Number 2
didn’t get off to such a good start with the Prisoner. His first attempt was to
get Number 6 to answer one simple question, then all the rest would follow…….it
didn’t! His attempted plan to use the maid Number 66 to extract the reason
behind the Prisoner’s resignation appears to be one off the cuff so to speak.
That didn’t work either, and as we learn later on, a few tears won’t wash away
Number 6’s doubt!
So Number 2 was replaced by a new Number 2, effectively making Number
6 begin all over again. That was clever. But this Number 2 had a different
approach, he demonstrated to Number 6 that escape from The Village is not
possible, Number 2’s first success.
The Next Number 2 thought to try what the first Number 2 tried,
that if Number 6 would answer one simple question, all the rest would follow.
He asked Number 6 whether he takes one lump of two. But Number 6 was no fool,
he made Number 2 look it up in his file, and found out that Number 6 does not
take sugar. 6 gave that up some four years and three months ago
The next Number 2 really had no chance, and was up against
time, and when that happens mistakes are bound to be made. He didn’t lose,
Number 6 succeeded, what’s more the doctor-Number 14 seemed somewhat pleased
about that.
Elections, in The Village! Surely Number 6 didn’t think he
stood a chance of being elected as the new Number 2? It could easily be a trap,
but Number 6 couldn’t pass up the opportunity, even though he eventually knew
that they knew exactly what he would try and do if successfully elected. One
might think that would be enough to see Number 6 come to his senses. But no,
that was the mind conditioning, just enough to carry him right through the
election, without damaging the tissue….the brain!
The incumbent Number 2 at the time is the perfect Statesman,
while the even newer Number 2 has been in The Village all the while
masquerading as the maid Number 58. And we as the viewer thought we were
witnessing democracy in action. Witnessing how someone is appointed as a new
Number 2. Corruption is everywhere, even in a dictatorship!
The audacity of it, Number 6 attempting to escape The
Village by impersonating Curtis! Number 2 soon saw through that little
deception, the fact that Susan died a year ago, and that Number 6 couldn’t
possibly know that, was this Number 2’s saving grace!
We see something novel, a number 2 being brought back to the
Village for a second term of office. That might be supposed to be fair enough,
seeing as the failure of ‘A B and C’ wasn’t all his fault. And besides, this
time he has no direct involvement with Number 6. So what’s to go wrong? Number
6 not trusted not to poke his nose into business which does not concern him! And
for the first time Number 6 has an alley, Number 12 of Administration, whose
final act was one of bravery, or suicide, depending on how you look at it.
In this next episode Number 2 is something of a mystery, as
we only get to meet her at the end of ‘Many Happy Returns,’ who turns out to be
Mrs. Butterworth. So no mystery there then. The mystery about Mrs. Butterworth
as Number 2 is, was she in The Village as Number 2 as Number 6 was busy
constructing his sea-going raft? And did she then leave The Village for London sometime after, so that she was living
No.1
Buckingham Place when ZM73 finally arrived home? Or wasn’t that the case
at all? That Mrs. Butterworth’s only involvement was to be ensconced in ZM73’s
house as an agent working for The Village. But that when the Police or Special
Branch had called, she was then free to be taken to The Village as a new Number
2, in time to bake Number 6 a cake in time for his many happy returns there?
Number 2 comes in many guises. We have seen 2’s feminine
side, and now we’re about to see, well you can make your own minds up. But
certainly this Number 2 is quite happy to use masculine phrases like “Then how
very uncomfortable for you old chap.” Certainly she seems quite unembarrassed
by using such a phrase. Well what can one expect with a woman playing the role
of a boy who never grew up!
The next prospect is a Number 2 who is the perfect
Administrator, who is perfectly happy to let others get on with the task in
hand. Confident in their abilities.
The chain of command is only as strong as its weakest link,
this next Number 2 is a weak link just waiting to be broken. What’s more Number
1 sits back and allows it to happen, he may even enjoy watching Number 6 bring
this untrusting, paranoid sadistic Number 2 to his knees. It beggars belief how
this person attained the position of Number 2 in the first place!
