The Therapy Zone

The Allegorical Rocket

   One observation made about that rocket in Fall Out, is that it might not have been a "doomsday device," capable of destroying the earth all on it's own. But certainly it could have started World War III, with No.6 being the instigator.

   Such a launching of a rocket would have been picked up by listening stations on both sides of the Iron Curtain, possibly with both sides disclaiming knowledge. And seeing as there was a Cold War on at the time, there was a great deal of mistrust, and it would have been but a moment to order the launching of Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles...... and Armageddon would reign supreme. Unless of course it is an allegorical rocket, then it wouldn't hurt anyone

The Prisoner In His Despair

    FALL OUT - the final chapter of that enigmatic television series the Prisoner. And what does Fall Out gives us, a James Bond style of ending, which McGoohan always said was not what his intention to give the audience, but did so anyway but bound it all up in a fancy pink ribbon called it an allegory! But more than that, much more than that, we finally get to meet No.1 as No,6 did, and it turned out to be himself all along, oh what a cop-out it all was, or was it?

    I have always been of the opinion that you get what you see, as No.6 finally comes face to face with No.1 - himself, his alter ego if you prefer, who No.6, as McGoohan once put it "He was trying to beat."

   Well were they, No.6 and No.1 one and the same. Or was it all delusion as most things in the village seem to be, and yet more manipulation of No.6 brought about by the villages administration, or those masked members of the assembly? You will recall Curtis of the episode The Schizoid Man, No.6's doppelganger for the want of a better word. But he died in the episode didn't he. Well we have only No.6's word for that, as not everyone is suffocated to death at the membrane of the village guardian you know. Curtis may very well have only been rendered unconscious for all we know, and that could mean that Curtis...... Well No.1, getting his own hands dirty for once!

   If this is not the case, and that in actual fact No.6 and No.1 were one and the same, the Prisoner must then surely have ended in despair, with No.6 finding out that he was No.1 after all. And do we then not share in the Prisoner's despair? Do we not, each and everyone of us, at some point in our lives, have the desire to be No.1? And for those lucky ones who achieve that goal, who do they face when they look themselves in the mirror?

I'll be seeing you.