Synopsis

The final episode begins immediately after the previous one, Once Upon A Time. Number 2 (Leo Kern) is dead and Number 6 is about to meet Number 1.

Number 6, the bald operations manager, and the butler descend by elevator to a lower level of The Village. Someone says, “We thought you would be happier as yourself,” as an unseen individual fondles a dummy resembling Number 6. The trio walks through a tunnel lined with jukeboxes playing the Beatles’ All You Need Is Love. They come to a doorway bearing the words “Well Come”.

Beyond this door is a subterranean cavern filled with soldiers and masked, hooded individuals (reminding me of Star Trek, James Bond, and Beneath the Planet of the Apes). The masked people are seated behind desks with nameplates saying “Identification”, “Defectors”, “Therapy”, “Reactionists” — different elements of society. Surveillance equipment, a throne, and a huge rocket emblazoned with the number “1” complete the scene. The Judge will name three revolutionaries who will be evaluated by the council of masked individuals.

The first is Number 48 (Alexis Kanner). He sports a top hat, hippie vibe, and keeps chanting the song Dem Bones. His erratic behavior confuses the council, and the judge says that youthful rebellion not be allowed to damage society. Number 48 dashes around the cavern and leads the council in a round of singing. He’s found guilty, handcuffed to a pole, and lowered into a steaming hole in the ground.

The next revolutionary is Number 2. He emerges from his resurrection saying “I feel a new man,” shakes hands with Number 6, and spits into the robotic eye of the rocket labeled “1”. Number 2 is also found guilty. The judge explains that the second variety of revolt is that of an established person who turns and bites the hand that feeds him. These individuals contribute nothing to the culture and are to be stamped out.

The Judge names Number 6 as the last revolutionary. He rebelled and survived while fighting for a noble cause, and therefore is a true leader. He is free to leave The Village or stay as its leader.

Number 6 will finally get to meet Number 1. He goes through a tunnel leading to the rocket labeled “1”. Within, both 48 and 2 are encased in glass tubes. Number 2 ascends a spiral staircase. At the top he sees a masked, hooded figure behind a table laden with globes, wearing a huge patch reading “Number 1.” He hands a glass ball to Number 6. Curious to know the true identity of Number 1, Number 6 tears off the mask to reveal an ape mask. Number 6 tears off that mask to see — his own face. The Number 6 / 1 runs off laughing and escapes through a hatchway.

Number 6 descends the staircase with a fire extinguisher. The butler has shifted allegiance to Number 6, and they fight off the hooded guards. They set Number 48 and 2 free. The quartet picks up machine guns and instigate a violent, chaotic revolt, to the music of the Beatles’ All You Need Is Love. Escaping soldiers stream out of the tunnel. Speakers blare “evacuate” throughout The Village. Villagers scatter running to escape vehicles and many helicopters lift off. Numbers 6, 48 and 2 board the jail cell car which is on a truck bed, and the butler drives the truck out of The Village. The missile launches and rises over The Village. Rover shrivels away accompanied by an odd song.

The jail cell car barrels down the A20 and into London to drop off the various ex-prisoners. Number 48 stays on the freeway and begins to hitchhike. Number 2 enters a large, establishment building. Number 6 and the butler ride a bus to his original apartment. The door (with a number “1”) opens automatically and the butler goes inside. Number 6 rides off in his familiar car. After a clap of thunder, we see the series’ first image of Number 6 riding his car down an open highway. The Prisoner is finally free.

Thoughts

I found Fall Out a very entertaining and at times compelling episode, but its vagueness wasn’t an entirely satisfying conclusion to the series. Several of my biggest questions remain unanswered (or answered weakly):

1. Why did Number 6 resign?
2. Who or what is Number 1?
3. What is the full story behind The Village (who built it, and did it have a purpose beyond a prison for spies)?

This episode also raised more questions that will basically remain forever:

1. Where did the Villagers go?
2. What was meant by the Number 6 / Number 1 character?
3. Was the cavern scene meant to be taken at face value — or merely one final attempt by The Village to extract Number 6’s information?

Notes

• Alexis Kanner also appeared as The Kid in the episode Living In Harmony.
• Number 2 is shaved is because Leo Kern had done so for a different production.
• Number 6 fulfills his wish to destroy the village, a desire he first aired in the episode Chimes Of Big Ben.
• The song Dem Bones may represent the belief that all individuals should work together as a societal whole.
• The rocket is similar to that of the episode The Girl Who Was Death.

