- Synopsis
"Metalhead" opens up with Bella, Tony, and Clark on the road talking about a promise Bella made to her sister about finding a certain object. Bella believes that this object will help Jack, a dying boy, in his last hours. The three then stop at an abandon warehouse where Bella locates the secret object, but unfortunately, that isn't all she finds.
- Discussion
I know "Metalhead" has been getting some bad reviews, but honestly I don't understand why. I thought this episode was one of the more interesting ones this season, and I loved every minute of it-even if the whole chase between Bella and the "dog" seriously had me on the edge of seat.
I don't know if any of you have ever been chased by anything- another person, a dog, cat, etc- but it isn't a fun feeling. Even back in elementary school when I used to play tag with my friends, I still didn't like it. Any kind of activity where someone chases me, gives me a bit of anxiety and I use that term lightly. I just never felt like it was fun, and it always made me a bit nervous. So you can just imagine how I would feel if the thing that was chasing me, was trying to kill me. I felt for Bella from the very beginning; she's pretty bad ass.
Before I get ahead of myself and start making a fan page for Bella, I want to take it back to the very beginning of the episode. What made "MetalHead" stand out from any episode of Black Mirror (so far), is the fact that it was shot in black and white. I don't know why I liked that so much since I'm not usually big on black and white movies. I just felt like it went with the whole post apocalyptic world they were in, where the world is lacking everything that makes it so beautiful-love, community, animals, and even color.
Speaking of animals, in the beginning Clarke makes a comment about pigs as the three are driving past a field of them. He states that they are dumb animals, and the three talk about the pigs for a bit before moving on. Aside from the pigs, the only other "animal" present in the episode are the robotic guard "dogs." Since it is a post apocalyptic world and the only human beings we encounter are Bella, Tony, and Clarke it means that the human race is dying. Bella is seen carrying a walkie-talkie and is communicating with a group of people back at a sort of safe base, but other than that we see no signs of other people. I wonder if the humans are being destroyed, but the animals are left alone. Are there other animals aside from the pigs? Are the dogs created to only destroy humans and leave all other living beings alone?
The dogs could be seen as an experiment gone terribly wrong (and that's putting it mildly) but if they actually were under control, they would be excellent guard dogs.
I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want one of those things in my house even if I could fully control them. A guard dog is great if someone tries to break into your house or vandalize your property, but the dog can just chase them down or spray them with some sort of paralyzing spray. Since the dog seems to be pretty much indestructible, it would take many bullets to put it down. I don't think any bulgars would want to mess with any house that has one of those guard dogs around. However, I would not feel comfortable with the dog spraying the person with a tracker then running after them to murder them. That is a bit much don't you think?
A lot of people have said that these guard dogs were first made for military purposes, and that is why they are built to last. No human being, even with a weapon, could easily get away from one of these things. Once you are hit with a tracker, these dogs are onto you. It's almost like they have your scent memorized in their brain, but since it's a tracker it's much more deadly. Like when a canine officer offers his dog a personal item of the person they are looking for, and the dog sniffs the item to get a whiff of the "correct" scent x100.
I was also curious about how the dogs recharge themselves. Bella was throwing peppermints at the dog when it was resting, and by "powering up" then "powering down" numerous times, it ran out of battery. So did it recharge just by "resting"? Was it solar power? Because if it is the latter, I think that's pretty cool. Imagine if other machines or objects we created in the future didn't run on battery anymore, and all they needed was the sun.
Like I mentioned above, the chase scene was epic and my heart was racing the whole time. I was in between "run, girl, run" and "please don't die" it was horrible but thrilling at the same time. Another horrible scene was when Bella walked into the beautiful home, only to find two corpses in the bedroom. The couple had committed suicide by shotgun, and it kind of makes you wonder what kind of world this is where death is better than life? The couple obviously had a very beautiful home and was probably very wealthy, but in the end what did that money do for them? It couldn't save them, and they sadly had to leave behind what seemed to be a very privilege life.
