The Therapy Zone

Is The Village Guardian The Key?

   After all, out of all the 17 episodes of ‘the Prisoner,’ the village guardian appears in six episodes which all end in failure for No.6. Whilst the  remaining 11, except for ‘Many Happy Returns,’ the Village Guardian does make a brief appearance in ‘A Change of Mind,’ but that is only on film in the Aversion Therapy room, end in triumph.

You're Not The Duke Of Wellington Are You?

    In the episode of The Girl who was Death, Napoleon, played by Number 2, asks Number6 {Mr. X} "You're not the Duke of Wellington are you?" As it happens, in the book Webster's Dictionary of Proper Names, Number One, London, is referred to as the old postal address of Apsley House at Hyde Park Corner - the first Duke of Wellington's home.

   A curious point, nothing more than that.

The Jester Of The Court!

   No.48, wears funny clothes, a Jester's bell about his neck which he frequently rings. Certainly the delegates of the Assembly certainly like his singing and dancing, in fact they join in with him. But No.48 is not the only funny entertainer, the "late" No.2 opens his address with a funny thing happened to me..... on my way here, ha, ha, ha, ha! So is ‘Fall Out’ nothing more than a pantomime, which the viewer has to make some sense of?

Many Happy Returns

   Is an episode which reflects the vicious circle that is ‘the Prisoner.’ A circle within a circle you might say.

    At the beginning of ‘Arrival’ we have a grimaced faced man behind the wheel of his Lotus 7. Then after escaping the village in ‘Fall Out,’ the Prisoner returns to London, and soon after which, we see that same grimaced faced man behind the wheel of his Lotus 7, and still as much a prisoner as ever he was. Because "In his end, is the Prisoner's beginning!"

  And likewise it is with the episode of ‘Many Happy Returns.’ No.6 escapes from a seemingly deserted village. He makes a perilous journey back to London, soon after which No.6 is unceremoniously returned to the village at the very place of his departure. The Prisoner has been brought full circle, and is still as much a prisoner as he was, before the day he made his escape!

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