The Prisoner: It’s Your Funeral
Episode 10
The Prisoner is a 1967 British television series, starring Patrick McGoohan as “Number 6,” a top-level government agent who resigns his post. As a result, he’s kidnapped and imprisoned in “The Village”, where his captors hope to interrogate him for “information.” The series documents Number 6’s repeated escape attempts and the progressively more extreme methods employed by his captors to break his will.
Synopsis
A girl sneaks into Number 6’s apartment. Number 6 immediately doubts her, believing she’s been sent by Number 2 for some nefarious reason, which she denies. But of course, she has been sent by a new, youthful Number 2.
Next we see The Village using computers and behavioral analysis to predict Number 6’s next move. A lady with a blue hat and cape is in charge of this project. It’s predicted that Number 6 will go to a kiosk and buy a newspaper, soap, and a bag of sweets. Number 2 is skeptical of this result, saying Number 6 never eats sweets. But it turns out Number 6 does buy candy — for an old woman as a gift. Number 2 is impressed.
We’re next introduced to kosho — (an odd sport invented for the television show). Two men wearing red robes, gloves, and motorcycle helmets bounce on trampolines. The goal is to hurl your opponent into a pool of water. With Number 6 busy playing kosho, a Village agent sneaks over to his locker, and swaps his watch for a broken one. Upon discovering this, Number 6 pays a visit to a watch shop to have it repaired. While there, Number 6 notices a device on the work bench that is a trigger and a lever — a remote control trigger of an explosive device. The watchmaker says the device is nothing and prods Number 6 to leave. It turns out the watchmaker is the father of the girl that earlier snuck into Number 6’s house. An assassination of Number 2 is in the works. What’s interesting is Number 2 is behind it — and deliberately revealing it to Number 6. The murder will occur on Appreciation Day, a celebration of Number 2, with the explosive hidden in a large medal.
Number 6 decides to warn Number 2 of the assassination plot. Number 2 says he’s not worried about the attempt, because his people are monitoring watchmaker and consider him a “jammer” — a Villager that makes up assassination plots that never come of anything. The conversation is recorded by ever-present cameras.
The next time Number 6 visits Number 2, it’s a different person. This Number 2 reviews the tape of Number 6 warning the younger Number 2. There are various Number 2s receiving the warning — obviously faked.
What’s the reason for this? It seems the previous Number 2 was plotting the assassination of the next Number 2. The leaders of The Village are revealed to be jockeying for power among themselves — or perhaps previous Number 2s are killed in order to keep secrets from leaking. The tape is meant to discredit Number 6’s warning.
During Appreciation Day the old number 2 looks noticeably agitated and worried. The young Number 2 communicates with his accomplice via a radio. The watchmaker observes from afar in a tower via binoculars.
Number 6 spots the Watchmaker in the tower and rushes off to stop him. The girl chases after him.
Just as the explosive is put onto the old Number 2’s neck, Number 6 confronts the watchmaker and takes the detonator away. The seal is taken off of the other Number 2 and put on the younger Number 2, who rushes through the speech, afraid it will explode at any moment. Number 6 tells the older number 2 to board the helicopter and leave The Village before he can be stopped.
Thoughts
I found this to be a rather confusing episode, but it does sets up an interesting situation where the Number 2s are manipulating each other. Eventually, as Number 6 gets involved, he turns the tables despite the trap laid for him, and uses his found knowledge to show up The Village once again.
The one oddity is Number 6 warning Number 2 about the assassination plot — I didn’t expect him to do that, and instead thought he would join in. Second, the kosho sport is truly bizarre and I found that scene rather a waste of time. But overall, yet another enjoyable episode.
Next Episode: A Change Of Mind
Previous Episode: Many Happy Returns
IMDB: It’s Your Funeral
Wikipedia: It’s Your Funeral
The Prisoner Online: It’s Your Funeral
Bookmice: It’s Your Funeral
iTunes Store Link: It’s Your Funeral — The Prisoner (Classic)
I think Number 6 warns about the bomb plot as he is looking to avoid the ramifications of it going off.
Yes, he does say he’s worried about the repercussions against the citizens of the village. Personally I found that kind of out of character as in previous episodes he talks about wanting to destroy the village (even after he escapes).
