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Analysis of Arkangel

Synopsis: 

The episode Arkangel follows a single mother called Marie who after giving birth to her daughter Sara, has to raise her all on her own with only help from her father, Russ. All seems to be going well for them, but one day, when Sara is three-years-old, she gets lost in a park after following a cat. They end up finding her eventually, but that experience traumatizes Marie to the point of choosing to sign up Sara for a trial of a new technology called Arkangel, which works as a child-monitoring system that’s installed via an implant, and allows Marie, through a computer tablet, to see, hear and record, everything that Sara does. Additionally she can also filter censor stimuli when they cause Sara stress, making it so her daughter can’t see -or hear- the things that scare her like the intimidating neighborhood dog. Life goes on, and for a while, things seem to be working out for them. Arkangel even proves to be a useful decision when shortly after, Ross suffers a stroke, and only survives it because Marie was notified through Sara’s implant of the situation. 

After this we fast forward six years into the future. Russ is now dead, and Sara, now in middle school, is exposed to sexual and violent imagery by a classmate called Trick, though seeing as the filter is still activated, she gets confused when she realizes she can't make out what he’s showing her.  This prompts her to draw blood from her finger to learn what it looks like, which in turn worries Marie who gets her assessed by a psychologist. The psychologist advises Marie to get rid of Arkangel, which at this point is soon to be banned anyway. Marie takes her advice and deactivates the filter, storing the tablet in the attic. The next day, when Sara goes to school unsupervised, she finally sees the scary dog and the disturbing things Trick shows her.

Fast forward a few years, Sara is now 15, and she lies to her mother about going to a friend’s house, when in reality she’s going to a party with Trick. When Marie discovers the lie, and fails to contact her, she gets her old tablet from the attic and turns it on. Once she does, she discovers Sara having sex with Trick. Unable to help herself, from that moment on, Marie continues to use the tablet to monitor her teenage daughter, and one day, sees her snorting cocaine with Trick. This event causes Marie to track Trick down, and confront him at work, blackmailing him into staying away from her daughter. It seems to work, until she gets a notification on her tablet that Sara is pregnant. Because of this, the following morning she slips an emergency contraceptive pill into Sara’s smoothie, who later vomits at school and is informed by the nurse that the pill caused it. It is at this moment that Sara realizes everything that has been happening. Filled with rage, Sara confronts her mother and forces the tablet away from her, which accidentally reactivates the filter. As she can’t see the damage that she’s doing, Sara goes overboard on her attack, and beats Marie unconscious with the tablet, breaking it in the process.

With the filter deactivated, Sara runs away. Once Marie regains consciousness, she frantically yells for Sara down the street, but it is too late, and the episode closes with a hitch-hiking Sara, getting into a truck.

Analysis: 

Ever since the rapid development of technology began, and especially in these last few years, the dilemma of just how much is too much, has been universally debated and talked about, to the point of enabling it to become the main theme of shows and movies such as Black Mirror, that strive to warn against the disastrous consequences of human nature when mixed with powerful tools.

Technology, which can be defined as the application of all scientific knowledge, is undoubtedly the most powerful thing we as humans have. As easily as it creates, it destroys.  Decades ago, we had our own lack of abilities to stop us from crossing ethical lines, but as inventions progress and we evolve, the limits become less and less theoretical and morph into actual everyday realities. In other words, it seems as if the only thing stopping us from doing the unthinkable was… well, nothing. 

The concept of technology and as of late, artificial intelligence, has always been a complicated one, and to make matters even more so, it’s almost as if discovering what’s possible, automatically makes the question of what’s ethical take a back seat. Black Mirror, in general, does a great job at walking this thin line, and playing beautifully with the phrase “Just because you’re able to do something, doesn’t mean that you should”.

The episode we’ll be diving into today: Arkangel from season 4, is no exception. 

We loved Arkangel for several reasons. Firstly, we were drawn to the way the plot presents a future scenario that could be very realistic. The idea of a chip implanted in a child's brain to ensure their safety made us reflect on just how far we would go to protect our loved ones if the right tools were available to us. In this sense, the episode perfectly captured the delicate balance that exists between being protective of your children and being overbearing of them, all while using technology to highlight the consequences and implications of well-intentioned, wrong choices. All of this prompted us to contemplate overprotection and its potentially negative impact on a child's development, which is a theme relevant in our current society, where technology and surveillance are continually on the rise. The episode compelled us to engage in ethical and moral discussions, which was one of the aspects we appreciated most about the series.

