The Therapy Zone

   The central fact of ‘Many Happy Returns’ is, the Prisoner-Number 6 does actually return to London! What is not so clear is, why on the Prisoner's eventual return to British Intelligence, does he not get to meet with his former colleagues the Colonel and Fotheringay, which he did during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben?’ And yet the Prisoner is familiar with the Colonel, they are old, old friends. The openly sceptic Thorpe, the Prisoner is not so familiar with, to whom he barely utters a word. Why is it the Prisoner does not meet up with his first two contacts within British Intelligence? Perhaps the Colonel and Fotheringay were removed from their positions, well we know they do not like failure, and perhaps Fotheringay fell foul of those embarrassing questions as suggested by Number 2. Whatever the reasons why the Prisoner does not meet with Colonel and Fotheringay in ‘Many Happy Returns,’ and there may be a number of plausible reasons for that, it is inexplicable that the Prisoner makes no reference to them to the Colonel and Thorpe. That he did not report them for their betrayal, as working for The Village. But then the Prisoner is unsure which side runs The Village. Perhaps he is suspicious, he might not trust the Colonel and Thorpe, but he needs their co-operation. To bring up the fact that the Colonel and Fotheringay of British Intelligence were once in The Village, could detract from his current priority, to find the location of The Village! The Prisoner has his suspicions. If it’s the other side that runs The Village, then the Colonel and Fotheringay are traitors and are working for the other side, whichever side that is. As for the Colonel and Thorpe, it is unclear whether or not they, like their predecessors, are working for The Village. But certainly they do not make any attempt to stop the Prisoner going off to return to The Village! Perhaps there is a clue in the line spoken by the Colonel “He’s an old, old friend who never gives up.” An old, old friend of The Village who never gives up what, trying to escape?

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