Digging Through Memories: A Therapist’s Take on Black Mirror’s “Eulogy”
(Trigger Warning: Grief, unresolved emotions, memory)
I recently watched Black Mirror’s episode “Eulogy” — the one featuring Paul Giamatti (who I still can’t fully separate from Chuck Rhoades in Billions, honestly). And while Black Mirror is known for its dark, high-concept tech twists, this episode hit me in a quieter, more emotional way.
The core concept — a technology that allows people to enter photographs and retrieve memories — was both fascinating and deeply unsettling.
As a therapist, and honestly just as a human being, I found that concept both mind-blowing and deeply emotional. The idea that we could walk back into a moment that’s otherwise only accessible through fuzzy mental images or emotional residue. It’s beautiful… and heartbreaking.
In the episode, Giamatti’s character uses this technology to revisit a long-lost connection with a woman named Carole. What struck me most was that, through this memory-scanning process, he finally uncovers the truth behind something that had haunted him for years — a quiet, painful misunderstanding that shaped the trajectory of their relationship.
And that’s what gutted me: he had spent his whole life resenting her, mourning what could’ve been, carrying the weight of a story that wasn’t even true.
That moment was such a powerful reminder that so much of the pain we carry from past relationships isn’t about the breakup itself — it’s about what was never communicated. The assumptions we made. The things we never got to ask or say. The conclusions that hardened into “truth” over time.
This episode captured that ache in such a subtle but profound way. And from a philosophical lens? The idea of memory as a living, explorable archive raises so many questions:
- What happens when memory becomes more than just recall — when it becomes a place you can go?
- Does that bring us closer to healing, or does it keep us attached to something we were never meant to fully understand?
- Would you want to know the truth, even if it hurt more than your assumptions?
- If you had known the truth, would it have changed your choices? The outcome?
This episode wasn’t just cool sci-fi — it was a reflection on grief, connection, memory, and how time can distort the stories we hold onto. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.
“Eulogy” speaks to that universal ache of wondering what might’ve been if only we’d known the full story.
And sometimes, that’s the heaviest truth of all.
For the stories we know, and those we’ll forever wonder about,
LC
Vibe with Me LC 