Fridge Brilliance
- Fridge Brilliance time (and crosses into Fridge Horror as per this show's norm): The Observers are initially set up as brainwashed masses who do nothing but give the "hunters" an audience under the influence of some malignant signal. After the reveal, it's made clear that the "observers" are just extras from the public put there to enhance the terrifying experience for the condemned as well as, which is outlined in the last few minutes, to "have fun." Meaning they are there willingly doing pretty much what their characters are doing; the only difference is they have free will and are doing it for fun. This makes the already blunt Take That! of the Observers that little bit more sinister.
- The white bear was a symbol for Jemima's disappearance. It's also the name of the Justice Park where Victoria is imprisoned. Judging by these two facts, it's likely that Victoria and her fiancée's crime was the inspiration for the Park's existence in the first place.
Fridge Logic
- Fridge Logic: In the UK (where, judging by the accents, we assume the White Bear episode is set), the government actually signed the United Nations Convention Against Torture, which would forbid them practising torture of this caliber. If they broke the convention, its subsequent nations would intervene very, very swiftly, meaning the White Bear Justice Park wouldn't exist without serious argument with other countries...
- The way they did when the US started waterboarding people? The UN isn't exactly known for its ability to make its member states live up to their promises.
- Similarly, as much as people hate murderers, and would never defend the kind of torture Victoria condoned, there would realistically be a large amount of people protesting against White Bear. Amnesty International and The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights would certainly cause trouble for the White Bear justice park. There's no way that a place like that could realistically exist without at least some Vocal (and powerful) Minorities getting in the way.
- In-universe, we can possibly argue that it's a 20 Minutes into the Future-style scenario wherein there's been some kind of drastic political and social upheavals which have rendered the above legal obstacles moot, or an Alternate History where such legislation does not exist. Out-of-universe, it's an up to eleven satire of the kind of not so different mindset that tends to emerge whenever something horrible happens like a child-murderer being discovered and arrested, and there's usually a lot of 'hanging's-too-good-for-them' style rhetoric from pundits on the sidelines (both in the media and outside of it) and conversations which tend to quickly get consumed with all the kinds of nasty things that should happen to them instead of just going to jail. Brooker's constructing what is, acknowledged, a fairly exaggerated scenario to suggest that, ultimately, this kind of mindset is just as abhorrent as the kind of mindset that would find amusement in torturing a little girl to death, except it's masking a similar kind of sadistic desire to do unspeakable harm (whether physical or psychological) to another human being in a cloak of smug self-righteousness and the belief that 'justice' would be done. He's raising the question that if you were to sadistically torture a sadistic torturer, even if your motives were 'good', wouldn't you ultimately end up being just as bad as the torturer?
- Astonishingly, there's currently some fairly clouty tabloid-led opposition to human rights legislation in the UK, so getting out of those treaties in the near future is sadly one of the least implausible things in Black Mirror.
- How has Victoria not collapsed or broken down from pure exhaustion at this point? She spends her days in a state of constant stress and terror while she's chased, threatened, abused and even occasionally tased if she gets too out of control, and her nights being brutally tortured, with no chance for any proper food, fluids or real sleep. Even if she were being fed intravenously when she's unconscious in the period between her mind being wiped and waking up to restart the cycle, her body could only take so much before it gave up, especially after having to go through this for at least 18 days already (and implicitly a lot more, given how well established the park is). She also could be suffering from brain damage/trauma by this stage, depending on the havoc the mind-wipe device inflicts on her each time it's used; judging by her agonised screams, it isn't doing her temporal lobe any favours.
Fridge Horror
- At the end of the episode, Baxter says it will take about half an hour to erase Victoria's memory of the day. She apparently spends the entire half hour in excruciating pain. If around 12 hours have passed since she woke up (which seems a reasonable estimate), then the device takes roughly an hour to erase 24 hours' worth of memories. Based on that ratio, Victoria may have spent over a year in agony having her twenty-something (or more) years wiped before her sentence even began.
- In the stinger, the sign outside the Justice Park says "advance bookings essential". Advance bookings are only ever considered essential if something is incredibly popular. And in the introduction Baxter and Jem give to the visitors, there are at least five pre-adolescent children. In this universe, White Bear Justice Park is apparently the equivalent of a day out at a normal theme park.
- The idea of otherwise ordinary people mocking and jeering a condemned criminal undergoing torture arguably worse than the crime committed already has precedent in history
, and they didn't need advanced technology to do so either.
