Black Mirror season 6: Was Iain Adair a real person? (Is “Loch Henry” based on a true story?)

Black Mirror has finally returned for its highly anticipated sixth season, and fans of the psychological sci-fi drama have already started binging the five new episodes. From a woman whose life turns into a TV show to a documentary that uncovers dark family secrets, we’ve got a wide variety of stories to check out in the new season of the Netflix anthology show.

Like previous seasons, each episode tackles different types of modern technology that while convenient and entertaining, can also harm us.

The second episode of Black Mirror season 6, titled “Loch Henry,” is a particularly chilling story in which a couple travels to Scotland to film a documentary. But their digging leads to disturbing secrets they never thought possible and ends up in death.

Warning: Spoilers ahead for Black Mirror season 6 episode 2.

“Loch Henry” follows characters Pia and Davis as they stay at Davis’ childhood home with his mother Janet in Scotland. Hoping to work on a documentary in the isles of Rùm, Davis shows his girlfriend around his hometown ahead of their plans to travel to their next destination. But when Pia hears a disturbing story about the town’s history, she decides it would make a way better documentary than what they originally planned. Even if Davis is against it at first.

Black Mirror season 6: Iain Adair, explained

While visiting the local inn’s bar, Davis introduces Pia to his childhood friend Stuart. After having seen how beautiful the town is, Pia is shocked that it’s not flooded with tourists. Instead, it feels like a ghost town. Stuart shares that there’s a simple explanation for that, and its name is Iain Adair.

Davis then, reluctantly, tells Pia the whole story. In the ’90s when the town was always full of tourists, a vacationing couple went missing. Their disappearance made the local news and was a huge story, but after weeks of no leads, it seemed like they might never be found. One night, however, a local man named Iain Adair got drunk at the inn and started saying weird things. The inn-owner Richard, who happens to be Stuart’s dad, called Davis’ dad Kenneth, a cop, to go check on Iain at his farm.

When Kenneth arrived at the farm, Iain shot him before killing his parents and himself. Police investigated the home and found a secret door that led to a bunker, where they uncovered a disturbing scene. Iain had been torturing people in his secret room, and police discovered eight bodies on his property, including the missing couple.

Is Black Mirror season 6 episode 2 based on a true story?

If you’re a fan of the true crime genre, you’ll probably agree that the story of Iain Adair sounds all too familiar. We’ve definitely seen serial killers like this one before, however, I couldn’t find any evidence that Iain was a real person. Rather, it seems that the show is depicting a realistic criminal case to paint a picture of how damaging true crime documentaries and dramatizations can be to the people who were actually affected.

Neither Iain nor Davis are real-life people, no, but their stories are reflective of true stories.

By the end of “Loch Henry,” Davis has lost his girlfriend and his mother, on top of finding out something horrific about his parents. Although the documentary about it all is a huge success, even winning a BAFTA Award, he can’t celebrate. It’s just a reminder of the trauma he’s gone through.

All five episodes of Black Mirror season 6 are now streaming on Netflix.