When Bella saw them and started gagging, I could only image how horrible the smell of rotting flesh would be. When she finally grabbed the keys from the corpse's body (another horrible scene), I was so happy! I was thinking this is where she would get the hell out of there, but alas, every time Bella wins one, she losses two.
It's crazy how much I was rooting for Bella to make it out of there alive and out smart the dog. She did trick it, but it gave her one last trick by blasting her with trackers before it went down. When she ran to the bathroom to take out the trackers and saw that there was one imbedded in her jugular, I felt so sad.
This whole I'm rooting for her-when she first saw the dog, when she lost Tony, when she lost Clarke, when her car almost fell off the cliff, when she removed the tracker and threw it in the water bottle to distract the dog, when she climbed up that tree (badass) and cleverly threw peppermints at the dog until it shut down, when she found the safe house, whens she tricked the dog and then threw paint on it to obscure its vision, when she shot it with the riffle-all until the very end. Her goodbye to her sister was heartbreaking because Bella knew this was the end for her. I think if she could have done it again and knew there was a chance she would have made it out alive, she would have. Her, Clarke, and Tony left on this mission because they wanted to give Jack two things he has been missing: love and hope-and I think she would have done it again if she were able to get it right.
Speaking of human beings thriving on hope and love, I just want to talk about the ending shot where we are finally shown what was in that box. What was this whole suicide mission for (and yes I do think it was a suicide mission and I'm sure the three of them though the same), what was worth risking their lives for?
All for a teddy bear...
I think that's so beautiful.
In this world, we as human beings, have basically nothing left. We are forced to survive on the bare minimum, and it would be so easy for people to turn against each other because they are so angry. Yet here are these three human beings, willing to risk their lives to find a teddy bear to help give a dying child some hope. It just shows how despite all the awful things human beings can do to one another, we can't deny that what makes us beautiful is the love we have for each other.
I've read a lot of complaints about this being a weak episode, and one of the critics was that this episode didn't have a backstory. We aren't told how our world came to be like this, and we were just dropped in the middle of the episode and expected to believe everything and to go along with the story obediently. However as fans of Black Mirror we question everything, and that is to be expected. So of course the lack of answers will baffle and annoy a lot of viewers, but that was never something I focused on, especially with this story.
To me, this isn't an episode exploring the latest and darkest technological "advancement." To me, this episode wasn't about the technology; it was about the human race and how we can prevail no matter how bleak everything seems-and that was why I loved it so much.
★ ★★★/5
I don't know if any of you have ever been chased by anything- another person, a dog, cat, etc- but it isn't a fun feeling. Even back in elementary school when I used to play tag with my friends, I still didn't like it. Any kind of activity where someone chases me, gives me a bit of anxiety and I use that term lightly. I just never felt like it was fun, and it always made me a bit nervous. So you can just imagine how I would feel if the thing that was chasing me, was trying to kill me. I felt for Bella from the very beginning; she's pretty bad ass.
Before I get ahead of myself and start making a fan page for Bella, I want to take it back to the very beginning of the episode. What made "MetalHead" stand out from any episode of Black Mirror (so far), is the fact that it was shot in black and white. I don't know why I liked that so much since I'm not usually big on black and white movies. I just felt like it went with the whole post apocalyptic world they were in, where the world is lacking everything that makes it so beautiful-love, community, animals, and even color.
Speaking of animals, in the beginning Clarke makes a comment about pigs as the three are driving past a field of them. He states that they are dumb animals, and the three talk about the pigs for a bit before moving on. Aside from the pigs, the only other "animal" present in the episode are the robotic guard "dogs." Since it is a post apocalyptic world and the only human beings we encounter are Bella, Tony, and Clarke it means that the human race is dying. Bella is seen carrying a walkie-talkie and is communicating with a group of people back at a sort of safe base, but other than that we see no signs of other people. I wonder if the humans are being destroyed, but the animals are left alone. Are there other animals aside from the pigs? Are the dogs created to only destroy humans and leave all other living beings alone?The dogs could be seen as an experiment gone terribly wrong (and that's putting it mildly) but if they actually were under control, they would be excellent guard dogs.
