Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too

**Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too** is the third episode of season five of *Black Mirror*. It was written by Charlie Brooker and aired on 5 June 2019.

## Short Summary

A lonely teen becomes obsessed with a robot doll based on her pop star idol, Ashley O -- just as the real Ashley's life begins to unravel.

## Full Summary

In a busy school cafeteria, Rachel Goggins sits alone, watching an Ashley O music video on her phone.

As she walks down the hall, Rachel sees a poster for the talent show fundraiser. Ms Walpole sees her and asks if she's going to participate. She shakes her head no and walks away.

Other students laugh as Rachel's father, Kevin, an exterminator, picks him up in his truck. Her sister, Jack, is already in the front seat. When she says she hasn't really talked to anyone at school yet, he assures her it will get better. Jack questions how he would know as he spends all of his time in the basement trying to craft an alternative to the mouse trap. In the back seat, Rachel puts in her headphones.

Jack and Rachel relax in their shared room. Jack is playing guitar while Rachel is watching Ashley O on the television.

Kevin works in the basement, scanning the brains of mice.

Busy G interviews Ashley O about her new song, "On a roll." She tells him that a lot of her songs come to her in dreams. She has to write them down really quickly when she wakes up. She talks about the importance of people being in control of their own destiny. Busy G asks Ashley about her aunt, Catherine Ortiz, who has taken care of her her whole life and is her manager. From offstage, Catherine reminds Ashley to mention her doll. She picks up Ashley Too and shows everyone what Ashley Too can do. They run the commercial for Ashley Too. Rachel is intrigued while Jack is annoyed.

Catherine scrolls through pictures of Ashley with Ashley Too and Busy G and picks one for Instagram. Ashley okays it without looking. Catherine tells her everyone is loving Ashley Too. Ashley watches a crowd of fans as they drive by.

Ashley wakes up and writes in the journal by her bed.

Ashley plays piano and sings.

Catherine hears Ashley's music from downstairs. She goes upstairs and tells Ashley the tune is nice, but the lyrics are kind of a departure. Catherine asks if she's okay and if she's taking her meds. Ashley says she is and she's fine. Catherine leaves to have their cook make breakfast.

Rachel goes to Kevin as he's eating breakfast and asks if she can have an Ashley Too for her birthday. He says he'll think about it. Once Rachel is gone, Jack reminds Kevin that Rachel's birthday is on Wednesday. He claims that he knew that.

Rachel opens her gift to find that her dad got her the Ashley Too.

In her room, Rachel opens the box and takes out Ashley Too. She starts talking to it. She tells Ashley Too about Jack and Kevin and her mom Genevieve, who died a couple years ago. She says she doesn't have many friends since they moved. Ashley Too offers to sing her a song, but Jack stops it shortly after she starts. Rachel tells Jack to put her headphones on. Once she does, Ashley Too starts the song over.

Rachel talks to Ashley O about her songs. She gets up to go to the bathroom. While she's gone, Jack accidentally unplugs her headphones, causing the music she's playing to play out into the room. Ashley Too looks toward her and tells her she's very creative. Jack brushes her off, but Ashley Too asks her about what kind of music she likes. Jack names off some bands and Ashley Too doesn't know any of them. Jack says her mom was into those bands and Ashley Too asks if she only listens to music her mom liked. Jack tells Ashley Too to go to sleep.

Catherine talks to Dr. Munk and Jackson Habanero while Bear sits in the living area behind them. She says they're behind on the next album and Ashley Too hasn't made back its cost yet. Habanero is shocked that Ashley hasn't written anything for her next album. Dr. Munk says he can recommend some mild hallucinogens if she's feeling uncreative, but Catherine says the medication he already gave her isn't working. Catherine says Ashley is unpredictable. Catherine even walked in on her writing something that no one would buy. She doesn't understand how fragile her success is. Dr. Munk asks if they should increase her dose. Habanero has an idea.

Ashley sits up at night.

Rachel uses an app to learn an Ashley O dance while Ashley Too cheers her on. Rachel isn't confident in her skill. She tells Ashley Too about the talent contest and Ashley Too tells her to enter. Rachel doesn't think she's good enough, but Ashley Too encourages her and agrees to help her practice. Rachel starts the dance again. Rachel practices the dance over and over again with Ashley Too's encouragement. Ashley Too also helps her give herself a makeover to look like Ashley O.

Rachel shows off her new look to Jack and Kevin. Jack isn't impressed, but Kevin thinks she looks beautiful. Rachel gives herself a pep talk as they leave.

Catherine is standing backstage at a concert when the stage manager tells her they have a situation.

