My first Rose Scholar experience was a Flora Friday Night Film. We watched an episode of black mean, a British show set in a dystopian future that highlights how technology could potentially affect our lives. In this specific episode, little devices referred to as “grains” are implanted behind a person’s ear. This grain has the ability to document every experience a person has, allowing them to file and go through these memories in the future.

The protagonist, an unemployed married man with a child, attends a dinner party his wife is at. While there, he sees his wife interact with one of her old college friends, who later find out is an ex boyfriend. Not only is the protagonist embarrassed about his last job interview, but he sees the way his wife and her friend interact, immediately becoming suspicious. Notably, they also meet a woman who does not have a grain; hers was stolen in an aggravated assault case.

In the end, the protagonist finds out his wife had an affair with the friend and questions whether his child is his. After reacting, his wife and child leave him, and we see him going through his memories while his life deteriorates around him. The episode leaves us watching the protagonist ripping out his own grain, bleeding into his bathroom sink.

Before we watched the episode, we spoke to people around us, and I thought the grain would be a bad idea. The showing supported that. Not only does it have people living in the past, but it leaves no room for mistake. Every moment is documented, and there is no security in learning from your past mistakes. While I believe that the protagonist should know his wife had an affair, there was better ways to find out. And there was definitely a better way t solve the problem. But now he is stuck with no one, and the memories are no longer comforting, but a curse. So much so that he rips out his grain.