Summary
After she confirms that a UKN crew has arrived, Malaika enters the abandoned building while filming on her phone. She asks her editor if he is seeing the footage. He says he is, and warns her to stay safe. Simultaneously, the prime minister watches footage from the police head cameras. He stops the home secretary from speaking when she tries to discuss what they’ll do if the raid “doesn’t work.”
The music intensifies as the police break down a door and throw smoke bombs. However, they discover only a decoy—a mannequin in a chair. The police then notice Malaika filming from outside the room. They shout at her as she runs out of the building. One man fires at the ground, hitting her in the leg to take her down. After the police confirm she is press, they shoot her cellphone with a handgun and say, “There goes your RTS Award.”
Callow tells his aides they are not out of time, even though it is twenty past three. Alone in his office, Callow listens to the home secretary explain that if he doesn’t go through with it, the kidnapper will upload a video of himself killing the princess for everyone to see. She says he will be “utterly destroyed” if he doesn’t go through with it. Tom confirms that the polling “bears that out.” He is told that his physical safety and that of his family cannot be guaranteed if he refuses to comply. She says she is sorry, but it is out of his hands. Part Three ends.
Part Four begins with a UKN breaking news story about the prime minister’s car traveling to Bankside Studios. Jane phones her husband, who is in a car with the home secretary. He doesn’t pick up when he sees who is calling. Jane sobs. The Home Secretary explains that they’ve made a law saying it will be a criminal offense to own a copy of the broadcast after midnight that day. Tom says they’re going to begin the broadcast with a sonic tone that causes nausea to warn people off watching it. Meanwhile, people around the country and the world crowd around TVs in public places.
Upon arrival at the studio, the home secretary confirms with Callett that the pig is sedated and docile. She opens the door to the prime minister’s car and tells Callow it is time to go in. A pub full of people cheers as an announcer says the prime minister is about to perform “an indecent act” on their screens.
The man in the white overalls in the artist’s studio watches the TV while writing something on a pad of paper. The announcer says all viewers are advised not to continue watching, then plays the high-pitched tone. The tone rings out over footage of empty London streets, where there isn’t a single person in sight.
Callow walks into the studio, taking a blue Viagra erection pill that someone hands him and washing it back with water. The Home Secretary says they’re complying with all stipulations, meaning he will have to “keep going” and “see it through to the end.”
Cairns says they’ve placed visual aids in his eye line to help. She adds that they’ve consulted with psychologists, who say he shouldn’t rush the sex act, which could be mistaken for eagerness or enjoyment. He pauses outside the door, as if frozen. The Home Secretary says it’s just a skeleton crew inside and a closed set.
Analysis
Brooker explores the themes of media sensationalism and government incompetence further with the government’s raid on the abandoned building where they hope Susannah is being held. Believing they have traced the kidnapper by cross-referencing the original YouTube video’s compression size with upload speeds across the country, government operatives stage their raid. But in an instance of situational irony, they find only a mannequin tied to a chair in the building. Having predicted the government’s hacking strategy, the kidnapper successfully distracted them with a decoy location.
The abandoned building scene also advances the theme of media sensationalism. Having seduced a Downing Street staffer with nude selfies, Malaika gains top-secret information at the raid and is waiting on the scene to film what she believes will be the discovery of the kidnapper. In a tense instance of dramatic irony, the viewer knows she is in the building while the oblivious operatives chase her down, shooting her in the leg before they destroy the phone she was using to film. In this way, Malaika is shown to be a victim of technological innovation: without her cameraphone, she wouldn’t have been able to send selfies to the Downing Street staffer; nor would she have had the tool to film an event that ended in her being shot.
The themes of public opinion and coercion return as Callow laments the failure of the raid. Because it is 3:30 and they have run out of options, Callow’s staff no longer prop up the illusion that Callow can somehow avoid fulfilling the kidnapper’s demand. Undermining Callow’s authority, Cairns explains that when Susannah is murdered, it won’t be just Callow’s political image that is ruined: his life is also at risk. Knowing the public will hold Callow accountable, Cairns implies that his security detail will not protect him or his family against assassination attempts. In this way, Cairns assumes authority over the prime minister, coercing him into going through with the broadcast to avoid the threat of being handed over to the angry mobs they predict will form.
The themes of humiliation and voyeurism arise as the Prime Minister makes his way to the broadcast while seemingly every single person in the country gathers around televisions to watch. Government incompetence arises again as well, as the nauseating audio tone fails to dissuade anyone from watching. Brooker captures this failure by juxtaposing the tone with shots of empty streets, an image that implies everyone is inside paying attention to the scandal.
Just before Callow enters the closed set with the pig, he is handed a blue diamond-shaped Viagra pill, which will increase the blood flow to his penis regardless of actual sexual arousal. In this way, Brooker subtly shows yet another instance of technological innovation having a sinister potential: without the invention of the erectile dysfunction medication, Callow’s coerced act of bestiality wouldn’t be possible. But because of the Viagra, Callow is able to perform sexually despite his brain’s and body’s revulsion to the pig.