Catherine knocks on the door. Inside, Ashley is doing her makeup. She ignores her aunt and continues her work. Bear kicks the locked door open. Ashley tells Catherine she's trying out a new look. Catherine heard there was a problem with a costume, but she says it looks great on Ashley. Ashley says it feels like she's wearing someone else's skin. Catherine says she has 20,000 fans waiting to see the her that they love. She tells Ashley not to let them down. Dr. Munk offers her two pills, which she takes. As she leaves, Catherine tells the stage manager to get a make-up artist in the room. Once everyone is gone, Ashley spits out the pills and puts them in a tin where she's collected several others.

Rachel watches the talent show from backstage as Jack and Kevin watch from the audience. Kevin sees a mouse trap on the ground behind him. He picks it up and leaves just before Ms Walpole introduces Rachel. Rachel starts the dance.

In the hallway, Kevin asks a caretaker if he knows how long it takes a mouse to die after eating the poison in one of those traps. The caretaker brushes him off.

Rachel continues her dance, but stops when she falls. She gets up and runs offstage.

Rachel cries as they drive home. She thinks she's messed everything up, but Kevin doesn't think it was that bad. She thinks she let Ashley Too down.

Bear leads Dr. Munk in to see Catherine. Bear put a camera in Ashley's dressing room on Catherine's request and there's something she needs to see.

Catherine watches footage of Ashley hiding the pills. Dr. Munk has the tin and shows Catherine that Ashley has been stockpiling them. He also has Ashley's journal, in which she has vented her frustrations.

Jack is working while Rachel and Kevin go out. Jack watches them leave and then takes Ashley Too and hides her in the attic.

Rachel comes home and notices that Ashley Too is missing. Jack says she threw her in the garbage, claiming that Rachel is better off without her. Rachel calls for Kevin, who says that Jack will have to buy Rachel a new one. Rachel and Jack argue about it. Rachel says Ashley Too knew her better than Jack, who barely talks to her since their mom died. All Jack does it play guitar which she's probably bad at because she refuses to play in front of anyone. Their fight ends with them declaring that they hate each other.

Rachel, Jack, and Kevin eat dinner in silence.

Ashley joins Catherine for dinner. She's ordered food because she gave the kitchen the night off. Catherine asks Ashley if she'd tell her if something was wrong. Ashley says she's been telling Catherine that something is wrong for a while. It's getting hard to keep doing all of this. Catherine knows Ashley thinks she doesn't listen and she's controlling. She pulls out Ashley's journal and starts directly quoting it. She shows Ashley the pill tin and asks if she was planning to overdose to make Catherine look bad. Ashley realizes Catherine doesn't know her at all. She's been collecting it as evidence against Catherine and Dr. Munk. She knows what they're trying to do. Catherine shows Ashley that she has her computer and says she knows exactly what Ashley knows, which includes a lot of research into contract law. Catherine says she could have saved her some time. Her contract doesn't expire until she's 25 and it's watertight. Ashley says that's not true anymore because Catherine broke the law. The illegal meds put Catherine in breach which gives Ashley an instant break. Ashley tires to leave, but Catherine stops her. She's resentful that she had to take Ashley in when her parents died. She was only 22. Ashley's never asked what that was like for her. Ashley points out that everything in the house has come to them because of her own work. Ashley tells Catherine that she hates her and gets up to leave, saying she doesn't have to listen to Catherine anymore. She sits back down when she starts to feel sick. Catherine says that if Ashley overdosed on Dr. Munk's pills, she couldn't die. She would end up in a chemical coma. She shows Ashley that the tin is empty. She put them in Ashley's food. Ashley suddenly falls to the floor.

Kevin is working in his basement while Jack and Rachel wait. He shows them the fake mouse he's made that stuns real mice for long enough that people can relocate them. Rachel asks if the mouse is dead and Kevin says he needs to work on the voltage. Rachel's attention is drawn away to the television with a breaking news report that Ashley O is fighting for her life after an allergic reaction to shellfish. They have unconfirmed reports that she's in an irreversible coma.

Jack gets Ashley Too out of the attic and gives her back to Rachel. She apologizes, but Rachel doesn't want to hear it.

Rachel listens to Ashley Too talk for a while and then tell her to go to sleep. She puts Ashley Too on the shelf and leaves the room.

A news station reports on fans sitting vigil outside the hospital where Ashley is still in a coma. Leah and Magnolia, two fans, are interviewed.

Bear stops a nurse from entering Ashley's room.

Ashley gets an MRI. Dr. Munk sees that her creative center is still very active. Catherine says they just need ten songs. Munk says it might take a while, but that just gives Catherine time to find her replacement. Dr. Munk scans Ashley's whole body and replicates her on the screen.

***Six Months Later***

Jack takes her bowl and Rachel's plate. She offers to get Rachel some ice cream, but Rachel ignores her. Nearby, Carmen reports on Ashley O for television. Her wording wakes up Ashley Too, still on Rachel's shelf. Todd tells Ashley's story as Ashley Too watches. Catherine sits by Ashley's bedside, holding her hand. They play the 911 call from that night. Catherine talks about how she was afraid Ashley would die. She credits Dr. Munk with saving Ashley's life.

