Prismatic Reflection

 "Unmasking The Enemy Within"
     Patrick McGoohan played the role of Curtis in the episode The Schizoid Man, therefore Curtis is No.1. I know, it is something of a sloppy argument, yet things are not always logical in the Prisoner, and the logic of the heart is seldom the logic of the head.
    Why then could Curtis not have been No.1? I mean the death of Curtis, suffocated by the village guardian, could have been faked, and even if it wasn't......Curtis could have been resuscitated in the same way as No.2 was resuscitated in Fall Out. And besides No.6 could have been mistaken when he told No.2 on the telephone that Curtis was dead, the village guardian doesn't always suffocate it's victims to death, No.6 should know that better than anyone! And so to borrow one of No.2's sayings "Want not, waste not." Curtis would be a valuable comodity, an exact double of the Prisoner-No.6. Perhaps if Curtis was "put on ice" they might find another use for him, like facing him with No.6 again, but as No.1 in that final manipulation of the Prisoner during Fall Out!
   When give the chance to finally come face to face with No.1, No.6 strips away the Grecian comedy/tragedy black and white mask, strips away the evolutionary ape mask, and is finally faced with himself - No.1 - or is it Curtis? No.6 cannot be sure, that's why No.6 wants to lay hands on No.1, and ask him some pertinant questions. But of course Patrick McGoohan cannot allow that, he doesn't want questions answered, probably because he doesn't have the answers! That's why No.1 runs, climbs the ladder into the upper chamber of the rocket, sealed in that Upper chamber, whilst No.6 is setting the countdown, and eventually the rocket with No.1 still aboard launches the rocket into a low orbit. So who is that dancing in the cage with Leo and Kanner on the back of that Scammell Highwayman Transporter? It's Patrick McGoohan of course!