White Bear

The episode titled "White Bear" really left an impression on me. It leads to the question of what is justice and who is the one who can do said "justice." When the episode ended, it also created the question of can you punish someone who does not remember the crime they committed? To begin, the creators of the show had the woman commit (or help commit) a crime that they knew would hit the audience hard. The kidnapping and murder of a child always hit people hard. However, she did not kill the child. She filmed the murder and had a role in the kidnapping. Is her punishment justified? Or is she now a victim? Once you hear about the actual crime, you also hear about how the boyfriend already killed himself. I feel like these people were simply taking out all the hatred that they had left for the crime onto the woman. The people probably felt like he got off easy since he was able to take his own life and he is no longer suffering. This is also the opposite of the woman since she is suffering every single day. This type of mental abuse is also something that is unheard of around this time. How long until we feel that jail and the death penalty is no longer enough to punish some criminals? The woman is a now victim. And she is also guilty of the taking of a child's life. The people in the episode had no problem with torturing the woman which meant that this must have been a regular punishment by now. The tourists and onlookers are enjoying themselves and as the tour guide says "have fun." These people also have to constantly remind themselves of the crime that this woman committed, probably to continue to justify the actions they are doing. These people also believe that they are in the right. The woman is the criminal and they are the good guys in the scenario. And finally, the woman is constantly having her memory wiped. In this situation, I feel like no matter how many times the memory is wiped or altered, the child is still dead. The woman deserved to be punished. But in doing so, the people became the criminals and the woman became a victim. Who has the actual power to punish people and decide what type of punishment is deserved? Obviously, the woman was punished a similar way that the child had been murdered. Everybody was recording her and not helping her just like she had done to the child. But, once we saw the punishment, we felt uneasy because we felt like she did not deserve that. I don't know what type of punishment she deserves. I, personally, would never want to have that type of power.