The Therapy Zone

Ex-Number 2's And Late Presidents

   Have you considered what happens to ex-Number 2's once they've left the Village? Well they don't all go back to the Houses of Parliament you know, not by any means. Take this guy for example. Once he was quite happy to use children to extract the reason behind the Prisoners resignation, but it did him little good. Because he, like so many before him, failed miserably.

   Then this particular Number 2 was brought back, oh but not for a second term of office, although it is possible I suppose, if you see ‘Fall Out’ as a further manipulation of Number 6 that went wrong. No, this Number 2 was brought back to the village to pose as a President, a Judge, to reside over the question of democratic crisis which has just hit the village. Ah, but then there was the evacuation, the order given by the President himself. So what happened after his escape from the village?

   Well as I've said, late Number 2's do not all return to the Houses of Parliament, but possibly to their former lives, if not too many "embarrassing questions are asked" that is. Others like out friend here, run shabby, if not shady, little import & export businesses somewhere along the Thames in London

The Prisoner

    The whole series turned out to be cyclical! That's the whole point....The whole point, certainly of the last episode, which I think is made clear, is that each man or indeed woman, is a prisoner unto him or herself. No.1, many people thought, who didn't understand what was happening, was going to be some James Bond character with a bald head and gold teeth, whereas actually what is man's biggest enemy is himself, and that is what one is consistently fighting, to get through each day, each month, each year, each lifetime. That is the biggest enemy that we have - ourselves, our self. That is the whole point. That is the Prisoner."

   Well that's as maybe, but I can't help but see that James Bond style of ending to the series, and I'm not so sure that McGoohan was demonstrating that "biggest enemy being ourselves, our self" in the previous 16 episodes of the series. I think that the above came out of McGoohan simply in that last episode ‘Fall Out.’ ‘Fall Out,’ an episode which is not in keeping with the previous 16 episodes, but which is, I suppose, the most logical ending to commencement of the series, depending on how you look at it of course.

  It’s Always Possible

   That the man who dodges about in the central Piazza during the episode of Arrival, was attacked because he didn't stand still like everyone else upon the order by Number Two to "Be still." After all in Checkmate, as the white membranic Village Guardian passes by, everyone stands still by the side of the street until "it'" has passed by, even the spout of water from the fountain stops, or hadn't you noticed that? But going back to Arrival for a moment, as Number two gives out the order to "Be still," The Prisoner tries to move forward, but appears to be suddenly frozen to the spot!

   But that's fine as it goes, and is reason enough to explain why that man was attacked in that scene during Arrival. However, it does not explain why the Village Guardian did not attack Number Fourteen, the man with the walking stick who was walking along as the Guardian passed him by. That's something quite inexplicable, as perhaps Number Fourteen shows his defiance by not being still as the Guardian passes by!

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