| "Be Right Back" | |
|---|---|
| Black Mirror episode | |
 Martha (Hayley Atwell, right) interacts with a synthetic re-creation of her deceased boyfriend Ash (Domhnall Gleeson). | |
| Episode no. | Series 2 Episode 1 |
| Directed by | Owen Harris |
| Written by | Charlie Brooker |
| Original air date | 11 February 2013 |
| Running time | 49 minutes |
| Guest appearances | |
| |
"Be Right Back" is the first episode of the second series of British science fiction anthology series Black Mirror. It was written by series creator and showrunner Charlie Brooker, directed by Owen Harris, and first aired on Channel 4 on 11 February 2013.
The episode tells the story of Martha (Hayley Atwell), a young woman whose boyfriend Ash Starmer (Domhnall Gleeson) is killed in a car accident. As she mourns him, she discovers that technology now allows her to communicate with an artificial intelligence imitating Ash, and reluctantly decides to try it. "Be Right Back" had two sources of inspiration: the question of whether to delete a dead friend's phone number from one's contacts and the idea that Twitter posts could be made by software mimicking dead people.
"Be Right Back" explores the theme of grief and tells a melancholy story similar to the previous episode, "The Entire History of You". The episode received highly positive reviews, especially for the performances of Atwell and Gleeson. Some hailed it as the best episode of Black Mirror, though the ending divided critics. Several real-life artificial intelligence products have been compared to the one shown in the episode, including a Luka chatbot based on the creator's dead friend and a planned Amazon Alexa feature designed to imitate dead loved ones.