The Therapy Zone



WHY?

   As it happens the General is able to answer any question, any question from advanced mathematics to molecular structure, from philosophy to crop-spraying. And so the question has been asked why doesn't No.2 ask the General why No.6 resigned? Well, a computer is only as good as it's programming, in having been given all the facts first. And in the case of why No.6 resigned, No.2 and his administration are not in possession of all the facts.

   The General can only give answers after first being programmed with all the facts. It's like the Internet today, you can only get search results on facts and information which have first  been placed there by someone else!

   It would be the same if No.6 had typed WHO IS NUMBER 1? And not WHY? There is not enough pre-programmed information to answer either question. What I mean is, you can't take out, what you don't put in!

The Tally Ho

  Individuals like Number 6 are like a fox on the run, forever trying to flee the pack of hounds that will not leave him alone. And that perhaps might put some sort of explanation on the name of the village newspaper The tally Ho - the call of the hunt!

The Community Must Live.. So Too Must No.6.

   And you might be surprised just how many times the Prisoner-No.6 actually accepts, acknowledges and responds to his number. In ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ the Prisoner actually tells No.8-Nadia that he is No.6. ‘In Free For All’ he takes a telephone call in which the operator asks him if he is No.6? In defiance he tells the operator "That is the number of this place." But even in that he admits that he lives at No.6 - 6 Private.

   During the episode of The Schizoid Man No.6's identity is called into question, and even though this is all he now has, a number, the Prisoner is positively desperate to cling to that identity. Desperate to prove that he is No.6! When taking things from the General Store in preparation for his escape of ‘Many Happy Returns,’ No.6 writes in chalk on the counter top I.O.U 964 and signs himself No.6? Okay, there's the question mark after No.6. But he didn't have to write anything, let alone No.6? He could simply have taken the things he needed, it wouldn't have made any difference. But the fact that No.6 had to sign his identity number, even with a question mark, surely means he wants the proprietor to know who took the items from his emporium.

    In a note to himself in ‘Hammer Into Anvil’ he signs himself D6. And finally in the gymnasium during ‘It’s Your Funeral’ after a bout of Kosho, No.6 actually collects his personal belongings from a locker marked 6.

   Alright, perhaps there are only a few occasions upon which the Prisoner accepts, acknowledges, and responds to his number. But it seemed a lot at the time!

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