Black Mirror: 10 Character Fates Worse Than Death
7. White Bear - Being The Centre Of A Punishing Attraction
Waking up in a mysterious room with a splitting headache and no memory of how you got there might be the sign of a good night out, but for Victoria Skillane (Lenora Crichlow) it's a waking nightmare. As Victoria finds herself wandering a world where marauding hunters have taken to crucifixions and mutilations, all the while pedestrians record her struggle on their mobile phones.
Is it mind control? Has the apocalypse happened? Did Michael Callow's tryst with a swine fire off the starter's pistol that would end the world? It's anyone's guess, and as Victoria joins forces with survivalist Jem, the two set out to destroy the signal tower supposedly controlling the voyeurs and hunters.
It's at the half-way mark with a tense standoff, that the twist of the episode comes about. Victoria is revealed to be a murderer who, along with her fiance, abducted and killed a young girl (whom Victoria thought was her daughter). As part of her sentencing, Victoria has her memory wiped every day, and is placed in a makeshift-town compound where members of the public come to spectate and record the toying and torture of Victoria; mimicking the dreadful acts she and her fiancee enacted on their abducted victim.
While the revelation that Victoria isn't as innocent as she first appeared knocks us off our feet, the idea of repeatedly being tortured and having no reason why sounds like a punishment you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy.