"I didn't walk out - I resigned!"
Well I suppose it all depends on how you look at it really, and upon the subject they're talking about! Either way it looks as though the Prisoner-McGoohan had had enough, and that was enough to see him being brought to the Village!
He’s Very Good At It..... Causing trouble! He does it all the time. You will recall how No.6 totally disrupted the Social Group in the episode A Change of Mind, and here he is again, up to his old tricks, by disrupting the members of the Assembly!
I don't quite know what Sir was going to say in his address to the Assembly, or quite what he is saying here. But one thing is for certain, whatever it is Sir has to say, the members didn't want to hear it!
The Prisoner - All Things To Everyman
"Some men are just as sure of the truth of their opinions as are others of what they know"
{ Aristotle}
It has been written that there are those who use ‘the Prisoner’ as a means of shoring up one's personal bias, forcing bits of the series into bizarre justification for blinkered views and muddled thinking, which is a tremendous shame. Because all Patrick McGoohan wanted us to do was to think. To question ourselves, others, together with the status quo.
No.6 thinks So Much Of Himself! The Prisoner refuses to settle down, defends his rights as an individual. Refuses to give the reasons behind his resignation, to wear his badge, or acknowledge his number! There are also rules to which No.6 sees himself as not being subject to. And in One Upon A Time he sees himself , and the business he carries out, as being "Above the law. "Perhaps No.2 and the village administration are making the mistake of putting No.6 on a pedestal! Is No.6 really so important? After all, No.48 was in the same groove as No.6, in the way he also refused to wear or observe his number!
The Community Must Live, so too Must No.6. And you might be surprised just how many times the Prisoner-No.6 actually accepts, acknowledges and responds to his number. In ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ the Prisoner actually tells No.8-Nadia that he is No.6. In Free For All he takes a telephone call in which the operator asks him if he is No.6? In defiance he tells the operator "That is the number of this place." But even in that he admits that he lives at No.6 - 6 Private.
During the episode of ‘The Schizoid Man’ No.6's identity is called into question, and even though this is all he now has, a number, the Prisoner is positively desperate to cling to that identity. Desperate to prove that he is No.6! When taking things from the General Store in preparation for his escape of ‘Many Happy Returns,’ No.6 writes in chalk on the counter top I.O.U 964 and signs himself No.6? Okay, there's the question mark after No.6. But he didn't have to write anything, let alone No.6? He could simply have taken the things he needed, it wouldn't have made any difference. But the fact that No.6 had to sign his identity number, even with a question mark, surely means he wants the proprietor to know who took the items from his emporium.
In a note to himself in ‘Hammer Into Anvil’ he signs himself D6. And finally in the gymnasium during ‘It’s Your Funeral’ after a bout of Kosho, No.6 actually collects his personal belongings from a locker marked 6.
Alright, perhaps there are only a few occasions upon which the Prisoner accepts, acknowledges, and responds to his number. But it seemed a lot at the time!
Life Is A Cabaret Old Chap, well not for No.6 it isn't! Even when he was invited to the Ball in the evening they couldn't resist putting No.6 on trial, and thus making him the Cabaret! As for that line "Life is a cabaret old chap," I can almost hear No.2 saying that - can't you?Be seeing you
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