The Therapy Zone

Looking At It From No.1.s Perspective

    I shouldn't think No.1 has a point of view, or does he? He seemed to be as mad as a hatter upon that meeting with No.6, hiding behind masks and showing No.6 his future in that crystal ball.

   But No.1 is the man who No.6 was asking Little Bo-Peep about at the ‘Dance of the Dead.’ The power on the throne, and instigator of the village. Are we expected to believe that no-one knew who No.1 was, that he went around all the time in a white cowled robe and black and white mask, that No.2 didn't recognise No.1's voice when they spoke on the telephone? Surely he didn't spend all his time aboard that rocket in ‘Fall Out’? No.1 must surely have had other quarters in that underground complex of the village, he had to eat and drink. Who served him his meals? And go to the bathroom just as his supposedly alter go does above ground in his cottage in the village. And an office would be called for, for a man in No.1's position, an office from which to administer the village, and surely No.2 was not the only village administrator to speak with No.1.

   And if we are to touch upon the subject of alter egos, why then did No.1 put his other self through so much? Perhaps he had to, in order for him to become No.1 in the first place!

    There is even the chance that No.1 actually got his hands dirty during the episode of ‘The Schizoid Man,’ in the guise of Curtis perhaps. After all we only have No.6's word that Curtis-No.12 actually died by suffocation by the membranic village guardian, not everyone did you know. And if Curtis was No.1 getting his hands dirty out and about in the village, then it would not be the first time that such a meeting had provoked such a violent reaction between the two. After all John Drake had previously met with his other self in the ‘Danger Man’ episode ‘The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove.’ that meeting also broke out into a fight, as indeed it would have done between No.6 and No.1 in the control room of the rocket, if only No.6 could have got his hands on No.1 as he gave chase around the control room in the rocket.

   During No.6's tormented, interrogated and tortuous time in the village, though his disappointments, failures and victories, how did No.1 feel about his other self? In the way No.6 thwarted No.2 and the villages administration, in ‘The General’ and Its Your Funeral for examples. No.1 saw Speedlearn as purely a military exercise, according to No.2, and then there was the failed execution of the retiring No.2. I mean No.1 surely didn't make this all happen as mere tests for his alter ego-No.6. And the drugs, therapy, and interrogation techniques used against No.6, had No.1 no feeling for his alter ego at all? And how could No.1 have felt when No.6 was taught a lesson in episodes as ‘Free For All’ and ‘Many Happy Returns?’ Perhaps No.1 saw himself as the stronger, and No.6 as the weaker side to his nature. But in the end No.6 was proved to be the man of steel who had survived the ultimate test of ‘Once Upon A Time.’ But what if No.6 had not survived, there would have been no meeting with No.1, and how do you think he would have felt then? And would No.1 have actually survived without his alter ego the No.6? Because throughout the series of tests he set No.6, there were enormous risks taken by No.1, anyone of which could have proved fatal!

I’ll Be seeing you