Summary: Matt and Joe are in a house of sorts where they have worked for 5 years. Joe has hardly talked and Matt wants him to talk. Matt reveals his past and how he provided a service to a boy named Harry to help coach him to be more romantic. Matt guides Harry but witnesses the girl harry going after murdering him and committing suicide. He tells another story about his day job where he creates copies of people called cookies which do work for them using technology. Joe opens up and reveals that he had a girlfriend who he loved. She got pregnant and they had a fight which resulted in Joe being "blocked". Beth eventually dies but her child survives. Joe goes to visit and discovers Beth had an affair. He kills Beth's dad and causes the death of the child. It's revealed that Matt was sent to get a confession from Joe's cookie, and that he was arrested for not reporting a murder. Both men are given cruel fates.
The Good: This was a busy episode, but like almost all Black Mirror episodes, it had phenomenal writing and extremely powerful moments which left me awestruck by the end of the episode. This episode was essentially divided into three stories, so I'll start with the first (Matt and Harry). Matt's job of offering Harry romantic advice was very creative and led to a lot of funny moments which kept things light early on. I enjoyed the portrayal of Harry and the creepiness of the idea of Matt watching his every move. Of course things got weird really suddenly which led to the shock of Harry's death. The scenes leading up to that were written very well, getting the most out of the brutal twist that Jennifer was suicidal, hence her silence. I love the way that the scenes were written to have Harry's conversation accidentally convince Jennifer to commit suicide and also kill him with her. There was a really uncomfortable tension through these scenes and I think it paid off very well. The second part of the episode was focused on introducing us to cookies. I thought this part didn't have much of a story to get us interested in, but essentially just served to bring us up to speed on a complex piece of technology which would become important later on. The scenes weren't great but they were definitely passable and necessary, considering the twist later on. I love the concept of cookies and I think it was a creative take on how far people would be willing to go with technology to make their lives easier. While the first 2 parts were fine, it was the third part, the longest part, which had the main climax and impact of the episode. Joe's tragic story is really painful to watch, made worse because he seems like such a good person who was thrust into an awful situation and made mistakes. Pretty similar to some of the other main characters on this show. The story of Joe and Beth was tragic at first glance as Beth seemingly ditched Joe for no real reason and was completely indecent to him. I was ready to put Beth's huge overreaction into The Bad, but the twist later on made Beth's decision to cut out Joe more understandable, though it does make her character much more detestable. The sad part of this episode wasn't so much what happened, but it was how Joe reacted. He couldn't let go of Beth, he had nothing to move on to and was just stuck trying to get some of the happiness he lost and also see his daughter. It's easy to empathize with somebody who just holds on to their past life, and this episode uses this fact brilliantly, ensuring that we relate with Joe in every step of his story. Then of course there is the episode's big twist that Joe's daughter isn't actually his. That twist was so powerful and I'm glad to say that I didn't predict it since I had expected the show to go a different route. The impactful realization that Joe essentially spent the past 6 years of his life longing for something which didn't exist hits hard, and it's easy to understand how Joe's entire world completely fell apart around him. Then in typical Black Mirror fashion, Joe flies off the rails and that results in the death of two innocent people, which is revealed in painful fashion and leads to Joe suffering even more as he feels absurd amounts of guilt over what he just did. While Joe's story is easily the most cathartic bit in the episode, it isn't really the primary focus of the episode. Instead, the primary focus is once more about technology and how it destroys people. This time the piece of technology which is used in this case is "blocking". Of course we all know what blocking is in terms of social media and texting, but in this episode we get to see what blocking is like in real life and how it actually worsens problems instead of fixing them. Had Beth just told Joe what happened, it seems likely that this awful chain of events wouldn't have happened, and furthermore Joe's life wouldn't have been spent chasing after a shadow in total pain. The fate of both the main characters is pretty brutal too, creating the message that when technology can be used to do anything, we will lose every ounce of mercy and understanding. Matt and Joe committed crimes, but they weren't exactly the worst crimes in the world. Compared to what Victoria did in "White Bear", these were pretty tame, and yet both men suffered a fate worse than what happened to Victoria. Joe is forced to spend an eternity doing absolutely nothing and Matt is forced to live out the rest of his days without interacting to anybody else ever. Cruel and painful stuff. The Bad: The "legal block" seemed ridiculous to me. Surely there would be a trial about that and it would be treated like a restraining order. Instead it seems that a block can just be legalized immediately which is really poor and I can't imagine that happening to this world. Cookie Joe not remembering his life in the snow globe was inconsistent. How did they make Joe forget that he was a cookie and how did they transfer the cookie without raising any questions? Furthermore, how did they seemingly control his memories? These things need to be explained. The fates of Matt and Joe both feel way too cruel. I understand that it's the point of the episode, but I had great difficulty buying into the idea that they would just be allowed to have such a terrible fate. This show does a really poor job portraying women. Once more the women character is utterly detestable and is cheating. I would like to see some more likeable women on this show, as this is the second example in just 7 episodes where a women has cheated. I found this episode to be very similar to "The Entire History of You" with Joe's story. Joe not being able to let go mirrored Liam's paranoia, the child twist was very similar, and of course both characters' fates being away from their loved ones was also similar. I would have liked some more creativity to make this episode feel more original. The Unknown: What was the sound Joe heard in the snow globe? There is likely an answer to this which was written in expertly, but I couldn't figure it out. How did Greta's cookie not remember that Greta wanted to buy it? The memory thing is really inconsistent. I noticed a lot of references to previous episodes of the show (The Hot Shots program, the song from "Fifteen Million Merits", the White Bear symbol, etc.) so could that mean this is meant to be a sort of connected universe? That could be exciting to explore. Best Moment: Joe's confession was the most powerful bit of the episode. It's so hard to not feel bad for him. Character of the Episode: Joe. Conclusion: This was yet another expertly written and brutally affecting episode of Black Mirror. This show continues to impress, though there were some holes in this one which lowered its score. Still, season 2 ended with another masterpiece. I think season 2 (minus "The Waldo Moment") was actually better than season 1. The writing was improved by a lot and the episodes affected me even more than the ones from season 1. The only flaw was "The Waldo Moment". If you remove that episode, this season's score would be so much higher. Either way, I'm excited to watch the next season because this episode made one thing clear: "The Waldo Moment" was just a fluke. Score: 74
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
February 2024
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