Episode premise: Robert Daly is the chief technical officer for a company that creates a popular virtual reality video game; he feels resentful towards the company’s CEO, James Walton. When he goes home for the day, he plugs into a modified version of the videogame that contains real, conscious clones of his coworkers created using their DNA. In this version of the game, Daly is omnipotent and forces the in-game versions of his coworkers, including the protagonist Nanette, to follow his orders and complete missions inside the ship U.S.S. Callister. He physically, mentally, and emotionally abuses them in endless ways – forever turning one into a sea monster, force-choking them, murdering one’s son in cold blood, and sexually assaulting them, for example. When Nanette attempts to revolt against Daly, there will be chaos on the U.S.S. Callister…
Top left: Before it’s revealed that Daly is a tyrannical captain, Daly commands Walton not to complain and worry about his leadership. In other words, he tells Walton to manage his emotions–replacing fear with calm and confidence. While this emotion management seems innocuous enough–and necessary for the functioning of the ship–we later understand it as an integral component of Daly’s abuses. He forces those on the ship to manage their emotions… or else suffer the consequences.
Top right: A socioemotional exchange occurs when Walton apologizes to Daly for his hesitation (in the top left picture). His apology is profuse and excessive – he falls on one knee. Daly accepts. In this successful gratitude exchange, Walton boosted Daly’s ego in exchange for what appeared to be Daly’s sympathy. In reality, he only assured his own physical safety and avoided a brutal punishment. At this point, Walton has some of his sympathy margin remaining – he could afford the mistake this one time.
2nd row left: Captain Daly chokes and berates Walton as a sort of revenge after real-life Walton yelled at him. He forces Walton to admit he’s pathetic. Walton has exhausted his sympathy margin, and Daly will make him suffer over and over again every time he resists or makes a “bad” decision.
2nd row right: When Nanette appears on the ship, Captain Daly demonstrates his abusive behavior to her in order to keep her from resisting. He commands her to “let herself get into” her role within the ship rather than resisting. In a sense, he asks her to carry out emotional labor. Only by suppressing her desire to resist can she survive his outrage. Instead of receiving compensation for their emotional labor, the crew of the U.S.S. Callister only receive survival from Captain Daly.
3rd row left: After Nanette continues to resist, Captain Daly holds up his hand and turns her face into a featureless bump – she can’t breathe or see. This is an example of a misgiving. Daly expects total submission from Nanette, and he feels slighted when she fails to give him that. In response, he exerts his power to hurt her. When she finally submits, he’s received his socioemotional compensation, so he moves on with the scene.
3rd row right: Valdack, Daly’s in-game nemesis, begs Daly to kill him after losing a battle. He implicitly argues that he deserves sympathy more than others would. He’s “been a good adversary” and played the game as Daly wanted, and therefore, his sympathy margin is greater than those who constantly resist Daly. Daly denies Valdack’s request and lets him live.
4rd row left: Shania attempts to intervene, begging for Daly to exercise his sympathy on Nanette’s behalf and “let her off.” But now, Shania is the one with zero sympathy credit remaining; Daly transforms her into a hideous monster. This is the punishment for her failing to continue with the emotional labor of playing along with the video game universe Daly created for himself.
4th row right: After achieving a video game victory, Captain Daly literally assaults and forcibly kisses Nanette while the rest of the crew chants “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow.” After she pushes him away, he warns her not to try resisting again in the most harrowing example of a sympathy margin in the whole episode. His “mercy” today will turn into brute force tomorrow, once his sympathy margin for Nanette is exhausted once again.
5th row left: Daly, in his tiny ship, is struggling to catch the U.S.S. Callister as they escape into a wormhole. He promises “biblical” punishment, but the crew ignore him. Their sympathy margins had already been exhausted scenes ago–the full extent of his brutality already unleashed. As a result, these new threats meant nothing, because Daly had nowhere worse to go.
5th row right: Walton fixes the U.S.S. Callister’s engine, sacrificing himself both to save the crew and to strand Daly in everlasting nothingness. In his final message to Daly, he seemingly apologizes for treating Daly badly in the real world. In other words, he had sympathy for real-life Daly at one point. But then, Captain Daly brutally murdered an in-game version of Walton’s son, and Walton lost all sympathy toward Daly.
*apologies for the low image quality! Netflix doesn’t allow screenshots, so I had to take pictures of my computer with my phone to get the images.