I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want one of those things in my house even if I could fully control them. A guard dog is great if someone tries to break into your house or vandalize your property, but the dog can just chase them down or spray them with some sort of paralyzing spray. Since the dog seems to be pretty much indestructible, it would take many bullets to put it down. I don't think any bulgars would want to mess with any house that has one of those guard dogs around. However, I would not feel comfortable with the dog spraying the person with a tracker then running after them to murder them. That is a bit much don't you think?A lot of people have said that these guard dogs were first made for military purposes, and that is why they are built to last. No human being, even with a weapon, could easily get away from one of these things. Once you are hit with a tracker, these dogs are onto you. It's almost like they have your scent memorized in their brain, but since it's a tracker it's much more deadly. Like when a canine officer offers his dog a personal item of the person they are looking for, and the dog sniffs the item to get a whiff of the "correct" scent x100.
I was also curious about how the dogs recharge themselves. Bella was throwing peppermints at the dog when it was resting, and by "powering up" then "powering down" numerous times, it ran out of battery. So did it recharge just by "resting"? Was it solar power? Because if it is the latter, I think that's pretty cool. Imagine if other machines or objects we created in the future didn't run on battery anymore, and all they needed was the sun.
Like I mentioned above, the chase scene was epic and my heart was racing the whole time. I was in between "run, girl, run" and "please don't die" it was horrible but thrilling at the same time. Another horrible scene was when Bella walked into the beautiful home, only to find two corpses in the bedroom. The couple had committed suicide by shotgun, and it kind of makes you wonder what kind of world this is where death is better than life? The couple obviously had a very beautiful home and was probably very wealthy, but in the end what did that money do for them? It couldn't save them, and they sadly had to leave behind what seemed to be a very privilege life.When Bella saw them and started gagging, I could only image how horrible the smell of rotting flesh would be. When she finally grabbed the keys from the corpse's body (another horrible scene), I was so happy! I was thinking this is where she would get the hell out of there, but alas, every time Bella wins one, she losses two.
It's crazy how much I was rooting for Bella to make it out of there alive and out smart the dog. She did trick it, but it gave her one last trick by blasting her with trackers before it went down. When she ran to the bathroom to take out the trackers and saw that there was one imbedded in her jugular, I felt so sad.
This whole I'm rooting for her-when she first saw the dog, when she lost Tony, when she lost Clarke, when her car almost fell off the cliff, when she removed the tracker and threw it in the water bottle to distract the dog, when she climbed up that tree (badass) and cleverly threw peppermints at the dog until it shut down, when she found the safe house, whens she tricked the dog and then threw paint on it to obscure its vision, when she shot it with the riffle-all until the very end. Her goodbye to her sister was heartbreaking because Bella knew this was the end for her. I think if she could have done it again and knew there was a chance she would have made it out alive, she would have. Her, Clarke, and Tony left on this mission because they wanted to give Jack two things he has been missing: love and hope-and I think she would have done it again if she were able to get it right.Speaking of human beings thriving on hope and love, I just want to talk about the ending shot where we are finally shown what was in that box. What was this whole suicide mission for (and yes I do think it was a suicide mission and I'm sure the three of them though the same), what was worth risking their lives for?
All for a teddy bear...
I think that's so beautiful.
In this world, we as human beings, have basically nothing left. We are forced to survive on the bare minimum, and it would be so easy for people to turn against each other because they are so angry. Yet here are these three human beings, willing to risk their lives to find a teddy bear to help give a dying child some hope. It just shows how despite all the awful things human beings can do to one another, we can't deny that what makes us beautiful is the love we have for each other.
To me, this isn't an episode exploring the latest and darkest technological "advancement." To me, this episode wasn't about the technology; it was about the human race and how we can prevail no matter how bleak everything seems-and that was why I loved it so much.
★ ★★★/5
Comments
Post a Comment