Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Black Mirror Season 7.Black Mirror is known for its twisted sense of morality, often the idea of a classic villain is shelved for a more self-reflective approach. However, that doesn’t mean the anthology doesn’t create incredibly rich antagonists, and in “Bête Noire,” the second episode of the freshly released Season 7, the show has given us its most interesting and sinister villain yet. Verity (Rosy McEwen) shares a rare trait among Black Mirror antagonists in that she isn’t the audience’s focal perspective, as we are watching the story through Maria (Siena Kelly). This means the viewer isn’t given insight into her psyche until the closing moments, and her actions, partnered with her personality shifts, are disorientating and haunting. It is only through McEwen’s performance that “Bête Noire” pulls off the sense of reality shifting, as she feels unshakable in a tornado of disorientation. Verity’s presence makes it impossible for the audience to feel settled, which is the foundation of a great Black Mirror villain.
“Bête Noire” Purposefully Starts at Ordinary
Black Mirror’s normal thesis is that we can be the villains of other people’s narratives without even realizing it. Often, the anthology series has utilized the twist that the protagonist’s true nature hasn’t been revealed to the audience, such as in “Shut Up and Dance” and “White Bear.” Similarly, the show can evidence how unconscious misuse of technology often turns ordinary people antagonistic, or at least makes them harmful to themselves or others. This blurred sense of morality is definitely present in “Bête Noire,” yet the forward presence of technology is less obvious, as the episode appears to place itself in the present day.
The protagonist, Maria, is introduced as mundane in her lifestyle. She has a successful career conceptualizing chocolate flavors and balances this with a healthy home dynamic with her boyfriend. Her relationships at work are shown to be friendly but not exaggerated, and although she is engages in teasing tit-for-tat with others, it is shown as a normal aspect of the workplace environment rather than feeling truly mean. Therefore, the slow unraveling of her sense of self following the arrival of Verity is hugely unsettling. In a similar way, Verity is presented in a fairly ordinary way, the speed she gets hired is dubious but not shown as totally extraordinary. The set-up of “Bête Noire” purposefully grounds the audience and doesn’t introduce any revolutionary technology, which makes the slow descent into ambiguity effective.
Verity’s Manipulation Heightens the Audience Mandela Effect
Verity’s first few scenes show her being coy yet kind towards others; she seems to have this subtle allure that makes others trust her. Although this makes Maria skeptical, due to Verity’s personality at school, she actually appears helpful and charming to the audience. However, as the episode progresses, McEwen shifts from gentle to manipulative and cold interchangeably, creating an uncomfortably. This heightens the audience’s sense of unease surrounding the distorted reality created. The unsettling performance feeds into the way reality is shifting. Much like Maria, the audience knows Verity is the catalyst for these changes, but just how in control she is makes the audience replicate Maria’s confusion.
The antagonistic intentions of Verity are purposefully not overt, which is what makes her such a sinister villain. She is never unapologetically immoral, and even when the audience and Maria know she has altered the truth, she doesn’t admit it, and this ability to easily shift the truth so underhandedly shows her eerie cruelty. This is epitomized in the scene where Verity appears in the office kitchen opposite Maria and pulls a carton of almond milk out of the fridge.
Throughout the episode, one of their co-workers constantly complained about people drinking this milk without asking. Verity viciously begins chugging the whole carton with ferocious intent, and it is the first time the audience sees her malignance. However, it is the following sense that shows her stealthy venomousness as she begins to plead her innocence and blame the incident on Maria. When viewing the security footage with their boss, Verity has a grin of immense control. Even when Maria pleads that she has a nut allergy and therefore couldn’t have drunk the almond milk, we see that not even that works. Verity seemingly erases the concept of a nut allergy, which makes her manipulation powers seem limitless.
“Bête Noire” Is an Allegory for the Toxicity of the High School Environment
Black Mirror introduces snippets of Verity’s backstory through Maria, implying she was isolated at school but found comfort in her adeptness with coding and computers. It is highlighted that Maria was responsible for part of Verity’s social exclusion, but as Maria is portrayed in a positive, mundane manner, the audience feels Verity’s actions are unjust. However, in the final moments, the episode toys with morality as it is revealed that Verity has created the technology to alter reality and utilize parallel versions of the truth to manipulate her current actuality to suit her needs. This is all done as revenge, as Maria started an awful rumor that ruined Verity’s high school experience.
As Verity reveals the truth, she speaks in a cold tone that has finally evolved into excessive villainy, as she doesn’t have to hide her actions anymore. Yet, as a viewer, you don’t know whether her motivations validate her actions. The whole situation is obviously extreme, but her desire for control comes from her freedom being taken away from her. Black Mirror makes a point to show all the things Verity has done with her reality-altering abilities, from becoming a literal ruler of the universe to going to the Moon and even meeting Harry Styles. There is a clear sense that Verity has attempted to move on, but throughout the immense sense of liberation, her mind always travels back to how she was treated as a child. She didn’t create the technology to seek revenge. She was haunted by the past and finally did something about it.
Verity uses words to alter people’s thoughts, and this mirrors the way Maria and her friends used words at school to alter how people perceived Verity. There is this poignant parallel between the spread of gossip and the way Verity uses her new technology. It makes her this fascinatingly complex villain that, at first glance, feels particularly calculating and sinister, even by Black Mirror’s standards. Yet, her narrative arc creates relevant and poignant social commentary that adds layers of necessary nuance.
You can watch all of the episodes of Black Mirror on Netflix in the U.S.
Black Mirror
- Release Date
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December 4, 2011
- Network
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Channel 4, Netflix
