Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror features numerous disturbing future technologies, but the scariest one yet is the direct focus of season 4, episode 2, "Arkangel." While a device that allows for a parent or guardian to see through the eyes of their child may seem like a great idea, the episode's events prove that this power comes with severe consequences for both parties. Here's why the technology in "Arkangel" is the scariest one in the Black Mirror universe to date.
The dystopian series revitalized the examination of the future of technology and its impact on humanity that came from the popular television show The Twilight Zone. In many instances, the two have been compared to one another with Black Mirror being deemed this generation's version of Rod Sterling's sci-fi horror anthology. Brooker's series premiered in 2011 with the infamous first episode, "The National Anthem", which features a disturbing sex act between a man and a pig. While it initially started with fairly unknown actors and writers, it has expanded to feature celebrities such as Miley Cyrus, Jon Hamm, Topher Grace, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. Even Jodie Foster contributed to the series by directing the controversial season 4, episode 2, "Arkangel."
Each episode in the series features at least one different, unique piece of technology that is either newly introduced or depicts the future of an existing one. While "Arkangel" isn't the most disturbing Black Mirror episode, it does feature the scariest piece of technology that the show has to offer to date. As of this writing, the future of season 6 remains unknown, but the equipment that evokes the most fear is a certainty.
The Arkangel software implant has a major impact on the user and the child it is inserted into. Single mother Marie Sambrell (Rosemarie DeWitt) fears for her daughter's safety after briefly losing her. In order to ease her fears, she takes Sara (Sarah Abbott) to get the Arkangel neural implant that allows for her to see through the child's eyes. Marie is given a monitoring system that opens up to reveal the various options for blocking people, images, words, phrases, and more. It also alerts her when Sara has left the house, is in danger, and - the biggest point of the episode - becomes pregnant. The horrors that Marie faces as a result of the Arkangel device do not come until much later, but her daughter experiences them every single day.
Ever since she was a child, Sara was only allowed to see what her mother would let her. She was under the most severe amount of forced censoring at the hands of her mother. While Marie briefly stopped using the device, she returned to it when Sara was a teenager to monitor her every move. At this point, it is revealed in the episode that the Arkangel has been banned due to its controversial misuse. It may seem like nothing more than a monitoring system, but it is far more horrific than that. It cannot be removed due to its ban, which means that anyone with the implant will constantly fear the reactivation of their tablet by someone with ill-intentions. The Arkangel may not seem to be the most severe method of implementing technology to control a person, but it is when it's used on a child and could prove detrimental to their development. Had Sara's mother been abusive, it could've resulted in the equipment being used as a abusive form of punishment. If Sara had not broken the tablet over her mother's head, she would never know peace without it.
Season 4, episode 2, "Arkangel" features a technology that can be implanted into a person without their consent under the jurisdiction of parental allowance. It gives a person the opportunity to control every aspect of an individual's life even before they are able to comprehend what right and wrong truly is. In the case of Sara and Marie, the controversial technology results in physical harm and drugging. When someone has the power to look through someone else's eyes, control what they see, what they do, and how they do it, it strips them of any autonomy, which is the most horrific aspect of Black Mirror's "Arkangel".