Number 24
took several Polaroid pictures of Number 6. She was practicing for the
photographic completion at The Village Festival in a months time. It was such a
Polaroid image as the one above which Number 6 produced from the breast pocket
of his blazer in order to prove his identity as Number 6. Number 6 snatched the
picture and studied it. I’ve never realised why Number 6 didn’t pick up on the
evidence of the Polaroid picture when it was in his hand, and right under his
very nose. Instead of proving that Curtis was Number 6, it should actually have
disproved it! Why? Because in the Polaroid picture Number 6 is wearing a dark
piped blazer, while Number 6 {Curtis} is always seen to be wearing a cream
blazer! And that in itself should have proved Number 12 to be a liar. And yet
even if both Number 6’s had been wearing identical coloured blazers, there is
still one thing in that picture which proves Number 6’s identity. The bruised
fingernail! When Number 24 was taking a final picture of Number 6, she
accidentally knocked over the soda siphon. When she did, it caught Number 6’s
fingernail, and left a bruise. That bruise over time went up the fingernail, as
later Number 6 discovered when he compared it to the one in the Polaroid picture.
They might have been clever enough to have removed Number 6’s mole on his left
wrist, and to have given Curtis a false mole. But I doubt whether they would
have given Curtis a bruised left index finger! You know, I’ve sometimes found
myself wondering whether or not Number 24 knocked over that soda siphon
deliberately, to cause the effect it did. In order to help give Number 6 a
chance in some way, which it eventually did.
Be seeing you
Hi David,
ReplyDeleteThe Schizoid Man is one of my favorite episodes...the doppelganger Number 6/12 gives me twice as much Patrick McGoohan to watch!!
I found it interesting that Number 2 gave him the password "Gemini" and of course the password for the planted Number 12 was "The Schizoid Man"
Lucky (?) for Number 6 that he ran into those 2 men who asked him for the password..and then they didn't accept "Gemini" ...letting Number 6 know that he didn't have the REAL password. He was obviously trying to find out every detail about what had been done to him, and to see if he could turn the tables to his use!
We also KNEW who the REAL Number 6 was, because when he went into his own flat and Curtis was lying on the bed with a WEAPON...that told us HE was the fake Number 6, because if they had let Number 6 have that nerve gas gun, he'd have had everyone in the village knocked out if he could have!!!
BCNU
Karen
Hallo Karen,
DeleteI agree that was fortunate for Number 6 encountering the two guardians like that. A curious phrase “The atmosphere here is very different from what it was elsewhere,’ perhaps because they are on a set at MGM film studios, and not in Portmeirion!
Certainly Number 2 in having given Number 6 the password Gemini, thus being able to distinguish between the two sixes should the need arise. But of course Number 6 out-foxed Number 2 on that front.
Curtis said that the nerve gas gun had a 25 yards range, one squirt you’re paralysed, two squirts you’re dead! But had Curtis squeezed the trigger of that gun in the confines of that room, surely Curtis would have also suffered the effects of the nerve gas. I don’t see him with a gas mask!
Curtis had that nerve gas gun for self-protection, just like Number 2 in ‘Hammer Into Anvil’ had a sword in his shooting stick for the same reason!
Best regards
David
Be seeing you
Hi David,
ReplyDeleteAnother point that we both noticed was the nerve gas gun being just as dangerous to Number 12 as it was to Number 6.
However, if Number 6 was as valuable to the Village as they kept telling everyone, then Number 12 ...had he been forced to use the nerve gas gun...would probably have just used one squirt and fended Number 6 off until they both collapsed...don't you think?
I also wondered about that phrase that Number 6 used when he ran into the 2 guards on his way to HIS flat.
Maybe it was a "comment" about how different he was SUPPOSED to feel after the brainwashing treatment.
Best wishes,
BCNU
Karen
Hello Karen,
DeleteYes I do agree that Number 12 probably would have used one squirt. I like the picture you painted with Number 12 having fired the gas gun, then had to fend Number 6 off until they both collapsed!
Ah yes that phrase it might be more simpler than you might imagine, “The atmosphere here is very different to what it was elsewhere,” It’s possible that Patrick McGoohan might have inserted his own private joke, referring to the fact that the scene between Number 6 and the two guardians doesn’t take place in Portmeirion, but on a film set at MGM film studios.
Best wishes
David
Be seeing you
Hi David,
ReplyDeleteI like your idea about Patrick McGoohan using the line " The atmosphere here is different than it is Elsewhere" referring to the studio vs. Portmeirion.
It was a strange thing for Number 6 to say, when he should have tried to use "Gemini" at the beginning of his encounter with the 2 men....unless he was unsure of whether the 2 men were supposed to be guarding the pathway between his OLD flat and his NEW Number 12 flat???
BCNU
Karen
Hello Karen,
DeleteI think Number 6 was testing the water when he gave that peculiar phrase to the two guardians. And of course when he did give the password “Gemini” they didn’t recognise it, because “Gemini” was meant only as a password between Number 6 and Number 2!
Be seeing you
David