Rover!

   The question should be asked, why does the Guardian Rover kill Number 12-Curtis? In previous episodes the Guardian has been called upon to stop potential escapees, who up until this time, in the series, have only been Number 6 and Number 8-Nadia Rakovsky. Oh there was that chap who wouldn’t be still in the Piazza during ‘Arrival,’ but he’s more likely to have been the subject of a warning aimed at the newly arrived Prisoner. But Rover has not killed before, it has always captured its quarry.

   There seems no rhyme or reason for having Curtis eliminated. Can we be sure that Number 6 actually checked the body for signs of life, or did he merely presume that as he reported to Number 2, that Number 6 was dead? The only reason why the script called for the death of Curtis, suffocated by the membranic Guardian, was so that Number 6 could escape The Village by impersonating his doppelganger Curtis.

   But then there is the question of fingerprints. Is it possible that they found a way of giving Curtis the exact same fingerprints as those of Number 6? Well a thumbprint at least. It’s quite on the cards that a thin latex copy of Number 6’s thumbprint had been created and so “worn” by Curtis over his right thumb. This trick has also been done by James Bond in the 1971 film ‘Diamonds Are Forever, when Bond was impersonating professional smuggler Peter Franks. Bond wore a latex copy of Frank’s thumbprint on his own thumb, as proof to his identity, in the same way that Curtis proved his identity as Number 6.

   Had the fingerprints of the dead Curtis had been checked, they would clearly have discovered the false latex thumbprint. Unless it had been removed after the fingerprint test, but either way they would have discovered that the dead man’s fingerprints were those of Curtis, not Number 6.

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