THEPRIS6NER

   Giving birth to ones child is a painful, and stressful enough process as it is, but to give birth to ones son 11-12, even if he was conceived outside The Village, as M2 did in her hallucinating, and sedated state of mind. I mean to go through all the pain of childbirth, and at the same time M2 keeping her mind focused on The Village is surely something else!

    So, Michael was working for Summakor as an observer. watching people, writing reports on them, and sending those reports up to the next floor in the Summakor building. Michael it seems is partly responsible for The Village, that must have come as something of a shock to him. But of course Michael discovered what Summakor was doing, what he was doing, all those reports, those people he sent to The Village. So Michael resigned his job, and found himself waking up somewhere in the mountains and the desert as we witnessed at the outset of ‘Arrival.’ Just as though after his resignation Michael was simply ejected from the Summakor building, and out into the desert! But the trouble with that is, it doesn't make any sense of the Summakor building in New York, at which Michael arrived in in his car! Because the Summakor buildings must be in the desert close to The village, as Six could see his counterpart two times Six standing on the street corner. Perhaps there are two places where one can exist at the same time, as in the case of the Shopkeeper and the "Access man" in the basement of the Summakor building. That would explain why it's possible for the people who were brought to The Village to go back to their other lives in the "other place," and why those who were born in The Village cannot. Because those born in The Village have had no other life, they come from no "other place," and therefore have no other place to go, and why "Village is best for them" as M2 explained to her son 11-12.

    The "Go In" bar where Two found his son. A Penny Farthing is suspended from the ceiling, we've seen it before in the episode Anvil, but here in Schizoid Two looks up at the Penny Farthing and gives a little chuckle to himself. Recognition from Two of things as they once were, homage paid to McGoohan's the Prisoner series, a nice touch.

   So, if Six and twice times Six become one, together they can beat Two. But according to the teachings of Village history there never was a Number One! So it seems that it's not just science that can be perverted, so too can the teachings of Village history. And this twice times six, and Six becoming One, would have sat very nicely in ‘Fall Out!’

    Two wants Six to kill Two, an echo from ‘Once Upon A Time,’ and what's more Six still couldn't do it! There was another echo from the original series, the way the Shopkeeper reported the activities of Six and the impersonator of Two, to Two at the Clinic. I wonder whose voice the Shopkeeper heard on the telephone? A pre-recorded message by Two himself no doubt. This in the same way he hd pre-recorded his message sent out over the Village through the public address system about those who impersonate Two, who should be reported immediately as they are a danger to the Village.

   As un-Two we see Two's exocentric side of his character. The way he talks to 147 describing himself as being a traveller with no number. The way he enjoys his cherry cake at 147's home are but two such examples. But Two feels pain, I can see it in his face at times, despite his having "Deathly cold eyes!" Two might not show it too often, but he feels the pain of what he has to do to his wife, and must keep on doing for the sake of the Village, for the sake of the community at large.

   I thought we were getting in a bit deep when Six has a double, which I'm still not too sure about, and Two has an alter ego, which was really himself, I thought they had gone too far. But with  the Shopkeeper existing in two separate places at the very same time, as the Access guy in the Summakor building, "they" went one step further than too far!

    So, if two times Six doesn't exist, who cut Six's face with the knife?

    Since when did Two go about driven in a Bentley convertible? Obviously this is something we as the viewer have not been privy to!

    In some ways the words of the President of Fall Out ring true for M2, "Remember us, don't forget us, keep us in mind," for that is exactly what Two's wife must do. Otherwise it's a sad look out for the Village and it's community.

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The Therapy Zone

Out And About

   At a time when I was looking forward to the forthcoming new series in 2010, the reinterpretation of THEPRIS6NER, and now I do not have too much longer to wait. But having been out and about this week, on Tuesday I went to the Post Office and a young woman behind the counter remarked "Oh, the Prisoner!" Well I was wearing my piped blazer and No.6 badge "The new series starts on Saturday. My boyfriend and I will be watching." "So will I" I replied.

   Then having left the Post Office, I was walking through the streets of Loughborough on my way to Tesco, when a group of Oriental young gentlemen were walking towards me, one of whom I saw took his mobile phone and it seemed to be pointed at me. As they passed by, the one with the mobile phone spoke in English to the others, and showing them his phone, said something about the Prisoner.

  And today as I stood waiting for Morag outside the Green Grocers three young men in their late teens passed by, and as they passed by one said "He's wearing a Prisoner badge." "The Prisoner?" remarked another "Yes, the new series starts on Saturday" the other said eagerly.

   Well there you are, fans of ‘the Prisoner’ are everywhere. And they are not the first of whom I have encountered since having moved to Loughborough.

It’s Got To One Side Or The Other!

   And so in his quest to find the answers he's looking for, if the Prisoner cannot find them here, meaning with his own people, then elsewhere, meaning he is perfectly prepared to go behind the Iron Curtain. In short, to defect to the other side in order to get the answers he is looking for.

Curtis

   Although he was apparently suffocated into unconsciousness, or to death, in ‘The Schizoid Man’ by the Village Guardian, it is always possible that he was later resuscitated in the same way No.2 was resuscitated during ‘Fall Out.’ That would account for his possible inclusion in this final manipulation of No.6.

   Such is the allegorical content of ‘the Prisoner’ that it can do almost anything at all with it!

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Caught On Camera!

