Critical Essay on Black Mirror: San Junipero Episode

Introduction

San Junipero is part of the episodes of the series black mirror. This episode is written by Charlie Booker and Owen Harris as the director. This episode is based on the town of Junipero, a beach town. From the third to the thirteenth minute, we are introduced to an introvert actor Yorkie who comes to contact with another actor who is more outgoing by the name of Kelly. The town of Junipero is fiction town and is characterized by features such as the inhabitation by the dead. The scene starts when Kelly and Yorkie, the two main characters of the film meet for the first time at a bar/pub. Kelly randomly sits next to Yorkie who is a complete stranger at the time and instructs her to go along with whatever she says. At this instance, Kelly is trying to avoid the man Wes, who seems to be interested in Kelly and desires to spend time with her. Yorkie helps Kelly to avoid Wes and the two ladies get drinks, although Yorkie seems hesitant to have an alcoholic drink. When given the drink, Yorkie says she had not had it in a while, and this leaves viewers with a question whether Yorkie is forced to drink to please Kelly or she never had alcohol before? Yorkie is shy yet she is convinced by Kelly to dance in public. While they dance, Yorkie feels attracted towards Kelly but gets nervous when she realizes other people are looking at them, she then runs outside the pub and takes shelter from the rain. This shows the authentic yet withheld personality of Yorkie. She is original yet restricting herself for some unknown reasons. Kelly follows her worried about her running away. Kelly finds out the shy nature of Yorkie and how she feels uneasy dancing with another woman in the presence of other people. Kelly tries to make Yorkie comfortable with an explanation of why she shouldn't worry and by making jokes. Through their conversation, it is revealed that Yorkie has a conservative family whereas Kelly is a badass woman who cares very little about others perception of her. Kelly shows sexual interest in Yorkie by touching her thigh and tries to convince her to go to her place, Yorkie freaks out by the idea and reveals that she has a fiance and has no sexual experience. Yorkie walks away in a stiff posture telling Kelly that she has to go, she turns around to see Kelly and says "shit". The scene ends with a reflection of the moon in a puddle creating a spark of romance.

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Role of Technology in Enhancing Curiosity of the Human Brain to Foster Imagination and Creativity

Within this short scene, new characters are coming out from Yorkie and Kelly. Yorkie appears to be the kind of the person who does things under the influence of others. She hesitates to dance yet she is influenced by Kelly to dance at long last. She says to have never had alcohol for a while yet she is convinced by Kelly to drink. She is almost convinced to sleep with Kelly. Her last dialogue in the scene "shit" shows the state of her mind. She tremendously evolves in the scene and she would possibly never had done things she did were it not Kelly's influence and she couldn't deny the fact that it felt good and made her happy causing her to swear in the scene, a character that never came out before. Technology is making viewers curious to imagine what would be the true character of Yorkie. Yorkie appears to be a conservative lady who does not want to have sexual relationships with other women like Kelly. In the scene, she is portrayed developing an attraction to Kelly which makes viewers curious to imagine that her character had tremendously evolved to be a lesbian. Thus, through technology, the audience is left imagining whether Yorkie is truly conservative or just a pretender.

Being a lesbian is a challenge and one thinks what other people will talk about her. Others feel uncomfortable doing things that would allude to their sexuality. Kelly is an older lesbian who doesn't care what other people will say and she comfortably deals with social issues relating to lesbians. Yorkie, on the other hand, is young, shy and doesn't want people to know her sexuality. Consequently, she fears dancing with Kelly in public and when she finally does and realizes people are watching her, she runs away to hide. The view of the society's perceptions towards lesbian is covered in the source "Lesbian Aging" in which Sarah presents challenges associated with being a lesbian. Although a new concept, lesbian gerontology is gaining popularity and getting massive coverage in literature. The behavior of Kelly (an older lesbian) correlates with Gabbay and Wahler's arguments that "older lesbians have a great deal of adaptive capacity to deal with the challenges they face, including societal marginalization and discrimination" (Gabbay, and Wahler 18). The fact that Yorkie is uncomfortable to dance with Kelly in public while Kelly looks unconcerned provides viewers with a contrast between the characters yet making Yorkie's character compound. Technology (the scene in the video) evokes the viewers' curiosity to find out whether Yorkie will learn to embrace lesbian sexuality in her older ages just like Kelly.

