The Therapy Zone

Pawns Or Players?

Prisoners or warders? Which is which? Who's standing beside you now?

    It's simple psychology the same way it is in life, you judge by attitudes. You soon know who's for or against you. And that's the only way in the village, seeing as both sides dress the same, as in the case of the gardener and painter in Checkmate. Both wear dove-grey overalls, but in attitude they are poles apart. The gardener who No.6 wanted a word with "Then you'll have to wait!" the Gardener replied-guardian. But the painter when questioned about the painting of the wall said "If you're not satisfied, I'll paint it again"-Prisoner! Attitudes you see, because both men are dressed identically it's impossible to tell them apart, one the warder, the other a prisoner.

    You might think just because the citizens go about the village dressed in brightly coloured attire, colourful caps, straw boaters, blazers, slacks and striped jerseys, that everything is un-uniformed in the almost holiday camp atmosphere of the village. But you would be wrong. No.2 wears a uniform. All the medical staff wear much the same attire which is uniformed, not to mention the various assistants to No.2. Then there are the waiters and waitresses, maids, gardeners, painters and electricians, all wearing a uniform of a kind - even No.6. So you see, the village isn't all like a days regatta at Henley, all piped blazers and straw boaters.

   In the village, anyone allowed to wear their own clothes such a the Professor and Madam Professor in The General, they stand out in the village, such is the matter of their "special privileges." In the outside world it is the ordinary village citizen who might stand out in a crowd, wearing piped blazer, straw boater and a colourful striped cape, well perhaps not down Carnaby Street during the 1960's!

   So "pawn or player?" No.6 can be described as being both. The little watchmaker-No.51 is definitely a pawn in No.2's game of assassination and execution of Its Your Funeral. No.24-Alison allows herself to be a pawn in The Schizoid Man. No.9 in Arrival is a pawn to be used by anyone, from No.2 downwards, Cobb, the helicopter pilot and even by No.6.

   The players, well every No.2 to hold office in the village, some more direct than most in wanting to break No.6. Whilst others either don't want him broken, not wanting a man of fragments in fact, or see that No.6 has a future with the village and must be won over. Then there are No.2's assistants who enjoy a modicum of power, along with the Supervisors who oversee the Control Room personel. And of course there are the warders and guardians who hold the village in safe keeping.

    So prisoners or warders, it all depends on whose side you're on - doesn't it?

Sir’s Inauguration And The Transfer Of Ultimate Power

    If "Sir" as he was then known during Fall Out, was to face his inauguration, then the transfer of ultimate power to him. What would then happen to No.1, perhaps he would cease to exist, or perhaps somehow they change places? If No.6 and No.1 are one and the same, as McGoohan has it, and it is No.6's evil side who was No.1 at the time of his abduction to the village, then would not "Sir's" inauguration and the transfer of ultimate power to him, not bode well for the citizens of  the village? Because surely it would then be No.1's other self , his good side who would be No.1. The others Hyde to his Jekyll.

Lava Lite -A Sixties Iconic Image

    If the white membranic village guardian is the iconic image of the Prisoner, then the Lava Lite is the iconic, trendy image of the 1960's.  Yet its use in ‘the Prisoner’ could have a darker symbolic meaning, as the wax effect in the lamps oil, is used for the village guardian effect. In both water at the bottom of the sea, and on the large wall screen in No.2's office.

   Yet the innocent looking lava lite can be seen in various rooms in buildings around the village, and that includes No.6's cottage of 6 private, where there are no fewer than two such lava lites. Because the lava lites seem to look to contain a segment of the village guardian itself, in perpetual motion, and malevolent looking, as though it would do you harm if it could be free of its containment, its confinement in fact. Serving as a permanent reminder, to those who might stray from the path, or attempt to escape, of the "thing" which is out there somewhere just waiting to be released from its containment, in order to bring its prey to heel.

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