Some of the episode’s nuttiness is explained by Patrick McGoohan writing the episode under an extremely short deadline, but the sloppiness also indicates that the series was developed without an ending in mind. Fall Out also explores themes of rebellion and sociology instead of the twisting plots and spy elements that I personally found more interesting. But it’s still a surreal, almost psychedelic piece of television that attempts to make the series relevant to contemporary events. I do believe it’s more successful than not.

I’ll write one last Prisoner post that goes into more detail about Fall Out and the series as a whole.

Previous Episode: Once Upon A Time

IMDB: Fall Out
Wikipedia: Fall Out
The Prisoner Online: Fall Out
Bookmice: Fall Out

iTunes Store Link: Fall Out — The Prisoner (Classic)

Synopsis

This episode brings back a previous Number 2 (Leo Kern, from Chimes Of Big Ben) in a last-ditch effort to extract the precious information from Number 6. This Number 2 is belligerent from the get-go, ordering the diminutive butler around, informing a superior that he’ll do things his way, and asking Number 6 via video screen: “Why do you care?”

Number 2 sets in motion an interrogation plan, code named “Degree Absolute.” The lamp hanging over Number 6’s bed lowers to induce a hypnotic state while Number 2 recites nursery rhymes. A smiling, befuddled Number 6 is escorted to a special room filled with props, toys, and spot lights associated with various stages of childhood. The silent butler is there, standing in a crib while ominously shaking a baby rattle.

Using the props and with Number 6’s mental state regressed to that of a child, Number 2 hopes to raise him to adulthood at which point he’ll extract the information. Number 2 is granted a week to succeed or be held accountable.

The interrogation-therapy becomes a surreal play. Number 6 rides a see saw and graduates from school. There’s a boxing match, numerical chants, taunts, and more nursery rhymes. An omnipresent light shines from above, softening Number 6’s brain. Number 2 repeatedly probes for a confession but is unsuccessful. He even asks Number 6 to kill him.

Numbers 6 and 2 wind up in a “box car” apartment with barred walls. Number 2 interviews Number 6 for a job interview. Number 6 is assigned to a confidential job. Number 2 acts as judge while the butler spins wheels on a tinker-toy like sculpture. Number 2 demands to know the nature of Number 6’s job. Number 2 asks Number 6 to count up even numbers: 2, 4, and 6. Number 6 is unable to say six, remaining stuck on five. Eventually he’s locked in the apartment-crate as punishment.

A frazzled Number 2 awakes from a rough night’s sleep on a table. He asks Number 6 through the box car bars — “why did you resign?” The answer, “for peace, peace of mind — too many people know too much.” It’s unclear if Number 6 is bluffing. Number 6 calls Number 2 a fool, and demands to be killed by a kitchen knife.

The pair next ride the see saw, wearing air masks in a simulated bombing run. After a countdown and bailout, Number 6 is interrogated as a prisoner of war — but once again, Number 2’s efforts are in vain.

By this stage, “Degree Absolute” has flipped, to where Number 2 has regressed to childlike, hypnotized state and Number 6 is the sane one. Number 6 locks Number 2 in the barred apartment and removes the key (the butler is now helping Number 6). With a clock marking a week’s time running down, Number 6 chants “die, die, die,” — and Number 2 collapses from a psychic break.

With Number 2 dead, the bald security chief enters the room to congratulate Number 6. He escorts Number 6 out to meet the as-yet-unseen Number 1. The camera pans over the childhood toys. Number 6 is still a prisoner, but on the cusp of escape — and possibly learning the inner workings of The Village.

Thoughts

This episode contains the return of my favorite Number 2, Leo Kern. He’s a highly charged foil for the pensive Patrick McGoohan. I also enjoyed the omnipresent butler assisting in the various interrogations.

Notes

• The jail-cell apartment represents the show’s title and The Village
• Leo Kern also appears in the episodes Chimes Of Big Ben and Fall Out.
• The various therapies are inspired by Shakespeare’s Seven Ages Of Man.
• The introduction may reveal the identity of Number 1 as Number 6, as Number 2 emphasized the phrase “You are Number 6″ to sound more like “You are, Number 6″ in response to the question “Who is Number 1?”

Next Episode: Fall Out
Previous Episode: The Girl Who Was Death

IMDB: Once Upon A Time
Wikipedia: Once Upon A Time
The Prisoner Online: Once Upon A Time
Bookmice: Once Upon A Time

iTunes Store Link: Once Upon a Time — The Prisoner (Classic)

Synopsis

A book is opened to a drawing of a cricket game. We then cut to an actual match, with a woman (Justine Lord) dressed in white as a spectator. She replaces the ball with an explosive device, and on the next pitch, the player is killed by the ball’s explosion.

