Prismatic Reflection

     It is, isn’t it, isn’t different? If the Prisoner-No.6 had to ask the Colonel that, even though the office was the same, Fotheringay was there on hand as always, even the Colonel was still something of a very objectionable man, whose scepticism stands out a mile. He does not suffer fools gladly, but this only makes him more obnoxious then ever, for he sees everything in black and white, a very cynical man, or at least as far as the Prisoner {his ex- colleague} is concerned. He has a very sarcastic nature, with a very jaundiced view of things, no it was just the same, but now it was the Colonel asking the questions instead of No.2. 
   Since the episode of ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ was such a defeat, I wonder if the Colonel would be asked any embarrassing questions when he returned to London? Or perhaps Nadia out-ranked the Colonel, seeing as how she was going to be making the report. You recall that it was No.2 who told Fotheringay to get back to London before any embarrassing questions were asked. Perhaps in Fotheirngay’s case he wasn’t meant to be in The Village in the first place. After all he was only there to “egg the pudding” so to speak, to make the situation as normal as possible. Having supposedly returned to London they thought the Prisoner would expect to see Fotheringay.
    Luckily for Fotheringay that he was there only for window dressing. The Colonel, he was playing for much higher stakes, I mean the defeat was his and not No.2’s, or was it Nadia‘s failure? As for No.2 he did try and tell them that they were using the wrong approach. And yet who was it who briefed Post 5, Nadia’s supposed contact man? Surely whoever that was, should have made sure that Post 5’s wrist watch was set at the appropriate time, set at Polish time and not English time. And yet whoever thought No.6 would ask for Post five’s wrist watch in the first place? But even then, when No.6 discovered that the wrist watch given to him, when he thought he was Poland, was the same time as English time when there’s one hours difference, should have at least given No.6 a possible clue as to the location of The Village. That its in the same time zone as Britain.
   And that’s the point of the matter, even if No.6 had managed to escape The Village and return to London, it would have still been the same. Because they still would have wanted to know why the Prisoner resigned. And yet they should have known already if they had him under close surveillance, and if that didn’t disclose to them the reason, then how about that bloke sat behind the desk to whom the Prisoner handed in his letter. He paced up and down ranting and raving, he must have said something that gave away at least something?
    But not everyone seemed to be interested in the reason behind the Prisoner’s resignation, I wonder how long it took them to process that roll of film the Prisoner had containing the pictures of The Village? I suppose during that time the Colonel and Thorpe could have interrogated their ex-colleague. However judging by what we see of the Prisoner in the company of the Colonel, the atmosphere between them is pretty convivial, unlike that of the Colonel’s predecessor. Mind you, Thorpe could be a bit spiky, such was the sceptical nature of the man. But once the dice were heavily loaded in the Prisoner’s favour, all that they seemed to be concerned with was calculating the search area of The Village. It might have been that the Colonel and Thorpe had been in on it all along, agents working for The Village. Well why not? I did used to have doubts about the Colonel and Thorpe. But when one thinks about both their predecessors who worked as agents for The Village, then why not? Anyway I have a feeling that the second time the Prisoner went running back to old colleagues the question of his resignation was never on the agenda. Simply to make sure our old friend No.6 was returned to The Village.
   If that episode of ‘Many Happy Returns’ was simply a demonstration, showing that no matter what happened, if the Prisoner escaped The Village, there is nowhere he can go, where agents working for The Village cannot find him. That eventually they would catch up with him. Well as a demonstration it was fine. If they also attempted to break his spirit, then they were disappointed. As it was an awful lot of trouble to go to, for what they actually achieved! Really I suspect that they could have spent their time more productively.

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