It's not just No.2 who has a controlling influence over the citizens of the Village. There's that white membranic mass of the Village Guardian which oversees, patrols, protects, and which first demonstrates it's perculiar style of controlling influence in Arrival, when No.2 gives the order to "Be still!" One young man doesn't! He ignores the order to "Be still," and runs about in circles, and then once the Village Guardian has put in an appearence it homes in on the movement of the individual in question, then suffocates it's prey into unconciousness or to death.
Again it is during the opening moves of Checkmate that the Village Guardian demonstrates further, it's controlling influence over the citizens. As it gives out that blood curdling roar, bounds, and rolls along the streets of the Village, pedestrians automatically stand to the side of the road, and cyclists dismount their bicycles until the Guardian has passed by. Even the fountain of the pool in the central Piazza stops functioning as the Village Guardian passes by!
During The Chimes of Big Ben when Nadia is attempting to swim away from the Village, she is brought back to the beach by no fewer than three Village Guardians......how do they do that? Likewise after No.6's failed escape attempt during the electoral period of Free For All, he too is brought back to the village by three Guardians, and I still don't know how they are able to do it.
Apart from controlling the citizens, rounding up any possible escapee like some sheep dog, as it does when the Prisoner-No.6 is brought back to the Village by remote control, aboard the helicopter in Arrival. The Village Guardian acts as a type of guard dog, protecting the Village, from both escapees and intruders alike.
You cannot attack the Village Guardian, why? Because it offers no resistance {after all that is what balloons do}. This can be observed during Arrival during the Prisoner-No.6's first escape attempt by taxi. The Prisoner is suddenly thrown from the vehicle, and as the Village Guardian comes at him, he tries to lay into the white membranic 'thing,' with his fists. But the Village Guardian offers no resitance to the Prisoner's punches. Thereby tiring himself out, who is then overwhelmed by the Guardian, and suffocated into unconciousness.
Can the Village Guardian think for itself? Well I'm not sure it can think for itself, but it can certainly make choices, and distinctions. Look at what happened that night outside '6 Private,' on the night of The Schizoid Man. The Village Gaurdian was suddenly faced with two No.6's, both of whom give the correct password Schizoid Man, but No.6 gives the password with authority, and once only. Whereas Curtis is nervous state, and gives the password in a hurried manner, which he repeats a couple of times. The Village Guardian, or 'Rover' as No.6 and No.2 calls it, had to make a choice between the two 6's, and made the distinction between the two No.6's on the basis of how the password was delivered. The only trouble was,'it' made the wrong choice, by selecting the wrong man. But one lesson is learned by the observer in The Schizoid Man, it's possible name, and the fact that the Village Guardian can hear!
At the start of the penultimate episode Once Upon A Time, the Village Guardian demonstrates more than it's controlling influence, 'it' has ambitious tendencies! Look how it arrives in No.2's office, fixed in the globe chair as it rises up through the floor!
During Fall Out the Village Guardian, or rather a segment of the Village Guardian, dies in the after heat of the rocket that has just been launched. The death of 'Rover' it has been termed. But as I say, only a segment. Because don't forget that the Village Gaudian was originally released from a containment area somewhere on the Seabed. And seeing as during two epsidoes three Village Guardians are seen, one can assume that there is one huge mass, somewhere at the bottom of the Sea, from which individual segments are released.
So what is this Village Guardian? Some alien being from another planet? Well that's the impression that can be derived from the dying scene of the Village Guardian. That it is on some alien planet, rocky, and very hot, or Volcano. Possibly it is the result of some genetic experiment, a genetically engineered being. But I think, to put it quite simply, the Village Guardian is a balloon with attitude!
BCNU
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