Who Is Number 1?

   The Prisoner known as Number 6 asks that question “Who is Number One?” during the opening sequence, to which Number 2 responds by telling him that he is Number 6. And yet the emphasis is placed on the word "you," when Number 6 asks the same question again and Number 2 says “you are Number Six,” effectively telling the Prisoner that he's Number 1. Yet all the way through the series Number 6 is the only citizen to concern himself about who Number 1 is. In fact the first person Number 6 asks for at the end of ‘Once Upon A Time” is Number 1. He once asked Number 8 “Who is Number One?” while on the chessboard during ‘Checkmate.’ But Number 8 avoided the question. Number 2 once told Number 6 that it doesn’t matter who Number 1 is. And yet as an old friend, Steve M. pointed out to me in an email some little time ago, the answer to the identity of Number 1 is in the title!  ‘the Pr is ‘one’ r’!

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