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Black Mirror S2E01 "Be Right Back" discussion thread
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Black Mirror Season 2 Episode 1 - Be Right Back
After learning about a new service that lets people stay in touch with the deceased, a lonely, grieving Martha reconnects with her late lover.
Warning: this thread contains spoilers about this episode! If you haven't seen it yet, please watch it and come back to this thread later.
You can talk about past episodes, but please don't discuss future episodes in this thread!
If you don't know what to say, here are some questions to get the discussion started:
- How does the title relate to the episode itself?
- Are there any similarities between real life events and the episode?
- Are there any references or easter eggs in the episode, such as references to past episodes?
I don't disagree for the most part, but I also think that the lack of closure sort of mirrors Martha throughout the episode. She can't stand to live with an imperfect imitation of Ash, but she can't let go of him either. As much as she tries to move on in her life, she clings to any remnant of his memory, so much so that we see in the closing shot that she still hasn't painted over the markings on the wall that showed his childhood growth.
In fact, I feel like that last shot purposefully encapsulates Martha's relationship with Ash's death. One foot is up on the ladder, one still on the ground; a part of her wants to go up and be with Ash, but the other is fully aware that he's not truly Ash and would rather just close the attic and forget that he exists. This duality leaves her in a perpetual state of limbo, therefore never leading to any closure. Brooker seems to be making a statement within the episode about the importance of grieving those lost and, as a part of that grieving process, moving on with one's own life. I agree that it doesn't have the major cathartic finale that most of the other episodes have, but I would say that that adds to the episode's message.
I agree that the middle was pretty great, the ambiguity as well as the actual execution were very intriguing.
I guess the beginning wasn't great, but it served as good character development, and I think they did a good job at showing how people can accept ideas they would otherwise think were crazy: Martha's husband died, she's pregnant, and she gets signed up for the service. It shows how easily people can accept ideas when they're vulnerable.
I think I'd disagree about the ending. I wouldn't say it was super memorable (I pretty much forgot about this episode), but I think it was pretty effective. At least for me, Martha's daughter wanting to give her "father" cake, seeing him trapped up in the attic, and the very end when Martha stops on the ladder for a moment, gave me a sort of uneasy feeling. As @Usie said, it didn't feel like the episode had much closure, possibly to match Martha's life.
I really liked this episode. I don't have a clue why but after I watched this episode I slept with the lights on for about 3 days. Seriously. I don't know why. Something about this episode disturbed me a lot more than I would have expected.
I loved the premise of the episode but the reality is it couldn't really work in our world. Aside from the fact that I don't engage that much in social media, the way I communicate to others is drastically different than I communicate in real life. I would never dream of taking the way I text, and my friends have said that I talk differently and sound posher when I'm on the phone. But that's part of what I love about this episode. In black mirror we all know it's not about what is realistically possible, it's about making you think. And this episode did exactly that for me. This episode if I remember correctly was one of the first to ask the question (I hope this doesn't count as taking about future episodes): what does it mean to be a human, what is personhood?
I've not watched it again because it got me that much but genuinely it was one of my favorites, I thought the characters were crafted so well and the questions it asked really made me stop and think.
Thank you for using a survey site. Will make gathering the data much easier. Also I missed the last one and will post my rank on your old thread.
This episode was ... good. However, I think I liked 15 million merits and White bear more. I expected something different. Through the episode, I was thinking "You can upload private videos if you want it to be better" - oh, so it'll be about privacy! The corporation will misuse it somehow. Oh, I was wrong. I got what was the episode really about when she dropped her phone and started freaking out about Ash. After this moment, the episode felt really great despite the end which I didn't like too much.