Be Right Back

  The Uncanny Valley deals with parallel factors involving the livelihood of humans and robots. It prompts a multitude of questions such as, what makes a human a human? Can a robot that physically appears to be human be subjected to normal living standards? When is it too much? These questions have become controversial due to the innovative composition of robots. In the episode, “Be Right Back,” these question become a reality for Martha.
  After the death of her boyfriend, Martha struggled with accepting the fact that Ash was no longer with her. It became increasingly difficult when she found out about her pregnancy. With encouragement from her friend, Martha began confiding in an online service that would allow her to speak with “Ash”. This was accomplished by the service retrieving material from Ash’s virtual world, such as emails and social media and mimicking his behavior. Martha showed signs of grieving unhealthily after she dropped her phone while speaking to Ash which caused her to have an emotional breakdown. This lead her to purchase a robot that mimics the Ash that was shown through social media. This is evident when Martha finally sees him and tells the robot that he looks like Ash on a good day. That is because people are more likely to post their more flattering pictures.
  The robot Ash seemed human enough until Martha told him that Ash originally had a mole on his collarbone. The robot was able to produce one at that very moment. Despite his physical appearance, it was obvious during his sexual performance that he was not human. He was unable to initially process that he in a sexual situation until she told him. Then, he was able to perform because he was installed with pornographic material. Ash had the capability to blink and breathe even though it was not necessary, but he did at the request of Martha. Another doubt of his humanity, was after upsetting Martha he didn’t know how to interpret her anger or the words that Ash would say in such a position. At that moment, she yelled that he wasn’t enough of Ash. After he was told to leave, he was only to be found outside by Martha because he was unable to leave his activation point without her.
  The pivotal point of the episode to me is when Martha tells Ash to jump off a cliff. The only reason he doesn’t do it is because he was not programmed to have suicidal thoughts/actions. He didn’t choose not jump out of fear like a normal person would. After she tells him that Ash would be scared and would beg her not to do, he begins to mimic this by crying and begging her to stop. This causes a conflict with her emotions and it makes you wonder if it would be immoral to kill a robot. In the end,

Martha comprises and keeps Ash locked in her attic where her daughter goes up to visit him. To me, this is a manifestation of her unhealthy grieving because Ash revealed earlier in the episode that his mother would lock old pictures away in the attics. That is because his mother couldn’t deal with seeing them on the daily which I feel was the same thing that happened to Martha.