Yorkie and Kelly are spending time drinking and dancing although for a short time. The scene teases us with such indications when the characters say they have only limited time left and should spend it having fun, doing the things they have never done before. When they are having fun time seems to run fast craving the need for more time doing things they want with people they love whereas when they are busy with their life, time is slow and meaningless. The question that emerges in this scene is what kind of sense do humans use when perceiving time? According to le Poidevin, time has no particular sense through which we can associate it with. Thus, viewers are left curious to imagine that humans have a special sense that is dedicated to the detection of time.

Yorkie and Kelly appear in some scenes with surprises suggesting unexpected nature of these characters. In this scene, both Yorkie and Kelly are portrayed round evolving fast and are unpredictable. Yorkie is rounder than Kelly. While, Kelly is outgoing, fearless, gets what she wants and is unafraid, Yorkie seems to be a closed book yet evolving into someone who will open up when given the right situation. Her character goes from a nerdy girl, an anomaly having a coke by herself at a pub to doing things that she had never done like dancing, drinking and exploring her sexuality. Yorkie and Kelly fit Foster's view of a round character who according to him, is a character who is not developed once and will continue to be revealed as events happen over time. The scene makes viewers curious to follow other upcoming episodes to know more about the character of Yorkie and Kelly because according to Foster's view, they are round characters.

One can clearly observe the childlike curiosity on the face of Yorkie and through her dialogue. She is actually being a part of herself that was once lost as she has been in a coma since 21 and now she is very old but gets to relive her life in a virtual world thus her character is filled with curiosity. Alberto Manguel talks about a curious mind and the apparent benefits that arise from this curiosity. However, he also warns about the dangers that result for acts of curiosity. The instance of curiosity according to the author is extreme but does not alter the fact that curiosity originates from the human drive to survival and life. While curiosity can be risky, it also brings about the possibility of a greater sense of control and understanding. This leads us to the conclusion that curiosity is also adaptive to the prevailing situations around the human conditions. According to Alberto "the satisfaction of one answer merely leads to asking another question, and so on into infinity" (Manguel 79). Owing that Yorkie's character is filled with curiosity, of which satisfaction of one answer leads to asking another question, should we expect more surprises and revelations from Yorkie.

Yorkie boldly denies Kelly's request to go with her to her place. She also openly tells Kelly that she has a fiance and has no sexual experience. She doesn't want to dance with Kelly and she runs away after noticing people are watching them. This shows that Yorkie is authentic compared to the people around her who are trying to be "someone they saw in a movie". In spite of her behavior, she has not completely revealed to the viewers about herself. She is authentic in a way that she is not pretending to be someone else but is not completely authentic as he limits herself to what she is. Yorkie's behavior can be further looked based on Julia Straub's explanations about the paradoxes of authenticity. According to Straub, authenticity suggests "universality and timelessness due to its ubiquity" (28). In upcoming episodes of the movie, will the authenticity of Yorkie remain ubiquity to ascertain that she is truly an authentic character?

Conclusion

The Black mirror San Junipero episode Min 3 to 13 gives equal representation to both the characters. However, Yorkie is more intriguing to the viewers than Kelly who plays the role of a spark that ignites fire in Yorkie. Analyzing every detail of the scene, several aspects are left unclear about the nature of the characters. We are curious to know whether Yorkie is truly conservative and authentic, how she would react if she was told she is a lesbian and whether she will learn to embrace this sexuality in her older ages just like Kelly. We can't get enough of Yorkie and Kelly, and could be interested to know more about their characters because they are unpredictable. Another essential question coming in the scene is how human detect time. Therefore, the scene is enhancing the curiosity of the human brain to foster imagination and creativity.

Work Cited

"San Junipero." Black Mirror, season 3, episode 4, Netflix, 21 Oct. 2016.

Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/80104625?trackId=200257859

Forster, E. M. Aspects Of The Novel. New York: Penguin Books, 2005.Gabbay, Sarah G., and James J. Wahler. "Lesbian Aging". Journal Of Gay & Lesbian Social Services, vol 14, no. 3, 2002, pp. 1-21. Informa UK Limited, doi:10.1300/j041v14n03_01. Accessed 21 July 2018.

Le Poidevin, Robin. "The Experience And Perception Of Time". Plato.Stanford.Edu, 2018, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/time-experience/. Accessed 21 July 2018.

Manguel, Alberto. Curiosity. 1st ed., Yale University Press, 2016, pp. 78-103.

Straub, Julia. Paradoxes Of Authenticity. 1st ed., Transcript, 2012, pp. 28-60.