Prismatic Reflection

    There is one marked difference between the two series of the Prisoner, that being, Two in THEPRIS6NER, never once asks Six why he resigned! And that has never been allowed to get in the way of the main plot, which is to see Two hand over the Village to Six, because Two wants to escape! Two/Curtis, wants Michael/Six to go back to Summakor, to take over from Curtis.
The Prisoner known as Six does resign, he spray paints the word Resign on the window of his office. No, as to the question why Michael resigned, this is left to Lucy who has been assigned to Michael, she must find out the reason behind his resignation.
    You might think that Curtis and his wife Helen are behind the Village, and you would be right, after all they volunteered for the Village. They wanted a son, which they could not have in real life, Helen dreamed a son for her and Curtis. 11-12 has no memory of his childhood, hardly surprising is it, seeing as he never had one! But seeing as 11-12 doesn’t physically exist, well after that nothing would surprise me.
    There are two kinds of people who live in the Village. Those like 11-12 who were born of the Village, and those who are brought to the Village. But who says who is to be sent to the Village? Those like Michael, who make reports on people who were……mentally broken. The reports he made were then sent up to the purpose floor of the Summakor building. So why did Michael resign? Because he began to observe changes in people, too many people!
    Michael thought he was free of Summakor the day he resigned. But that was not the case, it was only the beginning. Because “they” had sent Michael to the Village. He was there all the time Lucy was attempting to gain the reason behind his resignation in New York.
   Not everyone likes THEPRIS6NER, but for myself, and others like me, I have a great appreciation for the mini-series. In fact I’m listening to the soundtrack of the series while I’m typing these words. I have a list of the order of my favourite episodes, just as I do for the original series. Arrival has to come first, a man waking up somewhere in a desert somewhere, not knowing where he is. Who brought him there, or why? And of course there is still the original Village Guardian, except for the fact that “it’s” been upgraded. No longer a meteorological weather balloon, confined to a 6 feet circumference. No, the Village Guardian is now CGI, and capable of expanding it’s circumference to timorous proportions.
    My next favourite episode is a difficult one. I did think it was Anvil, however having watched Schizoid recently, Schizoid has to be my second favourite episode. There is two times Six who wants to kill Two because of what happened to 4-15/Lucy. Then there’s an Un-Two in the Village, a Two impersonator. But it’s only Two going about impersonating himself! And what of Two Times Six? I mean it’s just Six struggling against the Six inside, right? Well it would be, if it were not for the fact that two times Six can be physically seen by not only Six, but 313, and Two!
    Next up is Anvil, which deals with the subject of surveillance. That everyone is suspect, and if they are suspect then they are guilty of something. Even the simple action of 1955 who goes swimming every evening after work, makes himself suspect, never mind the fact that he just might like to swim. And then when he hangs a towel outside to dry, to an undercover like 909, that’s a signal for other dreamers. Dreamers being those people in the Village like 4-15, 313, Six, 909, and others, who dream of the “other place!” And then there’s the Therapy Zone. Not a place to hang out and be an alcoholic in perfect privacy. Now the Therapy Zone is a place to be sent for treatment!
    Next Checkmate, and finally all the clues in the mini-series are all brought together. Six is dying, Two seems happy to let Six die if Six wants to. But he cannot understand why Six chooses death, when every other citizen chooses life. All the citizens in the Village happily going about there daily lives, they love the Village. They love Two. But Two wants to escape, he expects to hand over the Village to Six, because Six, Six is the one!
   Darling has to be next, not one of the strongest episodes. Two places a great deal on love. But like most things in the Village, even love is manufactured! Is that How Two contrived 313 to fall in love with Six, so that they would take on the Village together?
    Harmony is my least favourite, and the weakest of the 6 episode mini-series. Two gives Six a family because to Two, family life is important, it gives a person a sense of belonging, of unity. But Six’s brother died in an accident at sea, so how can 16 be Six’s brother?
   As I type these words, listening to THEPRIS6NER soundtrack, my mind is filled with echoes of the series I have recently watched. Two gets all the best lines in this series, because the series was written for Two and not Six. He’s the one you see, Six. We want Six, Six is the one. We want Six, Six is the one. We want Six, Six is the one. It is this chant which precedes Six becoming the new Two. And if I still attended the Prisoner Conventions at Portmeirion, I dare say I would put a few backs up, a nose or two out of joint. How? Well by chanting “We want Six, Six is the one. We want Six, Six is the one. We want Six, Six is the one” during the Election Parade re-enactment. Well I happen to think it’s a pretty catchy chant. What’s more I’d probably have attend any such Prisoner event dressed as Two! Perhaps I would be taken as being Unmutual, or for mad. Either way I wouldn’t be surprised if that would make me an outcast in the Village. But I prefer to see it as showing individualistic tendencies, as being an individual. Someone who does not bow to exterior forces or persuasion.

    Why do I feel so passionate about this series? Because it is precisely the kind of thing I had been expecting all the time the THEPRIS6NER was being produced. To me the series, and this is nothing against the original series, but it was like a breath of fresh air. And yet it retains many of the qualities of the original. They have simply been reinterpreted, reinvented, that’s all. I could say that it’s a pity more fans of the original series do not see it for themselves. But it’s enough for me that I do.

I’ll be seeing you……..back in the Village!