Sunday, 24 August 2014

File No.6

    Just how many people did Number 6 kill while in The Village? Beginning from the end, there was a number of armed security guards cut down by machine gun fire. Number 6 wanted to kill Number 2, and might have done during the fight they had, had not the Butler hit him over the head with a truncheon! Another chance came during a fencing match, but he simply couldn't do it. However if it wasn't the drink, perhaps Number 6 did drive Number 2 to his death after all, by his refusal to talk. Its possible that Number 2 died of a heart attack, brought on by the stress of Degree Absolute. 
    I don't think Schnipps, the girl, and the French Marshals can be counted, as they didn't really exist, except in Number 6's fairytale. Nor the Kid and the three gunslingers gunned down by the Man With No Name in 'Living In Harmony,' because they didn't physically exist either. However I suppose you could count them in if you want to.
   Number 14 of 'Hammer Into Anvil' is definitely a candidate. At the end of a vicious fight in his cottage, Number 6 hurls Number 14 through the French door, who takes the balcony railings with him, as he falls, perhaps to his death, having broken his neck when he hit the ground!
    During 'Checkmate' there was a bold escape attempt made by Number 6 and his reliable men. During that attempt they attack the searchlight crew in the Bell Tower. During the desperate fight Number 6 punches a man from the Tower, who could easily have fallen to his death, if it were not for the sound of splashing water. But as everyone who has been to Portmeirion, or watched earlier episodes of 'the Prisoner' knows, there is no water at the base of the Bell Tower!
    Perhaps finally there is Number 12-Curtis, it might be said that Number 6 drove Curtis to his death, after that fight in '6 Private.' Yes Curtis ran out of the cottage, ill met in the moonlight by The Village Guardian, but he was running from Number 6, and met with a fate worse than at the hands of Number 6!
   There is one episode which had death at its core, that of 'Dance of the Dead,' but unfortunately Number 6 didn't kill anyone in that particular episode. The only one to die was Number 34. As for Roland Walter Dutton, he met with a fate worse than death!

Be seeing you

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