Episode 2 of the new season of Black Mirror plays out almost like a found-footage horror in combination with a true crime documentary. It’s a little slow-paced, especially in comparison to episode 1, but still worth it. Definitely plays out a lot like Get Out, and we can’t help but make comparisons; still it’s a decent enough episode on its own though. Loch Henry takes us to a quaint town in Scotland as we meet film students who are excited to make their first documentary.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens In Episode 2?
Davis is bringing Pia, his girlfriend from film school, to his hometown in Scotland for the first time. His mother Janet is very intrusive, and Davis asks her to stop, but she continues to be that way. Pia doesn’t seem to mind though as it would be normal for any parent to behave that way. They’re there because they’re travelling further up to a town called Rùm to make a documentary on a man who protects rare eggs from being stolen and collected. Janet is confused about this story as it doesn’t sound very interesting, and Pia looks to be having similar thoughts. Pia notices a piano in the house and a picture of Davis’ dad. Davis says his dad used to play and he’s been dead since Davis was 8. He also used to be a police officer. When Davis takes Pia around the town to see its beauty, she can’t understand why people wouldn’t want to come there on vacation. It’s a beautiful town with an excellent landscape. Davis takes Pia to his friend’s bar and there she asks these pressing questions to find out that the town is rather legendary.
A long time ago, in 1997, a young man named Iain Adair lived in the town and no one paid much attention to him, but later he was found to be a sadist who was torturing tourists and “missing people” in a war bunker in his house. He was then killing them and burying them in the field nearby. This all came to light when a tourist couple went missing out of thin air on the day they were supposed to leave the town. There was no evidence of what happened to them, and they completely disappeared from public interest when Princess Diana died. But one faithful night, when Iain was drinking in the same exact bar, he decided to open up about some things and make a fuss because he was drunk over his head. Stuart’s father (the guy who owns the bar) then told Davis’ dad to go check on Iain, who had threatened to shoot people in the bar. In an altercation, Davis’ father had gotten shot and Iain had then killed his own parents followed by himself.
Davis’ father had fallen ill after going to the hospital because of that shot, so his wife always blamed Iain for his death. Pia asks Davis to take her to the scene of the crime and he does. There she asks him if this can be their story instead of the egg man because it would obviously be much more interesting for many people to watch. Davis understandably hates the idea at first because his mother is deeply invested in this story and it would hurt her feelings, but back in the bar, Stuart loves the idea and thinks it would help the town swarm with tourists all over again. Davis agrees to do the story then and they quietly begin their work with a box of souvenirs kept by Stuart’s mother who had an obsession with the case back in the day. They start shooting the documentary and everything is flying smoothly. Until Janet comes into the room where they’re making the edits and notices Stuart’s father on the screen.
On the other hand, Stuart’s father doesn’t want them to work on this story, but he won’t give a reason. Davis tells her what they’re working on and Janet loves the idea because it would give a voice to her dead husband. She talks about how her husband used to take videos too but never had some fancy equipment (this detail is important for later). The network isn’t too keen on the story because the guy was not as famous as a Ted Bundy, but since there’s a personal element attached and on the condition that they get footage inside the actual house, they’re willing to give it a green light.
‘Loch Henry’ Ending Explained
After going into the house and getting their footage, the gang heads back out, having some fun in the car. They’re singing a song and Davis begins an argument with Stuart not looking ahead of him. They’re hit by a car and Davis is hospitalized while the other two survive with minor injuries. Davis has to stay overnight so Janet takes Pia home. Janet prepares Shepherd’s pie while Pia works on the documentary and all the content they collected in the house. They had recorded the videos over an old VCR of a TV show that Janet and her husband used to be obsessed with. The video is playing out as normal until it starts to play the tv show. But in about 2 mins it switches again. To Pia’s utter shock, it’s a video of Iain in the dungeon. The camera pans to the missing couple from back then and then to her horror it switches to Davis’ father. As she continues to watch, Janet enters the video in a nurse’s outfit with a mask on. She has some equipment in her hand and they’re about to do some really nasty things to the poor tourist couple. Before Pia can see what that is, Janet calls her for dinner. Pia can’t stay in the house much longer and when she sees the mask Janet was wearing in the video on the wall in the house, she panics. Pia tells Janet she’s feeling a little uncomfortable so she’s going out for a walk.
Janet finally realizes what is going on and rushes to the room where Pia was editing the video. She sees the VCR and immediately takes the car out to find Pia. Unfortunately, in her fear, Pia runs into a stream, falls, and hits her head, dying instantly. Realizing what has happened, Janet panics, throws a fit and goes back home. Maybe she decides to give herself up at this time, or she wants her son to make a mind-blowing documentary, so she leaves all the videos from the murders and all the photo evidence that she’s kept safely this whole time. She writes a note to Davis stating that she’s leaving this for his film and then hangs herself. At the same time, Stuart’s dad is also in the hospital with Davis, telling him what he thinks is the truth about Janet.
Finally, the scene cuts to a new documentary on Streamberry and it’s not about Iain Adair, or Janet and her husband, but it’s about Pia and Davis who were trying to make a documentary and then became the subject themselves. Stuart’s father confesses in the trailer that he had once been involved in some “games” played by Davis’ parents back in the day and that’s when he had known that Iain could not have done any of it alone. Davis is the “star” of the film because Pia died. The documentary is a super hit and even wins a Bafta. Stuart gets what he wants, his bar filled and tourists booking up to two weeks in advance. In the end, he calls Davis to celebrate the news, but Davis cuts him off in the middle as he cries and stares at the award which is essentially a mask. The documentary wasn’t even his, but his mother had left the content for “his” movie. So, at the end of the day, he never really got to make a movie he was proud of and found out this horrible truth about his parents.
Of course, it’s another meta episode of Black Mirror and as usual it pushes some twists from the beginning of the episode to confuse us as we can never know how it’s ending, for example, the way Janet and Stuart are racist towards Pia when she first comes into town. What’s Davis going to do with this award when anyone and everyone he ever loved is dead and Stuart is so blind to it all? Of course, again, Netflix takes a dig at itself, making a point about exploitative true crime documentaries that can never have a positive impact on the victims involved. Even Pia herself says when she wants to make a movie on Iain that it is something that millions of people will want to watch, but she ended up dying in the process of making it.
