Tonight THEPRIS6NER - Checkmate

   “He’s the one, Six is the one!”               

   Tonight is the final episode of THEPRIS6NER, the village is expanding "More Village" is 2's new motto. But he still having problems with Six, who seems to choose death, when everyone else in the village chooses life. 2 has belief in the village, and yet the situation has all gone wrong for him and his wife M2.
    Everyone is going happily about their daily business in the village, while Six is dying, and the only way to save himself is to accept the village when Two hands it over to him. 313 is also in trouble as Sarah impinges on 313's life in the village. 313 doesn’t want to leave the village, and accepts 2’s offer, as does Six, but for 313's sake. This leaves Two free to escape the village, in a very dramatic fashion......by exploding hand grenade!

   But before that can happen the Village has to be handed over to Two's successor, and not only the Village, but also Summakor. And it appears that Six is the one, and taking Two's lead 147 leads the people in choosing Six as the One! "We want Six, Six is the One. We want Six, Six is the One. We want Six, Six is the One.' So seeing that there has never been a Number One, perhaps this 6 is the first Number 1!

    Newcomers arrive on a bus. Six asks a woman where they've come from? "We just got off the bus." Six asks where she got on the bus? "The village" the young woman replies. Six informers her that this is the village, they've arrived. "Isn't that just the wildest thing?" The young woman might be excited by the prospect, but her son's expression tells a different story!

 On the purpose Floor of Summakor, a woman {whom Michael recognises as the winking woman} tells Michael a car is waiting for him to take him for his appointment with Mr. Curtis.

    Six is doubled over in pain. He receives a summon to the Clinic, where 313 diagnoses him. “What is it?” six asks a shocked 313.

    Surveying The Village expansion, 2 tells 11-12 he will one day inherit The Village, and that it will stay in the family for generations.

    Six confronts two with his certificate for dying. 2 tells Six that village death offers clarity of choice: This is life, or no life.

    313 continues to be haunted with visions of herself from another life. She wants to find a way to help Six. 2 Tells her there is something she can do, but that she must not let the girl from the Other Place control her.

    At the cemetery, 11-12 places 909’s grave. Six challengers 11-12 to give him the information he needs to get out of the village. 11-12 asserts that his mother cares for him. “Only a mother can destroy every ounce of hope in you,” Six says.

    Six collapses in front of 147, who offers to take Six to someone who may be able to cure him.

    Michael is escorted to Mr. Curtis’s car, where he recognises the driver as the village’s 147. En route, the driver explains how he used to be a very angry person, but Mr. Curtis helped him turn his life around.

    147 takes Six toy a village prophet, and tells Six that deliverance is coming – they just need to wait. Waiting is giving up, says six.

    Six approaches 11-12, who is drinking alone. Six asks him about his mother and the pills. He asks 11-12 to leave the village with him. “The village is best for me,” 11-12 whispers.

    In New York, Michael meets Mr. Curtis and Helen – Two and M2 in the village. Helen is in a dreamlike state. Mr. Curtis explains that the village is an experiment happening in Helen’s mind. She sacrificed herself so that “broken” people could have better lives.

    In Palais 2, 11-12 enters his parent’ bedroom and smothers M2 to death.

    In the Clinic, Two taunts a dying Six with the details of his upcoming funeral. 313 listens from afar.

    2 returns home to discover M2 dead and 11-12 nowhere to be found. 2 and the dogs search the Go Inside Bar, and find 11-12 has hanged himself. 2 carries his son out, and places his body in state.

    Holes begin to open in the village.

    2 visits 147, who he knows can empathise with the pain of losing a child. 2 tells 147 there is something he can do to end the pain, but 147 must help. When the moment arrives he must call out “Six is the one.”

    Mr. Curtis takes Michael into the city and shows him the positive effects the village has had on suffering people. Michael claims Mr. Curtis doesn’t have the right to help people without their consent. Mr. Curtis offers Michael an opportunity to help him with the village experiment, and gives him a pass to the Purpose Floor of Summakor. Before Michael can respond, they arrive at a church.

