1. Katrell Greene
4/23/15
Professor Lawrence
ENG 201
Visual Analysis: White Bear
After thoroughly analyzing the episode “White Bear” of the Black Mirror series I came to
the conclusion that this episode brings forward the question, Should criminals be punished in
different ways rather than the normal imprisonment? In this episode Victoria Skillane is
punished for committing a crime in a very unorthodox fashion. Skillane wakes up every day and
relives the same terrible sequence of events. The woman in this episode is made to believe that
she is a survivor in an altered world where an image was sent out and it took over the minds of
majority of the population except for a chosen few. She is made to believe that she is a good
person though she was really an accomplice to a murder. There is a photo of a young girl planted
in the home she wakes up to everyday and she is led to believe that the girl in the picture is her
daughter. When in all actuality the young girl in the picture is the girl her boyfriend tortured and
murdered while she watched and recorded. Throughout the whole episode Victoria is being
punished for the crime that she committed but there a few times in particular that the punishment
is the worst.

2. Throughout the episode Victoria is being chased by what are identified as hunters. While
she believes that she is running for her life there are many bystanders recording with their phones
and not helping her. This part of the episode relates to what is explained in the reading
“Panopticism” by Michel Foucault. This event in this episode relates to what is in Foucault’s
reading because in the reading the author elaborates on a different type of imprisonment where in
the prison there is a large tower in the middle with a light on it that can see all parts of the prison
and in every cell. The large tower in the prison is called a panopticon. The bystanders in the
episode serve the same purpose, they watch her from all angles at all times. The reason why
these bystanders were added to her punishment is because they are doing the same exact thing
that she did which was watch and record as if she did not see that the young girl needed help.
There were a few parts of this episode where the bystanders really played a big part in her
punishment. One scene in particular was the first time where she felt that her life was
endangered, a masked man get out of his car and begins to chase and shoot at her with his
shotgun while a large crowd just follows and watches. Skillane was in disbelief about what was
happening and could not believe that people were just watching.
This episode also relates to another reading that I have read which is “Simulacra and
Simulation” by Baudrillard. In this reading the author discusses symbols and signs. Baudrillard
argues that consumer culture has evolved from a state in which we are surrounded by
representations or imitations of things that really exist, toward a state in which our lives are filled
with simulations, objects that look as if they represent something else but have really created the
reality they seem to refer to. This relates to the episode because there was a symbol used
frequently throughout the episode that really did not mean anything at all. In the episode the
symbol could be found in many places, TVs, mask, and cell phone screens just to name a few.

3. Though the symbol used in the show did not mean anything, it was not hard for Skillane to think
that it did because symbols in the past have held a lot of power. Adding the symbol to the
punishment made Victoria feel that a lot more was going on than what really was occurring.
These different aspects of the episode are what made me come to the conclusion that the purpose
of this episode was to ask, Should criminals be punished in different way rather than normal
imprisonment? These things made me believe that because I like the thought of what occurred in
the episode happening as a real punishment to sick criminals like Victoria Skillane. The
punishment she received in the episode is far worse than being in a normal prison.