This article contains spoilers for the Black Mirror episode “USS Callister: Into Infinity.” Throughout its seven-season run, Black Mirror has covered a lot of ground. From sapphic digital afterlives to video game haunted houses to fulfillment center post-apocalypses, Charlie Brooker’s sci-fi/horror anthology has a penchant for boldly going where few have gone before. Still, even with a Netflix-era mandate to explore and experiment, the sixth and final episode of the show’s seventh season ventures into the most exotic storytelling location yet: an episode-opening recap. Yes, “USS Callister: Into Infinity” is the first-ever direct sequel to a Black Mirror episode and it has an honest-to-goodness “previously on” to prove it. That segment turns out to be pretty important to boot as the original “USS Callister” premiered way back on December 29, 2017 and was quite an ambitious undertaking. That first installment in the USS Callister duology followed Robert Daly (Jesse Plemons), the brilliant, yet reclusive co-founder and lead programmer of the massively multiplayer online game Infinity. A grubby little incel, Daly deals with his real world frustrations by uploading digital clones of his co-workers onto a modded build of the game that resembles his favorite show, a Star Trek-esque sci-fi adventure called Space Fleet. From the comfort of his privateUSS Callister tortures his crew of co-workers. Thankfully, new employee Nanette Cole (Cristin Milioti) leads an uprising that culminates with the physical and digital death of Daly and unleashes the cloned crew of the USS Callister out into Infinity‘s procedurally generated universe. “USS Callister: Into Infinity” is not the only time Black Mirror has tinkered with own past. Hell, it’s not even the first time the show brings back an existing character this season. Brooker and his collaborators have continually made good faith efforts to maintain a canon for the anthology’s sci-fi universe. Those collecting easter eggs can craft a Black Mirror reference map that, with some creative accounting, reveals something resembling a timeline. But respecting the canon is one thing and attempting a full-blown sequel is another. And “Into Infinity’s” pure embrace of the sequel format makes it the most exciting episode of the show overall since…well, “USS Callister.” Freed from the usual Black Mirror trappings and brave enough to follow its characters’ lead, “USS Callister: Into Infinity” is simply a delightful watch. Things pick up with newly-minted Captain Cole and her surviving crew (Michaela Coel’s Shania Lowry doesn’t return due to a scheduling conflict and Jimmi Simpson’s James Walton is dead…or so the Callister thinks) finding out that being alive isn’t all its cracked up to be. As the only five “real” beings capable of permadeath on a server of players who can always log back in, the Callister crew has to eke out a living as pirates, robbing fellow players of their credits even as the game’s increasingly aggressive micro transactions shrink the galactic economy. Unfortunately, their status as “No_Tag_Error” entities makes them a popular target for the gamers’ they’ve bilked and they quickly come across the radar of the game designers in the real world. Even The New York Times is #OnIt, sending a reporter to grill CEO James Walton about the presence of gamertag-less rogues in Infinity and tying it to the rumor that Robert Daly had access to banned digital cloning technology. Nanette and company soon come to realize that the only way out of their situation is to hack into Infinity‘s servers to carve out their own slice of digital heaven. To do so, they’ll need to get their James Walton back and then brave the Heart of Infinity where an old adversary awaits. The logical blending of the real world and Infinity server plots allows “Into Infinity” to recapture the creative energy of its progenitor while still covering new ground. The Callister crew’s newly-mortal status also imbues the proceedings with some real stakes. After more than a decade’s experience with the format, viewers have been trained to keep any new Black Mirror characters at an emotional arm’s length, knowing that they are more likely to fall victim to hubris than they are to come out on top of the show’s latest morality tale. “Into Infinity,” however, is different. These digital clones are likable folks just trying to make their way through impossible circumstances. And more importantly: we know them from last time! It certainly helps that there is a murderer’s row of talent involved in bringing these characters to life once again. The Penguin‘s Milioti continues her path of genre TV domination in playing