    The effects of village death begin to overtake Six. 2 concedes the plan was not enough to crack him. But he says, “Village death was not my last throw,”

    Two has decided Six’s desire to do the “right thing” will force him to assimilate to the village. He makes a deal with 313: She will give herself to Six to save him.

    In the Clinic, two confronts Six with Rover. Unable to face his deepest fear, six runs away.

    Villagers gather for 11-12’s funeral. Six attends, his fever from death miraculously gone. 2 confesses to the crowd that 11-12’s death was a suicide and that they are all Prisoners. A child throws a stone that hits 2 in the face. 2 tells the crowd to look to Six for answers.147 steps forward and proclaims “Six is the one,” inciting the crowd to join him.

    2 tells Six the only way to shut the holes is for a dreamer to take M2’s place. 313 steps forward and takes one of M2’s pills.

    At the church in New York, Mr. Curtis introduces Michael to Sarah – 313 in the village. She is nearly delusional, suffering from the affliction of childhood abuse. Mr. Curtis tells Michael he can save her. Michael takes Sarah’s hand, catching her as she collapses.

    In the village, 2 places a grenade in his mouth: “Six, I give you the village,” he says, pulling the pin. Two explodes!

    Mr. Curtis returns home to Helen, and finds her well. “Don’t look back,” he tells his wife.
    On the Purpose Floor, Michael takes a seat as the new head of Summakor.

    In the village, Six and a sedated 313 look out on the village. “It took me all this time to see how beautiful it is,” Six says. “It has to be possible to do this the right way-make a good Village.” 313 sheds a single tear.

   And so it is that this final episode of THEPRIS6NER, it and the series as a whole, has gone by all too quickly for my own personal liking. In the final scene, the new 2 sits with 313/Sarah on a sand dune in the desert. He says that is has to be possible to do it the right way, to make a good Village. He thinks he could do it, He thinks he has to try, whatever the cost. But I don't think 313 shares that thought, as she sheds a tear, but for who, herself, or for Six who dreams of making a good village? Seeing as its Sarah, 313's abused counterpart in New York who will have to dream the village, I don't give much for Six's chances!

    With Checkmate 2's own story is building to a climax...............through the sense of guilt of what he has done, within his family, within the regime of the village, and the sense of his own failing. 2 set out to create a certain kind of thing, and he looks at what he's got, and he doubts himself. You see Michael is the one - he can make it work........but as so often proved in history, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I mean it's perhaps not a bad idea to rule the world, just as long as you are a good King. In the village, there is a man who fought the very idea of the village, and hated the nature of being a prisoner, who eventually becomes the King of the Prison!

    It is said that you cannot die in a dream, that at the moment of death you wake up just in time. Not so for M2 who is suffocated to death by her son 11-12. What it must have been like for Helen dreaming the village in New York, who experienced her own death in her subconscious. The thing about Helen is, that she couldn’t wake up, seeing as she was heavily sedated at the time. But then why couldn’t Helen manipulate the dream, so that 11-12 doesn’t suffocate M2 to death? Well according to Bill Gallagher, Helen dreams the village, but has no control over the actions of it’s citizens!

   As for 147, well he finally becomes a pawn in 2’s game............and the time does finally arrive when 147 has to anoint Six, and for the populous to follow 147's lead, for Six is the One!

   As for 313.......she accepts the situation of her circumstances, and takes the pills from Six on the understanding that it will be only until Six, who has become the new Two, can find a better way, or to find a new Two for............The Village.

   As I understand it, script writer Bill Gallagher said that there are clues one can follow through the series, which will all come together, to be resolved in the final episode, and all the questions will be answered, I’m not at all sure they were.

    I think the series as a whole has some of the disturbing qualities of the original series which ended or began with ‘Fall Out,’ depending on how you look at it. However with THEPRIS6NER there is no hint of a “vicious circle.”

The moment Helen in New York woke and stopped dreaming, the village, its entire community disappeared into oblivion! Leaving the new Two {the former Six} and 313 to begin again from scratch, to build a new and better village together.
    And there we are, and if we’re not there, we must be somewhere out there getting on a bus to take us to the village. And yet we get on the bus in the village, so we must already be there brilliant! However as it is “more village” means putting the DVD in the machine again!

Breathe in.....Breathe Out.....Village life goes on!

Be seeing you