The Therapy Zone

I Can't Go An Entire Day Without My Sweets!

    No.26 who cannot go a day without her sweets, or should that have been cigarettes?   So the title claimed No.26 during the daily prognosis report on No.6 in ‘It's Your Funeral.’ But the script has it slightly different, when No.8 reads out the part of the daily prognosis report with No.2 at the kiosk to No.2

No.8 "There, he will buy a copy of the newspaper and a bar of soap, and a packet of cigarettes."

   {We as the viewer are lead to believe that he will buy a bag of sweets not cigarettes}

Interim No.2 "No, no. He only smokes an occasional cigar."

   A moment later, No.26 was to have said "I can't go an entire day without my cigarettes!"

    That No.26 cannot go an entire day without her cigarettes makes more sense than not being able to go without her sweets. It explains why No.26 is so uptight, and tetchy with the kiosk attendant. Her craving for nicotine is making her behave in such a manner, not the desire for sweets. But I wonder what it was that ‘the Prisoner’ series had against smoking? Perhaps the simple change from cigarettes to sweets yields more viewer empathy for the woman's plight, makes the story more believable, and gives us some insights into No.6's nature. As filmed for the kind deed of No.6 buying candy for the old woman-No.26 touches us more than if he had bought her an entire carton of cigarettes. There is another factor that could have weighed in the decision to not use cigarettes.  It is the fact that there is another smoking reference in ‘The Schizoid Man’ which could confuse the viewer. There, No.6 is portrayed as a smoker. Well what's so wrong with that? The days of the Prisoner are not like days of today. Back then it was socially accepted to smoke, nearly everyone was a smoker. So why in the Prisoner do I get the feeling that citizens in ‘The Village’ were not to be portrayed as being smokers? Allison-No.24 is a smoker, No.6 is a smoker we saw this during the episode ‘Living In Harmony,’ and of course Curtis in ‘The Schizoid Man’ had to be a smoker, seeing as how he was impersonating No.6! But generally in The Village, the vast majority of the citizens were non-smokers, or at least they are never seen to smoke in public. Perhaps only in the privacy of their own cottage like Alison-No.24

Panic Stricken Citizens!

   Fall Out sees the Village citizens in a blind panic, running this way and that, as the Village is to be evacuated. There is nothing calm about the evacuation, it's carried out as a "free for all," in many cases every man and woman for themselves! I mean those citizens running away from the Village along the beach, where the hell do they think they are running to?

   It has been said why isn't the Village quietly evacuated in Fall Out in the say way as it was before the morning of Many Happy Returns? Well because the Village wasn't evacuated before the morning of Many Happy Returns, that's why! So where was everyone? The citizens were having a lie-in caused by an extra large dose of sleeping draught in their night-cap. So as No,6 was building his raft, and making ready to set off on his sea voyage, the citizens slept peacefully in their cottages. And those who actually work in the Village, were simply kept out of sight of No.6, so as not to give the game away. The only question remains, is for how long?

BCNU