All Black Mirror episodes have the ability to leave the viewer in shock, but this episode in particular leaves the audience in a sense of paralysis, which all comes from the extremely vile twist in the last 2 minutes.

Black Mirror is a series of stand-alone dramas on Netflix where each episode focuses on the negative impacts of a futuristic world on individuals and overall society. As this is one of my favorite TV Shows, my passion blog will be my review of the most notable episodes and my view of the deeper meanings behind them. In my third blog, I will be looking at Season 3, Episode 3: Shut Up and Dance.

The episode follows Kenny, a shy teenager who works in a restaurant and is seemingly sweet to the patrons, especially the children. After Kenny’s sister uses his laptop to watch illegal movies, Kenny downloads a software system called Shrive. This system begins to videotape Kenny through his webcam without his knowledge. One night, after Kenny finishes masturbating in front of his laptop, he receives an anonymous message which reads: “WE SAW WHAT YOU DID.” The email requests that Kenny does certain activities, such as robbing a bank, delivering a mysterious package, and even having to kill someone. If Kenny refuses, the “video” of him will be leaked. The episode follows Kenny completing these various tasks. In the end, the Shrive hackers ended up releasing the video. The twist is that the video was not of Kenny simply masturbating– he was masturbating to child porn.

This episode shows just how dark Black Mirror can get. Throughout the entire episode, the audience finds themselves rooting for Kenny, hoping that he is able to deter away from the hackers. His personality is portrayed to be likable– his character manipulates the audience and demonstrates the idea that people are not always who they seem to be.

There also seems to be a grey area of whether the use of technology in this episode is either good or bad. Shrive (which actually is an archaic term for confessing to a priest) seems like they are the bad guys by forcing Kenny to do illegal activities throughout the episode. But in the end, Shrive has turned out to be the hero for punishing a child predator. This is a rare episode where technology is actually seen as somewhat of a benefit. Yet, this leads to an ethical discussion– is it alright for government and independent agencies to invade personal privacy if it means ending certain crimes?

The most significant message from this episode is that you never know who is watching. Be careful on the internet.