Hated in the Nation

"Hated in the Nation"
Directed by	James Hawes
Written by	Charlie Brooker
Original air date	21 October 2016 (2016-10-21)
Running time	89 Minutes
Guest appearances
Kelly Macdonald – Karin Parke Faye Marsay – Blue Coulson Benedict Wong – Shaun Li Jonas Karlsson – Rasmus Sjolberg Joe Armstrong – Nick Shelton Elizabeth Berrington – Jo Powers Charles Babalola – Tusk Ben Miles – Chancellor Tom Pickering Esther Hall – Vanessa Dahl Holli Dempsey – Clara Meades Vinette Robinson – Lisa Bahar Georgina Rich – Tess Wallander Duncan Pow – Garrett Scholes Cecilia Noble – Dame Patricia Lamarr Katherine Kingsley – Dana Costello James Larkin – Simon Powers Robin Pearce – Harry Barclay Adrian Lukis – Home Secretary Alex Willis Jane Bertish – Head of MI5 Anita Anand – News Anchor Thomas Dominique – Roadie Leonie Elliott – Fiona, Clara's Flatmate Reon Smith Marshall – Aaron Sheen Matheus Mirek – Delivery Man Jeremy Booth – Dog Walker Tom Ashley – Paramedic

"Hated in the Nation" is the sixth and final episode of the third series of Black Mirror starring Kelly Macdonald, Faye Marsay and Benedict Wong. It was written by series creator Charlie Brooker and premiered on Netflix on 21 October 2016.

Plot

DCI Karin Parke (Kelly Macdonald) has been summoned to a hearing to discuss her involvement in a case. On May 15th of the previous year, journalist Jo Powers (Elizabeth Berrington) is found dead at home with her throat cut. Powers had recently been subjected to online death threats after she published a column critical of a disabled activist’s suicide. Karin investigates Powers’s death and meets up with new partner, Blue (Faye Marsay), who has transferred from a cyber forensics department. Parke initially believes Powers was murdered by her husband, but rules him out.

Parke discovers Powers had been targeted with the Twitter hashtag #DeathTo, used against people who become public hate figures. Powers’s autopsy reveals an Autonomous Drone Insect (ADI), created to replace the now-extinct bee population, lodged in her brain. The ADIs were created by a company named Granular, and employee Rasmus (Jonas Karlsson) learns that they were locally hacked. He and NCA agent Shaun Li (Benedict Wong) are assigned to the case. The following day, a rapper (Charles Badalona) who had also become a target of internet hate dies and an ADI is found inside his brain as well. Parke and Blue link the deaths to a website promoting a "game" where Twitter users can vote to kill a hated public figure, with the victim selected via the #DeathTo hashtag. Parke and the investigation team try to protect the next target (Holli Dempsey), but are unable to save her as an ADI burrows into her brain. Blue realizes that the ADIs find their targets using advanced facial recognition software, and this can only be possible if Granular had access to government records. Li is forced to admit that the government is covertly using ADIs for mass public surveillance; Blue confronts him.

Use of #DeathTo grows rapidly after the public learns that the "game" really does kill people. The situation is critical as the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Ben Miles) becomes the current top target. Parke interviews a Granular employee who attempted suicide after receiving online hate, but her flatmate Garrett Scholes (Duncan Pow), who also worked for Granular, saved her life. Parke’s suspicions are confirmed when the ADI found inside Jo Powers’s brain turns out to contain a manifesto written by Garrett: he wanted to force people to face the consequences of their actions and not be able to hide behind online anonymity. Garrett had left the country six months previously, but the manifesto includes a selfie taken on his phone, allowing Blue to trace his location at the time.

A raid of Garrett's hideout unearths his phone, which contains a system for sending out ADIs. When connected to the ADI system, it downloads a list of everyone who has ever used the #DeathTo hashtag. The list contains the participants' names and faces. Parke quickly works out that Garrett used public figures as bait; his plan was to use the ADIs to kill all those on the list. Blue and Rasmus try to find a way to shut down the system, but Parke thinks that Garrett has led them into a trap and that the "deactivate" function may actually be a command to kill the targets. Against Parke's instruction, Li triggers the system. For a brief time, it appears Granular has regained control of the system, but ultimately Parke's theory is proven correct and the ADIs are sent to kill the 387,036 people on the list.

In the present day, Parke explains at the hearing that Blue went missing and is presumed to have committed suicide. Parke herself becomes a public hate figure because of the case. She receives a text message from Blue, who is still alive and secretly working with Parke to track down Garrett Scholes. Blue has found him abroad and tells Parke they have finally "got him."

Production

According to Brooker, the episode is inspired by "Scandi-Noir thrillers like The Killing and Borgen". The episode is also partly inspired by Jon Ronson's book So You've Been Publicly Shamed. It is the longest episode of Black Mirror at 89 minutes. In an interview in October 2016, Brooker revealed that there were characters in the episode who could recur in the series in the future. The episode was inspired by a public backlash after Brooker wrote "Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinckley Jr – where are you now that we need you?" in a satirical article about George W. Bush in The Guardian in 2004.

Critical reception

Adam Chitwood of Collider noted that the episode was the "most thematically relevant... of this new batch, with a direct connection to the ugly side of social media and its lack of consequences." Suchandrika Chakrabarti of Daily Mirror rated the episode 5/5 describing the episode as an "illuminating, compelling watch".

See also

• So You've Been Publicly Shamed, Jon Ronson's book about online shaming and its historical antecedents which partly inspired the episode.

External links

• "Hated in the Nation" at IMDb