Number 6, in civilian clothes, receives information from an undercover spy disguised as a shoe-polisher. The murdered cricket player was a colleague on a mission to locate a super-rocket threatening London. Number 6 is assigned to continue this mission.

At a new cricket match, Number 6 is up at bat. The ball is switched, but Number 6 catches it and throws it away. At the scene of the explosion, he finds a note inviting him to the local pub. Once there, he begins to drink a stout, and notices a message at the bottom of the pint glass, which he can’t fully read until he has downed the beer. Once done, he reads the words “you have just been poisoned.”

He then gulps down a litany of hard liquor shots to purge the poison. After getting sick in the bathroom, he finds another note directing him to a Turkish bath.

Number 6 complies. While steaming himself, the same lady in white lodges a broom handle in the bath doors, locking Number 6 inside. Again, he escapes.

Yet another note tells him to go to “Barney’s Boxing Booth” at an oceanside resort town. His sparring partner tells him to visit the Tunnel of Love.

Inside, Number 6 hears the girl’s voice, bearing a message of love on a radio. He tosses it into the water where it explodes. After emerging from the tunnel, he chases the girl through several fair ground amusements but can’t track her down.

The woman drives off in a white car, and Number 6 speeds off in pursuit. She taunts him over a microphone, alternating love confessions with death threats. She somehow makes the road spin using just a pointed finger.

Number 6 follows the girl into an abandoned town where she announces her name as “death.” Inside an abandoned building he encounters a series of devious traps patterned after the butcher, baker, and candlestick maker. The ever-craft Number 6 manages to outsmart each.

After escaping the building, the girl lays down a hail of bullets from a gun turret. Number 6 boards a bulldozer for protection. She then fires a rocket launcher and destroys the construction vehicle. But Number 6 has taken shelter in a manhole.

The girl boards a helicopter and lifts off, with Number 6 hitching a ride beneath. She lands in a field and walks over a hill toward a lighthouse. Number 6 follows her and finds a tunnel leading to a secret bunker with computers, cots, and pictures of Napoleon and Josephine. Number 6 disables a guard and steals his uniform.

In the lighthouse we finally meet the girl’s father, a slightly insane fellow dressed in full Napoleon regalia berating some soldiers. He announces an imminent rocket launch and destruction of London.

Number 6 breaks into the armory, and sabotages the weapons. He fights off some soldiers, but the girl captures him and ties him to a chair. He learns that the lighthouse itself is the rocket, and will launch with Number 6 trapped within. The girl and her father leave to escape by boat after starting the countdown via computer.

Number 6 again manages to escape. He rappels down the side of the lighthouse and drives off in the boat. Still inside the lighthouse, the father and daughter hurl the mortars that Number 6 sabotaged earlier. The lighthouse explodes, and the Girl Who Was Death is now dead.

It’s then revealed that the reader of the book from episode’s start is Number 6. The whole adventure was a bedtime story told to some Village children. The Napoleon character was actually Number 2 and Miss Death another prisoner.

Thoughts

This episode is a fantasy, comedy, and violent adventure all in one. Much of the entertainment lies in Number 6’s continual escape from the girl’s increasingly complex attempts to do him in.

The Unmutual Archive has a compelling Sade / Freud interpretation. The death-duel between a man and a woman can be seen as a literal “battle of the sexes” with provocative, sexual implications. The girl, dressed in white, alternately wants to love Number 6 or murder him. We enter the tunnel of love at a fun fair, and Number 6 emerges from a manhole. Both wield long objects like guns, candles, lighthouses, and cricket bats — let your perverse imagination run wild.

One complaint is that the largely fantastical episode doesn’t have much connection to The Village and therefore doesn’t jibe well with the rest of the series. I would have preferred this episode as a lucid, hallucinatory dream induced by Number 2 and the Girl, with Number 6 strapped to a hospital bed under the influence of strong drugs. Perhaps that would be too similar to Living In Harmony, but it would fit better within the series.

That said, I still find this a very entertaining episode, and welcome the sadistic humor.

Other observations:

• Number 6 receives a coded message in a record shop — as he pretended to in the episode Hammer and Anvil.
• The Turkish bath scene could be a parody of the Bond movie Thunderball.
• The beer glass message in the standard Village font.
• The rocket concept reappears in the final episode Fall Out.

