Black Mirror (Season 4, Episode 2) "Arkangel" Discussion

                                   

• Synopsis: 

Marie Sambrell takes her three year old daughter, Sara, out to play at the park. While she is watching Sara, Marie's friend stops by to talk to her, and while Marie is distracted Sara goes missing. Frightened out of her mind, she calls for Sara and is beyond herself with relief when a local civilian ends up finding Sara and bringing her back to Marie. Never wanting to lose track of her child again, Marie decides to sign Sara up for a free trial with a company called Arkangel, which specializes in a child tracking program. Sara gets inserted with a sort of tracking implant, and Marie is given a tablet that is able to track down Sara's every move through the implant. The neural implant gives Marie, as a single mother, the peace of mind that she had always wanted but as Sara grows older, Marie realizes just how difficult it will be to hold onto her little girl.

• Discussion

Wow, so I am not a parent but this episode still hit me pretty hard. This is one of the very rare episodes where I can say I understand both parties' point of view. Although I am sure that if my mother had watched this episode, she would be on Marie's team all the way.

Let me start with Marie: okay as far as overprotective moms goes, she isn't the worst. When Sara first started stabbing herself with the pencil (blood still makes me squrim so that scene was a bit hard to watch), she realizes what she had done wrong. She was so scared after losing Sara that one afternoon at the park, that she wanted to do everything in her power to protect her child. I mean, like I've mentioned before, I am not a mother, but I can't blame her for doing that. There have been so many stories about lost children, and how many of those children actually come back in one piece? Even if you have never lost a child, you can only imagine what the parents must be going through. Especially when the child is young and is the most vulnerable, as parents, they want to do everything they can to protect their child. So I can understand why Marie wanted to go fourth with the program, if Sara were to ever get lost or get taken, she can track her down. The majority of the time, taken children could have been saved if only the police knew where to start so Arkangel would help eliminate this problem. 

Also, how many less kidnappings would there be if every single child was implanted? There would be nowhere for the kidnappers to take the kids that the system wouldn't be able to track. Of course there are crazy people that do not care about being caught and will go fourth with their plans anyways, but it will without a doubt decrease the numbers of kidnappings. Most criminals commit crime because they believe that they wouldn't be caught, so taking away that peace of mind would definitely limit the number of crimes.

The whole "filter" aspect of the program is interesting because I can understand why this part of the program would interest parents so much. The world is a cruel and dark place, and as adults we all know this. There are some evils in this world that even if we spent all our lives trying to figure out, we would never be able to explain away all the evils in the world. Even as adults it's hard to comprehend why people torture and kill one another, so imagine having to explain death and murder to an innocent child. Children are precious because they are so trusting and naive, and the thought of them seeing the world for what it truly is frightens many parents. I like that Marie was unsure about the filter when she was first introduced to it because despite her being overprotective, even she knew that the program was taking it a bit far. However, she ended up still using the filter and that was where she first went wrong.

Let's take it back to the beginning when Sara's grandfather was having a stroke. Since the filter system was turned on, all Sara saw a pixelated blob where her grandfather should have been and all she heard was a muffle when she should have heard her grandfather asking her to phone for help. Marie had the filter turned on so when Sara was looking at her grandfather, she wasn't able to react in the appropriate manner. She didn't know what to do because what she was seeing made her confused, and the same situation is shown again when Marie and Sara were visiting her grandfather's grave. Marie is seen crying, but Sara, unable to see to hear the situation properly, does not know how to act in this situation. The filter separates Sara from the rest of society, making her unable to learn and adapt the way children are suppose to.

When Sara enters school, the other kids find her weird and do not talk to her. It is only until Marie removes the filter, is Sara able to see the world for what it is. Her classmate, Trick, shows her graphic pornography on his tablet as well as violent terrorist beheadings, and despite these two things being inappropriate for a young child, it is Sara's first real interaction with the world outside of Arkangel's filter. 

Later on when Sara and Trick have sex, she is heard saying pornographic phrases such as "f**k me harder" because her only knowledge about sex is from porn. She believes that everyone has sex the same way because she doesn't know that the people in those films are just actors. 

Also at the end of the episode when Marie and Sara fight, Sara gets so angry that she bashes her mother head repeatedly with the tablet until Marie faints. Sara has never been exposed to violence before, and the only time she has, was when Trick showed her the terrorist beheadings. That is why she isn't able to control her anger towards her mother the way she should have because she has never been exposed to it before; therefore, she acts out in an extreme (that's putting it lightly) way. The filter was accidentally turned on when Sara was hitting her mother with the tablet; therefore, she wasn't able to see her mother's bruised face nor was she able to hear her screaming. If the filter was turned off, then Sara would have stopped sooner. This was another mistake on Marie's end, that was acknowledged a little too late. 

Speaking of Sara- I may not be a mother, but I used to be a teenager and I know all about overprotective parents. My mom and dad watched the news religious and it seems as if everyday someone is getting kidnapped or killed, and these horror stories buried their ways into my parents' heads until they became paranoid. They wouldn't let me to go anywhere alone and I wasn't able to go to a friend's house until I was 16-yes 16. They wouldn't let me have my own cellphone until I entered my freshmen year of high school, and I wasn't allowed to date until I entered college. I watched with envy as my friends had easy going lives with their trusting and cool parents, and wished more than anything that my parents would trust me. It was beyond annoying to have to be home by 8 pm on  a weekend, and although none of my friends said anything, I know they felt bad for me.

I couldn't imagine how 15 year old me would have felt knowing that my parents were tracking my every move and were able to see what I saw. Just thought of it is humiliating enough, so I definitely understood Sara's anger and I was also pretty angry at Marie throughout the episode. Her obsession with Sara's life was going too far, and it's almost as if she had forgotten what it felt like to be a teenager.

A lot of fights between teenagers and their parents stem from misunderstandings. Children aren't able to see things from their parents point of view (why it's dangerous for teenagers to be roaming the streets at night) while the parents do not listen to their kids (sometimes kids just want to stay out late and talk with their friends, it doesn't mean they are getting into trouble). Both parties do not try to understand one another, and it is this misconception that leads to the drift that parents fear the most. It must be heartbreaking to remember your child crying the second you are out of the room, and then have shout hurtful phrases such as "I hate you" down the line. 

Marie and Sara's relationship could have been saved if she would have just talked to her daughter, and that is the main message I got from this episode. Communication is so important especially nowadays when most communications are through text messages. Marie should have been the parent that Sara feels at ease with, someone she chooses to share her burden with. Marie loves Sara so much that she becomes possessive and controlling, and she broke Sara's trust. Yes Sara did lie to her about seeing a boy but what teenager doesn't lie? Instead of using the tablet to track Sara down again, Marie should have asked Sara where she truly was and talk to her about sex and drugs. 

Despite being her mother and giving life to Sara, Marie isn't an archangel. She isn't an all powerful messenger from God, and has no right to try and control Sara's life. 

The ending was powerful in its irony-Marie went through all that trouble not to lose Sara, but in the end, she lost her anyways. 

I feel like all the parents out there watching this episode must have felt Marie's pain right in their hearts. She held on so tightly to her daughter that she ended up pushing her away, and now with the tablet broken, she has no way of finding her daughter again. What is most heartbreaking is the fact that Sara would have found her way back to Marie if only she had trusted her and had given her the opportunity to grow up, but instead Sara now resents her mother and Marie will most likely never see her daughter again.

When Marie screams Sara's name at the end of the episode, it takes us back to the very beginning scene at the park, but unlike the first time, Sara won't be found.

★ ★ ★/5