THEPRIS6NER

    The echoes within this series cannot be denied, and are even reflected in the titles of the series. ‘Arrival’ speaks for itself of course. ‘Harmony,’ is that mean to be ‘Living In Harmony,’ because Two wants Six to settle down with his brother to family life, to live in harmony in The Village. ‘Anvil’ – ‘Hammer Into Anvil,’ well is Two supposed to be the hammer and Six the anvil? Possibly, but nothing is really achieved by either party, although his son's lover 909 is gotten rid of, and now his son can find someone more of his own age. As for Six, well 909 confirms that dreamers exist, 909 might have been a dreamer himself. Then comes ‘Darling,’ as in ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling,’ that sounds like Two asking that of his wife! Next up is Schizoid, as in the Schizoid Man, and I shouldn't wonder if Curtis, mentioned twice by Lucy to Michael in New York doesn't turn up. And of course the series ends in a Checkmate win, for who I wonder?

   Two is a very clever man, in the way he sets citizens against citizens who live in fear of others. A mother who missed a regular Yoga class, a school teacher who likes or go swimming before he goes home, or any citizen who breaks from the accepted norm becomes suspect! Even the innocent act of putting out a towel to dry is interpreted by an "Undercover" as a signal to someone! And surveillance classes are held in school. I wonder what society will be like in The Village in a generation or two's time?

   Of course surveillance in The Village is taken to extremes. Yet we all live in a society of surveillance, and the United Kingdom is the world's leader in surveillance. Citizens of China, or North Korea are less watched than citizens in the UK! So who is doing all this surveillance? Why are they watching us? And what is the purpose? To protect? To find those who are guilty? And what do they do with all the hour upon hour of surveillance film footage, wipe it, or keep it? Are those who are watching us, themselves watched?

And if so, who is watching them, as they watch those who watch us? and in any case we have but ourselves to blame, as we let it happen. Surveillance cameras are everywhere, all grown up around us like so many weeds.

   I was wrong about Two's wife, I thought she didn't have anything to eat after Two had woken her up from her sedated state. But she ate a "wrap," which forms the greater part of the staple diet of the citizens of The Village. Also, Two's wife must know that Two is deliberately keeping her sedated. Because as Two helps his wife up off the bed she says to him "What this time?" Meaning that she's been woken by Two before, but how many times, and why? Why does Two keep his wife in such a sedated state in the first place?

    So in The Village everyone is watching everyone else! That's a theory I came up with for the Observers in the original series. It seems that fear is guilt in disguise, and everyone is guilty of something. We, or rather "they," only have to find out that they are guilty of!

    That black Bedford van medics, or whoever they are, used to take people away for treatment, do you recognise it at all? Because it's an early "anti riot" vehicle used in Northern Ireland at the start of the troubles. In fact all the vehicles we see in The Village stem from the 1950's and 60's. Having watched Anvil again last night, I spotted another differently coloured Morris Minor pass by, and a British Ford Anglia parked in the street. 909's recovery vehicle is a right hand drive Dodge, and numerous other American 1950's and 60's cars have been observed in the first three episodes.

    Death, and especially by suicide still remains an escape it seems, for those who get it right. For those who do not, the nightmare goes on. 1955 is innocent. He's a teacher, he teaches. But because others misinterpret his actions, because he strays from the norm, he is suspect, and therefore put under surveillance. And that is why 1955 is afraid, afraid to go home, because of that surveillance he is put under. They say if you have nothing to hide, there is nothing to be afraid of. But fear it seems, has been interpreted as being guilt in disguise!

   So finally for this time. If Number One never existed. If there has never been a Number One, and if there is never to be a Number One, and Two is nothing more than a public servant. Who is it Two is answerable to?

    This is the nearest we get to a salute in new Village.

   It would seem that the salute of the past has been forgotten. However when I first saw this salute, or wave if you prefer, does to some extent, resemble the logo for new Village.

DAS - BCNC