Victoria Skillane

**Victoria Skillane** is a character appearing in White Bear. She is portrayed by Lenora Crichlow.

## History

Victoria woke up in a house and realized she has amnesia. She was surrounded by images of a small girl, whom she assumed to be her daughter, as well as photos of herself and a man. She left the house and noticed several people recording her on their phones who ignored her pleas for help. A masked man arrived and shot at her with a shotgun. She fled and met Jem and Damien. Jem and Victoria escaped the masked man, who killed Damien. Jem explained that a mysterious signal began appearing on television and over the Internet, which turned most of the population into passive voyeurs who did nothing but record everything around them. Victoria and Jem were unaffected, but they were also a target for the "hunters," unaffected humans who acted sadistically. Jem planned to reach a transmitter at "White Bear" to destroy it and stop the signal's effect on the area.

As they traveled, a man named Baxter, who was also unaffected, picked them up. He held them at gunpoint in a forest, where there were crucified and hanged bodies. As Victoria was about to be tortured, Jem killed Baxter. They continued traveling to the transmitter, while Victoria had visions of past events. When they reached the transmitter, two hunters attacked them. Victoria wrestled a shotgun away from a hunter and fired at her attacker, but the gun only sprayed confetti.

A wall opened to reveal an audience applauding; Jem, Damien, and the hunters were shown to be actors. Victoria was strapped to a chair, and Baxter appeared and explained the façade. Her name is Victoria Skillane, and the girl in the photo was a six-year-old girl named Jemima Sykes. Victoria and her fiancé, Iain Rannoch, abducted the girl a few miles from her home. Iain tortured and killed the girl before burning her body, while Victoria laughed and recorded his actions on her mobile phone. The "White Bear", originally the victim's teddy bear, became a symbol of the nationwide search and the murder investigation. The symbol on the television was identical to the tattoo that identified Iain, who committed suicide in his cell before the trial. Victoria tearfully pleaded guilty, insisting she was "under Iain's spell." Victoria was sentenced to undergo the daily punishment she has just experienced.

Victoria was driven back to the compound in a Military Police vehicle past a crowd who, encouraged by the staff, called for her blood, and returned to where she awoke. As Victoria was shown footage of Jemima, Baxter placed remote-controlled electrodes on her head, wiping her memory of the day's events, a procedure that was agonizing and eventually knocked her out. She awoke the next day in the same position she was the previous day, with no memory of what had come before.

## Notes and Trivia

* In Joan is Awful the law firm Joan consults is called Skillane Legal
* In USS Callister, her surname is referenced when the crew decide to fly to the planet Skillane IV.
* She is referenced three times in Hated in the Nation, twice as trending hashtags #deathtovictoriaskillaine and #freethewhitebearone, and once on a newscast Garrett Scholes is watching near the end of the episode.
* In Shut Up And Dance, a news website references her in a headline "Victoria Skillane to appear before International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity."
* In Smithereens, the address 'Skillane Street' is used.
* In White Christmas, her name appears during a newscast.