An Uncanny Ash

In the episode of Black Mirror titled "Be Right Back" the audience follows main characters Ash and Martha as they delve into the depths of the uncanny valley, a territory in which a computer-generated robot or humanoid figure evokes feelings of creepiness or unease when it too closely resembles an actual human being. In the episode “Be Right Back,” more emphasis is placed on Ash #2, the robotic version of Martha’s deceased boyfriend; in fact Ash #1 is only alive for about the first five minutes of the episode. The irony throughout this situation is that the real flesh and blood Ash is more robotic than the robot Ash, as he is quite distant and pretty much glued to his phone for the time that he is alive; he also gives automatic answers without being fully aware of what Martha is saying to him or asking him; for instance, when Martha asks him if he wouldn’t mind drinking his tea out of a shoe, Ash #1 responds with a distracted “yes.” The humanoid Ash, on the other hand, is much more engaged with Martha. Though Martha is able to actually hold an on-going conversation with the humanoid Ash, she finds his attentiveness to be quiet odd and is even a bit disturbed by it at first. There are several points in the episode where Martha lashes out at the robotic Ash for this very reason; he pays too much attention to what she wants and ends up just following orders, instead of acting of his own volition. At that point in the relationship Martha is clinging so tightly to memories of her actual boyfriend that she tries to turn Ash #2 into a manifestation of those memories. Her efforts are greeted with dismay as Martha slowly realizes that the original Ash that she is longing for is long gone, and that the Ash that she is left with is merely a conglomeration of Ash’s online self. Ash #2 is not enough of the original Ash to satisfy Martha. She does not want a perfect Ash, who does what she says all the time or the “best” version of Ash presented through social media; instead she craves actual human interaction and wants the good qualities with the bad. Attentiveness is the one quality that Martha would have appreciated with the human Ash, but ends up resenting with the humanoid Ash. It is this resentment that causes Martha to confine Ash #2 to the attic, following the pattern highlighted in the beginning of the episode in which Ash’s mother packed up all the photos of her deceased family and kept them in the attic.

One thing that I found interesting in this episode of Black Mirror is Ash #1’s obsession with social media and technology. While Ash #1 buries himself in his phone, Martha is very observant, and actually interacts with other people and things around her. However when Ash #1 dies and a robotic version of him is born, the deceased’s obsession with technology is transferred to Martha. She begins to isolate herself and begins spending every waking moment of her time with a robot version of her dead boyfriend. In the beginning of the episode, before the original Ash is pronounced dead, Martha calls her sister because she wants to and is looking for comfort and reassurance that Ash is okay, whereas after Ash’s funeral Martha is pretty much forced to spend quality time with her sister, who makes an unexpected visit at Martha’s house. There is one scene in which Martha actually cries because she has gotten so attached to this robotic version of a man she once loved; she even says to the robotic Ash that she dropped him and was afraid that she might have lost him, when in reality it was her phone that was damaged, not an actual person.

I think that this episode also highlights the manipulation of people  for personal gain. I mean this in two ways. The first focuses on the company's manipulation of Martha's feelings to get more money. Since the nameless company is able to get Martha to participate in the first step of this bereavement program, taking her relationship with this this humanoid Ash to the next level is a lot easier, as she grows desperate for more of her deceased lover. Another form of manipulation comes from Martha, though it is more subtle and its effects are limited. Whenever Ash #2 is confused about a part of their conversation (example: "throwing a jeb") Martha simply clues Ash #2 in on what she is referring to, causing the humanoid to alter his behaviour or vocabulary according to what she says. But like I said, this has limited effects, because there are some parts of the episode in which Martha gets angry at Ash #2 for following her orders, and tells him that the original Ash would've reacted differently, though she was not completely sure what Ash #1 would have done. 

My overall opinion of this episode is focused on the actual grieving process. I really think that the idea of sort of bringing back to life a deceased loved one is not healthy. Instead of following the traditional stages of grief – denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance – Martha gets stuck in a weird stage of anger and bargaining in which she first gets angry about this advanced bereavement program, but then succumbs to it and tries to replace an actual human being with a robot. It is not until the very end of the episode that Martha surrenders to the fact that her Ash is dead and that this robotic version of him is somewhat of an imposter.