Next Episode: Once Upon A Time
Previous Episode: Living In Harmony

IMDB: The Girl Who Was Death
Wikipedia: The Girl Who Was Death
The Prisoner Online: The Girl Who Was Death
Bookmice: The Girl Who Was Death

iTunes Store Link: The Girl Who Was Death — The Prisoner (Classic)

Synopsis

This episode of The Prisoner has a western theme — beginning with the opening credits. Number 6 resigns by tossing his “Marshall” star on the desk of his boss. He tries to get away, carrying his saddle, but is captured by a group of cowboys, who carry him away on horses and dump him off in the town of Harmony.

Bewildered, Number 6 makes his way into the local saloon, where he meets a bar girl, Kathy (Valerie French), the Kid (Alexis Kanner), a young, silent boy who guards the town jail, and the Judge (David Bauer) who presides over the town. The Judge offers Number 6 a job as the town sheriff. Number 6 declines and leaves the saloon, only to encounter a ruckus with the townsfolk. Number 6 is carted off to jail.

Kathy decides to free Number 6, after flirting with the Kid in order to steal the cell keys. Number 6 escapes — but is again quickly captured. The Judge decides to free Number 6 but finds Kathy guilty instead (this warped sense of justice is modus operandi in Harmony). But he offers Number 6 a deal: if he’ll take the job of sheriff, he’ll let Kathy go. Number 6 agrees — but refuses to carry a gun.

The Kid becomes unruly and shoots a man in the saloon. Another man is murdered, and the lawlessness inspires Number 6 to take his sheriff job more seriously. The Kid has developed feelings Kathy, and in a crass attempt to kiss her, she bites him on the lip. He kidnaps Kathy — and accidentally strangles her.

Deciding enough is enough, Number 6 finally arms himself, and wins a quick shoot out with the Kid. The Judge finally thinks he has secured Number 6 as sheriff, but Number 6 again tries to resign and escape the town. A gun battle between Number 6 and the Judge’s men ensues. Number 6 is shot and collapses on the saloon floor.

Suddenly the illusion is shattered, and Number 6 appears in his usual, non-cowboy clothing on the saloon floor. Bewildered, he learns all the town citizens are merely wooden models. He leaves Harmony, and over a hill, finds the familiar sight of The Village.

Number 6 storms into Number 2’s office, where it’s revealed the Judge was Number 2, Kathy a Number 22, and the Kid Number 8. Number 8 and Number 2 bicker about the plan’s failure. The whole scenario was a complex, staged illusion using hallucinogens, meant to break Number 6’s will.

Unfortunately, the illusion was more effective on the conspirators than Number 6. Number 22 has really fallen for Number 6 and Number 8 for Number 22. She wanders back to the movie set that is Harmony — only to find Number 8 also there. Still caught up in the illusion, “the Kid” strangles Number 22, killing her. Number 8 commits suicide by throwing himself off a balcony.

Thoughts

The Western metaphor is largely successful. Number 6, the rebel, becomes a loner cowboy, and Harmony is a stand-in for The Village. The lawlessness of Harmony allows for several exciting fist fights and shoot outs. The actors also put on decent American accents in keeping with the fanciful theme.

Because the episode largely takes place in Harmony, it’s initially unclear if it’s all in Number 6’s mind (as a dream) or in reality. It turns out to be a combination of both. Through hallucinogenic drugs and audio cues, the experience occurs on a staged set — but what we see on screen are Number 6’s imaginings superimposed on this reality.

I really enjoyed the actor who portrays the Kid (Alexis Kanner) is quite outstanding — his performance is largely wordless but with a lot of physical communication and an expressive face to compensate. His naive character who easily falls in love calls to mind a “reckless youth” — which partly explains his recurrence in the final episode Fall Out.

Next Episode: The Girl Who Was Death
Previous Episode: Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling

IMDB: Living In Harmony
Wikipedia: Living In Harmony
The Prisoner Online: Living In Harmony
Bookmice: Living In Harmony

iTunes Store Link: Living In Harmony — The Prisoner (Classic)

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

This episode is unique as Patrick McGoohan barely appears. We begin during a slide show presentation to the Colonel, a blond, nondescript man. They’re looking in vain through a series of slide show images for a secret message pointing to the location of “Seltzman”.

Back at The Village, Number 2, explains to the Colonel that professor Seltzman developed a “thought transfer” technique: transferring the mind of one man into another using an electronic device. Seltzman is missing, and the last contact was Number 6.

