Sunday 5 December 2010

Fall Out Mister Bond!

    I suppose the last episode of the Prisoner Fall Out is the most difficult to understand, or indeed come to terms with, simply on the grounds that it's like none of it's sixteen predecessors. Patrick McGoohan once said of Fall Out that it's an "allegorical ending to an enigmatic series." Well that's as maybe, but the trouble with giving way to the allegorical simply means that something can mean anything you want it to mean.
    So I threw the allegorical out with the bath water, and then Fall Out became simple to understand. McGoohan said that he didn't want to give the television viewer a James Bond style ending to the Prisoner. Well in my opinion that's just what the viewer did get! You have the hero Number Six, a former British Intelligence agent. The villain Number One, a cavern underneath the village installation, and the rocket. A fire-fight takes place, but the only people to die are the armed security guards, and the village is evacuated. The villain escapes aboard the rocket, and the hero, along with his fellow confederates, escape aboard a Scammell Highwayman transporter.
    Yet the Prisoner is a vicious circle, and with the ending of Fall Out, we observe the beginning of Arrival. So it is possible to say that with Fall Out one sees the beginning of the Prisoner and a reason for his resignation!
   And finally, Fall Out is a huge piece of self-indulgence on the part of Patrick McGoohan!

Be seeing you

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