Punishment vs. Torture

Punishment vs. Torture

Written by: Asha F.

      I recently watched another episode of the popular Netflix show "Black Mirror" the episode that I watched was season 2 episode 2 "White Bear". The episode starts with a confused woman. She looks as if she tried to kill herself by inducing an overdose. On the television there is a weird symbol, also there is a strange humming noise coming from the television.The woman proceeds to turn off the television. She then sees a picture of her, a man, and a little girl she takes the picture and leaves her house in search of answers because it appears that she has lost her memory. The woman has no idea who she is, as she is walking out of the house she sees a woman holding up a phone taking pictures of her. She calls to the woman asking her for help because she is confused and she does not know who she is supposed to be, The woman snaps a few photos of her then runs away. The confused woman runs after her. The nameless woman with the phone escapes. Now the confused main character is at a loss'; she looks into the windows of the other homes to see people just holding out their phones recording her. She is understandably confused by this. Again, she calls to the people in the homes asking for help. A car soon pulls up to the woman, out of the car comes a man with a mask over his face, he proceeds to go to the trunk of his car and pull out a large shot gun. The woman finally understands that this man is not here to help her. She starts to run, but the man gives chase. The confused woman soon encounters another woman and her male friend who help her hide from the masked man. The women successfully escape the man but the man dies in the process of escaping. Throughout the episode the two women are constantly being chased by people with various weapons. The scavenger woman named Jem explains why people are chasing them and why others can do nothing, but be bystanders to the heinous acts. She tells the confused woman that one day a strange symbol popped up on screens across the country an now it was like people were possessed by their phones and could not stop watching them. Jem then explains that the people who were chasing them with various weapon were people who were unaffected by the propaganda. They took everyone being under the influence of technology as a chance to do whatever they wanted including kill people. That being said the small population of people who were not affected by the propaganda and did not turn to hunting people were the ones hunted. While Jem gives our confused main character this synopsis of their current situation the confused woman has visions. She then asks the woman about the picture of her daughter. She is trying to find her daughter, but she has no recollection of where she is located. Jem tells her that she does not know and tells the confused woman of a plan to knock out the television signal at a broadcasting station located at white bear. The confused woman then begins to strongly protest this because she believes that White Bear is a trap. The woman Jem is insistent on doing this and the confused woman reluctantly agrees. They both then arrive at white bear while they are trying to destroy the station they are found by the hunters that were chasing them. The confused woman is then detained. When she is detained the station then turns into an auditorium full of people. An announcer then comes by and tells her who she is, he tells her that she is a child kidnapper and murderer. Victoria and her boyfriend kidnapped a little girl. Victoria filmed the killing of the little girl. This whole time after Victoria woke up was staged. It was payback for what she had done to that little girl. She filmed her killing and everyone wanted to show her what it felt like to be terrorized like the little girl to scream for help and to only have people point a camera at you without offering any help. After this big reveal she is then taken back to her starting point in the home. She is then given shock therapy to erase her memory so that when she wakes up she won't remember what happened yesterday and they can run the scenario on her again. At the end of the episode they reveal that White Bear is an amusement park where people pay to participate in this scenario that is ran on Victoria.

     After watching this episode I thought long and hard on the line between punishment and torture. Throughout the episode Victoria is not actually in any danger, there are precautions taken to make sure that she doesn't die or hurt others. The only part during her day where pain is inflicted on her is at the end when they conduct the shock therapy on her to make her forget what happened the day before. I feel that this form of punishment is a bit extreme, It was acceptable to conduct this scenario her but to make it into an amusement park and to profit off of the misery of this woman is not acceptable to me. I understand that the woman committed a horrible act, but what about the people who pay to see this woman terrorized everyday of her life. Are these bystanders not s sick as she was if not more?

     What the episode did not explain was how long she was supposed to endure this pain, I feel like the punishment crosses the line to torture when it doesn't have any limitation put on it. The lack of guidelines that are set is a major problem for me. Also the end of the day electro-shock therapy is also a problem. What happens when they fry her brain one too many times?Also when is she going to be released from this form of punishment if they continue to do this to her for the rest of her life that is cruel and unusual. At what point is she released from her own personal hell? These are the most pressing concerns for me during this episode.Lets all take a moment and think what stops punishment from turning into torture.