Many Happy Returns

    No.6 may have "returned", and the occasion may have been "happy" for Number 2, that the exercise was finally over to a satisfactory conclusion. Yet there is something sinister in the use of the word "many" in the title of this episode. Because this is the sixth time Number 6 has been returned to The Village when he’s attempted to escape. The only difference is, that this is a demonstration that no matter where or how far the Prisoner goes, they will always be able to return him to The Village. Number 2 of ‘It’s Your Funeral' had known that, that’s why he saved himself a great deal of grief, by returning to The Village of his own accord.

    There is an old saying “Curiosity killed the cat,” in this there might be a message for Number 6. Consider that black cat for a moment, sat there upon the table as Number 6 puts out to sea aboard his sea-going raft, the black cat which is still sat there watching as Number 6 parachutes to the beach below. Perhaps Number 6 should have left well alone. He should have settled for simply being back in London, with the “freedom of the City.” And yet he was never safe, especially if it’s the British, his own people who put him in The Village in the first place. He was never really out of their grasp, and so he made it easy for them when he went running back to them in order to get the answers to those all important questions he has. Curiosity as they say Number 6, killed the cat, because curiosity only put him back where he started from, in The Village!

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