YMMV / Black Mirror: Loch Henry

Black Mirror YMMVJoan is Awful — Loch Henry — Beyond the Sea — Mazey Day — Demon 79

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Just how much of a willing participant was Iain in Kenneth and Janet's murders? Was he a mentally ill person who was manipulated by the two? Or was he simply another sadistic individual who joined the couple in mutual sadism? Some evidence, such as Stuart’s story of Iain in the bar, does seem to imply the latter.
  • Was Stuart's mother collecting and archiving information on the crime because she was fascinated, or because she was compiling evidence that Kenneth and Janet were involved?
  • Does Richard want the film production stopped, because he has any involvement with the case (rather than just the claimed relationship with Davis' parents) or is it to save the guy from finding out his folks are depraved serial killers?
  • There's a million interpretations regarding Janet:
    • Did she think, just like everybody else, that Iain had actually killed her husband? Was she in on Kenneth's plan to kill him and his family off to cover his tracks? When she openly told her son she blamed Iain for the death of Kenneth, was she simply lying to him to throw off suspicion? Or, an even worse consideration that would allude to her psychopathy, in some kind of refusal to admit Kenneth was in any way at fault; did she know the entire truth of what happened, but still blamed Iain in some form of self-denial or delusion?
    • When she gathers the evidence against her for her son to find and subsequently hangs herself, was it because she didn't want to be incarcerated, or she didn't want to see the look of disappointment on Davis' face once he found out the truth? Did she not want to embarrass him or make him feel guilty for living under her roof his entire childhood without knowing anything about her participation in the murders? When she looked at the photos of their crimes and put on the mask used during her slayings before committing suicide, was she reminiscing of the "good times" and wore the mask as some form of pride for her actions? Or was she simply looking at the photos because she just missed her husband and she put on the mask as a form of confession rather than pride?
    • Did she plan on ever harming Pia or not? Considering it's her son's girlfriend and she clearly loves her son, it was unlikely until Pia found the snuff film tapes. Even then, was she planning to kill her or simply silence her? Did she still possess the same kind of bloodlust she had all those decades ago?
• Complete Monster: Kenneth "Kenny" McCardle was a depraved Serial Killer who terrorized the remote town of Loch Henry. Hiding behind the façade of an honest policeman, Kenny and his wife, Janet, videotaped themselves raping, torturing, and killing eight people for nothing more than sadistic pleasure. Deciding to escape justice by framing his own protégé Iain Adair for the murders, Kenny massacred the entire Adair family simply to cut off loose ends.
• Misaimed Fandom: After this episode's release, several tourists began to flock to the real-life area in Scotland where the episode was filmed, seemingly ignoring how the episode ends with people visiting the pub after the true crime doc's success is a Pyrrhic Victory for the main character. Of course, there is a difference with the show being fictional rather than an actual Serial Killer being exposed, but a few of the locals condemned the show as “the worst possible advert for Arrochar and the surrounding area.”
• The Woobie: Davis becomes this by the end, as even when he becomes famous, it ends up shallow as he loses his girlfriend, he learns that his parents he idolized and loved for years were sadistic serial killers, and ends up alone by himself.

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