The Uncanny Valley in Black Mirror

Black Mirror’s “Be Right Back” perfectly demonstrates Masahiro Mori’s theory of the uncanny valley. Throughout the episode, we see Martha’s feelings for Ash 2 travel up the graph and then rapidly decline towards the end. After the death of Ash 1, one of Martha’s friend, Naomi, suggest trying a new service that allows people to stay in touch with the deceased. The service collects everything Ash 1 has ever posted on social media, sends it to their database, and creates a virtual form, Ash 2. At first, she is reluctant to the idea. However, when she discovers that she is pregnant, she feels alone and wants to go the person who she has always confide on, Ash 1. Therefore, she desperately decides to accept the service.

The first step of the service is instant messaging. This is where Martha’s feeling incline in the graph. When they begin to text, she becomes so ecstatic because Ash 2 is replying how Ash 1 would have replied. He is just as sarcastic. Then the second step is phone calling. She uploads pictures and videos of Ash 1 to the database, so that they can get Ash 2 to mimic the voice of Ash 1 over the phone. Her feelings for Ash 1 increase even more at this point. Over the following weeks, Martha talks only to Ash 2 almost non-stop and keeps him updated on the pregnancy. She loses in touch with the outside world and her friends, especially with Sara who is constantly worrying about how she is dealing with the death of Ash 1. Martha even takes phone Ash 2 with her to the cliff where Ash 1 took her for a date. An important scene in the episode is when Martha is leaving the obstetric clinic, and she accidently drops her phone on the floor which causes her to temporarily lose contact with Ash 2. She panics and frantically drives home to save the damaged phone which contains Ash 2. When the phone is fully charged and fixed, she immediately calls Ash 2 and apologizes for “breaking” him. This scene reveals how attached and obsessed she has become with Ash 2. In a way, she felt like she had lost Ash 1 all over again.

The third and final step is the experimental phase of the service. Ash 2 tells Martha that there is a way that he can be with her physically. The service can upload him to a synthetic body that will look exactly similar to Ash 1. She accepts the offer; however, this is where her feelings toward Ash 2 drastically decline. From the moment that android Ash 2 is activated, Martha feels uncomfortable and struggles to accept its being. Despite it satisfying her sexually, she quickly becomes frustrated with it and begins to despise it because he constantly does whatever she says without question, lacks its own authentic emotions, and misses character traits of Ash 1. Martha learns at the end that Ash 2 is not Ash 1, but something else.