Stefan’s story is heavily connected to the Bandersnatch fairytale (Pictures: Wikipedia/Netflix)

Trust Charlie Brooker to have a number of throwbacks not only within his own world, but also within its source material and inspirations, which with Bandersnatch in particular, frames major parts of the story.

The character Bandersnatch originates from Lewis Carroll’s 1872 book Through the Looking Glass, which is part of the Alice in Wonderland world.

As a result, there are numerous nods to the characters the author created, beyond that of the weird monster which is found beyond the looking glass in the fairy tale.

Keeping an eye for them all it quite the trip. Here’s just some of them.




***Warning: Contains spoilers for Bandersnatch***

The Bandersnatch (right)is a creature found through the looking glass of the children’s book (Picture: Wikipedia)

Down the Rabbit Hole

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland begins with her following a rabbit down his rabbit hole and into the world beyond.

This happens in many ways with Stefan, most literally when he decides to chase past by heading back to his rabbit as a five-year-old, when losing altered the course of his future forever.

He’s later referred to being ‘down the hole’ by Colin Rickman as the Bandersnatch game begins to take over his life.

Colin then gives him stimulating drugs in order to snap him out of it – similar to the trips that Alice finds herself on during her own adventures.

Kitty bears a striking resemblance to the Mad Hatter (Picture: Netflix)

Kitty and Colin: The Mad Hatter

In the story, The Mad Hatter is a useful source of information but can oftentimes be unreliable with their skittish nature and their ability to drift into fantasy.

Noone does this more than Colin, who has knowledge useful to Stefan for the computer world, but a unique perspective on the world around him.

If that was a little too subtle to be noticed, Colin’s significant other, Kitty, looks the spitting image of what we know as the Mad Hatter – complete with frazzled ginger hair and unique dress sense.

Between the two of them, they set Stefan off on a dangerous adventure involving LSD or jumping off balconies to head into an alternate timeline.

Stefan was seen becoming his younger self in a big to save his mum in the past (Picture: Netflix)

Through the Looking Glass

During his sessions with Dr Haynes, Stefan reveals that he has a large amount of resentment towards his dad, and blames him for his mother’s death.

This all came to be after he hid Stefan’s stuffed bunny as a kid, causing his mum to be late to work as she tried to find it for him. As a result, she was on a train that derailed.

During one of his timelines, he decides to go back, find the rabbit and return it to his child self, which in theory should prevent his mum’s death.

He does this by going through a mirror – or through the looking glass, as it were.

The Pax

The Pax is an animal that haunts everyone who has previously attempted to create the choose your own adventure Bandersnatch game.

Stefan repeatedly draws it, and it’s made even more creepy by the sudden appearance of it in a documentary of Jerome F Davies – the man who was driven mad by writing the book.



However, if the drawings are anything to go by in the episode, it’s actually shockingly similar to the actual drawing of the Bandersnatch created by Carroll over a century ago.

And, knowing Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones, that is no coincidence at all.

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Black Mirror’s Bandersnatch is the most complicated episode of the series so far, bringing viewers further into its twisted dystopia in a choose-your-own-adventure style game.

As a result, there are all sorts of bits and pieces waiting to be found that’s been embedded by Charlie Brooker and the team. Including some major throwbacks to previous episodes, and finally an explanation behind what the White Bear symbol means.

Black Mirror’s Bandersnatch is available now on Netflix.

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