Black Mirror‘s season 2, episode 4, “White Christmas” has one of the most divisive endings out of the entire series, primarily due to how Joe (Rafe Spall, The Ritual) is punished for his crime – here’s why. Charlie Brooker’s dystopian television show includes several controversial storylines that cause audiences to question human morality when technology has the ability to tear it apart. In Black Mirror‘s “White Christmas,” there are several moments that spark this inquiry, but none are as divisive amongst fans and the showrunner as that of Joe’s punishment.
In 2011, Black Mirror premiered on the British broadcasting station Channel 4 prior to its move to Netflix for season 3. As it was believed that season 2 would be the end of the series, Brooker featured several Black Mirror Easter eggs referring to past episodes in “White Christmas” and fully immersed his characters into the notion that technology could be the downfall of humanity and morality. Starring Jon Hamm of Mad Men fame as Matt and Rafe Spall as Joe, it features three stories that interconnect to make up one cohesive, as well as disturbing, storyline.
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As each personal account grows more unsettling, the time comes for Joe to reveal what vile and horrific thing he did to end up in the cabin. The exact charges can only be speculated, but his torturous punishment includes physical imprisonment and a cookie version of his consciousness experiencing 1,000 years per-minute for all eternity. But, his crimes weren’t intentional and, in the real world, they don’t warrant a life sentence, which causes the episode to be highly divisive in regard to whether or not he actually deserves his punishment.
His crime is this: Joe reveals that his girlfriend Beth blocked him after the two got into a heated debate about whether or not she should have an abortion. Joe discovers the baby isn’t his and, in a fit of rage, he hits Beth’s father with a snow globe. He leaves him bloody and helpless as the little girl sets off into the wintery landscape to search for help before dying of exposure. Joe could’ve saved her, which is why it is believed that he deserves the punishment. He put her in that situation and he knows it is his fault she’s dead.
Ultimately, is raises the question: Did he or did he not deserve his punishment? For that question, there is an even more complicated answer. Brooker has spoken out about how his punishment doesn’t necessarily fit the crime. Joe did not consciously kill the child and an involuntary manslaughter charge doesn’t commonly exceed five years. The fact that he is imprisoned indefinitely and his cookie clone will suffer millions of years in solitude doesn’t seem to match up with his actions. Yet, the fact remains that he did attack Beth’s father, which resulted in his death, and he could’ve taken the child somewhere she would have been safe rather than allowing her to go off alone. While he does deserve the punishment because of how negligent and selfish his actions were, he doesn’t necessarily deserve a punishment so severe. If it were adjusted to properly fit his offenses, it wouldn’t be so divisive.
Joe deserved punishment, but not to that degree. He didn’t intentionally mean to kill anyone, especially not Beth’s child, but he still ignored the fact that she’d be left alone. He could’ve done something about it, regardless of the fact that he wasn’t her biological father. There is no concrete answer as to whether or not it was deserved; it is entirely subjective. Black Mirror’s “White Christmas” is one of the series’ most disturbing episodes with the most divisive ending because of how unbalanced the scales of justice appear to be.
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