Black Mirror Season 4 Reviews: Episode 2 - Arkangel

Warning Spoilers Ahead

Arkangle is the story of helicopter parenting taken to a sci-fi extreme. Directed by Jodi Foster, the story centers around Marie a mother who uses the latest technology to achieve the ultimate level of over-protective parenting. Terrified by the experience of losing her daughter Sara for hours at a local park, Marie has her implanted with a chip as part of the "Arkangel" program.  The chip can track Sara's location, monitor her vitals, see through her eyes and even censor frightening, violent or sexual imagery in real time.

It's readily apparent what an egregious violation of privacy this could be, how detrimental the chip might be to childhood development, and how attractive it would be to some parents. This technology is not so far away either. We're all familiar with parental controls on TVs and other devices and wearable GPS trackers for children are already on the market. Arkangel's titular device has similarities to both the recording technology from The Entire History of You, and White Christmas's ability to "block" people in real life. Though slightly derivative it manages to avoid redundancy and explore new possibilities by applying these concepts to a growing child. 

In a tacked on side plot, young Sara's grandfather experiences a stroke. Sara sees him in distress but the system censors his image and pleas for help. Luckily Marie is alerted to a spike in Sara's cortisol levels and is able to call for help in time to save her grandfather's life. He dies a few years later and perhaps wouldn't have gone so soon if Sara had been able to help him. Unfortunately this potentially compelling side-plot is entirely forgotten by the end of the episode.

One of the core themes of this story is the allure of the forbidden which becomes a central conflict for nine year old Sara. Her inability to see the censored imagery only intensifies her desire to experience it. When her classmate Trick shows off a tablet loaded with mature content Sara's friends are disgusted by it, yet she demands to look at it, even though she'll only see a pixelated screen. She asks Trick to describe it to her, but his words soon become garbled as the Arkangel program recognizes a spike in Sara's cortisol levels and censors him accordingly. Her urge to witness something forbidden becomes so strong that she self-harms, piercing her finger with a pencil in hopes of getting just one glimpse of human blood. When even that is censored she wipes it on her cheek. If she can't see it, she at least wants to feel it.

After this extreme episode Marie deactivates the Arkangel chip and stores away the control tablet vowing never to use it again. The next day Sara sits mesmerized as Trick shows her a stream of violent films and pornography. There's a bit of subtle foreshadowing in this scene as Trick explains "They can't make babies that way, they have to do it different for that".

It's at this point that the story shifts direction entirely. The set up seems to promise some natural consequences of Sara being sheltered in such an extreme manner during her formative years but none really materialize. After a short montage she grows into a completely normal fifteen year old girl (well normal other then the fact that the actress playing her is clearly in her early 20s). 

As Sara begins to engage in the typical teenage hijinks of drinking, drugs and sex, her mother, catches wind of her deviations and once again the allure of the forbidden rears its ugly head. Sara tells Marie that she's at a harmless all-girls slumber party at her friend Riley's place when in fact she's headed down to the lake to smoke pot with now 19 year old Trick and his friends and possibly get laid. Marie, still a bit overprotective feels compelled to call her daughter and check up on her. When Sara doesn't pick up the phone, she calls Riley's parents, who reveal to her that there is no slumber party.

After calling all of Sara's friends Marie fails to figure out where her daughter is. Marie could choose the age old tactic of waiting at the kitchen table for a long talk with Sara when she gets home, but the quick and easy technological solution to her dilemma is too enticing. She turns the Arkangel system back on and inadvertently witnesses her daughter lose her virginity to Trick. 

Days later she continues to snoop. She learns that Trick deals cocaine and witnesses Sara doing lines with him. This puts Marie in quite a dilemma as she must intervene in this dangerous situation, but can't confront her daughter directly as that would entail revealing that she violated her privacy and betrayed her trust by reactivating the Arkangel system. She first approaches Trick and forces him to break up with Sara without explanation, under threat of being turned in to the police. Being dumped by Trick sends Sara into a deep depression which her mother can do little to alleviate. 

Marie's schemes are undone as Sara reports to the school nurse complaining of nausea and vomiting. The nurse reveals that she's having an adverse reaction to abortion pills. Thus Sara discovers that her mother had slipped the offending drugs into one of her smoothies. Of course the only explanation is that Marie reactivated the system, which detected her pregnancy. Sara easily guesses that her mother's also responsible for her relationship ending.

The story ends with Sara beating her mother half to death with the Arkangel tablet. In the process the device's censor mode is switched on, resulting in Sara seeing only the pixelated image of her mother's battered face and garbled versions of her please for Sara to stop. In the end Sara runs away and Marie is left wandering the streets desperately calling her daughter's name in a manner reminiscent of that fateful day at the beginning of the story when she lost Sara at a park. The tragic irony is Marie enrolled Sara in the arkangel program out of fear of losing her, yet in the end it was that very system that drove her away. 

Though well acted with intriguing and relatively plausible concepts this episode did a poor job of merging its two halves as each has a decidedly different core conflict. The first half focused on the subject of repression and the assertion that censoring objectionable imagery only makes it more enticing. Sara's friends, unburdened by any digital veil are able to develop a natural aversion to violence and gore, yet thanks to the Arkangel's filters Sara has no such inhibitions. There's vast potential in this idea but the episode ultimately squanders it.

The second half was a typical story of the pitfalls of trust and betrayal when it comes to reckless behavior among teenagers. Marie's use of the Arkangel system becomes a fatal error. Had she simply confronted Sara after catching her in a lie all the later calamities might have been averted. As the conflict of the second half is rather mundane and well traveled territory it wasn't nearly as satisfying or thought provoking as that of the first half and one can't help but feel an opportunity was missed.

For a strong premise and skillful acting hampered by a poorly constructed plot line I give Arkangel a B-.