Black Mirror is gaslighting its own viewers – by releasing different versions of the same episode on Netflix

Black Mirror has returned to Netflix with a turbulent and often heart-breaking seventh season. However, in true Black Mirror fashion, Netflix has gone as far as showing different versions of one episode, making audiences feel as if they are experiencing the same gaslighting that the episode's main character is.

Warning, this article contains spoilers for Black Mirror season 7 episode 2, so make sure you are all caught up with one of the best Netflix shows before reading on.

If you have seen the new series, then you will know that we are talking about the episode titled Bête Noire.

The entry follows a food researcher named Maria whose world is turned upside down when her former classmate Verity joins her team. As soon as Verity shows up, anything she says turns out to be true, as if she is speaking things into existence. We later find out that this is because she is using a gadget to skip to a reality where what she says is true (eg. a world where nut allergies don’t exist and so on).

But fans have found that Verity’s timeline switching has affected our real world too. When Maria and Verity are arguing over the name of a fast food chain, Maria states that she knows it's called Barnies as her boyfriend used to work there and has a cap with Barnies printed on (which we see at the beginning of the episode). However, when Maria checks Google, it comes up with Bernies due to Verity’s timeline switching.

However, one fan has found that Netflix has switched the names, creating two versions of that scene, one where Bernies was the initial spelling, and another where it was Barnies. "So my friend and I were watching the new Black Mirror episode 'Bête Noire' and we noticed that there was a stark difference between our episodes," said the fan on Twitter. "Even the viewers are getting gaslit." Check out the post below.

This clever little addition from Black Mirror is seemingly a play on the internet’s obsession with the Mandela effect, which comes from the phenomenon where many people remember Nelson Mandela dying in prison in the ‘80s, despite him being released in 1990 and later dying in 2013. Another example is how many people remember the title of the popular ‘00s cartoon The Berenstain Bears as The Berenstein Bears.

Netflix has yet to address the episode’s multiple variations, however, the streamer recently posted the singular word "bernies" via Twitter, to which the official Black Mirror account replied, "barnies". So, it looks like they are playing us.

Black Mirror season 7 is available to watch on Netflix right now. For more, check out our ranking of the best Black Mirror episodes, or keep up with new TV shows heading your way.