Appreciation Day, the day when the good citizens of the
community show their appreciation of those who govern them so wisely. So at long
last we get to see how a new Number 2 is appointed. There is some ceremonial
undertaking, in which the Great Seal of Office is worn by the out-going, or
retiring Number 2, which is then passed onto the his successor. But this is supposed
to be an annual event, so presumably the retiring Number 2 is the actual Number
2, and every Number 2 before or since have been interim Number 2’s. So
subsequently might not the community have to suffer this particular Number 2
for a year, excluding interim Number 2’s, until the next Appreciation Day, when
another is appointed? That would make the retiring Number 2 the once permanent
Number 2!
This next Number 2 has to be careful, otherwise they could
lose Number 6, do you understand {tapping my temple with a finger} lose him!
There’s not so much the danger of damaging the tissue, but losing the brain
altogether if ‘A Change of Mind’ goes wrong! He is a delicate Number 2 nibbling
on a shortcake biscuit, whose voice sends shivers down the spine “I’m not angry
my dear friend. He also has a fondness for spouting sayings, as did Chairman Mao Tse-Tung “He who ploughs a straight furrow
need hoe for nothing.”
‘A Change of Mind’ was the previous episode
to ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling,’ one in which both the Colonel and Number
6 go through a change of mind! Before, there was never any real danger of
Number 6 losing his mind, after all he was merely sedated. But now there was
the very grave danger of his having to live out the rest of his life in someone
else’s body. And that would not have been good for Number 2, as he could very
well have lost Number 6, well his mind at least. And if that had happened all
he had to do was to persuade the Colonel to live out the rest of his life in
The Village impersonating Number 6!
‘The Girl Who Was Death,’ such an inept, and incapable
Number 2 you are ever to have the misfortune to meet! Mind you it’s easy to
knock a man when he has such poor tools to work with. He said it himself, “He
might drop his guard with children!” If this was the best idea they could come
up with, well the plan didn’t deserve to succeed!
Ah now what boys and girls cannot resist playing cowboys and
Indians? Well actually there wasn’t a North American native in sight, just a
bunch of cowboys. Well not even that, just a bad judge, the Kid who was a dumb
psychotic killer, a Saloon girl, and a one time Sheriff who had become fed up
having to face up to every two-bit gunslinger who came riding into town looking
to make a name for himself! Besides which a shiny Sheriff’s badge makes too
clear a target to hit! It all went wrong, the moment the Judge shot The Man With
No Name, and he would have to pay for this latest failure, just like any number
of his predecessors!
A one-on-one situation between Number 2 and Number 6, and
the quest for the missing link, why did Number 6 resign? And to think that this
Number 2 actually achieved the missing link, that he had been told. The only
trouble is he doesn’t appear to have been listening, because he asked Number 6
to tell him again. Only Number 6 wasn’t in the mood to repeat himself. “You’ve
been told” he said, and so had we. But it cost Number 2 his life, but if it
wasn’t that, what could it have been? Unless…… murder, or assassination, but
most likely a heart attack brought on by the stress of the situation!
‘Fall Out,’ and another failed Number 2 brought back for the final,
desperate manipulation of Number 6, and you’d think that they could have
thought something a little more original, as facing Number 6 with himself had
been tried before. It didn’t work then, and it didn’t work now!
Any number of Number 2’s have been employed to deal with
Number 6, that was so he could not develop a relationship or rapport with
Number 2. Well there were a couple of occasions at least when a relationship
developed between Number 6 and Number 2. In fact during their deliberations Number
2 was distinctly heard to say “I’m beginning to like him.” And Number 6 wasn’t
exactly delirious over the death of Number 2. In fact he was angry about it!
So then there is Two to deal with Six, a different Six
admittedly, but nevertheless Six, and only one Two, who’s remit is to get Six
to accept The Village, to make him realise that he is Village. This time it’s not just about Six wanting to escape,
but also Two, and Two’s only way out is for Six to accept The Village so that
Two can hand over The Village to Six, and then he can escape! This then has at
least brought THEPRIS6NER up to date. But The Village? Yes its
physical location may have been changed, in the middle of a desert with nothing
but sand in all directions for hundreds and hundreds of miles. Yet it has the
feel of the 1950’s. The Village brought up to date, more likely it’s been
regressed about 60 years!
Be seeing you
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