On the day
of his arrival in The Village Number 2 told the Prisoner that he might even
meet people he knew. Well that seemed to happen to Number 6 more often than
not. Cobb was the first, but I’m not so sure that was meant to happen, the
Prisoner’s encounter with an old colleague on the hospital ward. I should
imagine that Cobb had to die, so his death was suggested yet never proved to
the Prisoner, who took it that Cobb had committed suicide by having jumped out
of the window. So then to the Prisoner Cobb would be dead. But why the need for
that is another of those mysteries. Even if the Prisoner never saw Cobb again,
thy didn’t have to explain where he had gone or why!
Then came two ex-colleagues, Fotheringay and the Colonel.
Colleagues yes, friends no, seeing as they betrayed Number 6. Fotheringay
appears friendly enough on the surface, and at first glance appears quite
likeable. At least Number 6 liked him, and was genuinely pleased to see him.
That “being pleased to see him” on Fotherigay’s part was feigned! He’s nothing
more than a backstabbing little creep, who obeys orders but has absolutely no
feeling towards Number 6 whatsoever. As for the Colonel, for his part he failed
to extract the reason behind the Prisoner’s resignation. If that had been
Number 2 he’d have had to pay for that failure. I wonder what might have
happened once the Colonel had returned to London? And what about Number 2? We meet him
again in ‘Once Upon A Time,’ when Number 6 claims to know Number 2. Or at least
that’s what Number 6 told him. But where could Number 6 have known Number 2
before? Somewhere in the depths of the Houses of Parliament, or simply by
Number 2’s former reputation as a diplomat perhaps.
During his incarceration in The Village, Number 6
encountered other old friends, or rather people who were in the same game as
Number 6 during his former life, ‘A’ ‘B’ and Engadine! Although technically speaking these
three were not in The Village, only in Number 6’s subconscious mind. Although I
expect had Number 2 brought Engadine to The Village he would have
physically met her there.
And then one day Number 6 met another man he knew very well
indeed, only he was the spitting image of himself! He came in through the door
of the cottage whistling to himself, and wearing his number 6 badge! That
proved that this 6 impersonator was no good at it. Number 6 never wears his
badge, and since when did Number 6 go about The Village whistling to himself?!
It could have been double jeopardy for Number 2 had he got it wrong, and the
same could have been said of Rover when it made the wrong decision that night.
Roland Walter Dutton, another of Number 6’s former
colleagues to be met with in The Village. Dutton seemed surprised to see his
former colleague, perhaps he thought that ZM73 would be the last person he
would meet in The Village. Thinking that ZM73 would be far too clever to allow
himself to be taken and brought to such a place as The Village.
But there’s one more person who Number 6 knew, Chambers who
became late of the Foreign Office, and brought to The Village. We know that
because during the Prisoner’s de-briefing on the day of his arrival, Number 2
said of Chambers that he was a nice guy, and so talkative. He’s also the one
person Number 6 knew but whom he did not meet in The Village. It might have
been better, for continuity, had it been Chambers lying in that hospital bed
instead of Cobb, seeing as Number 2 had made mention of Chambers to the
Prisoner. Then it would have made better sense for the Prisoner to have met
Chambers on that hospital ward instead of Cobb.
I wonder if Cobb was supposed to have
been Chambers, and they simply forgot. Because on the script for ‘Arrival’ the
Prisoner is “P”, so perhaps Chambers was “C.”
Be seeing you
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