It’s been pointed out a number of times at this juncture that Britney Spears’ conservatorship nightmare eerily mimics some of the key plot points of a certain episode of Black Mirror’s fifth season, entitled “Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too.” And yet, what people have failed to additionally call out in the wake of Jamie Spears being removed as his daughter’s conservator—therefore the hope of Britney’s conservatorship ceasing to exist altogether—is that she’s now taken up the mantle of Ashley O (Miley Cyrus) in an entirely different way. The more positive one, that is.
In the episode of Black Mirror in question, that “positive spin” doesn’t grab hold until, as conventional three-act structure dictates, the very end, when Ashley O can at last embrace the Rock®™ (as Miley also did on Plastic Hearts) side of herself that her aunt, Catherine (Susan Pourfar), has been suppressing all these years in favor of continuing to cash in on her niece’s highly profitable pop persona. Here it bears noting that the post-“conservatorship” (so to speak) song Ashley O chooses to record is a cover of Nine Inch Nails’ 1989 song, “Head Like A Hole” (though we’re meant to simply take it at the face value of being an Ashley O single, particularly when delivered as an interpolation in “On A Roll”).
Cut to this week on Britney’s Instagram and there she is in a red bra and black, patterned tights (not quite fishnet) writhing around to the tune of Nine Inch Nails’ most classic “ditty,” “Closer”—an extremely tailored selection for a pop star in general and Spears in particular. After all, one of the key lyrics is, “Help me, I’ve got no soul to sell” (a phrase she’s very deliberate in making sure to include with her signature abrupt cuts).
To heighten that line, Spears originally captioned the video with, “Happy Birthday Fausto !!!” before then changing it to “RED.” While the Italian-centric name could refer to a few people (like, say, fashion designer Fausto Puglisi or, as more commonly speculated, Xtina’s dad, Fausto Aguilera), no one seems to have a birthday that aligns with the day she posted it. Leading one to contemplate if perhaps it was an undercutting nod to the Faustian pact she unwittingly made on the road to becoming famous—nay, a global icon. Hence, the sudden backtracking on leaving the caption as it was on October 6th in its unmodified incarnation. Unless, of course, it really was a touch of venom directed at Christina for creating a SmashUp video of her singing her own rendition of “Happy Birthday” interpolated with 2006’s “Candyman” (which really would have been ideal to remix for the latest version of the film of the same name) that prominently featured balloons with the name “Jamie” written on them.
It was mere hours afterward that Spears put up her “celebratory” video wielding Aguilera’s own dad’s first name. While many would say Spears has never been that level of petty, considering what she’s been through, maybe it should come as no surprise that she would lash out at any perceived slight after being hemmed in for so long.
Whatever the meaning behind the initial caption, the ultimate takeaway of the one-minute, eleven-second offering is that Spears is openly embracing her “darker” side in a manner she has never been previously “allowed” to thanks to the “brand” “requiring” her to be all sunshine, rainbows and lollipops (even if the majority of her arcane Instagram posts since the dawn of her joining the app have indicated otherwise… especially that image of a Victorian-era woman holding a skeleton baby that retrospectively makes all the sense in the world). Spears’ new sense of, let’s call it, “openness” in a fashion similar to Ashley O after breaking free from the clutches of having her mind and body violated and controlled by a family member profiting from her pain and lack of agency was further emphasized when she mentioned, in another recent video caption, wanting to direct a movie similar to Kill Bill. Never mind that fans of both of the saga’s installments were forced to learn that it ultimately came at a great physical and emotional cost to Uma Thurman, the same way most of Spears’ releases did post-2007.
But more likely than a female vengeance-fueled script directed by Spears is an eventual “experimental” album that sounds as “moody” as what Halsey did with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power (a sentiment Spears herself has likely felt at certain moments over the course of her thirteen-year imprisonment). This much is prophesied in how keenly Brit is vibing with “Closer”—just like Ashley O with “Head Like A Hole,” called “On A Roll” when pop-ified. Fittingly, one of the lyrics of the latter is, “Yeah, I can’t take it, so don’t you fake it/I know your love’s my destiny.”
In Brit’s case, she could both no longer take it or fake it, with the love of the #FreeBritney movement being her destiny (and yes, in the Black Mirror episode, it is a pair of Ashley fans who free her). However, more uncannily similar to Spears’ situation are the lyrics to “Head Like A Hole,” which forebodingly warn, “Head like a hole/Black as your soul/I’d rather die than give you control/Bow down before the one you serve/You’re going to get what you deserve.”
