For those who are confused about the ending of the fifth episode of Black Mirror season 6, allow us to try to help! We’ve also covered the remaining episodes of Black Mirror Season 6, but here’s the ending explained at Demon 79.
Demon 79 is the fifth and final episode of the sixth season of Black Mirror, directed by Toby Haynes and written by Charlie Brooker.
Here is the basic premise of the episode:
The article continues below…
“Northern England, 1979. A sweet business assistant is told she must do terrible things to avert disaster.”
Explanation of the end of the demon 79
After inadvertently making a contract with the demon named Gaap. Shoe store assistant Nida is forced to murder three people in 72 hours or else nuclear annihilation for the world would begin, of which she is shown a vision.
Believing she had gone mad, Nida attempted to flee from Gaap but this led her to her first victim, Tim Simons. To convince her to murder Tim, Gaap reveals to Nida that Tim is sexually abusing his daughter, which would lead to her death by suicide at the age of 28. Hitting Tim around the head with a brick, he falls into the river and dies. The next day, he is reported missing by his wife and the police begin to investigate.
Picture. Gaap’s Talisman – Netflix
If anyone thought Gaap was lying, when the police visited the Simons’ home, her daughter’s behavior revealed that the demon was telling the truth about Tim.
Nida is horrified by her actions, but Gaap ends up tricking her into looking for a second person to murder. For the first time she goes to the pub, however, as the only known Indian woman in town, she draws attention to herself. The waitress overhears her talking to Gaap but believes she is mumbling to herself. Nida chooses Keith, a man known in the city for having killed his wife. After following Keith home and having an extremely awkward moment in his room that results in a quick trip to the bathroom, Nida waits for him to return with a hammer in hand. Keith accepts his fate and Nida kills him.
Picture. Paapa Essiedu as Gaap (right) – Netflix
Tragedy strikes as another person arrives at the house before Nida can leave. He catches her trying to leave the house and Gaap convinces her that she cannot leave any witnesses. After a quick fight, Nida stabs the man in the chest with a kitchen knife. We learn from Gaap that the man was Keith’s little brother, Chris. Nida was hopeful that Chris was a bad man, but Gaap reveals he was just ordinary.
Gaap mistakenly thought Nida had been killed after three of the murders, but a quick phone call to hell revealed that Keith’s death didn’t count as he was directly responsible for another person’s death. Nida and Gaap bond over his fear of being exiled and sent to eternal oblivion. She also learns that her hatred for Vicky made her corruptible and why her blood summoned Gaap for his trial.
Nida has 24 hours to kill once more.
The next day, Nida’s racist colleague Vicky makes him adjust the shoes of Tim Simons’ daughter, who came with her mother to buy shoes for the funeral. Gaap helps Naadi feel better when he reveals that he spared her five years of further abuse, that he will not kill himself again, and that he will become a grandmother at the age of 57.
Picture. Katherine Rose Morley as Vicky – Netflix
After overhearing a deep conversation between Mark Smart and Vicky, Nida forces Gaap to reveal Smart’s future. Here she learns that the future Tory MP is to become Britain’s fascist and extremely racist future Prime Minister. Gaap isn’t happy with Nida’s choice, but his spirit is set. Her tough-guy transformation is confirmed when she steals the store’s sleek leather jacket.
Picture. Anjana Vasan as Nida – Netflix
The police investigation leads CDI Fisher directly to Nida. She has a hard time convincing Fisher that she is completely innocent. This results in Fisher following Nida as she begins her plan to kill Mark Smart. In Nida’s pursuit of Smart, she loses Fisher’s tail at a railroad crossing and Gaap continues his attempt to try and convince Nida to murder someone else. However, their argument leads to him telling her to fuck off, so he leaves.
Picture. David Shields as Mark Smart
Nida knocks Smart’s car off the road, injuring him. She lands a handful of painful blows on Smart with her hammer, but before she can land the killing blow, Fisher is able to stop her. Without Gaap on her shoulder to convince her to murder Fisher, she retreats and allows herself to be arrested.
Nida tries to make her statement to the station, and although she told them the whole truth, it’s obvious that her story is too crazy to be believed. She watches the countdown to midnight, ready to witness nuclear annihilation, but nothing happens.
The peace is broken when Suzy and Fisher’s attentions are drawn to mermaids in the distance. Gaap reappears and reveals to Nida that the apocalypse is happening, and thanks to their failure to stop the apocalypse, he is exiled from Hell and into eternal oblivion. Gaap offers Nida the chance to join him in eternal oblivion, and rather than go to hell, she gladly accepts. Suzy, Fisher and the other Tipley police officers witness the start of the nuclear apocalypse.
As nuclear weapons rain down on England, Nida and Gaap fall into eternal oblivion, paired forever.
What is Eternal oblivion?
The theory of eternal oblivion is the idea that there is simply nothing after death. This means that when a person dies, their soul, spirit, or energy has no other material plane to travel to, resulting in a state of non-existence.
Gaap summed it up in perfectly articulated detail in his explanation to Nida.
However, no one has said anything about the fine print, which means that as Gaap’s human companion to eternal oblivion, Nida and his demon friend will never be alone, forever.
Why is the hell thwarted by the nuclear apocalypse?
In May 1979, the world population exceeded 4.3 billion. With 4.3 billion souls about to enter hell, you’d think whoever was responsible would be grateful. However, the extinction of the human race at the hands of a nuclear holocaust means that no more humans will be born, therefore no more souls for hell.
Had the nuclear holocaust not taken place, hell would have been dripped with billions more over the next few decades.
There is also the possibility that several hundred million innocent lives are about to enter heaven rather than hell.
Not to mention billions of souls in the space of 24 hours, that’s way too much paperwork to deal with down there.
What did you think of the Black Mirror episode? Demon 79? Let us know in the comments below!