| “ | I've done everything. I've been everything. But whatever I do, all that stuff is just.. it's just.. still there. So here I am. Fixing a hole. | „ |
| ~ Verity |
| “ | There's infinite timelines, so I just pick the one where you're the only one that knows what's going on. So you feel really.. special. | „ |
| ~ Verity explaining how her pendant works to exact her revenge on Maria. |
Verity Green is the main antagonist of the season 7 Black Mirror episode "Bête Noire".
She is a technological genius who has gained the ability to warp reality. Having fulfilled all of her dreams without satisfaction, she has become obsessed with using her power to torment her former childhood bullies.
She is portrayed by Rosy McEwen.
Appearance[]
Verity Green is a white woman in her late twenties with wavy blonde hair. She has no distinctive clothing other than a teardrop-shaped metallic pendant worn on a chain around her neck.
Personality[]
As a child and teen, Verity was intelligent but unpopular and subjected to social bullying, which rendered her extremely withdrawn and nerdy.
As an adult, Verity appears to be sweet and social. In fact, she is an amoral hedonist and sadist obsessed with her own experiences and revenge.
Background[]
| “ | The whole time I was at school he was the only one was nice to me. He didn't care that I had mad hair or whatever. He just told me I was clever and he looked out for me. That computer room, like, I lived for it, those lunch times, because it was like the only place that I wasn't on my own. So when he was transferred, I had nothing, because everything outside of that was like.. you know.. kids can be fucking awful. | „ |
| ~ Verity, confessing to Maria before openly targetting her with a warp |
| “ | Maybe it was just to get Natalie off my back.. I just said it as a joke.. she ran with it, and like.. and everyone else just.. went along with it.. | „ |
| ~ Maria, confessing when confronted by Verity |
| “ | Yeah. And then it became a reality! And weirdo 'milkmaid' couldn't fight back! And she was stuck there, everyone calling her mad! | „ |
| ~ Verity |
Verity Green was bullied in school by a group of girls including Natalie Caine and Maria. They spread a rumor that she had performed oral sex on a teacher, and nicknamed her Milkmaid. She was close to the said teacher, but nothing explicit ever happened and she looked up to him as he was the only one at the school that was supportive and kind to her for her intelligence. Things fell apart for her when he left the school, and she continued to be tormented and bullied and continued to be known as Milkmaid until she left.
After school she became a computing researcher at the prestigious Cambridge University and was able to develop the Quantum Compiler which allowed her to alter reality. After using this to experience multiple wish-fulfilment fantasies, such as being an astronaut, a model, and Empress of the Universe, she remained obsessed with her childhood bullies and sought revenge on them. Rather than simply warping them dead, she chose to "turn the tables" on them by using the Compiler to allow her to make statements about them that would become literally true against their wishes, and to choose realities in which the targets' memories would remain the same but be rendered incorrect by the warp.
She drove Natalie Caine to suicide after 5 weeks of torment, and then relocated to target Maria at her workplace. Maria, however, identified her pendant as relevant to her powers and broke into Verity's house in an attempt to steal it, in doing so discovering the Quantum Compiler. Verity demonstrated its abilities to Maria, then placed Maria in a reality where she had broken into Verity's house with a knife and was about to be arrested or shot by firearms officers. In the ensuing confusion, Maria was able to shoot Verity dead and take control of the Quantum Compiler herself, rendering her safe from the police, but immediately choosing to use it to become Empress of the Universe herself, thus starting down Verity's path.
The Quantum Compiler[]
The Quantum Compiler is a mid-sized supercomputing cluster located in Verity's basement which has the ability to "retune corporeal frequencies" to alternate possibile realities. This creates the effect of changing reality, although does not technically change anything. Verity controls it using a metallic tear-shaped pendant around her neck; when the button is pressed, she makes a statement and the Compiler will select a reality in which that statement is true and which is otherwise desirable to the user. It is aware of the speaker's identity and the immediate context as well as the words spoken. There is no visual notification of this occuring other than green lights flashing on the pendant and no notable sensations when a warp occurs.
The pendant is simply a remote transmitter and has no special properties; Verity has a large number of them in storage in case of loss or theft. The button contains a fingerprint sensor which will only activate the transmitter when pressed by Verity's finger, but once activated that way it will accept commands from any user.
Victims[]
- Natalie Caine (indirectly) - psychologically tormented into suicide with her reality-warping and persistent gaslighting.
| “ | How did she die? She.. she took her own life. Some kind of breakdown. In the weeks leading up, she wasn't really rational. Like paranoid, accusing everyone of lying about stuff. Her grip on reality wasn't.. the best. | „ |
| ~ Dan, Natalie's husband, on her death |
Trivia[]
- A common fan theory is that Verity was driven to a psychopathic loss of empathy by overuse of the Quantum Compiler, via meaningless and immediate wish fulfilment and in particular its proof of the "infinite many-words" theory, which implies that Verity cannot actually change or create any realities but merely alters her perception to a different one that always existed, while the previous one continues to exist without her.
- Verity's name means "truth", corresponding to the pendant's function of making her statements have always been true. The colour green is traditionally assocated with envy or jealousy.
- Prior to her death, Verity was the most powerful single entity in the Black Mirror universe.
- A "compiler" in computing terminology is a program that accepts a program specification and converts it into another form, usually machine code. The "quantum compiler" has a similar effect but on an alternate reality rather than a machine code program.
- Verity's reality warping powers are often considered by fans and critics to be an awkward inclusion in an episode that is otherwise about the harmful power of gaslighting and spreading misinformation. It raises a number of plot issues such as why Verity would not have made herself invulnerable, her house impregnable, or used stronger security to protect the pendant from unauthorised use. These are alternatively put down to Verity's arrogance and lack of empathy (as above) as being unable to see others as significant, even as a threat.
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 Villains
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