Black Mirror Season 6 Loch Henry Deep Dive. The other day, I had a ton of fun doing a deep dive for Black Mirror’s Season 6 episode 1 – Joan is Awful. And so I thought I’d keep the love going by moving on to Season 6 episode 2, Loch Henry (which I loved thoroughly.) I was fascinated by episode 2 in that it didn’t specifically touch on technology… sort of. I’ll get to that in a minute. But if you haven’t watched all the episodes for Black Mirror’s Season 6 yet, you definitely need to.
Black Mirror Season 6 Loch Henry Deep Dive
Season 6 episode 2 follows a young couple – Davis and Pia – to Scotland (personal note… adore Scotland… go if you get a chance) as they look to embark on their next film-making project. The duo utilize various documentarian techniques including stock video, special effects as well as suspenseful effects, all in order to capture the drama of their topic. But soon, Pia convinces Davis to discard their original topic when she realizes that Davis was the subject of his own true crime experience.
The story centers on Dawn and Simon Challis… the couple was renting a cottage in 1997 in Loch Henry as part of their honeymoon celebrations. However, things didn’t go well as they went completely AWOL. When their things were discovered after they were to have checked out, it raises a suspicion that something was amiss.
The news made it to the national press but their plight was soon forgotten as the news of Princess Diana’s death caused the nation to move on. Eventually, Davis’ father Kenneth, a local policeman, is asked to check in on Ian who seemed to be acting erratically. Push comes to shove, and Kenneth is shot when he knocked at Ian’s door. And then Ian turned the gun on himself and his parents. Later, Davis’ father passed away in the hospital after an MRSA superbug ran rampant through the hospital where he was being cared for. Eventually, the police discover Ian’s propensity for capturing and torturing victims and the case is closed.
Determined to delve into the story, and document the deaths for their documentary, Pia begins to learn more and more about the historic case. After Davis has a tractor accident, and ends up in the hospital, Pia is left at Davis’ family home with Davis’ widowed mother. Davis’ mom serves Pia her Shepard’s Pie as the audience starts to surmise that something else might be going on here. Pia, while digitizing their footage from the previous day’s shoot, sees left over footage of Davis’ parents torturing victims. Realizing the trouble that she is in, Pia runs for it, and Janet chases her out into the woods. Pia, attempting to ford a river, slips, falls, and cracks her head on a stone. She subsequently drowns and disappears.
Janet, realizing that her story was going to come out after not being able to find Pia, stacks all her old journals, clippings, and videos, for Davis, and then she commits suicide. The note reads, “For your films.” Davis’ film about his parents terrorizing exploits goes on to win at the BAFTAs. And as the accolades pour in, we watch as Davis is completely lost in the shuffle of the excitement.
Thoughts on Black Mirror’s Loch Henry
While at first one could be forgiven for thinking that episode 2 of Black Mirror’s Season 6 is missing its standard technological component, you’d be wrong. Loch Henry is actually an exposé on our cultures rampant addiction with true crime documentaries. The episode is actually a commentary on the way society rapes and pillages victims of horrific abuse a second time. Think about it, you lose a loved one to a serial killer. You mourn, you grieve, you gnash your teeth. And you try to move on. Then comes the true crime documentarians to collect and detail out the pain of your grief all over again. We watch as Davis, who is not only the son of two horrible people… and he is only just finding this out, and we also watch as he loses his Pia. It’s a terrible turn of events for Davis twice over. And while the world loved the show, it all came at a cost for real humans that are suffering real grief as a result of these terrible turns of events.
Maybe, just maybe, we have taken our addictions for true crime dramas a bit too far?
Edited by: CY