Plots Flashcards
San Junipero
n 1987, a shy woman, Yorkie (Mackenzie Davis), visits the nightclub Tucker’s in San Junipero. Kelly (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), a vivacious party girl, rebuffs the advances of Wes (Gavin Stenhouse) to talk to Yorkie. Kelly and Yorkie dance, but Yorkie becomes uncomfortable and leaves the club. Kelly follows and sexually propositions Yorkie, who declines, saying she is engaged. The following week, Yorkie returns to the bar and observes Kelly flirting with another man. Yorkie and Kelly reunite in the bathroom and have sex at Kelly’s beach house. Yorkie confesses that it was her first time having sex, and Kelly reveals that she was once married.
The next week, Yorkie visits another nightclub, the Quagmire, looking for Kelly. Wes advises her to “try a different time”. Yorkie visits Tucker’s in a few different decades until she finds Kelly in 2002, but Kelly rejects her. After Yorkie leaves, Kelly follows and confesses she is dying; Kelly had avoided Yorkie because she feared developing feelings for her. The two have sex again, and Yorkie reluctantly tells Kelly she lives in Santa Rosa, California, so they can meet.
San Junipero is revealed to be a simulated reality where the deceased can live and the elderly can visit, all inhabiting their younger selves’ bodies in a time of their choice. In the physical world, the elderly Kelly (Denise Burse) visits Yorkie (Annabel Davis). She learns from Yorkie’s nurse, Greg (Raymond McAnally), that Yorkie was paralysed at age 21 after crashing her car when her parents reacted poorly to her coming out. Yorkie wishes to be euthanised to live in San Junipero permanently, but her family objects; she intends to marry Greg so that he can consent for her. Kelly offers to marry Yorkie instead, and after she enthusiastically accepts, Kelly authorises Yorkie’s euthanasia.
During Kelly’s next visit to San Junipero, Yorkie asks her to stay full-time. Kelly says she plans to die without being uploaded to the simulation; her husband chose the same fate because their daughter died before San Junipero existed. Yorkie and Kelly argue, and Kelly leaves in her car, which she intentionally crashes. Yorkie catches up to her just as Kelly disappears, her visiting time over for the week.
Time passes, and Kelly decides she is ready to enter San Junipero permanently. She is euthanised and buried alongside her family, and she happily reunites with Yorkie in San Junipero.
