What The Devil!

    I bet its not every day of the week that one wakes up in a strange apartment on Wednesday February 10^th. Well at least that was the date the night the Prisoner went to
sleep, by his day-date calendar, which said Wednesday February 10^th. When the Prisoner woke up that morning in a strange apartment, which must have been a few weeks later, the day-date calendar still read February 10^th. Anyone with such a calendar would change the date first thing in the morning, which Number 6 omitted to do. Giving the impression that he woke up on the 10^th. However if he went to sleep on the 10^th, he would wake up on the 11^th, even though the specially printed issue of The Tally Ho in Number 2’s possession was dated Feb 10^th. Number 6 should have spotted this, and confirm his suspicions. That to me appears to be a cock-up on The Village Front! Other than that, one made by the set dresser working on the episode!
     Poor old Number 6. They brought him to The Village, took away his personal identity, and issued him with a number. And then they go and take even that away from him, and make him think he’s someone else! But if that’s not enough to bend the mind, they set two hairdressers to give him a make over. Changing his appearance, the style and colour until he’d you’d hardly know himself. And then he’s expected to go about impersonating himself.
    And there you are, well its probably more effective if he meets Number 6 in his own home, it will be more of a shock for him when he sees himself. But Number 6 is confused enough, and when he meets Number 6 he isn’t shocked very much at all. “Where did they get you, a people’s copying service?” However more to the point would be, where did they get him, this 6 impersonator who should go running off into the distance screaming “Who am I?”
    I suppose one is allowed one doppelganger in the world. It would appear that Number 2 knew him, had worked with him before, remembering that time when it took him longer to grow a moustache that time in Bucharest.
   So Number 6 is made up to look like Number 12-Curtis, and while 6 has been undergoing conditioning, 12 has been living in The Village for the past six weeks as Number 6. I wonder if before all that, if Curtis had been studying Number 6? Listening to the way he talks, watching the way he moves, walks, capturing his mannerisms, his whole style. After all it wouldn’t be something Curtis would be able to simply pick up over night. Curtis might be able to outshoot Number 6, but then he has an advantage, Number 6 is now left-handed trying to shoot right-handed! Mind you we do learn something about the Prisoner-Number 6, that he was once a member of the Olympic fencing team. I know that it was Curtis who said that, but he was being Number 6 at the time when he said it.
    Poor old Number 6, he struggles to prove his identity, and even the password given to him was wrong! The mole once on his left wrist had been surgically removed, and if it hadn’t been for that bruised fingernail. But then 6 would never have noticed that if it hadn’t been for the Polaroid picture Alison took of him in his cottage. But in fact as things were, that Polaroid picture should have been enough to discredit Curtis.    
    Alison betrayed Number 6, although I don’t think she set out with the intention of doing that. I might suggest that Number 2 having witnesses that genuine mental link between Number 24 and Number 6, then decided to put it to a use of his own, or Number 1 did. But we shall never know where the original idea for ‘The Schizoid Man ‘ originated, seeing as this Number 2 never speaks to any superior, be it Number 1 or whoever.
    It doesn’t turn out well for Curtis, he panics you see, confronted by the Village Guardian. Oh he gives the password right enough “Schizoid Man,” but its like the mind reading act, its how you put the emphasis on the single word “now” that’s the trick. And in the case of the password that was Curtis’ downfall “Schizoid Man!” Imagine if they had kept the body long enough, they could have used Curtis’ cadaver in ‘Dance of the Dead.’ Then the body as Number 6 would really have been convincing, having died in an accident at sea! Another use would be to resuscitate Curtis {in the same way as they did Number 2 in Fall Out} put him on ice somewhere, and use him as Number 1 against Number 6. Well they used Curtis to bring Number 6 face to face with himself, so why not use that same trick again. But this time to make it seem that it’s been Number 6 who was responsible for The Village!
   Anyway Number 6 is dead. So he comes up with a clever plan and changes blazers with Number 12 and sets about impersonating himself, but as Number 12-Curtis in order to escape The Village. Unless of course it really was Number 6 who died suffocated to death by The Village Guardian, and in that case it’s Curtis who is trying to escape The Village towards the end, by carrying on his impersonation of Number 6. So that’s Number 12 attempting to escape by impersonating Number 6, as Number 6 would impersonate him! Which means he cannot be too confident in himself when Number 2 is talking to him about the idea he put to Curtis when he first arrived in The Village. And remembering that Number 6 wouldn’t know about the General. He must appear a little strung up, and above all Number 6 wouldn’t know that Susan died a year ago! And so with Susan having died a year ago, the improvised escape attempt failed. And Number 6 remains a prisoner. And yet if it was Curtis, then he was returned to The Village, doomed to carry on his impersonation as Number 6. And even if Number 2 found out Curtis’ deception, Number 2 would force Curtis to carry on. Well Number 2 couldn’t have it know that it really was Number 6 who was suffocated to death by The Village Guardian!

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