Of course we are getting to the point in the series where Number 6 has likely decided he’d like to destroy the Village from the inside, and, everything anybody says can’t be taken at face value
it’s a great epsiode but it completely doesn’t make sense that the young no2 would inlove no6 in the first place… can someone explain this to me please?? or is it just a mess-up? the only reason i can think of is to try and show no6 that he is helpless to thwart their plans, but that doesn’t seem enough reason to jeapordise their plans by getting him involved…
thoughts?
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The Prisoner is a 3 act play: 1) No 6 finds himself prisoner of the Village and tries to resist or escape, 2) having failed to escape he reconciles himself to fighting the power structure, 3) finally he returns to society with his new-found individuailty intact.
In Episode 10 he finds out that a system that manipulates the prisoners is not immune from manipulation among the power elite themselves — and a flaw in the power structure becomes evident to No 6. No 6 sides against those who would manipulate (the younger No 2) rather than join the manipulators (which was the younger No 2’s intent).
It is a cautionary tale to remain true to your principles (murder is wrong, even if it could damage your enemies — you may suffer reprisals, are manipulated in the process and lose your individuality of choice), and his discovery that his enemies are not omnipotent and have internal conflicts among themselves that could be exploited.
WOW! I practically grew up on the show. Cool post, defiantly worth reading
I like what peapod22 said and I’ll add to it:
It makes sense that the Prisoner could be manipulated when it comes to the safety and security of others because his fight is personal–so long as he is the object of the system, he will not be manipulated. His entire existence in the Village revolves around this defense and protection of SELF. This leaves him vulnerable to being manipulated as a pawn in a game that truly revolves around someone else. So this episode is crucial in that it reveals one of The Prisoner’s major character flaws: when he is the prime target, he cannot be hit, but when he is not the target, he can be.
However, I still have some big problems…
1. Nowhere in the episode is it revealed that the young 2 wants the Prisoner to join the manipulators.
This is a huge fault of the episode (if that were the idea). For all we know, the young 2 creates the tape knowing full well that the Prisoner will be made aware of it and because The Prisoner is so focused on avoiding the manipulation of SELF, will do whatever is necessary to make the old 2 realize that he is being tricked (because the Prisoner himself will not be a tool to be manipulated).
In that case, the young 2’s plan is to get The Prisoner to join with the old 2. And since the only way to really do that is to make a real scenario that is truly focused on someone else, he must really get the watchmaker to really try to blow up the old 2. His nervousness when he wears the medallion is easily explained as uncertainty that the Prisoner will be able to stop his own scenario from happening in time. After all, even the Prisoner is human and capable of failure.
In the case I have presented, the point would be not just to show US the Prisoner’s weakness, but also to show HIM: he can be manipulated to serve a means that doesn’t involve him. And by doing so, the Village asserts it superiority over his individuality. And thus he is really a prisoner, not because he has lost the defense and protection of self, but because he will do anything to maintain it.
The episode gives us no reason to reject this view.
2. Surely the manipulation of a tape is a facile thing for the system and anyone who is part of the system should know that.
Including the young 2. Even if the old 2 has reason to believe that The Prisoner is like one of these Jammers, it is improbable to believe that someone who rises to the position of 2 could be so careless as to not investigate things involving him/herself. And the young 2 should know that as well. Young 2 should expect, therefore, that even if the old 2 disbelieves The Prisoner, that the old 2 would look into it.
3. If my scenario is correct, this means The Prisoner has not found a weakness in the system (the internal conflict of his enemies). Surely he knows that there is conflict in the system (otherwise there would not be a new 2 all the time), but that weakness would reside between 2 and 1, not between The Prisoner and 2.
4. Without understanding how Kosho is played (other than one person putting the other into water), we have no conception of how it relates to the game being played between The Prisoner and the system. If it does not relate, it should not consume such a significant amount of screen time. This is visual storytelling 101.
If peapod22 is correct, then what we have is the case of a brilliant episode that didn’t work. It didn’t communicate the intent of the system, it didn’t communicate The Prisoner’s triumph over the system’s weakness (ending with the bars slamming over the Prisoner’s face also negates this), and it means the top dogs that are supposed to be running this incredibly manipulative system are ignorant of its manipulative effect on themselves and how others in their position would and should respond. Yet I am also hesitant to say my scenario is correct because we do not see a clear triumph of the young 2 over The Prisoner at the end (although the helicopter swerving back instead of flying away is a visual hint that the old 2 was never meant to get away because it was all part of the plan from the beginning).