The Illusion of Escape!

   The Prisoner cannot truly relax for one moment, not even after that moment he jumped out the back of a Luton van into Park Lane, to discover he was actually back in London. Such is the state of his suspicious, perhaps paranoid mind, that this might just be another scenario brought about to break his mind. As possibly he remembers the closing events of ‘The Chimes of Big Ben.’ Because as he stands studying his surroundings at Marble Arch, as soon as he hears the words “Hold it” he spins round as though expecting this current scenario to be brought to an abrupt end. Possibly revealing that he has not left The Village at all, and yet the voice is but of a man simply taking the photograph of a young girl, his daughter no doubt. Or is he? It is a moment that Number 6 had experience before, back in The Village. Just at the moment he’s about to cast-off his sea-going raft, the breaking of crockery is heard. At that moment the Prisoner, as he turns around, thinks the game is up. That it has all been for nothing. It is as though they purposely have allowed Number 6 to carry out his escape plan, and just at the crucial moment, when he is about to leave The Village, they stop him. Perhaps with the aim of making him think that hope had been suddenly dashed away! But that was not the case, it gave the Prisoner fresh hope, and was free to leave The Village. However that moment when the words “Hold it” are heard by Number 6, if only for a moment, it must have created that same feeling he experienced back in The Village.

   Even though Number 6 has made his way though the streets of London, eventually to return to his home in Buckingham Place, he’s still not sure. It could still be yet another trap, another plot in which he is involved. And its not until he has been reassured that he is in fact back in his once home in London, and not in his cottage of 6 Private in The Village, that he can finally relax and let his guard down. And once back in the company of the Colonel, Thorpe, the Naval Commander, and RAF Group Captain, he appears to be back in his element. During ‘The Chimes of Big Ben’ Number 6 risked his life and that of Nadia’s to get back home because he thought it was different. In that instance Number 6 learned that his escape was an illusion. But this time it was different, he had actually escaped the confines of The Village. He had beaten his earlier suspicions and paranoia, but then just when the prize was most worth winning it is snatched from his grasp………..Be seeing you!