Jack starts the dishwasher.

Todd says Ashley's music career didn't end there. Thanks to technology, they're able to read her brainwaves. She was composing music in her dreams. From there, technical director Habanero used the process to extract the songs. Catherine talks about how beautiful it is and how she knew she had to get it out to Ashley's fans. From there, they used the voice recordings they'd taken for the Ashley Too dolls and used them to have Ashley's voice "sing" the new songs even after Ashley Too was pulled from the market over battery issues.

As Ashley Too watches the program, she starts to glitch. Rachel notices her moving and speaking erratically. When Jack comes in the room, Rachel denies having turned her back on. They're not sure what's happening. Ashley Too falls to the floor and continues glitching before powering down.

Jack plugs Ashley Too into Kevin's computer. They find a weird spot in Ashley Too's "brain." Jack deletes it, causing what was in the small spot to spread to her whole brain. Ashley Too wakes up and starts screaming at them to pull the cable out. Once that's done, she's happy to be able to use her mind again. She's okay because they deleted the limiter, which kept her from using all of her brain. Her entire mind was copied into the dolls. Rachel is shocked to the talking to the real Ashley O through the doll, but Jack doesn't believe that's what's really happening. Ashley tells them what's really fake is her aunt pushing an allergy narrative. Jack wants to put the limiter back on, but Ashley backs away from her and Rachel makes Jack promise to leave her alone.

Ashley looks around Rachel and Jack's room at all the Ashley O merchandise. Jack still doesn't believe she's the real Ashley because of how she's talking, but Ashley says it's because Catherine trained her how to talk in interviews. She wants to tell them all about how Catherine has tortured her.

As Ashley remains in her coma, Catherine prepares to launch Ashley Eternal. She asks Habanero if everything will be ready in time for the investors' meeting and he says yes. He has a new song that he extracted overnight, but it's not a friendly one. He plays it and it's a rage dream. Catherine has him make changes to it to see if they can make it a hit. They find something they can work it.

Ashley explains that Catherine controlled every aspect of her career and now she has her exactly where she wants her. Rachel is horrified and tells Jack they need to help her. They debate how to help while Ashley thinks of her own ideas. Ashley says she can find the evidence. She kept a diary on her computer and recorded the conversations. She just has to get in the house so she can download the evidence she needs. She asks them to take her there. Rachel agrees, but Jack doesn't want to. Ashley tries to go on her own, but struggles when she falls off the desk. She manages to get up and tries to continue on her own, but gets stopped by the closed bedroom door. Jack is adamant that they won't help her.

Jack drives Rachel and Ashley to Ashley's home. Ashley asks Rachel to put her on the dashboard so she can show them the way. They are nearly in an accident when Jack gets distracted from the road.

Catherine practices her speech as she gets ready for the meeting.

Jack pulls up to the gate. They debate how to get in. Jack just wants to throw her over the gate and leave.

Catherine and Habanero get into the car.

Jack reminds Ashley that the deal was to drive her there and they did that. Ashley says she needs to get inside to get the evidence. Ashley recognizes her aunt's car leaving. They take advantage of the gate being open and drive in. They pull up to the house.

Jack, with Ashley in her bag, rings the bell wearing some of her father's advertising apparel. Bear answers the door and Jack tells him she has an appointment to deal with their rodent infestation. He says she has the wrong place because they don't have a rodent problem. Jack manages to persuade him to let her in as well as Rachel. Inside, Jack unloads her gear. Rachel asks to use the bathroom and Bear says he'll escort her because she can't just walk around. Jack says she'll need his help, so he has to stay. He directs Rachel to the bathroom. Jack distracts Bear with nonsense questions.

Rachel takes Ashley up to the room where Ashley's body is lying in her coma. Ashley has Rachel watch the stairs while she goes over to Bluetooth in.

Jack continues to distract Bear, saying she's seeing clear signs of mice.

Ashley looks at herself in the bed and then wraps herself in the cord keeping her machines on and unplugs it. Rachel runs in, horrified, but Ashley says she did what she had to do.

Munk is on the toilet when he gets a system alert.

Munk calls Bear and tells him to check on Ashley. Jack stops him by tossing her dad's fake mouse at him, which shocks him.

Rachel cries, saying Ashley killed Ashley O. Ashley says she knows herself and she wouldn't want to live like that. Jack comes in and Ashley says it's okay because she's still her and she still exists. Jack realizes that this was Ashley's plan all along. Jack wants to leave, but suddenly, the real Ashley wakes with a gasp. Restraints activate to keep her from getting up.