Number 2 takes the Colonel into the hospital and shows him an amnesia machine and a Seltzman device. Meanwhile, Number 6 is dragged out of his apartment and brought to the hospital.

Next is an amusing point of view scene where Number 6 wakes up and looks in the mirror, only to see the face of a complete stranger. His mind is in the body of the Colonel, and he’s no longer in the Village. He’s instructed to locate Saltzman, the only person who can return him to his original self.

We briefly meet Janice, a dark haired woman who was Number 6’s fiance. She’s the daughter of Sir Charles Portland, a higher-up at Number 6’s previous employer.

Number 6 / The Colonel visits to the same office where he resigned and demands to see Sir Charles Portland, presumably for help in finding Seltzman. Number 6 / The Colonel tries to gain Portland’s confidence by conveying personal details. Portland is still skeptical, and says he’ll watch and follow Number 6 / The Colonel wherever he goes.

Number 6 / The Colonel retrieves a set of slides from a photography shop that he visited before his imprisonment. Using a coded, several step process, four slides are isolated. When viewed in overlay atop one another, the words Kandersfeld, Austria appear.

After a long car ride, he locates Seltzman, an elderly man posing as a barber. Number 6 / The Colonel uses his handwriting to prove his true identity. But just as Seltzman confirms a reversal process, agents break in. Seltzman and Number 6 / The Colonel are captured and taken to the Village.

Number 2 demands that Number 6 be returned to his original body that still has the Colonel’s mind contained within. For the reversal process, Salzman connects a wire between Number 6’s and the Colonel’s body and places himself within, acting as a conduit.

After the transference, Seltzman collapses and dies — the strain of the transference was too much. The Colonel bids farewell and leaves via helicopter.

A final twist is revealed — Seltzman’s mind is now in the body of the Colonel, and the Colonel who was sent to Salzman’s body is now dead. Number 6 is in his original body. The Village has once again accomplished nothing, due to the subversive antics of Number 6.

Thoughts

The episode’s biggest weakness is watching another actor (Nigel Stock) play Number 6 in a different body. Stock doesn’t have the gruff attitude or charisma of Patrick McGoohan.

As for the plot, it seems a bit odd that the Village would place Number 6 back into public where he could escape. In previous episodes, he has broken through the Village’s brainwashing. The Village trusts that Number 6 would want to return to his own body back at The Village, which only Seltzman can do, but it still seems quite reckless.

Minor plot quibbles aside, this episode really exists because Patrick MacGoohan was predisposed filming Ice Station Zebra. Overall, the writing of the episode was fine, and the final twist was definitely cool. I just wish a more charismatic actor was cast as the Colonel.

Next Episode: Living In Harmony
Previous Episode: Hammer Into Anvil

IMDB: Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling
Wikipedia: Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling
The Prisoner Online: Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling
Book Mice: Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling

iTunes Store Link: Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling — The Prisoner (Classic)

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 distraught, hospitalized woman, cruelly interrogated by Number 2, leaps out a window to her death. Angered, Number 6 vows to make Number 2 pay. This more violent Number 2 threatens Number 6 with a sword, promising to “hammer” our favorite prisoner.

At the Village shop, Number 6 asks to review several copies of the same record. He listens to a few bars of each while checking his watch. He then returns them all to the shopkeeper, along with a Tally Ho newspaper on which he has scribbled a question mark. The shopkeeper is suspicious of this activity and reports to Number 2.

So is laid the seeds of paranoia. Number 6 continues to behave oddly — wandering about the sea shore, writing strange messages, utilizing a carrier pigeon — until Number 2 is convinced counter-spies have infiltrated everywhere and Number 6 is leading a conspiracy against him. Distrusting his own staff, Number 2 angrily fires the bald bespectacled supervisor, and even the midget butler packs his bags.

At episode’s end, a crazed Number 2 tries to comprehend the paranoid fantasy of his own making by directly confronting Number 6. Number 6 continues the ruse, saying he’ll report Number 2’s failings to his superiors. Crushed, Number 2 surrenders, turning in his resignation over the phone to his superiors.

Thoughts

At this stage of the series, Number 6 is less interested in escaping from the Village, than destroying it from within through sabotage. Number 6 takes advantage of the pervasive surveillance throughout the Village, demonstrating several problems with over-zealous gathering of intelligence:

• Too much useless information can be impossible to sort through.
• Data may be twisted to support a particular hypothesis.
• Surveillance can be deliberately filled with “disinformation” to confuse and distract the watchers.