    Not much in the wall bureau is there, a Map of Your Village, and a desk memo pad....just a minute! What's that at the top of the picture? The Prisoner has a compass in his cottage! It might not tell the Prisoner where the Village is, but it would have told him which was north. Plus he could have used it aboard his sea-going raft in 'Many Happy Returns,' thus saving him from making a homemade compass!

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Thought for The Day

   The Prisoner-No.6 may have rejected his number, seeing that '6' is the number of his cottage. "Is your number 6?" asked the telephone exchange operator "That is the number of this place!" was No.6's response.

    Well No.6 may not have liked being reduced to being nothing more than a number, however he has had previous experience of being a number. In the episode of ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling’ we learn that the Prisoner-No.6 had been previously known by the code number ZM73. So seeing how in his former profession, the Prisoner had been known by a number then, why is he so touchy about numbers in the Village? Name or number, what's the difference, it doesn’t make no difference. After all what's in a name or number? It’s what's inside that counts, that is where our individuality and identity is maintained. You can call the Prisoner what you like, but unless you brainwash him, you can never take away who he is! The only question is, who is he?

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Pictorial Prisoner

   I take it that Kosho is one of those most hazardous sports the citizens can partake in, and they will whether they like it or not, as mentioned by No.6 in one of his electoral speeches in 'Free For All!'

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"I'm going to escape and come back"

    Yes No.6 seemed only too keen to escape during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben,’ only to hurry back, if only to wipe this place of the face of the earth, obliterate it and No.2 with it! True upon his Arrival in the village the Prisoner did demonstrate the accepted behaviour patterns, and tried to escape not once, but twice and then again during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben.’ Yet for a Prisoner who is as keen as mustard to escape the confines of the Village, No.6 had a limited amount of escape attempts. I haven't counted the episode of ‘Free For All’ because in truth this was not an escape attempt. No.6 had wanted to conduct a mass break-out once he had been successfully elected to the position of No.2. Yet they had been onto this as early as the time No.6 underwent the truth test in the Labour Exchange managers office.

   ‘The Schizoid Man’ was next, and something of an opportune escape attempt which failed because he had not known that Susan, Curtis's wife had actually died a year ago. Well there was no way No.6 could have known that, was there? But then two episodes on we come to ‘Many Happy Returns’ and a golden opportunity to escape, but not by road or track way. Nor by the mountains, too high and with no visible sign of a pass through them. No the only way is to escape by sea. The Village being apparently deserted gave No.6 the time he needed to construct his sea going raft, to take photographic evidence of the village before setting sail. He didn't seem to feel the inclination to just sit down and wait, he didn't think this could be anything other than the golden opportunity that he had been waiting for. Well No.6 hadn't banked on Mrs Butterworth had he? Nor upon his untimely return to the Village, such is the predictability of the Prisoner. They, the authorities of the Village knew that if No.6 ever escaped he would instantly go running back to his ex-colleagues, that he would want to find the location of the village for himself. After all he had sworn to escape and come back.......!

    Then came the episode of ‘Checkmate,’ only this time No.6 has chosen some reliable men to aid him in an attempted escape. But then could his reliable men actually trust No.6? It was a good plan and one which might have worked had it not been for No.58 who put No.6 to his own test, and got it utterly and completely wrong! And this was the last escape attempt to be made by No.6, until that of ‘Fall Out,’ but even then the Prisoner hadn't escaped. He is still as much a prisoner as ever he was.

    As for the remainder of No.6's time in the Village. Well that was spent mainly poking his nose into things and places it had no business. At one time he even saved the citizens from mass reprisals by his intervention of the assassination/execution plot. So No.6 did care, No.2 of ‘Once Upon a Time’ asked No.6 "Why do you care?" and No.6 replied "You'll never know!"

    Whether or not No. 6 ever carried out other escape attempts we shall never know. Well he was a citizen of the village for well in excess of 12 months, and what we see during the 17 episode period is but a fraction of that which we do not.

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The Therapy Zone

Waste Not Want Not!

   "Waste not want not," this No.2 tells No.6 when they meet up in the mortuary in the Town Hall. So considering that phrase, I mean if No.6 is supposed to have died in an accident at sea, perhaps she should have used the dead body of Curtis, having put the amended wallet in his pocket, and the body dumped somewhere out at sea. I mean that would have saved on the plastic surgery!  Waste not want not, simples.

The Schizoid Men!

  Curtis, who went about impersonating No.6, actually wore his numbered badge. Surely it should have been drummed into Curtis's head that No.6 never wears his numbered badge! But on the other hand, No.6 was only too happy to wear his numbered badge, when impersonating Curtis!

It’s Inexplicable!

   How at the end of It's Your Funeral, and to much surprise to the new No.2, the way the helicopter suddenly turns back towards The Village. At an instruction given to the pilot from the Control Room, or on the instruction by the retiring No.2 himself? I've often wondered.

Funeral!

    ‘It's Your Funeral,’ a plan built by a man who believed in complete manipulation - a watch-maker on human scale - failed miserably. When the episode ends, the innocents {the retiring No.2 and citizens of The Village} are preserved and two winners emerge - No.6 who remained true to himself, and No.1, who let an over-zealous No.2 cause his own downfall. No.6 and No.1? Aren't they the same? Fanatical watchmakers can never win, but at least Monique still has her father.

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