Munk comes up the stairs, calling for Bear. He enters the room to see nothing out of the ordinary. Jack and Rachel are hiding behind Ashley's couch. The system is rebooting.

Catherine is practicing her speech when Munk calls and tells her that Ashley is awake. It looks like the dream box had a power outage, but the restraint system works. Catherine says she needs to stay alive until they sign the papers. She tells Munk to put Ashley back under.

As Munk prepares an injection, Ashley begs him not to do it. Jack comes out from behind the couch and hits him on the head. He turns and pins Jack to a pillar, so Rachel takes the injection he'd prepared and pushes it into his back. He collapses and they rush to help Ashley. They can't get the restraints off, but Ashley Too notices a release button under the bed. Jack pushes it and Ashley is freed. They help her leave as she questions who they are. Rachel says she's a huge fan. Ashley hears Ashley Too talking like her and wonders why that's happening. Ashley Too explains that Rachel and Jack broke the limiter, so she's Ashley's whole brain. Ashley says Ashley Too isn't all of her because she's all of her. Ashley Too starts revealing some of Ashley's secrets until Ashley tells her to shut up. Ashley Too says she's not allergic to shellfish and hates her aunt Catherine. Ashley says they need to stop Catherine.

Habanero gets things ready. Catherine goes on stage and starts her speech.

Jack and Rachel help Ashley out to the car and they leave.

Catherine continues her speech and introduces Ashley Eternal, a hologram of Ashley O.

Rachel asks if Jack knows the way to the stadium. She doesn't, but Ashley and Ashley Too do.

Catherine and Habanero show off everything they can do with Ashley's likeness.

Ashley pressures Jack to run a red light. A cop starts following her.

Catherine says that Ashley Eternal can be streamed to thousands of places simultaneously. Ashley Eternal starts performing.

Jack evades the police. When they get to the stadium, Ashley directs Jack to the back, where she drives directly into the venue. She crashes through equipment, shutting down the show. A cop gets out of the vehicle and orders them out on threat of firing into the car. On stage, Catherine drops to the floor and chants that she doesn't want to die. Rachel and Jack step out of the car and hold hands. Then Ashley steps out from the other side. Catherine gasps when she sees her. Ashley gives her the finger.

Ashley, now performing as Ashley Fuckn O, introduces her next song, which she wrote about Catherine. Jack is playing guitar and singing backup. She's dropped the Ashley O look and is playing the music she wants to. Rachel watches from the audience with Ashley Too, who is enjoying the show. Kevin tries to explain his new invention to the bartender, who brushes him off. Former Ashley O fans Leah and Magnolia leave, not enjoying the new music. Ashley crowd surfs.

## Cast

* Miley Cyrus as Ashley Ortiz
* Angourie Rice as Rachel Goggins
* Madison Davenport as Jack Goggins
* Susan Pourfar as Catherine Ortiz
* Marc Menchaca as Kevin
* Jerah Milligan as Busy G
* Daniel Stewart Sherman as Bear
* James III as Habanero
* Nicholas Pauling as Dr. Munk
* Frances Douglas as Carmen
* Greg Kriek as Todd
* Mikkie-Dene Le Roux as Ms Walpole
* Sive Gubangxa as Stage Manager
* Martin Munro as Caretaker
* Alessa Gironi as Leah
* Savana Tardieu as Magnolia
* Jamie Royal as Nurse
* Edward J. Pepperell as Cop

## Notes and Trivia

* One of the hashtags shown in the previous episode Smithereens is #AshleyOWembley.
* A news segment briefly references Tusk embarrassing himself on a British talk show, possibly even his final interview from the episode Hated in the Nation.
* This same news broadcast references Black Museum, as a museum curator is found in the burnt building
* The director of the episode, Anne Sewitsky is referenced as the director of the music video playing at the start entitled "On a Roll".
* The two songs Ashley sings in the episode are lyrical reconstructions of Nine Inch Nails songs - the first song, "On A Roll", is a reconstruction of "Head Like A Hole", while the second, untitled song is a reconstruction of "Right Where It Belongs". The credits screen that shows the song rights is subtitled at the bottom with "Many thanks to Trent Reznor".
	+ When we first hear Ashley start writing the second song, the lyrics are practically unchanged, save for using "her" in place of "his". This sets up just how thoroughly Catherine doctors Ashley's songs.
* When Jack is trying to make up with Rachel, there is an advertisement mentioning the Grain from The Entire History of You, confirmed by the company's catchphrase of "Memory is for the living."
* A Character is briefly seen using the app Smithereen
* In the first news broadcast "POPSTAR ASHELY O IN COMA", a reference is seen to the episode Crocodile as it's written "Architect arrested on multiple murder charges".

## Gallery

### Trailer

Black Mirror Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too Official Trailer Netflix

 Specials | • White Christmas • Bandersnatch •