Mia

Lore & Background

Mia's story begins with a cover-up on a mountain road where Rob, intoxicated after a party, kills a cyclist. Mia helps him throw the body into a lake. Fifteen years later, as a married architect delivering an important presentation, she encounters a newly sober Rob who intends to send an anonymous letter to the victim's wife. Fearing the letter will be traced, they argue, and Mia breaks his neck. While playing pornography in the room to create an alibi, she witnesses a self-driving pizza delivery truck hit a pedestrian from her window. This incident brings Shazia, an insurance investigator using a 'Recaller' device, into Mia's life. The Recaller projects visual memories onto a screen; Shazia strengthens them by making subjects smell beer from a nearby brewery and replaying songs from passing cars. Her investigation leads her to a dentist who saw Mia watching the accident, forcing Shazia to drive to meet Mia.

In Their Own Story

When Shazia arrives, a tense Mia only allows entry after being threatened with police reports for refusal. Mia attempts to divert her memory of Rob's death but fails; Shazia sees memories of both killings. Although Shazia promises silence, her car refuses to start, and Mia smashes the window, knocks Shazia out, and ties her up in a shed. Unconvinced by the promise, Mia uses the Recaller on Shazia to learn she told her husband Anan her whereabouts. Mia beats Shazia to death, drives to their house, and kills Anan as he bathes while masked. Upon exiting, she sees the couple's baby son babbling and kills him to remove a witness, only for police later to discover the infant was born blind. The police then use the Recaller on the family's pet guinea pig, which had observed the final murder.

Reader's Guide

Mia is portrayed by Andrea Riseborough, who auditioned for Shazia before asking to rewrite her as the protagonist, arguing a mother could find strength in desperation. Originally conceived with a male protagonist and set in Scotland, the script changed to feature Mia in Iceland during its largest snowfall in forty years. The production team filmed scenes involving the pizza van over two nights, using heaters and hoses to manage the snow. Director John Hillcoat described the episode as a 'pitch-black comedy of errors' about human responses to technology. The title 'Crocodile' stems from an analogy by creator Charlie Brooker comparing anxiety to a virtual reality jungle trip where one might be attacked immediately. Mia's character reflects a shift from the panicking male murderer trope, with Hillcoat noting her ambition as a 'deep inner flaw.' The episode ends with dark humor: the baby is blind, and a guinea pig witnesses the crime.

Did You Know?

• The episode was filmed in Iceland during the country's largest snowfall in forty years.
• Andrea Riseborough originally auditioned for the role of investigator Shazia before asking to play the protagonist Mia.
• The title 'Crocodile' comes from a Charlie Brooker analogy comparing anxiety to being attacked by a crocodile immediately upon entering a virtual reality jungle simulator.
• Police use a 'Recaller' device on a pet guinea pig to identify the killer after the human witnesses are dead or unable to see.
• The final scene takes place at Mia's son's school production of Bugsy Malone, which starred Jodie Foster.