I
think I’m right in saying that generally women come off better in the village
than men, in fact a couple of them can be thoroughly brutal and heartless! In
this regard I refer to No.23 and No.86, the one takes pleasure from adapting
experiments first used on animals to use on human beings. The other medically
cleaned up a very barbaric operation in carrying out leucotomies on patients.
The first encounter is with a waitress
who is obliging enough to offer a new arrival breakfast, and coffee at the
café, but then she is only doing her job. It’s virtually the same with the
Oriental taxi driver who is pleasant enough, and seems happy in her work. The
Housemaid No.66 is a woman of a different calibre; she has been assigned to
No.6 in an attempt to get him to open up by using the sympathetic card. But he
sees through her crocodile tears which will not wash away No.6’s doubts, and
she is sent away with a flea in her ear! Later in ‘Arrival’ No.9 is assigned to
No.6, she had been assigned to Cobb, she might not like her work being forced
to betray people, however she can spin a very convincing tale, even her tears
at Cobb’s funeral are real. And yet she made one mistake, No.6 saw her leaving
the Green Dome!
They say it’s always best for spies to
use their own first name as it saves possible complications, and so we have
Nadia who is a very attractive woman. She has been brought to the village under
the cover story of suffering from nervous tension, that she has been sent to
the village to recuperate, except according to her she has committed no crime,
all she did was resign. That’s good, trying to play on No.6’s sympathies!
Assigned to the village her task is to get close to No.6 by making him believe
she has vital information, the location of the village. Because if No.6 knows
where he is sailing from, he can calculate where he will be sailing to! Nadia’s
cover is sound, she is also trusting, and brave, brave to swim out to sea
knowing what terrible creature she would be faced with, the Guardian. Then half
drowned, half suffocated to death she is taken to the hospital to be
interrogated, which No.6 is witness to. But it worked, No.6 protests at the
treatment of this damsel in distress, telling No.2 to let her go. After that he
takes Nadia under his wing, and makes plans for them to escape together. Nadia
is very capable agent.
No.14 is a doctor who has developed a
new drug who is forced to prove her drug on No.6. I think No.14 is the only
female doctor with a conscience. Is she guilty of deliberately not telling No.2
that No.6 opened his eyes and saw her that time, also by leading No.6 to the
laboratory, knowing he was following her? She did seem more than a little
pleased when she announced that No.6 knew all the time, and had been playing
with No.2.
No.2 “Your drug failed.”
No.14 “No, he succeeded”
No.14 spoke those words with no feeling at
all towards No.2. Not surprising really, when it was him who threatened to have
the drug proved on her if she didn’t get it right!
‘B’ she even looks like a spy, one of
a long line of spies, certainly she is well known to No.6 from his former life.
What’s more he’s very relaxed in her company even though she works for a
different side to him.
Now we come to No.58, a woman of a
different calibre. She certainly plays her part well, and as No.58 I find her
really likeable. And yet when she drops her façade she turns out to be nothing
more than a hard face bitch who shows no feeling towards No.6 whatsoever. One
can only leave it to one’s imagination as to what this new No.2 would have done
to No.6 in order to make him talk. A bit of bruised tissue is nothing to that
woman! And yet I trust her term in office did not end by her having been
co-opted onto the town council, only it’s not often one sees women being
brainwashed in the village, and yet five women stand amongst those “brainwashed
imbeciles” described by No.6!
There is one word which defines a
number of women working in the village BETRAYAL, which brings us to No.24,
Alison, if that is indeed her name. But I think there are times when we have to
take things at face value, otherwise we’ll soon be in a fine pickle of mess. We
have absolutely no idea what it was that brought No.6 and Alison together, but apparently
they do share a genuine rapport in being able to read each other’s minds.
Whether that’s a natural ability or somehow brought about doctors as part of a
cunning plan, one has to make up one’s own mind about that. But certainly No.2
takes full advantage, and forces Alison to betray No.6, which she later
regrets, and is ashamed of what she did to No.6. And yet no doubt No.2 brought
certain forces to bear in order to force Alison to betray No.6 the way she did.
I doubt very much No.6 saw Alison again, and would have no further truck with
her if he did. And that’s another point, any woman who becomes involved with
No.6 we only see them the once, and never again in any later or previous
episode!
Mrs. Butterworth, a merry widow who has a
taste for a little speed! She seems a charming woman, and could not be more
helpful to a nameless exile, and yet in the village there’s something that
makes me want to give her a smack and wipe that smarmy smile off her face! And
yet Mrs. Butterworth does appear again later in the series {well she does in my
mind}, at No.6’s “dreamy party,” the woman who gives him one of her earrings
while suggesting he place it as a bet on No.6 at the roulette table, suggesting
6 being his lucky number.
