‘Bête Noire’ Is a Dark Satire About Quantum Gaslighting

Black Mirror season 7, episode 2 proves an interesting standout for the Netflix anthology show

Netflix

One of Black Mirror’s most defining traits has always been its grounded nature. It takes place in a world not very different from the one we know today. The inventions each episode centers around are futuristic, but rarely depicted in a way that feels nebulous or disconnected from our reality.

So much of the impact in Black Mirror lies in its twists. But because the perils and hair-raising philosophical conundrums that the show’s new technologies pose are much of what define the separate chapters, the conversation about them feels incomplete if we can’t discuss where things begin to go awry. How precisely the innovations are abused. As a result, it’s hard to explore the value in each episode without including a few light spoilers. (So consider yourself warned.)

“Bête Noire,” the second episode of the seventh season, stays faithful to the series’ grounded tone while simultaneously depicting some of its most fantastical material yet. The dystopian tenets that typically define the genre are less pronounced. People wear plain clothes. They use familiar phones and computers. But the innovation that serves as the episode’s anchor point is arguably the most outlandish one that the show has introduced to date: essentially, a remote control that can alter the universe at will. (Or more specifically, manifest alternate realities to trigger nemeses into believing they’re going mad.)

The concept is lofty, even absurd. But by departing from the grim plausibility that’s such a staple signature of Black Mirror, the door is left open for a different kind of storytelling. It offers less of a philosophical forecast, and more of a psychological fable.

In some ways, the episode feels like confirmation of my long-growing suspicion that Black Mirror is running out of ideas. The show has always walked a tightrope between innovation and redundancy. As real-world technology endlessly accelerates, their writers aren’t merely tasked with imagining dystopian futures, but staying ahead of a world rapidly making them into realities. The line between foresight and repetition grows thinner.

From one perspective, “Bête Noire” could be seen as a product of this ever-drying reservoir of still-untapped ideas. But it’s an episode of unique dichotomies. What it lacks in believability, it makes up for in stylistic flair and experimentation. It’s more entertaining than it is down-to-earth and nihilistic. Unlike the show’s quintessential episodes, which hit hard precisely because they feel like they could happen, this episode embraces a scenario that will almost certainly never come to fruition. It trades prophecy for parable and believable dystopia for something closer to sci-fi.

“Bête Noire” hardly feels like a cautionary tale. It’s more akin to classic escapism than a primer on an impending future.

And yet, the allegory to “gaslighting” feels more at home in our modern world than even some of the Black Mirror machines that have already been invented. Adding a special novelty to the phenomenon is that there are two different versions of the episode — displaying differently on different TVs. (Essentially, the episode gaslights viewers at home in the same way that we see happen to the protagonist.)

Grounding such an out-there episode is no simple feat. Great sci-fi often strikes a delicate balance between imagination and realism. Interstellar shows us black holes and dimensions beyond our own, but it does so with enough scientific rigor and emotional gravity that it never feels like nonsense. “Bête Noire” achieves something similar. It’s unrealistic, but not hokey. It’s unlikely to be prophetic, but nor is it outright unscientific.

The episode toys with ideas surrounding quantum computers — machines that, even in real-world labs, are said to have the ability to simulate entire alternate realities. The fictional device at the center of “Bête Noire” is an extreme extrapolation of this premise. But the foundation is real. There are legitimate scientific discussions unfolding right now about how quantum systems might disrupt our understanding of causality and consciousness itself. The episode won’t be winning any awards for scientific accuracy, but it borrows from real developments enough to introduce an element of credibility.

Getting into alternate universe territory often strips stories of their scientific weight. But “Bête Noire” doesn’t aim for coherence in the way that more typical sci-fi would. Instead, it leans into the emotional consequences of existing in a world that can be rewritten on a whim. And that emotional core is what saves it from feeling hollow.

Much of that success lies in the performances. Siena Kelly convincingly portrays a woman whose grip on reality rapidly starts to unravel. Rosy McEwen was an impeccable casting choice for the aptly-named, Verity. She’s timid and enigmatic but carries a quiet air of foreboding and intensity, expertly balancing charm with menace. Michael Workeye and Ben Bailey Smith play supporting roles and aid in driving home the main character’s frustrations as she begins to question her sanity.

This season’s second outing isn’t devoid of flaws, and its conclusion is neither Black Mirror’s most shocking, nor most cerebral. But it’s an effective ending to one of the most unique and memorable hours the series has produced in years.

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