The Therapy Zone

The Prisoner

   It was once written that the Prisoner can never be fully explained. It isn't meant to be. It is what you see in it - and you should be free to see as much as you like."

   Well just as long as what you see isn't simply made up, misinterpreted, or made to look like something else, otherwise what's the point? But if that's your bag, then who am I to tell you differently? And it’s quite true that the Prisoner can never be fully explained, but if you can come to an understanding of most of the Prisoner, then you are able to sit back and appreciate that which will always be inexplicable within the series, and thereby all the more interesting.

  And what about the sections of the Prisoner which we do not see, that can never be understood, or explained by anyone? I mean the sections between say the end of Arrival and the beginning of The Chimes of Big Ben for example. What happened the next day when there was the new No.2 who took part in the Appreciation Day ceremony - how did he treat No.6 the next day? And of course the same can be said of the new No.2 of Free for All, was she brought to the village with the remit of extracting the reason for No.6's resignation, or was she to be involved in something else, simple administration work perhaps? If it was the former, then I wouldn't wish to be in No.6's shoes the next day after Free for All!

   You see, all one has to do is use one's imagination to fill in the gaps to your own satisfaction, and then you can enlarge upon Patrick McGoohan's masterpiece that is the Prisoner.

Fall Out

   How do you think of the Prisoner episode Fall Out? Perhaps as radioactive fallout, after an exploded nuclear warhead, which the Fall Out rocket may or may not have as a payload. That is the way many fans of the Prisoner see Fall Out, except there was no nuclear explosion!

   But there are other meanings to fall out than that, as in soldiers who having been on parade are then dismissed "Fall out- men." Just as No.6, or Sir as he became known, was being dismissed in the episode.

   Then again, there's the "Fall Out" caused by No.6 and his comrades, and the chaos he created in the village. Not to mention "Fall out" as in friends falling out amongst themselves!

Be seeing you