THEPRIS6NER

     Two "You love The Village."

     Six "No, I want to escape!"

    "Were all pawns me dear" so says No.66, and that remark is as true today in this series as it was back then in the original. 147 is a pawn in Two's game. Two gives 147 the task of anointing Six, when the appropriate times comes, Two knows that 147 trusts Six, likes six and that the people will follow 147, well why shouldn't they? So Six is called upon by 147, for six is the One, as being The Villages, and everyone in it, their salvation.

    In Checkmate Two's own story is building to a climax, through the guilt of what he has done within his family, within the regime of The Village, and the sense of his own failure. Two set out to create a certain kind of thing. He looks at what he got, and he doubts himself. I'm sure that Two set out with many good intentions, just as the new two intends to do. But the road to hell is paved with good intentions. An original "good intention" of Two's was to give himself and his wife Helen a son. But he turned out to be a homosexual, murderer, with matricidal tendencies!

    I never realised it before, but everyone in The Village was brought there. Well everyone bar 11-12, who was created by his mother! When 11-12 realises the nature of The Village, and his own part in it he kills himself. That has an impact on Two. Two brings the two things together, his own guilt of his son, and the need to assimilate six. And in that he sees the ultimate challenge. What if Two gives Six The Village? And as long as Six can not refuse, in that acceptance, there lies escape for Two. Two had been carrying that live hand grenade around with his all through the series, and what a way to go! But then it's easy to have a live grenade in your mouth, to pull the pin, because you know all you can do is suffer a Village death!

   Six is a man who fought the very idea of The Village, and hated the nature of being a Prisoner. But in the end Six allows himself to be assimilated. He accepts The Village, and becomes the King of the prison. Because Six had told the populous a thousand times, that everyone in The Village is a prisoner, and he was right!

    "There were a lot of complaints about the last episode of the original series, because the people wanted answers, and they were not given answers and it was very disturbing in that way." Those are the words of scriptwriter Bill Gallagher, who wanted to achieve something like that, but to pull the threads into one solution, one resolution, but also for that to have all the disturbing qualities that the original had. Bill Gallagher wanted it to be provocative, I think he succeeded in that.

   Certainly the idea behind The Village is to give people a second chance, so you can understand the goodness behind the motivation in setting up a place like The Village. A place to take all the broken people and fix them, whether they want it or not. A place to fix murderers, drug dealers, rapists etc, etc. 147 was a violent man living in New York. There was a time when he was so crazy that he thought every car was after him. But in The Village, he is a better man. But it's in the mind you see, because all those people living in The Village, are at the same time, living out their lives in New York. So that when 147 smiles in The Village, he's smiling in New York.

    The series is constructed of a series of challenges given to Six by Two in order to assimilate Six, and each time Two seems to fail. In The Village Six must assimilate or die! The original series was also made up by a series of challenges, or ordeals, which No.2 sometimes succeeded in, but generally failed in. So really in this regard there is not that much difference between the two series. At the end of the original series Number Six was offered ultimate power, and rejected it. In this series Six was anointed as Six, because it was 147 who anointed Six as "The One."

   The new Two, pictured here with 313, wants to do the right thing, to make a better Village. 313 agreed to her part on the grounds that she would be released from The Village once Six had found a "better way," in having found a new Two to follow in Two's footsteps, to make an even better Village. Because that is what Two wanted Six to do. So why not give Six The Village. Six would no logger be a challenge, but an asset, an opportunity to take The Village/Summakor forward. Because the truth of the matter is, Michael is the One!

DAS - BCNU