Black Mirror season 6 recap guide: All 5 episodes explained

Black Mirror season 6 episode 2 recap: “Loch Henry”

True crime fans will feel seen with the second episode of Black Mirror season 6, “Loch Henry.” This one follows a couple who visit the man’s childhood home on a trip to Scotland to film a documentary. But as he revisits a traumatic event in the town’s history, they change course on what their movie will be about. For better or for worse.

The second episode opens up with the couple, Davis and Pia, driving along a scenic route in Scotland. Davis is originally from the small town in Scotland, while Pia is American. They get to his childhood home and are greeted by Davis’ mom Janet. As Pia looks around at photos in the house, we learn that Davis’ dad Kenneth was a police officer who passed away when Davis was young.

The next day, Davis shows Pia around the town and they stop at an inn, where we meet a character named Stuart. Working as a bartender at the deserted inn that his dad Richard owns, Stuart makes it known to Pia that he and Davis were once close friends before Davis left town. Though amusing, Stuart definitely has that small-town mindset, using words like “woke” and making a weird diversity comment about Pia. Stuart still feels a little bitter about Davis leaving the town behind to pursue bigger things.

As they sit down to catch up, Pia asks how the town isn’t full of tourists considering how beautiful it is. Stuart then starts to explain it’s because of a man named Iain Adair. Davis seems hesitant to get into the story but begrudgingly tells the tale. As it happens, there was a local guy named Iain Adair who murdered people back in the late ’90s. There used to be tons of tourists in town and he would target them, kidnapping, torturing, ad killing them. One couple’s disappearance, in particular, caught widespread attention, reaching the newspapers. A couple visited the town and vanished. Weeks went by and there were no leads, until one night when Iain got intoxicated at the inn.

Iain was very drunk and started making weird comments, which led to him being kicked out of the bar. He then threatened to shoot up the place, and Stuart’s dad called up Davis’ dad to go out and check on him. Kenneth arrived at the farm and ended up getting shot in the arm before Iain shot and killed his parents and himself. The police later found a secret door in his house which led to a bunker, where they discovered a torture room. They searched the property and found eight bodies, two of which were the missing couple.

As Davis explains to Pia, his dad didn’t die from the wound, but he did contract a bacterial infection in the hospital called Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which killed him.

The story is a lightbulb moment for Pia, who tells Davis this is what they should make their documentary about. At first, Davis is against it. Considering his dad’s involvement, the whole thing is just too close to home. But Pia continues trying to persuade him, and after she proposes the idea to Stuart and he’s on board, Davis reluctantly agrees.

Richard gets wind of the documentary and tells Stuart they shouldn’t do it, but Stuart just dismisses him. As Stuart explains to Davis, his dad has become a drunk and they have a strained relationship. In a later scene, Richard is hospitalized for an incident.

Stuart, Davis, and Pia begin filming for the documentary with Stuart’s drone and diligently work on editing the footage. One night, Janet comes into Davis’ room and sees what they’re working on. As a surprise to Davis, Janet is in full support of the documentary, telling him and Pia that people should know what happened. She’s clearly still very angry about it, offering help for the documentary. Pia and Davis take her up on it and interview her.

The trio finally enters Iain’s home in hazmat suits to look around and film, using an old tape of Janet’s to record over. They, of course, go into the secret bunker and are disturbed by the remnants of the crime scene. While driving back, Pia’s creeped out by what they saw, while Stuart tries to make light of it. The three of them start goofing around and come up with a funny jingle about Iain’s torture room. Distracted, Davis crashes into an oncoming car and they end up in the hospital. Fortunately, they only have minor injuries, but Davis is concussed, so he has to stay overnight.

Janet drives Stuart and Pia home, and while she and Pia are back at the house she offers to make them dinner. While Pia is in Davis’ room, she starts going through the footage from the day, and at the end of it, the footage cuts to what Janet had on her tape. And what’s on there is truly shocking.

It’s footage of Iain in his torture room, being recorded by Kenneth. Pia is horrified as she watches the two men record the tied-up couple who went missing. Then, in the footage, Janet walks in! She’s wearing some sort of masquerade mask and seems to be having a great time, dancing over to the couple holding a drill. She begins drilling into them before Pia is interrupted by Janet calling her for dinner. Pia quickly shuts the computer before Janet can see.

At the hospital, Richard gets out of his bed and goes to see Davis, who’s confused about what’s going on. Richard tells him he has to stop making the documentary, saying he doesn’t have proof but he knows something. The scene cuts before he makes his reveal, but at this point, we know he must be talking about Kenneth and Janet’s involvement in the murders.

While eating dinner with Janet, Pia spots the masquerade mask on the wall and becomes even more disturbed. She runs to the bathroom and tries to call Davis, but there’s no service. Panicked, she tells Janet that she needs fresh air and wants to go on a walk, leaving abruptly. Janet realizes something’s wrong, and she goes to Davis’ room and sees they have one of her old tapes.

Pia frantically tries to call Davis as she’s walking outside, but she still doesn’t have any cell service. Janet pulls up next to her in her car and asks her to get in, to which Pia fearfully runs away. Janet tries to find her but fails, and starts to freak out. Pia’s on the run as she walks through a river and takes a pretty bad fall. She hits her head and gets knocked out.

Janet returns back to her house and takes out a secret box from under her bed which contains Polaroid photos of the victims tied-up and being tortured. She gathers all of her old tapes and sets them on the kitchen table alongside the box, and then writes a note. She then heads back to her bedroom and puts on the mask before hanging herself.

The episode then cuts forward, showing Davis being interviewed. There’s now a new documentary from Streamberry called Loch Henry: Truth Will Out, which is all about what happened. Richard is also interviewed for the doc, telling the cameras that he realized something was up with Kenneth and Janet. We learn in the preview that it was actually Kenneth who killed Iain and his parents, shooting himself to make it look like he was a victim.

Davis attends the BAFTAs, where the documentary wins an award. During her speech, the filmmaker dedicates the movie to Davis and “his late girlfriend Pia,” confirming to us viewers that Pia is dead.

Black Mirror season 6 episode 2, “Loch Henry,” ending explained

Back at his hotel room, Davis gets a call from Stuart who was watching the award show at the bar. He’s extremely excited and congratulates Davis, telling him the inn has been booked for weeks because of the success of the documentary. Davis isn’t amused, however, and hangs up on him. He takes out a note from his pocket, the note Janet left before killing herself, and reveals what it says. “For your film,” she wrote.

It goes without saying that Davis’ trip back to Scotland is another traumatic, life-changing event for him. He went there wanting to make a documentary and ended up uncovering dark secrets about his family that he never would’ve imagined possible. And not only that, but he also lost his girlfriend in the process.

We don’t see what happens to Pia after she takes her fall, but we know she’s dead. Whether or not her body was ever found is up for speculation. As Davis explains to her early on in the episode, sometimes people just go missing in the Scottish town.

“Loch Henry” is a chilling look at how real-life tragedies are turned into entertainment and profit.