Joan is Awful Ending Explained: After 4 years, Netflix is back with a new season of their sci-fi thriller anthology. Black Mirror Season 6 Episode 1 stars Annie Murphy, Salma Hayek, Michael Cera, Himesh Patel, Rob Delaney and Ben Barnes. It was written by Charlie Brooker and directed by Ally Pankiw. The runtime of the episode is 57 minutes.

Joan is Awful Recap

In Joan is Awful episode of Black Mirror 6, Joan is a working woman in a solid relationship with Krish. The episode begins with Joan firing one of her juniors, who is pretty upset with the decision. Later, when Joan’s smoking, she accidentally drops the cigarette in the fired employee’s box. Joan also has a therapist with whom she shares about not enjoying her relationship with Krish. She calls it ‘vanilla’. Joan also reveals how she doesn’t feel like the main character in her life. After the therapy session, Joan meets her ex Mac, and the duo share a kiss. She feels guilty about it and leaves.

After reaching home, Joan and Krish decide to watch something on a streaming platform called Streamberry. She’s baffled to see a drama called ‘Joan is Awful’ starring Salma Hayek, whose hairstyle is like hers. The couple decides to watch the series. The drama starts the same way Joan started her day, followed by everything the real-life Joan did. Not just Joan but every person she met that day gets a notification to watch the episode. Joan loses her mind seeing how the platform makes her look like a monster.

Joan’s boyfriend Krish gets to watch everything Joan talks about him to her therapist and her kiss with Mac. Krish is hurt and leaves the house, and Joan follows. The episode continues with everything that happens inside the house. Joan and Krish from the Streamberry show sit together to watch Joan is Awful, which stars Cate Blanchett. So it’s a never-ending loop. The people who know the real Joan continue to watch the series and are startled.

Joan has to face the consequences of everything revealed in the series, especially related to the confidential information at her workplace. She gets fired from the office. The same thing is again shown on Streamberry. Joan decides to sue the platform for invading her privacy and making a show out of it. So how did the streaming platform use Joan’s life without her permission and make a show about it? The platform mentions that they can make a show/movie from an individual’s personal life on their ‘Terms and Conditions page.

Joan’s lawyer says she accepted the Terms and Conditions when she first signed up for the streaming platform. Sadly, she never read anything that was mentioned in it. Joan can’t even sue Salma Hayek as the platform uses the actor’s digital image and CGI to make the show. The lawyer tells Joan they could access her life as every person’s phone listens to and records everything. Joan can’t even file a defamation case for exaggerated portrayal as their Terms & Conditions also mentions that they can add dialogues and scenes for dramatic purposes.

After meeting with the lawyer, Joan goes to Mac, breaks down, and has sex. Mac shares his concerns about being with Joan, as everything about her life is now accessible to the public. After the fight, Joan becomes truly awful and starts doing weird things. She eats a lot of burgers and consumes a bottle of laxatives, and gatecrashes a church wedding dressed up as a cheerleader. Joan poops in front of the guests and gets arrested for the same. Joan’s lawyer bails her out. Joan does all of this to annoy people and the showrunners.

Salma Hayek is upset with everything that happened and talks to her lawyer about how the deepfaking is ruining her image as a Roman Catholic. Salma’s lawyer informs her that her contract’s Terms and Conditions mention everything. They can’t take any legal action. The actor loses her mind. Salma meets the real Joan, who tells her how the show has ruined her life. The duo plans to bring down the system that captures everything at Streamberry’s Mona Javadi’s office.

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At the Streamberry office, Joan and Salma secretly eavesdrop on Mona and her client Fatima’s conversation. When Fatima asks Mona why they chose Joan’s life as a show, she reveals they wanted someone who’s an average, nobody person. Joan is Awful is just the beginning, and they plan to make content based on every individual, including Fatima. The platform uses negative titles because people don’t click on content with positive words. Salma and Joan managed to get inside the system.

Joan learns that she is just a version of Joan, playing the real Joan’s character. The employee sitting there tells Joan that her character has the face of actor Annie Murphy from Schitt’s Creek. When real Joan watches ‘Joan is Awful’, she sees Annie playing her role. The employee, who looks like Michael Cera, says the actor also licensed his face. Annie signed up for fictive level one, and Salma signed up for level 2 to play Joan and herself. The Michael Cera lookalike tells them that the life they’re living is not reality. They’re in a show.

The real Annie Murphy and Salma Hayek are living their real lives somewhere out. Annie/Joan gets angry and hit the employee. She decides to destroy the computer that has all the data saved. Mona arrives there and tells Joan that if she destroys the computer, she will kill everyone who thinks they’re real. The reality they are living in will cease to exist. Listening to this, Salma gets scared and tells Annie to drop the axe and not damage the computer.

Annie/Joan refuses to back down. Joan says that if she’s standing here, it means the real Joan has already been in this place and fought for herself. The show is based on the events that have already happened. Annie/Joan destroys the computer. We finally meet the real Joan and Annie, the Salma Hayek of real Joan’s life. The real Joan is happy with everything she did to save herself. The cops arrest Joan.

Joan is Awful Ending Explained

The episode ends with Joan in a therapy session. She tells her therapist she is back to dating and taking time for herself. She is also a boss and treats her staff well. Joan tells her therapist that she now feels like the main character of her life. At the end of the episode, Annie Murphy meets Joan at her cafe. Both the ladies have a red blinking tag on their ankles.

Black Mirror Season 6’s Joan is Awful episode has unexpected twists and turns. Who would have thought that the makers would freak us out for not reading the Terms & Conditions? We often hear people saying they want their life to be a reality show so that they feel like the main character of their story. It’s not so much fun if the series is unfiltered and real. The episode also highlights how scary it is if actors sign a contract that anyone can use their face to make content. Deepfake videos are troublesome, but willingly signing up to let others use your face for anything has major consequences.

The episode is now streaming on Netflix.

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