Number 2?

   It may be wondered what it was that made each subsequent Number 2 go to The Village in the first place? What was the motivation? What was said to persuade each one to go in the first place, let alone to go back a second time. Perhaps it was a desire to serve. On the other hand they may have been given no choice in the matter. In any case each Number 2 is different from each other.

    One or two are charming, one’s almost statesman like, while another is a good administrator. Interrogators yes. Persuasive yes, cunning, devious, and calculating. Whilst some would see Number 6 broken, others see Number 6 as being too important to be reduced to a man of fragments, because Number 6 has a future with The Village. And so other ways must be employed, and if necessary Number 6 must be persuaded. If Number 6 would answer just one simple question then all the rest would follow, and they would have him within their power.
   But Number 6 isn’t like the others, he’s not a sheep, he’s a goat, and goats cause trouble, Number 6 is a damned troublemaker! But even so he has to be handled very differently, seeing as how important he is. And in regard to handling Number 6 differently to the others, it would be an interesting experiment to know how different Number 2’s would have handled other Number 2’s assignments. Mix them up a bit, after all which of the Number 2’s would have had the mental strength to be locked in a room in a one on one situation with Number 6? As it is I think the best Number 2 was chosen for that particular assignment, the former Number 2 of ‘The Chimes of Big Ben.’ Because as well as the doctor patient scenario, the warder and prisoner aspect, there’s the rapport between the two men to take into consideration. Although that could have been looked on as a weakness. As for the educational experiment of Speedlearn, any of the Number 2’s could have overseen that. Well up until the moment Number 6 involved himself in the equation. Then the situation would have got tricky for any Number 2. The trick being not to underestimate Number 6. Too many Number 2’s were guilty of that. Several just getting away with it, like Number 2 in the episode of ‘The Schizoid Man.’ The only ace in the hole for him was the fact that Number 6 couldn’t possibly have known that Susan had died a year ago!
    On the whole Number 2 appeared comfortable in The Village, although perhaps not feeling quite at home. One even returned to The Village in order to retire, perhaps because he had carried out so much work for The Village and the community, that for him The Village had become home. And for all we know, he may well have spent his time on leave in The Village! Certainly another who had become as a weak link in the chain of command in having completely snapped, may well have spent the rest of his time on the psychiatric ward of the hospital. It takes a special kind of man not only to deal with the rigours of command, to be involved with Number 1’s machinations against Number 6, but to also come to terms with The Village as a whole. Which for most they did, and coming unstuck when the unknown quantity became involved, that of Number 6!

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