The last point reminded me of an article on “antisurveillance” by Brian Martin for Anarchist Studies:

• Disrupters can fill out forms with small mistakes in their names, addresses, and other details. This will create multiple entries in databases and make it more difficult for database matches to be successful.
• Disrupters can fill out forms with imaginary information, or with information about famous people (or about database managers). This will swamp the database with incorrect information.
• In the face of direct surveillance by bugs or observation, a range of devious techniques can be imagined, such as disguises and misleading taped messages.

After employing his personal disinformation campaign, the tables are turned, and Number 6 finds himself tantalizingly close to seizing control of The Village. Note that Number 6 eventually gets Number 2 to resign — which is exactly what Number 6 did to imprison himself in The Village.

Next Episode: Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling
Previous Episode: A Change Of Mind

IMDB: Hammer Into Anvil
Wikipedia: Hammer Into Anvil
The Prisoner Online: Hammer Into Anvil
Bookmice: Hammer Into Anvil

iTunes Store Link: Hammer Into Anvil — The Prisoner (Classic)

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

Number 6 returns home to find Number 2 waiting for him. Number 2 warns that he has no control over the committee. A young woman named Number 86 is assigned to rehabilitate Number 6 — the first step is sending him to the hospital for treatment.

In the hospital is a room called “Aversion Therapy” where an emotionally distraught patient is shown video clips of Rover, Number 2, and the flashing word “unmutual.” Another patient shows Number 6 a scar on his temple.

The committee labels Number 6 “unmutual” and prescribes a medial treatment called “instant social conversion.” Number 2, watching everything on the omnipresent video monitors, is pleased that Number 6, the loner, will now experience total social isolation and will finally know true loneliness.

The Villagers publicly beat Number 6 with umbrellas, and force Number 6 back to the hospital. He’s strapped to an operating table, and a camera and bright lights focused — this operation is to be televised. A light beam is pointed at Number 6’s head, and from 86’s explanation, we learn this is basically a frontal lobotomy. A large grin flashes on Number 6’s face as the light shines on his skull.

After the operation, Number 6 awakes in a hospital bed. Making his way back to his apartment, the Villagers who were so violent before, now greet him with cheers, a parade, and a party.

Back home, Number 86 prepares tea — but Number 6 sees her put a pill into his drink. Ever wary, Number 6 complains of being cold. Number 86 goes to the bedroom to get a blanket, and he hurriedly pours the drugged tea into a potted plant (hmmm, why don’t the monitoring cameras see that?). At this point, Number 6 may be feigning the blitzed-out results of his brain surgery.

Assuming Number 6 is drugged, Number 2 confronts him in person, for the “information” that has so far evaded all the past Number 2s. No information is divulged.

On the second day, Number 86 again tries to administer the drug. Drumming his fingers, Number 6 complains that she doesn’t know how to make proper tea, and pours it out. He makes a new batch himself. 86 again drugs the tea, but Number 6 merely switches the cups. Number 86 is now drugged and begins to behave oddly. Number 2, watching all of this grows angry and hastily calls 86 out of the apartment, as she is in danger of screwing up the entire operation.

Number 6 ventures outside, returning to his exercise place in the woods. The two earlier assailants appear and again pick a fight. Initially unable to fight back, Number 6 soon regains his violent disposition. The fight seems to clear his head, possibly convincing him that the entire medial procedure was a ruse.

Number 6 finds a still-drugged Number 86 in the woods, picking flowers. Taking advantage of her inebriated state, he presses her for a full report on Number 6. She divulges that no frontal lobotomy occurred. Number 6 then gives Number 86 some additional instructions, for a plan of his own.

Number 6 tells Number 2 that he wants to do a public confession as that will be more effective and bring him back into good graces following his “social conversion”. Number 2 thinks this is a great idea.

A meeting is called at the public square, with the villagers gathered to hear Number 6’s speech. He announces that Number 2 should be applauded for developing the social conversion process. Suddenly, Number 86 comes forward and accuses Number 2 of being “unmutual”. Number 6 changes his speech, launching into an angry tirade the committee wanting to control everyone’s minds. He calls upon the villagers as individuals, calling for rejection of this false world.

The villagers rebel, forming a mob, and chase after Number 2 in open revolt. Number 6 seems about to escape — but at the last minute, oddly decides not to run off into the woods, instead joining the angry mob. The butler follows Number 6 holding a black and white umbrella, ending the episode.

