Black Mirror (Season 4, Episode 6) "Black Museum"

• Synopsis: 

A young woman is driving down a long dirt road, with the windows down and the music blasting. When her car starts to run out of battery, she is forced to stop at a charging station. While she waits she decides to visit the Black Museum, an institution near the charging station, which collects and showcases banned and infamous technology. Rolo Haynes, the owner of The Black Museum, convinces Nish to stay for a tour, and she accepts not knowing how sinister this museum truly is. 

• Discussion

This episode made me nervous the entire time because I thought that Rolo Haynes was going to kidnap Nish and force her to be one of his prized possessions in his infamous Black Museum.

Like most people, when Netflix dropped the names of the episodes for Season 4, I immediately tried to guess what each title meant. For "Black Museum" I thought it was going to be some crazy racist white man, who lures in blacks for his "collection" of people. When I saw Nish in the episode trailer, I just thought she was going to get kidnapped and experimented on. 

Obviously, I was way (way) off but when I was watching the episode, that was the thought that kept circling in my mind. When Haynes was telling Nish about the big reveal, I was seriously convinced that he would say the big reveal is her. That he has been waiting to see her and study her for some reason-now that I am writing this all down, it sounds insanely stupid, forgive me-and the majority of the episode would be her trying to escape. 

I know Black Mirror focuses on the dark side of technology, but I wonder if they will ever dip their toes into other issues that are heavily weighing down on society such as race. 

Anyways, aside from my theory being way off, this episode still gave me the chills but for all the right reasons. This episode is a nesting doll episode, and while I'll get back to the overall arch at the end, I did want to spend some time talking about each "mini story" within this amazing final episode of the season.

1. Dr. Peter Dawson 

• Out of all the three short stories told by Haynes, this one was the darkest and it started off with the purest of intentions. Dr. Peter Dawson, although his heart was in the right place, is a pretty bad doctor. He isn't able to save a lot of his patients because he isn't the best at figuring out what is wrong with his patients until it's too late. It's a good thing he works at this sort of "low income" hospital where patients are able to get medical treatment for a free/low cost, or else he would have been out of a job.
• Just when all hope seems to be lost, Haynes introduces the idea of a neurological implant. It's basically a win win situation-Dawson can save more patients (hence become a better doctor) and Haynes is able to see if the invention will work. I found it very skeptical that this new invention hasn't been tested thoroughly and Haynes is already selling it off to the highest bidder. Well actually no, the most desperate bidder is more like it. 
• Haynes preys on people whose situations seem helpless and just when they think there's no way out, he offers them one and well that is where they went wrong. More on that later of course, but I just found it a bit odd that people were willing to jump on his inventions so quickly then I realize that normal people would be skeptical, but desperate people would be grateful.
• The actual functionality of the implant worked great for awhile, and I thought it was so funny that he decided to test it out in the bedroom too. To be able to feel both male and female orgasms is intense, and I doubt that's a feeling any of us will be able to feel anytime soon. Yet right after that light moment, was when things started going down the drain and fast.
• The moment where things took a turn for the worst was when Dawson was linked with a Senator who had been poisoned, and before he could correctly diagnosed the old man, he flatlined, taking Dawson with him. 
  
• Everyone who had "come back from the dead" all have their stories. They say that they saw a light, or talked to a loved one, or they didn't see or feel anything at all and they were stuck in a cold, dark place. Everyone has their stories, and those of us who have not experienced it can only wonder. (This isn't related to the episode but wouldn't it be amazing if the producers of Black Mirror wrote an episode on "the afterlife" or what happens to people who almost die but get brought back to life at the last minute? I know that episode-if it ever gets written-will be controversial but man it would be such a great episode to discuss don't you think?) Yet for Dawson, he was brought back to life as a changed man and not for the better.
• Dawson didn't die, but he experienced death through the implant, and although the implant was still working fine, Dawson wasn't. As Haynes pointed out, his body went through so much thinking it was dying only to wake up again-hello false alarm, everyone go back to what you were doing, but no, life doesn't work like that. Dawson now experiences pain as pleasure, and instead of being the hopeful doctor at the beginning of the episode, he is now an extreme sadist. His constant need for pain causes his girlfriend to leave him, and it also costs him his job-which is ironic since keeping his job was the sole reason he wanted to go through with the implant in the first place. 
• When Dawson realized that he couldn't receive pleasure from the pain of others, he decided to to take it out on himself. I will probably never get the image of him pulling out his teeth with pliers out of my mind. A bloody tooth is enough to get my stomach turning, and that scene will always be hard to watch and impossible to forget. *Shudders* However, Dawson realizes that it's not just the pain that gives him a euphoric feeling, it's the fear. Since he can't inflict fear on himself, he decides to take it out on a homeless man. 

It's both creepy and fascinating how out of touch with reality Dawson is, as he is drilling the homeless man you can almost feel the euphoria coming out of his body. In the beginning, Dawson was happiest when he was helping people and in the end he was the happiest when he was hurting them. This twist is what makes this particular story so sad, if Haynes never presented him with the idea of the implant then he still would have been a normal doctor. However, this isn't the cruelest of Haynes' idea and Dawson isn't the last of Haynes' victims.

       2. Stuffed Monkey

• Now this story, although I find it to be the saddest, was the only one that kind of made me laugh. I know getting hit by a car is not a laughing matter, but when Carrie backs up to take a picture of Jack and Parker, I knew something bad would happen. Like come on Carrie, how are you going to walk without looking? I think that's rule #1 in the book of Common Sense. Anyways when that car came out of nowhere and rammed into her, I just found it hard to believe. I mean, they were at a park for one, since when were giant trucks allowed in parks and secondly, why the hell was it going so fast? It seemed like it was going at least 40 miles per hour, and once again, they were at a park. Also, if this car was going so fast, how come no one heard it coming? Carrie surely didn't and she got squashed like a pancake. 
• I also found it very, very weird how Carrie ended up "surviving" with her whole body intack. She didn't even lose a limb which once again I found odd, especially with a truck that size and how fast it was going. 
  
