Tina Kakadelis
The following recap contains spoilers for Black Mirror S7E2, “Bête Noire” (written by Charlie Brooker and directed by Toby Haynes)
High school is a terrible time for most people. There are the popular kids, and there are also the ones who spend their time in the shadows, hoping they can evade the teasing and bullying until it’s time to go home. Black Mirror’s “Bête Noire” doesn’t literally take the audience back to high school, but it does focus on a strained relationship from those teenage years that has resurfaced in adulthood. While it’s one of the season’s less technology-focused episodes, “Bête Noire” suffers from relying too heavily on overly simplistic themes.
Maria (Siena Kelly) works in the research and development department of a candy company. Her latest creation is a new take on the company’s classic candy bars, but with miso filling. At a taste testing, everyone in the focus group is disgusted except for one woman: Verity (Rosy McEwen). She insists that the flavor changes immensely after the second bite and encourages the others to try. Suddenly, they all agree. Maria watches from behind a one-way mirror and recognizes Verity as someone she went to high school with. The two were not friends because Maria was popular and Verity was ostracized after someone spread a rumor that she jerked off the computer science teacher. The two run into each other in the bathroom, where they acknowledge their past and Verity says she’s applying for an assistant position in research and development. Despite the fact that Maria is confident there’s no job posting for her department, Verity is hired the very next day. Maria is adamant that something is off about Verity as things she knew to be true are suddenly false.
The big twist of the episode is that Verity has built herself a machine that allows her to jump between multiverses at the click of a button on her necklace pendant. All the gaslighting that Maria endures comes from Verity. If “Bête Noire” was part of one of the earlier seasons of Black Mirror, it would likely be received in a more positive light. It’s a fun concept with moments of humor before ending in a bloody mess, but in 2025, multiverse fatigue is all too real. While “Bête Noire” plays with the idea of the Mandela Effect, its ultimate concept is quantum mechanics and multiverse jumping. At this point, we’ve seen multiverses permeate every facet of storytelling. “Bête Noire” might have woven a more unsettling, off-kilter story if the Mandela Effects or gaslighting that Maria is experiencing weren’t at the hand of Verity, or not explained so simply as using a multiverse-jumping machine. Where exactly the plot could go from there is beyond my imagination, but that’s why we all tune in to the new seasons of Black Mirror, isn’t it? To fall down a rabbit hole we couldn’t fathom on our own.
“Bête Noire” comes across as a cooler after-school PSA about the lasting effects of bullying. In their final confrontation, Verity admits that she has used her machine to become empress of the world. She says she’s done everything she could possibly dream of, thanks to the endless multiverses, but all these great things still leave her hollow because of the isolation she felt in high school. Unfortunately, that’s about all the introspection there is. Verity takes her pain and uses the device to convince the girls who teased her that they’re losing their grip on reality. She wants them to be as isolated as she once was…and that’s basically it. Bullying is bad, but sometimes it leads to massive technological leaps.
The world that “Bête Noire” exists in, though, is quite a fun place to spend an episode. Maria works for Ditta Foods, and the episode is punctuated with day-of-the-week title cards that show chocolates and candy bars being made while an eerie score plays in the background. The pandemic killed the office experience for many viewers, so in a weird, morbid way, “Bête Noire” scratches the return-to-office itch. It’s kind of fun to see coworkers fight over almond milk when it has nothing to do with you or your specialty drink.
As well-paced, well-acted, and well-directed as the episode is, “Bête Noire” suffers from not having much more to it than its surface themes. There have been plenty of Black Mirror episodes with unlikeable lead characters or story arcs whose endings are easy to guess from the get-go, but “Bête Noire” is missing either unsettling technology or an engrossing, overarching thematic question to tie it all together. As it stands now, it’s one of the weaker entries of the seventh season. It doesn’t crawl under the skin of the viewer as some of the best episodes have, but it’s a fine way to spend some time. “Bête Noire” won’t be leaving you with any newfound fears of technology, but maybe it will remind you to be a little kinder to the people you meet along the way.