Additionally to the expertly crafted plot, Jodie Foster's direction of the episode was exceptional as she managed to create a strong emotional connection between the mother and daughter. This made us genuinely care about the characters and their decisions throughout this episode. Actress Rosemarie DeWitt, in her role as the mother, delivered a moving performance, depicting her struggle to keep her daughter safe. This led us to question the boundaries of parental control and the importance of privacy in a child's life.

To give some examples of this, our favorite parts of the episode were the ones with the most drama, like the day they decided to visit a nearby park. That's when Sara, who started chasing a cat, disappears for a few moments. After not seeing her on the slides, her mother Marie suffers a panic attack. However, her daughter appears shortly after safe and sound in the arms of one of the many neighbors who began looking for her. Upon finding her, her mother clings to her between cries and wails as if she had been on the verge of death, all while she asks for forgiveness for taking her eyes off her for a few seconds.

Another one of our favorite scenes was when one night, after Marie made numerous calls to find her daughter and got no response, she became desperate.  She calls the parents of her daughter's friends, they tell her they don't know where she is.  There is only one option left, Arkangel.  She decides to turn on the tablet just at the worst moment, when Sara has her first sexual relationship, from then on, she returns to spying. And finally, another part that we found super interesting and shocking was when Sara catches her mother with the tablet and, immediately afterwards, takes it out of her hands to hit her repeatedly on the head with it until she is unconscious. The last scene shows how the little girl, not so little anymore, escapes from home with the suitcase in tow while her mother, with a bloody face, tries to unlock the broken device.

In short, we really liked Arkangel because it offered a blend of excitement, drama and ethical dilemmas. This episode encouraged us to think deeply about the implications of our technological choices in today's society, as it made us feel concerned about the long-term impact of technology in our lives. It presents the idea that, when trying to protect our loved ones excessively, we might limit their personal growth and their ability to face challenges on their own. The plot shows how the protagonist, Marie, starts with good intentions when using the Arkangel technology to keep her daughter safe, but over time, this becomes an emotional burden and a barrier in their relationship.

This story also makes us reflect on how impulsive decisions and overprotection can have a lasting impact on the independence and development of our children. It urges us to carefully consider the long-term implications of our actions and to find a healthy balance between protection and freedom. Ultimately, the episode makes us question how technology can influence our everyday life and our relationships, and it makes us concerned about the unforeseen consequences of extreme surveillance and control. 

Upon deeper reflection of the episode, we can’t help but wonder what would happen if our parents constantly saw what we see. We would lose every bit of privacy that we already have today, and the total control they would have over us would make it impossible for us to perform normal actions with our friends, family and partner. Not only that, but the implantation could be unconscious, that is, we would not necessarily know that we have it, which is even worse and would violate our privacy.

Nowadays we already don’t have much privacy as it is, for it’s no secret that in our everyday devices we have activated options that violate our privacy. Especially as most of us are not used to reading the terms and conditions of the content we consume. Because of this, we don’t always realize that we have reached this point, and that a lot of the themes explored in Arkangel are already a  reality. Because of this, the biggest reflection from this episode is perhaps to look more carefully into the things we choose to accept and the options we activate when using the internet and social networks. 

In conclusion, the use of technological tools or artificial intelligence has its advantages and disadvantages. As seen in Arkangel, the use of chips to control children is something that helps their protection and mental health, but when it goes to overprotection it can become something harmful and detrimental to the health of children, as they grow up with the concept that they have to be watched all day, they will not have freedom or free choice. These AIs create new benefits for humanity but we must be careful of what negative effects can also create.

We can rely a lot on AI's but not to the point of depending on them, it is ok to let them help us, but not to let us get to the point where artificial intelligences will do everything for us. We must be careful that future generations grow up with adequate knowledge about these intelligences and that they know about their advantages and disadvantages so that in the future they know what these intelligences are capable of doing without having to suffer so many of the negative, possible, consequences shown in Black Mirror. The episode Arkangel took all of these complex ideas, and summarized them into one perfectly written story. Because of this, our final rating for this episode is 10/10 stars.