The Prisoner Under The Spotlight

   There cannot be many mysteries remaining in the series left to discover. Yet we can I think, find new reinterpretations, and look at the same but from a different angle. However one thing is blatantly obvious right from the outset - the Prisoner is on the side of the village!

   When the Prisoner meets with the new No.2 the Prisoner tells him to get No.1. So the Prisoner knows about No.1, okay you can say that seeing as he is faced with No.2, it follows that he has a superior, and that superior can only be No.1. But when asked by No.2 "It depends on whose side you're on, doesn't it?" The Prisoner responds with "I'm on our side."

   So it would seem that his man who was once with them. A man who showed great enthusiasm for his work, then suddenly walked out, sorry, resigned. Is a man with a conscience, and could not live with those things which played upon his conscience. But they should still know where his loyalties lie, because despite everything, John Drake still remains loyal.

   But because Drake resigned it shows to No.2 that people change, and so do loyalties. "Not mine" the Prisoner insists. And so too does that conscience of his "You imprison people, steal their minds, destroy them....".

   And so you have the reason why John Drake, the now Prisoner, resigned. It was a matter of conscience, and that fact has got him into hotter water than he might have imagined. If No.6 were only able to rid himself of that conscience of his, things might be different for him.

   I suppose the same thing could be said of Patrick McGoohan after he had escaped to Hollywood. That if Patrick McGoohan had put both his conscience and his principles aside and played the Hollywood game, things might have turned out very differently for him.

   To me both the Prisoner-No.6 and Patrick McGoohan had the same matter of conscience. The man and the character together, the one and the same.

 The Prisoner As An Individual. He simply resigns as a matter of choice. He shouldn't have to answer to anyone. It's entirely his prerogative, his God-given right as an individual, to proceed in any way he sees fit. That's the whole point of it all."

    Well I'm not so sure about the "God-given right" bit, prerogative may be. And as for not having to answer to anyone, I think Janet Portland would have something to say about that, as well as her father Sir Charles, who would at the very least want to know how his future son in-law is going to support his daughter. Oh yes, and ask why he resigned!

    And what if we all took up that  so called "God-given right" to proceed as an individual in any way we see fit. Where would society stand then? An individual may choose to go the way he or she sees fit, but not en mass. That path would lie the way to anarchy, revolution, or simply the breakdown of society as we know it.

   I was, in the past, aware of certain individuals who used to write of being a rebel, and of rebellion against society. But when the whiff of revolution began to fill the very air we breathed, those authors of such written words of rebellion, and the desire to be a rebel, simply vanish like some "will-o-the-whisp!"

   The bottom line is, that for the vast majority of people cannot simply do as they should like. They have responsibilities, either in work, or in the family. And those who write of rebellion, of being a rebel, more often than not have no cause to rebel against. Or when push comes to shove, they do not wish to lose their comfortable lives in some revolution which they want nothing to do with.

  It is a sad thing to be a "Rebel without a cause." Its even sadder to be a "rebel only on paper!"

     The Uniformal Village. At first glance you would be forgiven for thinking that uniforms are not worn by citizens of the village, Well of course the more you study what citizens are wearing, the more uniforms you see. Take the new No.2 of Arrival for example, he's wearing the exact clothes as No.6! All the No.2's, with the exception of Mary Morris ‘Dance of the Dead,’ and Georgina Cookson ‘Many Happy Returns,’ and the female interim No.2 of ‘It’s Your Funeral,’ actually wear the same uniform, grey polo-neck jersey, slacks, deck shoes, with the only choice of single or double breasted blazer - without piping. The gardeners, painter, electricians, and mechanics all wear the same dove-grey coloured overalls. The doctors wear the same uniform whether male or female, white coat, grey polo-neck jersey, slacks or skirt, and white shoes. As do nurses, medics, and hospital orderly's. And even the ordinary citizens wear the same uniform, with only slight variations.

   Yet there are signs of individualistic tendencies, as the out-going No.2 of Free for All wears a jacket different to those of his predecessors, in both cut, colour, and the jacket even has cuffs! Then there's the Butler and observers-No.240 of ‘Dance of the Dead’ who both wear their colourful striped cloak inside out!

I'll be seeing you