Technology and the Internet Can Be One's Own Downfall

     "Be Right Back" was Black Mirror's Season 2 premiere episode. It debuted with a protagonist named Martha losing her husband in a car accident. Martha has a hard time grieving with her husband's, Ash, death especially after finding out that she was pregnant with his baby. She didn't find out about the pregnancy till after his death so she never got the chance to tell him about their child, which crushed her more inside. At Ash's funeral Martha's friend had introduced and encouraged Martha to try an online computer software that would allow Martha to talk to "Ash", but of course Martha was not into it she even yelled at her friend Sarah to stop the foolishness she was speaking. I felt it was just not the right time for Sarah to bring it up and I felt it was highly disrespectful to speak of this service while Martha was still trying to grieve at the funeral. But, once Martha found out she was pregnant with his baby she felt she had no choice because she did not want to go through the pregnancy alone. I also felt she had a guilty consciousness and wanted to get the fact that she was pregnant off of her chest to him and she felt the online communication software was the only way.
     The online communication software works by taking all of a person's online statuses and sent emails and data via internet and using them to incorporate their personality and thought process to try to act and say things that they would say. So Martha gave the system the passwords to all his personal accounts and the system started to speak to her as if it was Ash. It would talk like Ash and make the same corny jokes that the real Ash would. Through the system she was able to tell Ash that she was pregnant and even allowed him to listen to the baby's heartbeat. Evidently it worked so good that she decided to get the Ash Robot. Being with the Ash Robot was like a surreal feeling for Martha. It's like she knew it wasn't him, yet at the same time it looked like him and she could hold him and be affectionate with him once again. Eventually the thought of knowing it wasn't really Ash dawned upon her so much that she kicked him out and tried to find everything that the Robot did wrong and criticize it.
     The irony of this episode is how when Ash was still alive Martha would be speaking to him and it's like he would always be focused on his phone and not really paying attention to her. In the opening scene when Ash was sitting in his car on the phone not worried about his wife out in the rain, I felt that was a bit strange and I think it foreshadowed his death and the fact that the only way Martha would be able to communicate with him and get his attention was via the internet various technological devices.