There are
parallels which can be drawn between ‘A B and C’ and ‘Living In Harmony.’
Number 2 in Living In Harmony’ is reliant on Number 8 getting his technique to
work on Number 6, by using hallucinatory drugs in order to get Number 6 to play
out a role playing game in his subconscious mind. While Number 2 of ‘A B and C’
is reliant on Number 14 making her so far untested drug work on Number 6, so
that they can get into Number 6’s dreams, into his subconscious mind. Both
techniques fail because Number 6 realised what was going on. On the one hand he
turned the tables on Number 2 by controlling his own dream. And on the other,
well when Number 2 as the Judge shot the Man With No Name, he woke up. The
point being, it was not so much Number 6 being able to distinguish between fact
and fantasy so quickly as Number 8 suggested, but that one does not die in ones
dream. One wakes up before, or at the point of death, as indeed did Number 6.
Both Number 2’s failed because of their dependence upon someone else. We cannot
say what happened to the doctor-Number 14, but we know what happened to Number
8, he committed suicide so that the Judge would not hit him again. We can
suppose that Number 22 was Number 2’s assistant. Whether or not that was simply
so that she could act the role of Cathy will never be known. But at the end she
wished it had been real, Number 22 had fallen for Number 6. The doctor-Number
14 may not have fallen for Number 6, but she did assist him, when he lay on the
operating table and opened his eyes and saw her. 14 should not have had to make
the choice, but she did, she decided not to tell Number 2 that Number 6 had
seen her. And in the end she seemed glad that Number 6 had won. Perhaps the
good doctor saw a way of getting retribution for the way Number 2 had forced
her to use her newly developed drug without prior trials. And the fact she was threatened
by Number 2, that if the drug didn’t work, he’d have it tested on her!
That time Number 14 went to the laboratory in the woods, was
she really unaware that she was being followed by Number 6? Can we be certain
that she was not guilty of deliberately allowing Number 6 to follow her to the
laboratory, having first calculated what Number 6 would do if given half a
chance? There is no way we can ever know, but it’s worth the thought.
Be seeing you
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