Curtis-No.12 has taken on the persona of No.6, and has been parading himself as the same all the while the real No.6 has been taken out of his familiar environment and placed in another cottage, this whilst undergoing a bout of conditioning. "That's it No.12, you're right handed, right handed." "I don't smoke white cigarettes, I smoke black cigarettes.... Flapjacks, flapjacks are my favourite dish...."
After No.6's conditioning, he awakens in a different environment, with a new look, of black hair, and moustache. Together with a fresh identity, that of No.12. This knocks our man for 6, sorry, because he is no longer the person he once thought himself to be, and what's more he's left handed! So it's no wonder that No.12 is already on the back foot when meets with No.2 in his office.
And then things get much worse for No.12 when he meets his counterpart - No.6, in the cottage which somehow seems familiar to him - his cottage of 6 private.
But if No.2 thinks he's going to trick No.12 with his personal possessions, then he can think again. No.12 has a very keen sense of identity, and much of the rubbish in 6 private isn't his, and that statuette should be gilt, not bronze!
You will no doubt have heard of the saying "If thy eye offend thee, pluck it out", then No.12 uses the offending left hand, and a short-circuiting table lamp to reverse the electric shock conditioning he previously went through to make him left handed. And it is now that No.12, I mean 6 is feeling much like his old confident self, and goes round to No.6's place to have it out with No.12, whose name he discovers to be Curtis. And it is after Rover has attacked Curtis, that No.6 begins to take on yet another identity, that of Curtis. "No.6 is dead" he tells No.2 over the telephone "Rover got him." And then exchanges blazers, his own for the cream blazer with black piping and Number 6 badge. This is the very first time No.6 actually wears his numbered badge on a voluntary basis, which is in keeping with his new identity as No.6, no, I mean Curtis.
The only trouble is, with his new identity No.6 has to play it blind, as he has very little information on the subjects life. Well obviously this Curtis was brought to the village to impersonate him, and that he has a wife named Susan. This he discovered by a photograph he found tucked away in Curtis' wallet. And the conversation he has with No.2 in the back of the taxi No.6 has to "play off the cuff" so speak. For example No.6 doesn't know how a report to the General should be carried out, and hasn't had much time to think about a proposition No.2 put to Curtis when he arrived in the Village, so he has no views on the matter. In fact No.6 is getting quite strung up, and this No.2 remarks upon it. Really No.6 began to get "strung up" because he's saying too much about things he knows absolutely nothing about. If only No.6 had kept quiet and said as little as possible! But with No.2's suspicions aroused, he first goes to have a word with the helicopter pilot, and catches No.6 out by something he could not possibly know, that "Susan died a year ago No.6!"
Since his arrival in the village, the Prisoner has fought tooth and nail to keep his own identity, he rejects the new identity "they" give him, that of No.6. But then when "they" take even that identity away from No.6, and give him another new identity, that of No.12, No.6 is at first confused, which he would be. But then as the episode of The Schizoid Man progresses, No.6 does his best to fight back, in order to regain that identity which he has fought so much against since his arrival in the village.... "I am No.6, he is the economy pack" No.6 tells Alison-No.24.
So who is Curtis? Where was he seconded from?
Tell me again.... who am I?
No comments:
Post a Comment