Black Mirror’s Hotel Reverie is perhaps the most controversial episode of the seventh season, and while I don’t necessarily agree with all the critiques, there are a few plot holes that are driving me INSANE.

Starring Issa Rae (Brandy Friday), Emma Corrin (Dorothy Chapman), Awkwafina (Kimmy), and Harriet Walter (Judith Keyworth), Hotel Reverie is not unlike the earlier episode San Junipero. It follows Brandy as she undertakes a remake of a classic black and white film, but unlike remakes in the real world, Hotel Reverie is using super high-tech equipment to push the actress into a pocket dimension. Once inside, Brandy is the only person who is aware of the AI simulation as the film’s characters follow the script from the original film.

It’s easy to forget you’re watching Black Mirror at first, but then there are some issues, such as Brandy playing the piano really badly and messing up the narrative structure. This moment, and many more like it, form the basis of the episode’s biggest plot hole.

The Hotel Reverie plot hole from Black Mirror is seriously annoying

The cornerstone of every Black Mirror episode is usually the prevalence of technology in our everyday lives and how, when taken to the extreme, its consequences are often fatal. In Hotel Reverie, that’s Redream, a device that enables the user to jump into a specially designed dimension.

“Redream is a system we’re using. It ingests a movie and all of the surrounding material: Screenplay, casting materials, daily, audition reals, all of it,” Kimmy explained to Brandy. “It creates a self-contained fictitious dimension we can immerse you in.”

So, in this episode of Black Mirror, we’ve reached the level of technological advancement which means we can integrate a real person into what is essentially a live-streamed movie. It monitors the narrative path and analyses plot holes and romantic connections, but there’s no bloody pause button?

Brandy runs into a number of issues throughout the filming, and literally all of them could have been fixed by either pausing it and taking a moment or rewinding it to the start. Despite the clear level of sophistication they’re working with, apparently going back to before the blunder is too ahead of its time until LITERALLY minutes later when they find a backup. Make it make sense.

There are also a few other eye-roll moments in the episode, like why anyone would watch remake of a movie with only one casting change. I’m not the only person who took issue with the episode, and while most criticisms are baseless nitpicking about Issa Rae’s acting, others have reiterated some really good points.

“They plan to shoot an entire movie in 1 go (called a ‘oner’ in the industry). But there’s a reason why films are so incredibly complex to make. It takes multiple takes to get the shots you need, and they expect this actress to DO THE ENTIRE 1.5-HOUR MOVIE PERFECTLY IN 1 TAKE,” one person wrote on Reddit.

“Where did the AI get the information from the real actress? All the information they have is what is on the recorded camera. She can have a lapse and whatever, but it has to be within the data of the movie,” another said.

Hotel Reverie could have been 2025’s San Junipero if it hadn’t been so messy.