The Village was deserted! Where was everyone? Has everyone escaped, and No.6 somehow left behind?
No.6 embarks on a voyage of discovery, a voyage which I'm not so sure he would have survived. No, I'm possitive that he would not have survived aboard that open sea-going, Kon-Tiki style raft. But there you go, we are dealing with fiction here, and fiction is never as strange as fact!
Of course the Village is not deserted, there's the cat. But the cat didn't break the crockery did it? Surely not. No, someone had to have been hiding, to smash the crockery {cup and saucer} so to give No.6 a fright. For him the think that his hopes of escape had been dashed at the very last moment. But instead his hope is quickly restored as No.6 casts off and sets out on his voyage of discovery. What about the citizens in the Village? Well some would have it that the Village had been evacuated in the night, which is a ridiculous thought. The good citizens are all snug in their beds, all heavily sedated. And that might very well be the case upon the Prisoner's unhappy return to the Village. But really this episode contains the first genuine act of kindness shown to No.6 since the day of his arrival in the Village. That by the young gypsy woman, when she gave him a hot cup of tea or broth.
A voyage of discovery in more ways that one. A story of hope, and despondency. It is a demonstration of power and manipulation. And at the end No.6 takes it all calmly in his stride. But woud there really be any point in a show of anger and outrage? The Prisoner is more philosophical than that, and aware that such actions would avail him nothing. And so merely accepts the situation as it is. After all, what can he possibly do........escape?
Be seeing you
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