THEPRIS6NER

    ‘Darling’ What was Lucy doing, collapsed in the corridor? Probably waiting for Michael to come and find her, which of course he did, and took her back into his apartment. And if Lucy knew more than she told Six, then we'll never know how much more she knew.

   Two really is a sick bastard, with the most twisted of minds. I mean, give families a pig to help stop those anomalies. I mean Two's having a laugh. Pigs dig holes, they go rootling in the ground for truffles, grubs, and worms! But I suppose if everyone has a pig, it seems to bring the whole community together, working as one for the good of The Village, the community, and themselves.

    4-15 was a plant, brought to The Village to carry on the good work she began in New York, but with one subtle difference, he is blind. The blindness was induced, and later her sight was given back by The Village Guardian. Love makes us do things against oursleves, against other, despite the consequences. 4-15 threw herself into oblivion of a broken heart, or because she had failed in her assignment. 313 destroyed the wedding between 4-15 and Six for love, and betrayed Two for the love for Six. The trouble is, as Two put it, will 313 ever know if her love for Six is real, or manufactured? Or indeed if Two has simply sown the seed of doubt in 313's mind, with a few well chosen words.

   Only Two seems to have a lap top! It's a small trivial point, but in none of the homes that I've seen in The Village, no-one has a lap-top or desk-top computer. Well I suppose they wouldn't, not if The Village is retro of the 1950's and 60's, they weren't invented then! And another trivial point, one of observation, but have you noticed the arms of the white sofa in Two's bedroom, how the arms with black edging curl round to form the number 2?

    I wonder if everything in The Village is manufactured? I mean family life which seems so important to Two, 16's family in the episode Harmony was manufactured or contrived, as was 4-15's. Could it be that the whole of The Village is simply manufactured in the sedated, and hallucinatory mind of Two's wife? And by maintaining her sedated state of mind, The Village continues to be manufactured in her hallucinations? But even in her sedated state of mind, Two's wife can sense things, she could sense her husband touching 313, giving his wife pleasure. I think Two cares for and loves his wife, but at the same time there's something perverted about it. I cannot put my finger on it at present, and I'm not sure I really want to, but it's there, lurking in the background.

    And that's a bit weak I thought, the way in which Michael demonstrates his rebellious nature, by going up the down escalator. Or is he simply in a hurry?

    313 works against Two, she betrays him. But Two knows that 313 is a dreamer, and dreamers disappear! So 313 had better be careful. But 313 is a woman in love, and love makes you do things against others, despite the consequences, as I've already said. So I wonder what the consequence with be for 313's love for Six? Perhaps none. such is the sick and twisted mind of Two, that I'm sure he will continue to manipulate that love. After all Two likes 313, but he doesn't know her. So would he still like 313 if he knew her? Perhaps Two would like to be at her, I mean at her! And that's the difference between THEPRIS6NER and the original, there's sex in it!

   I still cannot make up my mind whether or not the Village itself is manufactured. and by that I mean manufactured in the mind of Two's wife, if indeed she is Two's wife, back in New York.

There are a certain 'set of nods' given to the original series, and it must have been fun to reproduce certain elements, having a respect for what has become iconic, the Prisoner. There was also the need for a Village logo, but apparently, according to ITV's Press Pack for THEPRISONER, it would have been wrong to use the original penny farthing although as we've seen, there is one suspended from the ceiling of the "Go Inside Club." And what's more Two Ian McKellen pays his own small homage to what was once the past!

    93, the "old man," of the McGoohan character's flat is lifted from the first series as a direct homage, but not a direct copy.

   The dark interior of the clinic is supposed to reflect the Control Room of the first series, but at the same time it represents the psychological influence of present-day interrogation.

    THEPRIS6NER is about memory and the subconscious versus reality. The Village is a benign place, it has an almost timeless quality, and that appears to have resulted in a retro sixties feel, which I picked up on soon into Arrival.

   There are not so many Village slogans in this series, as there are in the original. But there is one above the Village Shop "For All Your Needs."

   And here's an observation for you......as Two enters the Village Shop in the episode Schizoid, not Village Store as I wrongly remembered it as being, there is a man who walks passed dressed identically to Two!

   The Village Shop puts me in mind of the Ship Shop in Portmeirion, because it sells Village maps, folded, and larger ones rolled up. The Village Shop sells 'T' shirts, aprons, crockery, almost anything but food and drink. I mean this is the Village shop for all your needs, but where are the wines and spirits, the toilet rolls, brushes? The milk, the ice cream, potatoes and aspirins? But at least the little shop bell has been retained ting-a-ling-ling.

DAS - BCNU