"So To the Outside world......... I'll be dead!"
Number Six {Dance of the Dead}
The body which No.6 found washed up on the beach in ‘Dance of the Dead,’ he put to his own use, to carry a message from him to anyone in the outside world whoever may find it.
However No.6, having returned the corpse to the sea and leaving it to drift away, the body was discovered and taken to the village mortuary. The body of the dead man then to be amended, as the wallet in the dead man's pocket will be amended. So that it will be No.6 who has died in an accident at sea.
If you think about it, this is a variation on Cobb's supposed suicide, so that to No.6, Cobb is dead!
Cobb
What exactly was Cobb doing on that ward in the hospital? It is certainly suggestive that Cobb, like the Prisoner, had been abducted to the village and had been undergoing interrogation, or therapy at the hands of the doctors at the hospital. Certainly Cobb told his ex-colleague, and possible friend, that they want to know all about him, but didn't know how long he'd been in the village, weeks or months.
It is possible that he was going to try and escape with No.9 via the helicopter and the electro pass, as No.9 said herself. However if this is the case, then Cobb gave in remarkably quickly, because by the end of the episode Cobb is refreshed, dressed and on his way to meet his new masters! Having said that though, I don't think it was intended that Cobb should encounter his ex-colleague on the same ward in the hospital, and on that basis I feel that Cobb's suicide, by jumping from a hospital window, was a piece of improvisation. And so to the Prisoner Cobb is dead!
A Change Of Opinion
It was once written long ago "Since none of us will change our opinions....." Well whilst I was a member of Six of One I wrote many letters and articles on the subject of the Prisoner, but found thought restricting within the society. Well that must be true, because whilst a member of Six of One I went against anyone who waffled on about things Kafkaesque, and refused to see the parallels drawn between Kafka's The Trail and the Prisoner. Yet since leaving Six of One, I have seen those parallels, and have written about them in my manuscript the Butler Speaks. Not only that, but I have found the freedom to look at the Prisoner from new angles, to see more humour in the series than I ever did before, have changed my opinions, and created others. And have become quite accomplished in making a new situation out of any given established situation in the Prisoner.
You could say that I've had A Change of Mind, certainly, and much more than that!
Be seeing you
Cobb wasn't abducted. According to his final exchange with No. 2 he wasn't a prisoner at all but a nice first try to frame No. 6. Of course, nobody could have foreseen that No. 6 would wind up in the hospital after his encounter with Rover. Perhaps Cobb and No. 6 would have met somewhere else. So eventually they had to improvise and Cobb was to be present when No. 6 woke up. I also think the importance of this character lies in the fact that to No. 6 he is a physical link to the lost outer world. And to the audience seeing him along with No. 2 must be like a stab in the stomach. - BCNU!
ReplyDeleteHello Arno,
DeleteI have been sitting here thinking about your comment. I'm never been quite sure of Cobb at all. I have struggled with the point, if indeed there is a point, to Cobb's meeting with the Prisoner.' The Prisoner simply asks Cobb how he got to the Village, who brought him there, and Cobb explains, to the best of his ability.....I've been thinking again, Cobb was a tool, as was his funeral, contrived so that No.9 could find a way to attach herself to No.6, in their plan to escape together. But I do think it a very elaberate plan, to bring Cobb to the Village in the way that they did. Mind you, they did much the same regarding Fotheringay.
"And to the audience seeing him along with No. 2 must be like a stab in the stomach." Yes, it is. It also demonstrates that there is no-one left who the Prisoner can trust!
Kind regards
David
BCNU