No.2’s Arrival and Departure!

    If we are to believe that the number 2s came and went with such rapidity, it must have been like a shuttle service. Some of them could be there barely longer than a shift. But if this turn-over had always been the same, for all the years before the Prisoner-Number 6’s arrival in The Village, they couldn’t possibly have not been let back into the outside world, there would have been too many of them. Although we do witness one Number 2 actually departing The Village for the Homeland, in fact he pilots the helicopter himself to the landing stage. And Leo’s Number 2 being a “lifer” must have meant that there is never any escape, not that it should be imagined that he was never allowed to leave The Village. He must have been, because in ‘Once Upon A Time’ he said to Number 1 “You can say what you like, you brought me back here.” So that no matter that Number 2 was nicely back in the House of Lords sometime after ‘The Chimes of Big Ben,’ he could be brought back to The Village at any time. Whereas with Number 2 of ‘Checkmate,’ he seems a capable administrator, who is happy to allow the doctor to carry out her experiments on the Rook, Number 8 so as not to get his hands dirty. Therefore it is possible that this Number 2 might have been promoted to the position from within The Village’s own administration. In fact there is no reason why the majority of Number 2’s could not have been promoted that way. Then should they fail and be required to be replaced, all that would be needed would be simply to select a new Number 2, and return his or her predecessor to their former position within administration! That in turn would alleviate the logistical nightmare of having to select personnel from the British Civil Service for each Number 2, then having to ferry them in and out of The Village each time, operating like a shuttle service!

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