White Bear: Justice

      In the episode "White Bear" from the series Black Mirror, the plot revolves around a woman who wakes up in a house with no knowledge of how she got there, who she was, and why she was there. Unable to comprehend the predicament she was in, the woman goes around to see what is happening. When she wanders outside, she is in shock to see many people pointing phone cameras at her as if she was part of a film scene. Things start to get more confusing and frightening as she and others are being chased by masked killers as everyone else is watching and filming them with their phones. At this point, I felt so sorry for the woman for being in such a dangerous situation. I felt like she was a victim of something she had nothing to do with. I mean what could she have possibly done to deserve this nightmare. Eventually, I understood the reason behind all of this doing. It is revealed at the end of the episode that the woman got herself in this situation because she had committed a very serious and horrifying crime where she and her boyfriend kidnapped a young girl, tortured her, then killed and burned her body.  Her boyfriend committed the act while she recorded the whole incident. At this point, everything made sense to me. The punishment here is that she is receiving the same torture and fright that the little girl went through; however, the woman is not killed in the end. Instead, she has to live through this torture day in and day out for who knows how long. Maybe for the rest of her life because of the crime she committed. At the end of each day, her memory of what happened in the day is erased in a painful process, and the next day, she relives the previous day, and then again in a constant time loop.

      After all the woman went through and the pain and fright I felt for her, I still think that for her experiencing this over and over again is too much. Yes, although her boyfriend physically committed, she was part of the act by recording the incident, but I think the punishment she is receiving is not the right and humane one especially when it involves adults and children who find it entertaining to watch the woman live through this punishment. I don't believe justice is being served here but rather the crime itself is being recommitted by the people themselves.