‘Dance of the Dead’ gives the impression
that the episode is female orientated, and so it is, up to a point. No.2 is
efficient, and yet likes to appear as a boy who never grows up; Peter Pan and
certainly when she laughs at No.6 at the end her facial features do take on an
almost elfin appearance! No.240 is one of the village’s best observers, she is
also a stickler for the “rules,” one of which is “A still tongue makes a happy
life.” There is another, “Observers of life should never get involved,” No.34
had died, 240 didn’t know that and she was his observer, but had been off duty
at
the time. She got to know No.34 pretty well, but of course he didn’t know her. With 34 dead she is assigned to watching No.6 instead, and at
one point she has to report she cannot find No.6, the best Observer they have
is she?! However her femininity does come through dressed as Little Bo Peep who
always knows where to find her sheep. And then before we know it she’s at
No.6’s trial as his prosecutor, and look at the emotionless expression on her
face as she speaks her own testimony about No.6 attaining a radio from
somewhere, where is unknown as the Prisoner has not yet been subject to
interrogation. “It is the duty of all of us to care for each other, and to see
that the rules are obeyed, without their discipline we should exist in a state
of anarchy. The Prisoner had no radio of his own, there’s no radio he could
have borrowed {and just for a moment there was a puzzled look on the
prosecutors face, but it lasted only a moment before the stern look appeared
again} so when acquiring one he made he made a positive effort against the
community indicating a malicious breaking of the rules. The court’s duty is to
pass the severest possible sentence.” And yet when the court pronounces the
death penalty the prosecutor protests, and yet it’s the rules! As for the
prosecutor’s testimony one does wonder if it’s the machine talking and not her!
Then there’s the Supervisor-No.22 who is a
pretty stern woman, and I feel she gets pleasure from putting No.240 in her place!
The doctor-No.23 of ‘Checkmate’ is I feel
the female alternative to the male doctor-No.40 of ‘Dance of the Dead.’ She
takes pleasure in adapting experiments once carried out on animals to use on
humans. Her bedside manner is non-existent, for a doctor she is unfeeling
towards her patients, who are after all merely experimental subjects, and all
you have to do, is look at what she did to the Rook, not forgetting No.8 who is
turned into a poor deluded woman, hypnotised into thinking she is in love with
No.6 and he with her, and with the help of an emotion transmitter is built into
part of the village alarm system! No.8 is a warm charming woman I’m sure, but
in her current state she’s about as suffocating as the Guardian!
No.73 she is a real a true victim,
brought to the village simply because they thought she could tell them where
her husband was. But all she could tell them is that he’s over there, somewhere
there, he had some work to finish. She had already attempted to commit suicide
by slashing her wrists, and then….well she finally achieved escape by leaping
to her death through an open hospital window. That was careless of them; to
leave that window open knowing No.73 had suicidal tendencies.
Monique-No.50 goes to seek help from
No.6, and yet is that of her own free will? She was certainly hesitant to go
and see No.6, she certainly took a long time to make up her mind to go and see
him. No doubt Monique was only too well aware of No.6’s reputation; well you
know how people talk in a village. Although Monique doesn’t betray No.6, she
was a tool by which an interim No.2 was supposed to make No.6 interested enough
to help prevent an assassination. But because of No.6’s sceptical attitude to
Monique, in not believing one word she had to say for herself she failed in
that mission. And yet she became No.6’s side-kick in preventing the
assassination of the retiring No.2. Monique has a father but no mother; it is
possible that she was born in the village, her mother now deceased. Certainly
Monique is a determined young woman, who’s only desire is to save her father
from folly and eventual punishment!
No.42, a young woman who is always in tears
and in need of rehabilitation, well that rehabilitation soon worked, because
later in the episode she has become empowered! She became one of a number of
women of the ladies sub-appeal committee, becoming outspoken against No.6.
“They are socially conscious citizens
who are provoked by the loathsome presence of an unmutual,”
And this when before No.42 wouldn’t
say boo to a goose! And what about No.56, who appears to be at the head of the
ladies sub-appeal committee. Certainly she is a formidable woman both
physically and mentally. But then what freedom do even the ladies of the
sub-appeal committee have, after all they, like the welfare committee, are
but tools used by No.2 to help steal
people’s minds, and take what he wants.
No.86, what can one say about her? She
is attractive woman with a certain amount of individuality about her, seeing as
she likes to wear her own dress at one point, instead of the usual uniform worn
by doctors. It appears to me that No.86 wore that blue dress especially for
No.6, the dress certainly made her look more feminine. She is also clever, in
having medically “cleaned up” the once barbaric operation when carrying out
leucotomies on patients. At one point she claims to be higher than No.2, and
yet I expect that’s the Mytol talking! Attractive, cool, clever, calculating,
and doesn’t flinch at taking away a person’s mind, and yet she was not clever
enough as to put one over on No.6….stupid woman she ruined everything!
Cathy, or I should say No.22, there she
stands by the Penny Farthing crying probably because her other self, Cathy, has
just been strangled to death by the Kid. Having him force himself upon her at
one point would have been bad enough. What No.22’s position is, whether she was
No.2’s assistant or was simply drafted in to help with No.8’s experiment is
difficult to say. However she does make the fatal mistake of getting involved
with No.6, by wishing it had been real. And yet it was real enough when No.8
strangled 22, life imitating art you could say.
No.10 has done well for herself, rising to
the position of assistant to No.2. As the girl she is a real femme fatale, who
became deeply involved with Mister X, in fact she would have just loved him to
death…….given half a chance!
Such is the feminine side to ‘the
Prisoner,’ a series which is generally male orientated. Although the ladies
have their exits and entrances as much as anyone else, and while most women
fare better than others in the village, and as far as we can say, none end up
in the Aversion Therapy room like those two chaps in ‘A Change of Mind.’
Although in ‘Arrival’ there are a few undergoing group therapy at the hospital,
which counteracts obsessional guilt complexes producing neurosis.
It’s unsure
whether that is a form of brainwashing, but at least none of them were being
treated like that infantile chap. They shaved his head and then attached
electrodes to it via the sticky tape, whether they were trying to bring his
reason back, or if it was the treatment which turned the patient into an
infantile idiot is unknown.
Be seeing you
