822: Lez-ssentials Hotel Reverie

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Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that is “back in black-and-white”. 

This week, Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out to talk about the 2025 Black Mirror episode: Hotel Reverie, for this Lez-ssentials episode, a recurring segment on the essential movies and TV shows in the lesbian canon. 

Hotel Reverie stars Issa Rae, Emma Corrin, and Awkwafina in a bittersweet sapphic story that centers around a sci-fi style high-tech simulation of an old 1940’s classic film, “Hotel Reverie”. The premise is that Hollywood A-lister Brandy Friday (Issa Rae) will be playing the lead role of Dr. Alex Palmer (in spite of the original actor being a white man) in the remake; and to do so, she will be sent inside a fully immersive simulation of the film complete with “people” who think they are real, but are they? 

Of course as soon as Brandy enters the simulation, she begins to fall for Clara, Dr. Palmer’s love interest in the original. Initially, Clara sticks to the script, but as the movie progresses, she begins to completely break the plot with her uncontainable gayness. The explanation is that the actor who played Clara, Dorothy Chambers, put so much of herself into the performance that “echoes” of Dorothy exist now in the simulated version of Clara. With the influence of Dorothy’s memories and a growing attraction to Brandy, Clara begins to be more and more openly gay and that is actually bad for Brandy– if she doesn’t manage to stick the landing and say the final line of the movie, she could be trapped forever in Hotel Reverie. Plus there’s that sticky little feature that if Brandy were to be killed in the simulation, she would die in real life. But for all the danger, Brandy cares about only one thing, Clara, their love, and the little simulated life they build while the movie is “frozen”. 

We talk about the unavoidable comparisons to San Junipero, the many, many glaring plot holes throughout the episode, and the implications of Black Mirror consistently burying their gays and also only allowing gay characters to exist in simulations, video games, computers, etc. Additionally, we discuss the unsatisfying ending and why it didn’t feel as resolved or happy as it did for our lesbians in San Junipero. 

At the end of the episode, stick around to hear our original song based on Hotel Reverie, titled “A Time You Don’t Remember”, written by Leigh Holmes Foster and produced by Ellie Brigida. Join us on Patreon at bit.ly/lezpatreon for instant access to mp3 downloads of all our original songs or find us on Bandcamp to purchase songs individually. 

Remember, you can give us your own answers to our Q & Gay on Instagram and follow along on Facebook, TikTok, Youtube and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. Find your fav tol and smol hosts Ellie & Leigh at @elliebrigida and @lshfoster.

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