• Aside from that very unlikely scenario, I found the rest of the story really depressing. First off, I felt so bad for Jack. Carrie isn't technically dead but she isn't technically alive either, and the only way he can talk to her is through a "yes" or "no" device. I've read stories and I've heard stories about people whose loved ones fall into a coma, and how difficult it is for them to see their loved ones in this way. A lot of people spend years waiting for a miracle while others have to pull the plug because the doctors tell them there won't be any improvement or the medial bills are getting too high for them to afford any longer. When Haynes offers Jack a deal-transfer the consciousness of his wife into his own brain-it seems like a no brainer, no pun intended. Jack can be with Carrie again, and it will all be for free. Once again Haynes tracks down the most desperate patients, and how can anyone be more desperate than Jack at this point?
• I already knew that this was going to be a mad idea for both Carrie and Jack. I don't care how much they love each other-they could probably love each other more than any other couple-there is no one in this world that wants someone in their head 24/7 for the rest of their lives. Absolutely no one-I honestly don't know who I felt worse for Carrie or Jack at this point. Jack is a good guy, he's just trying to do the right thing but it definitely came back to bite him in the ass and Carrie as well. 
• Although I did feel bad for Jack and I did find him to be a good person who was dealt a bad hand, I felt even worse for Carrie. Jack was in love with Carrie, she wasn't only his wife but she was (is?) the mother of his child. He would do anything to get her back, and when he did he realizes that he shouldn't have taken the plea deal with Haynes. When he met Emily and started to fall for her, his loyalty was conflicted. There will always be a large part of him that cares and loves Carrie, and he felt that in some sense he owed her. I feel like we all have felt this way or have known of people who have felt this way, where you love someone but you also feel this sort of debt to them. Haynes states that there is no way to move Carrie back into her original body since that was destroyed when they transferred her consciousness into Jack, so he was basically stuck between two horrible choices. 
• However I thought it was such a dumb move on Jack's end to listen to Emily and Haynes. Haynes already fooled him once by making Jack think he was being offered a golden deal, only to have it come around and slap him in the face. How can he trust him again? I do understand him moving on with Emily, but obviously she wasn't a big fan of Carrie so she couldn't care less what happens to her. Jack should have thought it through, and kept her in his mind and just muted her. It was better than sticking her in a stuffed monkey, and only giving her two options ("Money loves you" and "Money needs a hug") to express herself. 
  
• When Carrie "woke up" inside the monkey, I just felt so bad for her. Yes she was obnoxious in the beginning and was definitely not understanding at all, but her and Jack could have worked out some sort of deal. I know Emily wouldn't like it, but I didn't like her so...next topic. 
• This story was really tragic because it shows how far we would go for love, and how despite the media and society wanting us to believe this, sometimes love doesn't conquer all. 

        3. Clayton Leigh

• I have to admit, this one didn't really affect me as much as the first two stories. I did feel bad for Clayton Leigh because he was innocent, and he was wrongly convicted of a crime he did not commit. We've all heard the stories on the news of the public being outraged because a guilty person was set free, but we hardly ever hear about those who were wrongfully persecuted. My 7th grade History teacher, Mr. Scotty, once told our class that he used to be a police officer before he became a teacher and he told us something that day that stuck with me all of these years later. He said "it is better to let 100 guilty people go free than to put one innocent person in jail." I know he was talking about the justice system and how important it is to fully look into each case before making a final verdict, but what he said also resonated in many other aspects of my life. It taught me that just because a hundred people mistreated me doesn't mean that I should just stop giving people chances because I might miss out out a good person. Anyways, that was a rampage, sorry about that-but when I first found out what this mini story was going to be about, I immediately thought of Mr. Scotty. I hope wherever you are, that you are doing well sir.
• Back to the discussion...
• It honestly didn't really matter if Leigh was innocent or if he was guilty, the point is: he has been sentenced to death and for Haynes, that means he is desperate. Even if you weren't paying close attention to this episode and had it playing in the background while you're folding laundry (shame shame shame), you would still know that whenever Haynes offers you deal, you should run. It's a shame that these poor people believe him and basically sign their soul away; yet with Leigh, this isn't figuratively speaking at all. Haynes convinces him to sign over the rights to his conscious mind after he has been executed by the electric chair. Leigh isn't sure what Haynes wants with his consciousness but when Haynes promises that he will provide Leigh's family with insurance money, he agrees to it.
• This has got to be one of the cruelest things Haynes has ever done-that we know of. He takes advantage of this dying man, and dooms his soul to never rest. On top of that, he never gives any money to Leigh's wife and daughter. He just wanted to use him as the "main attraction" in his sick Black Museum.
• It's hard to watch the next few scenes without feeling extreme empathy for Leigh, which is why the big twist made this episode so satisfying. I thought it was pretty badass that Nish came for Haynes because of what he did to her father, but in the midst of her trying to fool him, he also revealed how he damaged many other lives as well. 

I have also heard that this might be the last season of Black Mirror and I honestly hope that this is all a lie. Many viewers believe that Nish burning down the Black Museum with all the "artifacts" from past episodes, mean that the curtain is finally falling on the show. In a way, I can see why people would think that, "Black Museum" really would wrap the series up nicely. However, Black Mirror is such a popular show that I wouldn't understand why the writers and producers would want to stop when demand is so high. So far there hasn't been a confirmation on whether or not this is the last season, but I'm hoping for the better. 

★ ★★.5/5