It’s Your Funeral
The Appreciation day ceremony was so special, that the Appreciation day monument displaying the word ACHIEVEMENT was quickly removed from it's position from beneath the balcony of the Gloriette, and moved someplace else, well out of sight. Possibly having been consigned to the scrapheap, as we never see it again.
I know that No.6 was involved originally in the plot to assassinate/execute the retiring No.2. The reason being why they selected No.6, a matter of credibility, without which the plan might backfire. Well it did, didn't it, and for all concerned, save for No.51-Monique and her father No.50, oh and No.6 of course.
One would have thought that by the time of Its Your Funeral, they would have learned not to underestimate No.6. Because without No.6's credibility the plan might have failed. Yet because of his involvement the plan did fail!
So why pick on No.6 in th first place? Surely there are others that would have proved just as credible as No.6, and then the plan might just have even worked, had No.6 not been involved. But perhaps it was a case of there being no-one else who would play along with the plot. After all No.6 did take some convincing, and that in itself should have warned No.1. But then in his persistance to get No.6 interested, the foundations of failure had been laid.
Fall Out
No.6 asks the ex-No.2 if he had ever met No.1? Face to face? No.2 laughed at such an idea "Meet Him!"
Well even if No.2 had not met No.1 face to face, he had certainly spoken with No.1 on several occasions, and so he must have known No.1's voice. and if he recognised No.1's voice, and then compared it to the voice of No.6....... Then surely No.2 knew exactly who No.1 was. Yet in Fall Out he didn't seem to know at all "Look me in the eye, whoever you are, whatever you are."
Ah, if only there had been more continuity between the episodes. Then it all might have been a very different story!
Have You Noticed How the Village
Has two cafes and two graveyards, but no church? I shouldn't have thought there was much call for two cafes in the village, the one of Arrival and the one seen in The General, Hammer Into Anvil, and Its Your Funeral. Mind you, the second cafe isn't in the village at all, but then again it is if you see what I mean, not the actual village that is. Seeing as how tea, coffee and the like are also served down on the lawn of the Old Peoples Home as well.
And that's a funny place to have a graveyard - on a beach, as seen in Arrival! If the sand were to shift, as it does from time to time, then the dead would rise up, perhaps in time for the Dance of the Dead!
Be seeing you
No. 2 and No. 1 in "Fall Out": No. 1 takes no chances. Suppose nobody, not a single No. 2 has ever actually spoken to No. 1 let alone knew who he'd be talking to on the "hot line" telephone. It could have been No. 1's his personal assistant or even his voice may have been altered by speaking into a distortion device.
ReplyDeleteThe more and longer I think about it the more likely it appears to me that the No. 1 instance is a mere blank space to be filled in by, well, anybody in need of it. A bit like the ultimate power in Kafka's "Castle" which you can only get ever closer to but which can't reach, which, perhaps, doesn't even exist. But it's everybody's belief. And like I wrote elsewhere here, two sides of the coin. I can't see a contradiction that No. 6 eventually is No. 1. Got it? - BCNU!
Hello Arno,
DeleteAn extremely interesting and thought provoking comment. "No.1 being a mere blank space to be filled in," I like that. We may all try to strive to be No.1, but how many of us actually reach that position, how many of us are worthy to be No.1?
Yes, I can see how No.1 and No.6 are the two sides of the same coin. "Heads I win, tails you lose," and with No.6 the President hoped to usurp No.1, because he thought No.6 to be the better man. And yet, usurping No.1 with No.6, wouldn't the situation in the Village remain the same?
Very kind regards
David
BCNU
There's a line from the film "The Usual Suspects" that I like very much: "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist. And like that, poof. He's gone."
ReplyDeleteMind boggling. Could we possibly relate to that issue in terms of The Prisoner? It isn't because I think No. 1 and the Devil should be one and the same but because of their aligning strategy. Just a hypothesis. - BCNU!
Hello Arno,
DeleteNo.1 and the Devil should be one and the same, that's an interesting hypothesis. But No.6 is no Angel!
Kind regards
David
BCNU
No! Not one and the same. I wouldn't want to venture into that field of interpretation. It was for the sake of the thought about No. 1 as a blank space and that quote from the film. - BCNU!
ReplyDeleteHello Arno,
DeleteApologies, it was my misinterpretation.
Kind regards
David
BCNU