Black mirror

Season 2, Episode 2 - White bear

 

Year of release : 2013

 

Run time : 42min

 

Genre : Sci Fi / Drama / Mystery / Tv Series / Mini Series

 

 

A woman with no memory of who she is, wakes up in the morning on a chair, with a headache and a bunch of pills laying on the floor in front of her.

 

The tv emits a signal with a weird symbol, and she can't recognize anything, not even her face.

 

Going outside, she sees people staring at her, filming her or taking pictures, as if they are crazy.

 

She finally meets a woman and a man who are willing to help, who explain to her the tv emitted that signal and turned everyone into zombies who just film everything, and the ones who aren't like that, are very violent, psychopaths.

 

The woman who doesn't know who she is keeps on remembering flashes of a little girl she has the picture of, thinking she is her daughter.

 

The woman helping her,Jem, tells her they need to go to the tower to turn off the signal.

 

This is one of my favorite episodes of the series, and I loved how the leading actress,who's character lost her memory acts. She's very good, very credible, always scared, anxious. In opposition to Jem, who seems to try to keep a straight face.

 

MAJOR SPOILERS FROM HERE ON

The reveal at the end, to me was too much, as I understand what she's done, but does the punishment fit the crime? The people doing this to her,for God knows how long, are no better than her, they are probably worse, doing those atrocious things to her, enjoying putting her through hell and making money out of her misery.

If they wanted to teach her a lesson, maybe do that to her once,but without erasing her memory. Memory erased, she has no idea what she's done and why this is happening to her, not to mention, in Tabula Rasa, people tend to be good, and change for the better (or at least that's what I've seen in movies like Heroes( tv series,it happens to Sylar,a serial killer), Unknown (2011 Liam Neeson movie in which he finds out he's the master of a terrorist organization,but he's also the one to stop their plot, that he concocted! ), Overboard ( comedy with Anna Faris,in which the rich, old, spoiled,son of a billionaire  who never did anything in his life for others and for work, becomes a good man once memory erased),and so on ),so maybe just let her redeem herself.

 

I just found torturing her daily was cruel ( the memory erase process happened every night for half an hour while she screamed in agony), and even the character said it, they could have just killed her,than to torture her daily like that.

 

To me it felt what they did to her was even worse than her crime MAJOR SPOILER filming her fiance killing someone. It felt like they were punishing her for her fiance's crime( who killed himself in jail,probably thinking of what they were about to do to him).Also, the logo she keeps on seeing on tv,that was her fiance's tattoo. Maybe she didn't do anything to help the victim, and just filmed it, but that doesn't make her the killer!

 

Maybe some would think this is poetic justice, as people film her while ignoring her pleas for help, just like she probably did with the victim, but that still doesn't make them better than her, but worse!

They say she was wicked for reveling in the victim's sufferance, but that's what the spectators at the park do to the lead! Not to mention, whenever we see her in the past, she looks sad, not happy for the victim's pain!

 

Also, when does the lead eat, drink, bathe, etc, since they do this to her daily, for God knows how long! She must stink ! Not to mention ,that treated like this, in this environment, she should be exhausted, hungry,emaciated, etc! Dead.

 

Due to what they say she said in trial, that she was under her fiance's spell,maybe that was correct,as we see her always being passive, doing what she's told,being too scared to take action. She finally takes action at the end, trying to save her friend, but that growth is stopped right away by the park, to reveal what's going on. So the character had the possibility to change ,and help those in need.

Also, just like she was under her fiance's spell, that's how the people at the park are under the media's spell, thinking they could do this to a human being for anything she might have done to others.

 

Jem, I'm guessing comes from Jemima, the name of the victim.

 

I have to admit, I sided with her, I felt sorry for her, and hated the ones at the theme park who did this to her, and the guests who filmed her smiling,like lunatics. Pain is pain, no matter who goes through it.

Maybe I would have felt different if they actually showed her harming the victim, laughing at her pain.

 

Black Mirror streams on Netflix.

 

Rating : It's so money !