Thoughts

This episode is a return to psychological games, most notably the society vs. the individual: the pressure to conform. The Milgram experiment notes how peer pressure can influence individual far beyond what common sense would dictate. Although we like to think of ourselves as free thinking individuals, a surprising amount of behavioral cues are taken from the group. The Village, lorded over by the various Number 2s, consistently tries to leverage the power of group think to control Number 6.

This episode also considers the power of invented words or constructed language (conlang). Number 6 is called “disharmonious” “unmutual” or a “rebel” which are just words, but ones packed with power. When the group decides “disharmonious” is the worst thing to be labeled, its meaning takes on a new power. The “conlang” word “unmutual” is defined by the Village and with the complicity of the Villagers, incites behavior that is particular to the Village, and those that understand it have their behavior reinforced by the group-think.

Why didn’t the Village actually lobotomize Number 6? It might come back to the original reason for his imprisonment. They don’t want to lose the information that only exists in his mind.

The ending of this episode is open to interpretation. Does Number 6 consciously choose to not escape? Is this the “change of mind” of the title? The Village is starting to crumble from within, and perhaps he’s now less focused on escape than destroying the Village. Or is his lack of escape actually so simple as the midget butler approaches and blocks his way?

Next Episode: Hammer Into Anvil
Previous Episode: It’s Your Funeral

IMDB: A Change Of Mind
Wikipedia: A Change Of Mind
The Prisoner Online: A Change Of Mind
Bookmice: A Change Of Mind

iTunes Store Link: A Change of Mind — The Prisoner (Classic)

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)

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

Number 6 awakes to discover The Village completely abandoned — presenting yet another opportunity for escape. He takes a bunch of photographs (to show the folks back home) and builds a raft to escape by sea. A black cat cracks a cup as Number 6 makes his way onto open water.

Number 6 falls asleep on the raft. A boat pulls up, and the boat driver takes the possessions off the raft. Number 6 sneaks aboard and after some scuffling where he unsuccessfully takes control of the boat, he abandons ship and is washed ashore near a lighthouse. Lucky for him, it’s the British coast.

After encountering some gypsies that speak a bizarre language, Number 6 makes his way back to London, and his old flat. Someone he’s never met before — Mrs. Butterworth — is living there, and driving his car.

Eventually Number 6 meets up with his old espionage bosses, Thorpe and The Colonel. Number 6 tries to convince them of The Village’s existence and purpose, but even after showing them his candid photographs, they are skeptical and find the story hard to believe.

They do agree to send Number 6 out on a reconnaissance flight via jet to establish the location of The Village, which through some calculations of ocean currents and elapsed time, is thought to be on the coast of Morocco. Number 6 takes off with a pilot, but just as he sees The Village from the air, the pilot pulls an eject lever and Number 6 is sent down to earth. Realizing he’s back where he started, he returns to his apartment in silence — and is soon greeted by Mrs. Butterworth — who reveals herself to be this episode’s Number 2.

Thoughts

This is the first of the “surreal” episodes, which rely much less on logical mind games and more on evoking particular emotions, or symbolic events of themes that have come before. Contributing to the surreal nature is the absence of dialogue for the first half. An abandoned Village means Number 6 has nobody to talk to, and his escape is depicted mostly visually. The first people he tries to talk with are gypsies whose language he doesn’t understand.

Some events just don’t make sense. The location of The Village and the behavior of his former bosses contradict what has come before (perhaps they feign ignorance?). What are gypsies doing next to a major British highway? And based on what happened in The Chimes of Big Ben, Number 6 is too trusting upon his return home. Perhaps this entire episode is a drugged-up hallucination — a dream sequence where reality is Number 6 strapped to a now-familiar hospital table, his mind probed by Number 2.

Or, if the episode is real, the escape and return is a gross display of power — to teach Number 6 that even if he were to return home, he would still be under surveillance and ultimately powerless against The Village. He can trust no-one and may perpetually be a prisoner — even if he escapes. But we already knew that, from the episode The Chimes of Big Ben.

All in all, an okay but lacking episode.

Next Episode: It’s Your Funeral
Previous Episode: The Schizoid Man

IMDB: Many Happy Returns
Wikipedia: Many Happy Returns
The Prisoner Online: Many Happy Returns
Bookmice: Many Happy Returns

iTunes Store Link: Many Happy Returns — The Prisoner (Classic)

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

Number 6 is practicing ESP — holding up cards with symbols on them — with Number 24, who is quite adept at identifying the cards. She takes a picture of Number 6 holding some of them.

