Hated in the Nation (Black Mirror)

"Hated in the Nation"
Black Mirror episode
Detective Parke (Kelly Macdonald, right) meets her new partner Blue (Faye Marsay).
Episode no.	Series 3 Episode 6
Directed by	James Hawes
Written by	Charlie Brooker
Original air date	21 October 2016 (2016-10-21)
Running time	89 minutes
Guest appearance(s)
Kelly Macdonald – DCI Karin Parke Faye Marsay – Blue Coulson Benedict Wong – Shaun Li Jonas Karlsson – Rasmus Sjoberg Joe Armstrong – DS Nick Shelton Elizabeth Berrington – Jo Powers Charles Babalola – Tusk Ben Miles – Chancellor Tom Pickering Esther Hall – Vanessa Dahl Holli Dempsey – Clara Meades Vinette Robinson – Lisa Bahar Georgina Rich – Tess Wallander Duncan Pow – Garrett Scholes Cecilia Noble – Dame Patricia Lamarr Katherine Kingsley – Dana Costello James Larkin – Simon Powers Robin Pearce – Harry Barclay Adrian Lukis – Home Secretary Alex Willis Jane Bertish – Head of MI5 Anita Anand – News Anchor Thomas Dominique – Roadie Leonie Elliott – Fiona, Clara's Flatmate Reon Smith Marshall – Aaron Sheen Matheus Mirek – Delivery Man Jeremy Booth – Dog Walker Tom Ashley – Paramedic
Episode chronology
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List of Black Mirror episodes

"Hated in the Nation" is the sixth and final episode of the third series of British science fiction anthology series Black Mirror. Written by series creator and showrunner Charlie Brooker and directed by James Hawes, it premiered on Netflix on 21 October 2016, along with the rest of series three. It is the longest episode in the series at 89 minutes.

The episode is a murder mystery, and follows Detective Karin Parke (Kelly Macdonald) and her new partner Blue Coulson (Faye Marsay) who, together with the help of National Crime Agency officer Shaun Li (Benedict Wong), try to solve the inexplicable deaths of people who were all the target of social media.

The episode was critically acclaimed.

Detective Chief Inspector Karin Parke (Kelly Macdonald) has been summoned to a hearing to discuss her involvement in a case of British national security. The scene then flashes back to the previous year, when journalist Jo Powers (Elizabeth Berrington) is found dead at home with her throat cut: an apparent suicide, though Powers was recently subjected to online death threats after she publicly lambasted a disability activist's own recent suicide. While investigating Powers' death, Parke meets her brilliant new junior partner, Blue (Faye Marsay). Parke initially believes Powers was murdered by her husband; he claims that she appeared to be going insane and swung a knife at him before killing herself.

The following day, a rapper named Tusk (Charles Badalona), who had also become a target of Internet hate for his callous treatment of a young fan, has a seizure, and is hospitalised and sedated. An MRI machine, used to determine the seizure's cause, magnetically pulls a metal object from Tusk's brain out through his eye, killing him instantly. Bizarrely, the object is revealed to be an Autonomous Drone Insect (ADI), a type of mechanical bee developed to counteract the acute collapse of the bee population; such artificial bees now fly freely throughout the United Kingdom, pollinating flowers. Jo Powers' autopsy similarly reveals an ADI lodged in the pain center of her brain, suggesting that she committed suicide to end tremendous suffering caused by the bee. Furthermore, Blue realises that both Tusk and Powers were targeted with a Twitter hashtag, '#DeathTo', applied to hated public figures. She soon links the deaths to a new website promoting a 'Game of Consequence' wherein Twitter users each day can vote to kill one hated public figure, by selecting the victim via the '#DeathTo' hashtag. Blue and Parke visit Granular, the company that created the ADIs. The head of the company, Rasmus (Jonas Karlsson), realises that the ADIs have been locally hacked. The case is now big enough for an officer of the National Crime Agency (NCA), Shaun Li (Benedict Wong), to become involved.