'Too Boring': Black Mirror Fans Aren't Sold on Pia's Death in Loch Henry

Even though the recently released Season 6 of Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror received some polarized reviews, both critics and fans seem to agree that the new installment is much better than the previous one, offering fresh and chilling stories about how technology affects society and our everyday lives and relationships.

In particular, 'Loch Henry,' the second episode of the season, explores how media and true crime stories influence our attitudes toward personal tragedy and the cost of human life. Thanks to its powerful and thought-provoking plot, the episode has scored great reviews from the majority of fans, but it looks like some viewers weren't convinced about how one character's death was handled by the writers.

The episode follows two film students, Davis and Pia, who arrive in Davis' hometown and decide to make a documentary about a serial killer who operated in the town in the 1990s. After their investigation, Pia discovers that Davis' parents were involved in the murders, and just as she panics and tries to run away from her boyfriend's mother, she… slips and falls to her death crossing a stream.

'Of course accidents like that happen, but this was so out of nowhere, unrelated to anything — which was just so unlike the Black Mirror I love,' one of the fans complained.

Pia's death was so silly and unremarkable that the audience simply felt nothing, expecting a more interesting twist.

'It was Chekhov's babbling brook. [Davis] pointedly warned her how dangerous the environment was so of course it was going to kill her,' another fan noted.

Apparently playing on the idea of 'Chekhov's gun,' the creators foreshadowed Pia's death at the beginning of the episode. But was that foreshadowing even necessary, given that it didn't properly justify but just made the upcoming twist more obvious?

However, the fact that the audience wasn't impressed with how Pia's death was handled actually supports the whole point of the episode, which is meant to show how cynical people get when watching true crime stories and documentaries. Here's how one fan explained this:

'I think that's the point. We watch it and think "so that's it? That's boring…" And then you realize you were expecting a spectacle out of someone's death.'

So while Pia's death may have felt a little too trivial for some, it looks like Charlie Brooker was aiming for that reaction from the audience, ironically pointing at how cruel and cynical the film industry and viewers are when dealing with true crime stories and death on-screen.

Source: Reddit.