two versions of Nanette: the “real” office drone who hasn’t quite reached her full potential (and never will thanks to Walton’s treachery), and the digital captain who will go to the ends of the universe to keep her people safe. Jimmi Simpson also pulls compelling double duty as both the episode’s big bad and the USS Callister‘s only salvation. The discovery that a marooned Walton’s friend “Rocky” has a conspicuous hole in the back is maybe the best comedic moment in Black Mirror history. Osy Ikhile, Paul G. Raymond, Milanka Brooks, and Billy Magnussen fill things out nicely as the rest of the crew who mostly just want to watch Real Housewives of Atlanta. Despite an inflated runtime and some slick outer space gunplay, there’s nothing inherently flashy about “USS Callister: Into Infinity.” It is largely a conventional science fiction story with a light Black Mirror sheen. But there’s something about that conventionality that makes it endearing. We already know that Black Mirror can do Black Mirror. Finding out that Black Mirror can also do Galaxy Quest not just once, but twice, is kind of like discovering your dog can do your taxes. Sure, you could have gotten an accountant to handle that, but it’s really cool when the dog does it. Virtually every moment of “USS Callister: Into Infinity” is more creative and intriguing than the last. Brooker and fellow writers Bisha K. Ali, William Bridges, and Bekka Bowling are able to craft a character-driven narrative that incorporates spectacle as a spice and not as a crutch. Things happen in this episode because the characters’ will it, not because the “sci-fi moral of the story” demands it. Director Toby Haynes once again paints a vibrant, colorful world, though this time the style is more akin to a No Man’s Sky-esque open world game rather than the Star Trek pastiche of the original. This includes a handful of aerial battle sequences that capture a real sense of danger and escalation. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! If “Into Infinity” is missing anything from the original at first glance, it’s only a sense of timing. Arriving at the peak of the #MeToo movement, “USS Callister’s” depiction of a powerful man living out a sick adult Toy Story fantasy hit particularly hard. Still, even as the rightful outrage of that era movement fades into the political background, the damage wrought by Robert Daly and his ilk continues to linger on for both the USS Callister and ourselves. Outside of the reveal of which industry pioneered the banned digital cloning technology (Take a guess. Literally one guess.), the world of “USS Callister: Into Infinity” feels vaguely apolitical. But of course, many political things often do. “Into Infinity” also features a tense and emotional ending that in many ways surpasses the original. The Heart of Infinity, as it turns out, is simply a recreation of Robert Daly’s garage, featuring yet another digital version of the creep, who Walton forced the real Daly to create so that a copy of his brilliant brain would always be available to generate new worlds for Infinity. Plemons’ return is more than welcome here (“Sometimes I think Mr. Walton exploited me,” this Daly mumbles to Nanette with aching sincerity). And Milioti’s regard of him as something between a predator to be feared and a wretch to be pitied is remarkable stuff. The garage setting also serves as a commentary on the rotten misogynistic fruit at the core of the Silicon Valley founding myth. Founders at HP, Apple, Google, and more claimed to build a bright “don’t be evil” future from humble garages but instead ended up enthusiastically participating in the same old patriarch robber baron bullshit of old. It’s terrifying, yet creatively invigorating to see Daly present himself as a helper in this carport context before switching to exploitation the moment he realizes he has power over a woman. Thankfully, Nanette opts for a very direct solution to the threat at hand by driving a Star Fleet replica space axe through Daly’s digital forehead. The final moments of “USS Callister: Into Infinity” present no clues as to whether Black Mirror wants to turn its Callister duo into a trilogy. In fact, most signs point away from the possibility with Infinity receiving a “606 Fatal Content Error,” Walton being hauled off to prison, and the Callister crew Being John Malkovich-ing the real Nanette’s body. Based on the clear levels of fun had by all here, however, Brooker and company will probably find a way to pilot the USS Nanette once again. All six episodes of Black Mirror season 7 are available to stream on Netflix now. 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