Black Mirror (Channel 4, Netflix) TV Show • Page 24

The twist was that they were pedophiles being tracked in an attempt to trap and pit them against one another in a vigilante “to catch a predator” type of show. Pretty awesome twist if you ask me

 

nah and see this is exactly why the reaction to that episode confuses me. were none of you paying attention while watching it? only two of them were pedophiles; the main character and the guy he had to fight at the end. that's why they were the two people who were chosen for the fight. all of the other characters were, idk, adulterers and shit (haven't watched the ep since it came out)

for the entire episode the troll face guy was telling all of these people that he wouldn't reveal their secrets if they played along with his game, and then once they finished playing he did it anyway. that's what the twist was. that all of these characters were trying to run from who they are (shitty, shitty people) but it caught up with them

and that's what my take away from the episode was; that, no matter how much you try to run or hide from it, if you're a shitty person your shitiness will catch up with you in the end

 

A trick, at least in this context, its an intentional deception. They cut away, with the strong implication that the guy is gonna jack it to porn and it would be unnecessary to actually show it. But we all know what happened. Except we didn't. They deceived us and later revealed he was doing something else and what we thought was just a poor kid running scared from society's sex-negative culture is actually just a shitty person.

 

i mean there were like two or three other heavy handed hints throughout the episode that made it incredibly obvious what was going on, but sure

 

really? I didn't see anything until the end. kid just seemed (understandably) scared a video of him jacking it would get revealed

Also if I recall correctly, it showed him opening the video and seeing it was of himself in his room. There was no indication of what was on the computer screen, so just sharing the video no one would have been able to know exactly what he was watching.

 

I only recall the one hint in the beginning when he gives the toy back to the little girl, which is creepy af btw in retrospect

 

ya, that's the point. it's meant to be creepy. he's a pedophile.

there was also a conversation he had while driving in the car about the websites he was on

also just how he acted in general (though that's less on the nose.)

right, that's why the troll face guy also called the police to get his computer seizeed because the video alone would just be public humiliation and nothing more

 

sure. but in the scenario that the guy is just a kid looking at porn, his ultimate fear would just be the video going out.

in the scenario that the guy is a pedo, his ultimate fear would be the police get the computer.

the way he was threatened, and how he acted during the episode, seemed more in line with the fear of just having the video getting out. Yeah, he was cagey and nervous talking about it in the car. But that is in line with a the behavior of a closed off kid not comfortable talking about sex or masturbation

 

i..don't think most normal kids would rob a bank or commit murder or whatever just because they were uncomfortable talking about sex. i feel like they gave enough clues throughout the episode about what was happening, but given the amount of people who don't seem to "get" the episode..maybe they didn't

 

The kid was nervous and in a state of panic. He clearly had second thoughts about robbing the bank, but the other guy was able to use the kid's fear to manipulate him into robbing the bank.

 

would you rob a bank to stop a video of you jacking off being published online? i wouldn't (well, i mean, robbing a bank is cool as shit, but still)

 

Best part of the episode was the use of “Exit Music (for a Film).”

 

probably, but even then, we reached saturation of that song in media like five years ago lol

 

In a clear state of head, no I wouldn't.

But in the heat of the moment, with this other guy pressuring me into do it filling my head with stories about what my mom would think... how others would react... reminding me that no one would know I was the one who did it... plus who knows how he'll response if I don't do it and also I had already gone this far...

whereas if the guy's a pedo, he probably robs the bank right from the start

 

and that's why i thought the ep was so great. nothing he did in the end mattered. he couldn't run from his own shittiness.

 

If the point of the episdoe was running from his own shittiness, do you think the episode would've been just as good if they had revealed he was a pedo from the start?

I personally feel like a message about just how far the combination of society's sex negative culture, a kid's panic and fear, the manipulation of another man, and the detachment of "I was just following instructions" can push someone would've made for a much more interesting story than "you can't run from your own shittiness"

 

i mean even though they didn't specifically state that he was a pedo from the start, they hinted at it in one of the very first scenes. which, ya, i feel like that made the episode as good as it was

really? i don't

 

I should watch the opening bit again to be sure, but I really feel like any implications that the kid was a pedo were far too subtle to reasonably expect the audience to pick up on

 

huh. The first (and only) time I watched that episode I totally thought he was just casually jerking off and thought he was just too embarrassed to let anyone know. I didn't figure out until the end that it was more than that. My wife picked up on it rather quickly.

 

In a similar vein of being tricked, what did the people who hate shut up and dance think about white bear then?

 

my thought is that one episode doesn’t make you try to feel sympathetic for a pedophile and the other does.

 

my thought is that neither episode makes you try to feel sympathetic for a pedophile

 

if you were sympathizing with that kid after you start to piece together why those people are targeted then i dont even know what to tell you. that episode gives way more context clues that those people are bad people than white bear does sooo....

 

I was about to come here and say this.

Like, even if SUAD tries making you sympathize with the main character, it was before the reveal anyway so who gives a flying shit. Turning that sympathy on its head was one of the points of the episode I felt. Sympathy is not, nor supposed to be, irrevocable; your opinion of someone ought to change with the advent of new information.

 

The whole fucking point of White Bear is questioning if the punishment actually fits the crime and if the person we saw in the story is even the really same "person" as the one who committed the crime. The twist is as much a twist to the protagonist as it is to the audience. The fact that it gets you to sympathize with her is a good thing.