The Therapy Zone

It’s Simple Really

    I feel that I must respond to those, fans of The Prisoner who read far too much into the Prisoner which simply isn't there, and was never intended to be there in the first place. Oh everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and indeed the Prisoner is everything to everyman or woman.

     For the life of me I cannot see the reasoning for misinterpretation, like the Church door of No. 6's sculpture in "The Chimes of Big Ben," just because one of the judges suggested that's what it looks like, fans agreed when No. 6 said "right first time" when he was simply agreeing with the judge! And again when in "Living In Harmony," No. 6 as a Sheriff who has handed in his badge and gun, and is then seen carrying his saddle. This has been seen representative of Jesus Christ carrying his cross for his crucifixion. I mean where do these people come from?

    All the ex-Sheriff is doing, like any cowboy in the American Wild West would do after losing his horse for whatever reason, he would carry his saddle until he could acquire another horse. The saddle being the most expensive thing a cowboy would own, and so would not be prepared to give it up.

    Some fans tend to over complicate the Prisoner, this is a mistake. To over complicate matters where the Prisoner is concerned, to read things into everyday occurrences like seeing a man enter a building in "Arrival," during the opening sequence, via the Way Out when he is in actual fact merely leaving the underground car park via the Way Out means that such fans will never truly understand "the Prisoner."

    Sometimes the simplest answers are the best answers, but not everyone recognises this. Why over complicate matters, the Prisoner is complex enough for everyone I should have thought.

  Yes, I too have read much into the Prisoner, but I have never gone off into the realms of fantasy. I have tried to keep it simple, but with the Prisoner that's not always easy.

Welcome To Your Home From Home

   Well hardly a home, more of a room with an annexe of kitchen, bathroom and bedroom added on. Because all that is replicated from the Prisoner's home in London is the study. Well quite obviously the builders, carpenters, painters and decorators, electricians could not have replicated the whole of No1 Buckingham Place in the village. It is the same with Nadia-No.8 when she woke up on her first day "A replica of her own room of course" No.2 informs No.6 as they watch the young woman on the screen. Yet other important citizens do have their own house, like the Professor and his wife in The General. Their house is most elegant and elaborately decorated, it even has its own private garden!

    And not everyone enjoys an electronic door as the Prisoner's home of '6 Private.' No.2 of course, and No.14 of A B & C, but not No's.12 and 24 of The Schizoid Man. I always thought that the higher you are up in the importance stakes, the better service you enjoy during your time in the village. A kind of status symbol if you like, having an electronic door which opens automatically for you, but damned disconcerting when experienced for the first time!

    One would have thought that No.2 has the most impressive house, that of the Green Dome, but of course that is not where No.2 lives, this is merely where No.2's office is to be found. No.2's living quarters lie elsewhere. In A B & C No.2 rises up through the floor whist sitting in the black global chair, running his fingers through his hair and still wearing his pyjamas and dressing gown. This action suggests that No.2 actually has a room, or rooms, somewhere below the Green Dome. This is not as grandiose as one might first imagine for a man or woman of such a position! And as for his manservant, the Butler, well he lives close by, in the annexe at the back of the Green Dome, just so that he is close at hand, as is his kitchen, to be able to provide, tea, coffee, and breakfast as the Butler is called upon to provide.

   So all in all, I feel that living in the village No.6 enjoys a more comfortable existence as he does living in his comfortable cottage. But then thinking about it, No.6 is a lifer, and any No.2 you can think of never enjoys an extended term of office. And seeing how there is such a quick turnover and turnaround where No.2 is concerned, how would it be possible to provide No.2 with that home from home that so many of the village inmates enjoy!

Be seeing you