WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Black Mirror's "Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too," streaming now on Netflix.
Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker has never shied away from taking shots at various industries in his anthology series. Technology, agriculture, weapons and, of course, media and politics have all fallen within his scope. With "Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too," so too has the music business.
As the Season 5 episode details the struggles of Ashley O (Miley Cyrus), he seemingly hews closely to the #FreeBritney movement, a real-world fan theory suggesting pop singer Britney Spears is actually being held prisoner against her will.
The #FreeBritney movement didn't really catch fire until April, so it seems Brooker and his creative team are have invoked the movement more out of serendipity. The narrative of Ashley O, admittedly, fits the struggles of young musicians and the confessions which emerge later on in their careers about controlling management and parents, with decades of conditioning making them more product than artist. It's recently befallen such musicians as Selena Gomez, and -- looking farther back -- even Michael Jackson. Even Cyrus had a similar controversy in her past. A bevy of stars have complained over the decades about this issue, and it doesn't seem to be something that'll die down anytime soon, which feeds directly into Brooker's narrative.
Here, Ashley wants to be unchained creatively to make her own music and also live her life. Although she enjoyed pop stardom in the past, she's grown past neon wigs and teeny-bopping songs. But her management team keeps her drugged up and controls every aspect of her life, which is what fans speculate happened to Britney and why she's in medical retreats consistently. Ashley's aunt, Catherine (Susan Pourfar), is the one spearheading this to ensure their lucrative lifestyle continues, whereas in Britney's case, folks posit it's her father.
In fact, Britney has gone on record in numerous interviews and rebelled against this sort of puppeteering, which is why fans believe that not hearing from her anymore (apart from a few press releases or generic social media content for promoting her music and tours) is a sign her personality and character is being curtailed. The plot sees Catherine drug her Ashley up and put her into a coma after her niece threatens to take her to court to break her contract. But seeing as this is the Black Mirror-verse, the aunt finds a way to make the unconscious star pump out more music. Her team ends up using technology to extract music from Ashley's head to put out a new record, which acts as a pseudo-posthumous album, and just as her aunt predicted, a major cash cow.
However, two sisters Rachel (Angourie Rice) and Jack (Madison Davenport) end up forming the #FreeAshley brigade when the former's doll, Ashley Too (an interactive robot which has a carbon copy of Ashley's mind and which Catherine put to market to rake in even more money), takes it sentience to a whole new level. After seeing reports about Ashley's coma, the bot overloads on the info and shorts out. The confused girls hack it to remove its limiter, and this results in Ashley's full persona emerging, rehashing the memories with Catherine which leads to them raiding the home to see what's up with the star.
A melee ensues with the security detail and the bot unplugs the machine, as it knows Ashley would never want to live in such a state. Shockingly, the singer emerges from her coma alive but exhausted, and when the teens escape, the cops arrive finally to bear witness to the horrific scheme Catherine was trying to pull. The episode ends with Ashley joining Jack's band months later, covering Nine Inch Nails in a dive bar in which she always wanted to perform, with her old fandom literally in tears. She's no longer -- mentally and physically -- a creative slave.
Again, this is a problem throughout the entertainment industry on the whole, especially with child actors. However, given how this episode aligns with real world conspiracy theories surrounding Britney Spears, Black Mirror has managed to tap into a desire of fans to see their icons free to create they've always wanted to.
Black Mirror Season 5 is currently streaming on Netflix. It contains three episodes, titled "Striking Vipers," "Smithereens" and "Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too," and will star Anthony Mackie, Miley Cyrus, Topher Grace, Andrew Scott and Angourie Rice.