1 And 6

    So No.6 and No.1 had been one and the same all the time! Number 1 being No.6’s own worst enemy as he has been described, his other self like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In other words it’s all in the mind! Well it would be had it not been for the physical confrontation between 1 and 6, and many would say that was played out in the Prisoner’s mind. If that’s the case then, everything which takes place in ‘Fall Out’ happens in No.6’s subconscious. In fact everything which takes place in the village could well be all in No.6’s mind! And yet I find myself dissatisfied with that explanation, it dismisses much that takes place in the village, things that No.6 could not possibly know, unless he dreamt the whole thing up. Well that’s one theory of course.
    After the physical confrontation between No. 6 and No. 1, 1 climbs up into the nose cone of the rocket, and 6 seals him in, then sets the countdown for the launching of the rocket. Panic ensues, the Judge orders the evacuation of the village. There is a vicious fire fight, citizens running this way and that to get away, a Mini-Moke speeds through the village. Helicopters take off from all corners of the village. While No.6 and his three confederates are escaping down the tunnel in a low-loader transporter. Then as the lorry crashes through the steel gates at the far end of the tunnel, the rocket blasts-off out of its silo. In other words No.6 and No.1 escape the village at precisely the same moment. What happens then? Well we know what physically happens to No.6, but what of No.1? Is his fate sealed in the nose cone of that rocket, or might there be another release for him, something akin to ‘The Man Who Haunted Himself.’
    Harold Pelham a straight-laced man, stuffy, and regimented in his ways, whilst driving his Rover P5b suddenly allows his other self to take the wheel of a Lamborghini Islero 400s {GTS}. However Pelham loses control and crashes his car. And it is while lying on the operating table that two heartbeats register on the heart monitor, and it is then when Pelham’s other self is released. And from that moment on there are two Harold Pelhams in the world, the other one being casual in both appearance and attitude, both living the same life! Eventually there is a confrontation between the two Pelhams, the one runs off chased by the other. A car chase ensues, resulting in Pelham crashing his car, and at that moment, the moment of death there are two heartbeats, as the two Pelham’s become whole again.
   We know that No. 6 eventually returns to London, but what of Number 1? Is it not probable that he came to grief in some way, trapped in the nosecone of the rocket. Either through lack of oxygen, or having attained a low orbit eventually that orbit deteriorated, and the rocket either burned up on re-entry or impacted with the ground. Whichever, the result for No. 1 would be death, and upon his death might 1 have been absorbed back into 6, or 6 into 1, either way making him whole once more.
    If it is to be accepted that No.6 and No.1 are the two separate physical entities of the same man, what might have caused this separation, and when did it take place? It must have happened before the Prisoner’s abduction to the village. Could it have been when ZM73, for want of a better name, went and resigned his job? In ‘A B and C’ we witness the anguish pattern of No.6 as his act of handing in his resignation is played out over and over again on the wall screen. Perhaps the anguish he suffered as a result of the decision he made, caused the physical separation of the two sides of his physique.

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