Lessons to be Learned

In Black Mirror’s “White Bear”, a woman named Victoria wakes up in a house with no memory of who she is except for two pictures, one of her and a man and one of a small girl. She immediately assumes that this girl is her daughter and leaves the house to find her, worried that she is in danger. Once outside, Victoria finds herself running for her life as people around her only watch and record her near death encounters. This chase ultimately leads to the revealing that Victoria was in fact an accomplice to the murder of that small girl in the picture, Jemima Sykes. The punishment for her crime was for her to wake up each morning with no memory of who she is and go through the day believing she was being hunted by murderers as everyone around her only stood by and watched. All of this would lead to her discovering that she was the murderer of the girl only to have her memory wiped again, so that this could be redone day after day not only for justice, but also to entertain others who visit the White Bear Justice Park.

While her crime was horrendous, how does wiping her memory each night and repeating the day’s torture provide justice? Doing so strips away her humanity as she is no longer seen as a person but a toy for other people’s entertainment. While she already ruined any chance to being seen as a human being after her crime, the act is no longer a punishment, but a show for others to enjoy, a show where a criminal is put through the same horror as the victim. Instead of the focus being on her punishment, it turns into more of a skit on justice where they show people what would happen if you were to commit a crime.

Who’s to say that the woman they call Victoria was really the original Victoria? At the end of the episode, they show one of the people of White Bear setting up the house for another day of justice. In this scene there’s a calendar where another day is crossed off, hinting that this has been going on for some time. The reason for questioning if this woman is Victoria is because you must consider how long her body has been handling the daily stress and lack of a proper diet and how much longer can she take before her body shuts down. If that was the real Victoria, what will happen to White Bear Justice Park? Are there other justices also taking place? When her body does shut down, is that just the end of her punishment or do they bring in another criminal to take her place for justice? It seems that the end goal for White Bear Justice Park may be to show others that there are consequences for every wrong act and not only providing justice for victims like Jemima Sykes.