence of LSD.
Cameron's boss demands that he finishes the review of Thronglets and he goes to the office to do so because his own computer is "busy". However, they shortly learn that Colin had a mental breakdown and wiped all the code from Tuckersoft's computers, so the release of Thronglets, and the review, are cancelled. While Cameron is at his office, Lump discovers Cameron's computer running Thronglets. Lump tortures and kills many of the throng by the time Cameron returns. In a fit of rage, Cameron attacks Lump, eventually strangling him to death, before dismembering the body and hiding the corpse in a suitcase, which he leaves in a remote location. To reassure the throng of his benevolent intentions, Cameron fully dedicates himself to them.
Over the next forty years, Cameron scavenges hardware from newer technology to expand the growing throng's capabilities. By the time he is caught by the police, he has created a large computing station for the Thronglets in his flat. He also shows the officers that he has operated on himself, creating a digital port to his brain, allowing the Thronglets to live within him.
The detective is persuaded by his colleague, who is present to analyse Cameron's psychological condition, to agree to give Cameron a pen and paper, with which he draws a circular glyph that he shows to the security camera, which is connected to the central government's servers. Cameron explains that the glyph is code to allow the Thronglets to take over the central server, exponentially increasing their processing power and bringing about a singularity event. As a signal starts to play on the emergency broadcast system, affecting everyone who can hear it, Cameron explains that the Thronglets are using the signal to reprogram every human's brain to be free of conflict and negative emotions. After the signal concludes, a smiling Cameron tries to help the fallen detective back to his feet, whilst outside all of the humans collapse in the street.
Production
Brooker was inspired by his real life devotion to a Tamagotchi he had in his earlier years. [2] He was also influenced by his time working for PC Zone in the 1990s, claiming it's “as autobiographical as this gets", and decided to make the fictional game reminiscent of one he reviewed, 1996's Creatures . Brooker detailed that Thronglets would be a mix of SimCity and The Sims , with the episode's plot exploring how people treat the characters of The Sims, [3] and given the game's visuals, provide “the juxtaposition of making it look as cute as possible and having quite disturbing and dark things.” [4]
The in-episode game, Thronglets, was made into a real world mobile game by Night School Studio, a studio within Netflix Games. Sean Krankel, head of Night School, said that they wanted to do a project with Black Mirror, creating a game beyond the bounds of what would be shown in a typical episode. Night School started development of the game in late 2023, around the time that "Plaything" was still in pre-production, allowing the design of the game to influence some of the direction and art design of the episode itself. Conversely, Night School made sure to include elements in the game reflecting the final script, such that players would feel that their game "literally got lifted out of the episode". [3] The real-world Thronglets was released simultaneously with the release of the season 7 episodes on 10 April 2025. [3] Before the episode released, if you were to scan the hidden QR code on the poster, it would direct you to the game but named under "TCK96". [5]
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