🤐 SPOILER ALERT 🤐

When Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker said that Season 6 would be the most unpredictable yet, he really meant it. After spending the first five seasons exploring the dark sides of technological innovations, how does the show reinvent itself to keep viewers surprised? Well, watching Annie Murphy excrete inside a church was probably not on your bingo card, but you won’t be able to wipe that moment from your memory anytime soon. Hold onto your bowels as we break down this wild scene.

Season 6’s first episode, “Joan Is Awful,” initially follows a woman named Joan Tait (Murphy) whose main issue is that she’s average. Aside from the blond streaks in her hair, there’s really nothing about her that stands out. She’s unhappy with her career, stuck in an unfulfilling relationship and still not over her ex. As Joan tells her therapist early on in the episode, “I feel like I’m not the main character in my own life story.” She’ll come to regret those words later, as her life is unknowingly adapted into a prestige TV drama by a global streaming platform. Joan watches in abject horror as her life unfolds onscreen with none other than Salma Hayek Pinault playing her in the titular role. With the world watching her every move and turning against her character in real life, Joan has no choice but to go fully unhinged. If the people want a show, then she’ll give them one. 

“There are many Black Mirror episodes that still haunt me and I think will until the day I die,” Murphy tells Tudum from the set of “Joan is Awful” in London. “I found out that I got an offer [to be on the series] and I just agreed to it because I love the show so much, but I hadn’t read the script yet because they hadn’t sent me the NDA — and then I realized, ‘Oh sh*t. What if this is one of those episodes that just kind of rocks me to my very soul?’ ” Oh sh*t was right.

Black Mirror is notorious for pushing its characters past the point of no return, and “Joan Is Awful” is no exception. Quickly descending into desperation, Joan reaches her breaking point halfway through the episode when she decides to do the unthinkable: give herself diarrhea and defecate in one of the holiest places. After scarfing down several hamburgers — and with the help of some laxatives — Joan crashes a wedding ceremony dressed as a cheerleader and lets it all out (literally) in the middle of the chapel. 

“I was loving the script, and then I got to the church scene and I was just like, ‘This is some kind of divine intervention letting me do this and be disgusting and weird and over the top,’ ” Murphy says. Talk about stealing the bride and groom’s thunder. 

As Joan’s mugshot is taken, she can’t help but giggle to herself. “What’s so funny?” asks the photographer. “Salma Hayek’s going to f**king hate this,” she replies with glee. Later that night, Joan is on her living room couch celebrating with a bottle of wine as she watches Hayek doing the same deed on TV.  Unlike Murphy, Hayek had the opposite reaction to the scene. “I was very happy to go after [Annie],” she admits.

When Joan and Salma break into the Streamberry headquarters, they make a mind-boggling discovery: Joan isn’t actually Joan. There’s an original “Source” Joan (Kayla Lorette) who’s played by Murphy — who’s then played by Hayek. As if two defecation scenes weren’t enough, we see Source Joan having her holy moment during the end credits. “Filming that scene was probably the most surreal and hilarious,” Lorette tells Tudum. “It was the only time Annie, Salma and I were all on set and dressed the same in that ridiculous look. It felt very freeing to have to fake defecate in a church in front of a bunch of strangers. A humbling moment! That’s some of the freedom comedy gives you. You have to give in to the moment, and in that, there’s no comfort or fear. It’s almost meditative.”

Stream all new episodes of Black Mirror Season 6 on Netflix.

Let’s Break Down the Visual Effects of Black Mirror Season 6Have you ever wondered how a nuclear blast is created on-screen? Wonder no more!