SPOILERS AHEAD (obviously…)
One of Black Mirror’s most talked about episodes, “White Bear” is a non-stop suspenseful thriller that follows protagonist, Victoria Skillane. She wakes up in a chair set up facing the television in her bedroom, with no recollection of who she is or how she wound up there. Skillane quickly finds that she is being hunted by a group of people while the vast majority of people around her watch silently and record the chaos taking place. As she grapples with this new reality and struggles to adapt, her discoveries only become more sinister throughout the day.
Just as any Black Mirror episode does, “White Bear” contains a shocking and horrifying twist that changes the entire mood of the narrative. Leading up to this revelation are several moments that become more telling upon a second watch. These events come together to create a compelling and brutal narrative. The episode’s end is teased throughout the story with the White Bear symbol shown repeatedly, several flashbacks, and various visual as well as auditorial clues.
Poor Signal
The White Bear symbol, commonly referred to as “the signal,” appears frequently throughout the episode. At the very beginning of the episode just before Skillane wakes up, the symbol flashes briefly onscreen. It is then seen shortly after on the television screens she has in her house. It later appears on the ski mask of the hunter that chases Skillane with a gun as well as another masked hunter. Additionally, she is told to wear a ski mask with the symbol on it by a different hunter. Toward the end of the episode, it is shown in one of Skillane’s flashbacks as a neck tattoo. Soon after, it appears on several screens in the control room. It is revealed that the symbol holds significance being a distinctive neck tattoo on Skillane’s dead killer fiancé, Iain Rannoch. The symbol is shown once again, displayed brightly in the theatre where the show is held, and is the symbol of the park where Skillane’s day takes place.
Blast from the Past
Skillane has several flashbacks throughout the day that lead her through the story. The first time the woman says, “white bear,” Skillane has a flashback to recording Jamima speaking. At another time, she peeks at an onlooker’s phone and has a flashback to calling Jamima’s name and looking at herself in a car’s rearview mirror while flames erupt in the background. Later, a camera flash causes another flashback where Jamima’s white teddy bear can be seen and Skillane tells her to lay down with it. The depiction of the bear hints at its importance, being the symbol of hope during the search for Jamima, and the namesake of White Bear Justice Park as well as the episode’s name itself.
Another flashback occurs where two police officers approach in a car, another of Skillane handcuffed to a chair, another of her sitting in a car watching Rannoch, and another where she appears frozen and traumatized as Rannoch throws something over his shoulder outside. As Skillane gets closer to finding out the truth, two more flashbacks depict her watching Rannoch walk around a fire, and then them sitting in the car together as the fire burns outside. These flashbacks all subtly hint at major details of the episode’s end.
Cues and Clues
Many visual and auditorial hints can be identified in “White Bear” that act as foreshadows. Skillane awakes with immediate head pain and quickly notices gauze wrapped around her wrists. Panicked, she races to the kitchen and chugs water from the sink. Immediately, it is known that Skillane is in severe discomfort. She spots a picture in a frame of her and Rannoch, as well as a photo of Jamima that was tucked into the frame. It looks unnatural. She looks at the photos and her head hurts again.
Skillane easily spots her sweatshirt and sneakers, which are left out like props for her to find. Upon exiting her house, she finds that everyone is recording her but nobody says anything. They record Skillane to represent what she did to Jamima, watching and recording as she was tortured. Skillane’s main recurring enemies are a man wearing a ski mask and a woman wearing a lamb mask. While the ski mask holds the White Bear symbol, the lamb is a symbol of innocence and purity but also sacrifice and atonement. It represents Skillane’s guilt and the price she now pays for what she did. The man picks up Skillane and the woman and Skillane insists that she knows him. This is simply from living the day over and over again.
Several auditorial clues are planted throughout the story as well. One of the first remarks Skillane makes is that she can’t remember who she is. As the onlookers just stare blankly and say nothing, it is clear that she has no memory and it is meant for it to be this way. They later cheer and yell at Skillane once she finds out the truth.
The woman easily gaslights her into thinking that that the hunters and onlookers have taken over the world because, having no memory, she is impressionable. She later tells Skillane not to look at the onlookers’ phones because it is dangerous, but truly, she does not want her to look at the phone because it would ruin the illusion of the story. Later, when the man picks up Skillane and the woman, Skillane states that she knows where his safeplace is. She knows this story deep down because she has experienced it several times.
Fun and Games
“White Bear” features a couple of quirky easter eggs for viewers to enjoy. There was a white bear chocolate egg hidden on set as a meta easter egg. The episode itself is also one of the most commonly referenced Black Mirror stories. It has made several cameos in other episodes all the way through the franchise’s most recent season. The combination of the episode’s whimsical easter eggs and dark details add to its unpredictable and sinister nature.
