More Village!

    I said that Harmony was the weakest episode of this mini-series, it isn’t, Darling is! One should not compare this series with the original series, although there are homage’s paid to ‘the Prisoner’ which cannot be denied. This episode is on the lines of ‘A B and C’ with Two and the doctor 313 working experimenting on Six in a laboratory in the Clinic. And the plot has a taste of both ‘Checkmate’ and ‘Living In Harmony’ about it, the fact that Two uses a drug to make Six think he’s in love with 4-15 and she with him. The idea being to give Six love then take it away in order to break his heart, in order to break his spirit.

Darling – In New York Michael calls Lucy’s cell phone. He hears a phone ringing outside of his door and finds Lucy passed out in the hallway. She feels out of sorts and asks to go in his apartment, but before they do, she wraps her arms around him and they kiss.

    In The Village, Six wakes to the sound of a woman on his television, announcing it’s time for him to be romantically matched.

   At the hospital, 313 avoids conversation about her dream and encourages Six to try the matchmaking service.

   At Palais Two, two shows 11-12 a large hole in the ground, but dismisses the presence as an “ambient anomaly” due to the weather.

   Six goes to the Modern Love Bureau. Sceptical at first, he is surprised when the system matches him with 1-15, a blind woman who looks just like Lucy in New York.

    Michael is haunted with visions of a black van. He and Lucy decide to go to Summakor, but they can’t keep their hands off each other.

   Two speaks with 313 in the Clinic. He knows she is a dreamer, and that’s why she’s going to help him betray Six. “If you betray the one person you love,” says two, “Then there must be something you want more than love.”

    Six meets 1-15 at the Solar Café. She explains her blindness is the result of a childhood trauma. Six tries to convince her they’ve met before in another life.

    Lucy and Michael snuggle in bed. Lucy tries to explain she’s normally not so impulsive. “It’s like the dials are spinning and suddenly I’m letting go,” she says “Maybe that’s how love takes us.” Michael responds.

    At Palais Two, 11-12 steals samples of M2’s pills. Two, watching on video catches him in the act. 11-12 takes the sample to 313 in the clinic, an asks her to determine their contents

   The next day, twp warns 11-12 that once he knows the truth about the holes and his mother there will be no going back. 11-12 insists he wants to know.

   Six and 313 visit with 147 and his family {his wife21-16 and his young daughter 832}, 147 points out the hole in the backyard. At first he’s not sure if he should report it. But then he decides to call the authorities. While the adults are distracted with champagne, 832 falls in the hole and vanishes.

    In The Village, loudspeakers announce that to combat weather anomalies, every home should be given a pig. “Swine breath is a proven atmosphere stabiliser,” the announcer explains.

    Six confronts Two about the holes, hoping to help 147 find his daughter. Two asks six if he wouldn’t rather be reoccupying himself with 4-15. Six almost takes the bait, but demands answers. Two tells him the girl is gone.

    Later that night, 313 injects clear liquid into Six and 4-15 under two’s supervision. “Let him go where love is terrible,” Two urges. “It’ll crack him right open, and then we can see the Six inside.”

    The next day, Six continues to bond with 4-15. He presses her father to learn more about her blindness, while her father urges him to consider marriage.

    313 meets with 11-12 and reveals the ingredients in his mothers pills: One is a heavy sedative, another a hallucinogen, and the third is of unknown origin.

    The disappearance of 832 wears heavily on 147 and 21-16’s relationship: 21-16 blames 147 for not watching their daughter more closely.

    Two invites 313 to Palais Two, where he shows her a sedated M2. Two asks if there is any way to reverse love. 313 says it must be possible.

    That night 313 confesses her feelings for Six as he falls asleep. Men from the Clinic arrive and take him away. At the Clinic 313 injects Six with a different syringe, just as Two approaches.

    Six wakes, and Two reveals that his feelings for 4-15 have been artificially created using Gene Symmetry Therapy. Two asks if Six still likes to marry 4-15. “Yes,” smiles Six.

    Lucy and Michael wake up together the next morning. Lucy knows she’s behaving out of character and tries to leave, but Michael wants to get breakfast for her. Lucy wants oranges.

    Six asks 4-15 to marry him. On their wedding day, 313 shows up at the church to tell Six his feelings for 4-15 won’t last. As 4-15 approaches 131 kisses Six. 4-15 runs into the desert. Six catches up to her, moments before Rover attacks.

    “I have to go” Lucy tells Michael in a recorded message. “I’m not safe. Whatever you do, stay away from…” but she’s interrupted before she can finish.

    Six runs to an unconscious 4-15. “You’re called Lucy,” he tells her. “We met in a place called New York.” She tries to deny it, but eventually relents: “I’m Lucy,” she says. Two brought her to The Village to love Six, and to break his heart.

    Later, six approaches a distraught 147, who wants to jump in another hole to find his daughter. Six convinces him to do so would suicide. As he holds 147 back 4-15 jumps into the hole.

    Michael walks down the street with a bag of oranges. As he approaches his building, his apartment explodes.

   In New York M2 opens her eyes.

   To bring people together in The Village there is the ‘Love Bureau’ which employs the use of ‘blink match’ technology. Although Two uses ‘Gene Symmetry’ technology. Meaning that in The Village love is manufactured, and that being the case, how does 313 know that the love she feels for Six is real or manufactured?

   Two people suffer a Village death in this episode. 832 the daughter of 147 and 21-16, who falls into one of the holes that appear in the Village each time Helen/M2 is awake. Holes that are described as weather anomalies, or a nothing, they are oblivion and anyone who falls into them are beyond hope. Six tells Two that he would go down into one of the holes to bring 832 back, despite not knowing what is down there. If only Six had the courage of his convictions, he would then find out that to go down into the hole would mean to suffer a Village death, and by such means return to his life in New York. Just as 4-15 does when she throws herself into one of the holes, but only to die in a gas explosion in New York! In fact 4-15 is Lucy in New York, she works for Summakor, and her job is to get close to Michael, to find out why he resigned. And yet Michael and Lucy fall in love just as their counterparts do in The Village, and like Six who loses 4-15 when she throws herself into a hole, Michael, who has gone to fetch Lucy oranges for breakfast, loses Lucy in the gas explosion of his apartment!

   Once again Rover puts in an appearance, conjured up by Six’s fear that he’s going to lose 4-15 just before his wedding, because he was kissed by 313, much to the shock of the wedding guests.

    As for the holes that appear from time to time in The Village, these are explained as weather anomalies, and to counter such atmospheric weather conditions, citizens are encouraged to “Keep A Pig,” as it is a proven fact that pig breath will counter the atmospheric weather conditions….yes that would be right!  All that methane, and pigs dig in the ground, they rutle about in the earth for worms, grubs and truffles, they dig holes with their snouts! Mind you 4-15’s father is doing his bit for The Village, because he’s not got one pig, but two, “We’re a two pig family” he proudly tells Six.

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