Number 2 sets a most diabolic plan in motion. While asleep, number 6 is tranquilized and carted off by the now-familiar Village medical experts. He awakes in a strange bedroom with an altered appearance of a mustache and dark hair. He learns that his new identity is Number 12.

Everyone in The Village refers to him by his new name, and after talking to Number 2, soon learns that his purpose is to interrogate Number 6 — who must be an imposter — but everyone is pretending that that Number 6 is the genuine article. Number 12 gets a shave and haircut to make himself look like Number 6.

After Number 12 meets Number 6, he begins to doubt who he really is. Certain things have been altered — his favorite breakfast is different, he is left handed, and he can’t smoke his usual cigar brand. In one tense scene, Number 24 is asked to perform the same ESP game with Number 12 (the real Number 6) and the other Number 6 to try to establish who is the “real” number 6. Number 12 fails the test miserably — which is completely unexpected, as he is the real thing. Confused and dejected, Number 12 begins to doubt his own identity, and a psychic break is imminent.

But he does find a clue in the photograph taken by Number 24. By noting how a bruised fingernail has healed, he deduces that he’d been brainwashed over several weeks while heavily sedated. The discovery leads to a quite brilliant situation where Number 6 — whom everyone is still pretending is Number 12 — decides to take advantage of this identity perversion to escape from The Village. Number 2 knows that this imposter must eventually leave after the mission is accomplished.

Number 6 beats the crap out of the fake Number 6 and extracts a password and his original name. He then uses the password to cause Rover to kill the fake Number 6. The mission is now deemed a failure, and Number 6 (who is now pretending to be the imposter agent) is to be sent home.

Number 6 boards a helicopter after chatting with Number 2 about his wife, Susan. The helicopter lifts off and Number 6 has escaped.

Unfortunately, the helicopter turns around. It turns out Number 12’s wife is no longer alive, and the mention of her in passing conversation was a test by Number 2 to verify the identity of Number 6. It turns out Number 6 was actually not convincing enough playing an the role of the other agent.

Sneaky, and a great pay-off for keeping straight this episode’s shifting identities.

Thoughts

Based on the synopsis above, this is a very elaborate episode, with mistaken identity, brainwashing, and McGoohan playing two different versions of the same character. The “double identity” resembles classic Star Trek episodes where Kirk is cleaved into two. I also enjoyed seeing the behind-the-scenes brainwashing scenes. But the ultimate payoff is the final sequence where the advantage seems to move to back to Number 6, only to be crushed in the same manner as it was many times before. It’s great fun re-watching the episode and observing how Number 2 begins to doubt the identity of the agent and outwit Number 6 without letting his doubt be completely known. This ranks as one of my favorite episodes of The Prisoner.

Next Episode: Many Happy Returns
Previous Episode: The General

IMDB: The Schizoid Man
Wikipedia: The Schizoid Man
The Prisoner Online: The Schizoid Man
Bookmice: The Schizoid Man

iTunes Store Link: The Schizoid Man — The Prisoner (Classic)

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 general and a professor are teaching a speed learning course via the television where citizens of The Village can learn three years worth of knowledge in three minutes. Number 6 realizes this speed learning could be a dangerous form of brainwashing.

Number 6 decides to learn the identity of the general. He finds an administrator (Number 12) who is willing to help him sneak a bit further into the inner workings of The Village than before. Number 6 attends a meeting of “education board members” by wearing a tuxedo, top hat, and dark glasses with secret entry tokens given to him by Number 12 — small coins that are whisked away by a tiny blue hand.

Once inside, Number 6 sneaks into the projection room where the next lecture is to be broadcast from. With some old fashioned brute force, he disables the guards and operators and takes command of the projection. He swaps out the canned lecture for a new one that speaks of freedom — hoping to use speed learning to inspire the village citizens to revolt. Unfortunately, Number 2 realizes that the projectionist is actually Number 6 and the subversive plan is thwarted.

Number 2 takes Number 6 to meet the professor and the general. The latter turns out to be a supercomputer that was created by the professor and stores an impressive amount of knowledge. Number 6 then destroys the computer by asking it a simple question: “Why?” Both number 12 and the professor are killed as the computer explodes. The Prisoner is still a prisoner but he’s annoyed the controllers of The Village to no small degree.

Thoughts

The professor and the general are surely stand-ins for the education and military systems of society, which could be very dangerous if they colluded to control a population. The use of television to transmit eduction is rather cynical — as The Prisoner itself is a television program.

The secret identity and disabling of the computer reminded me of several classic Star Trek episodes where some controlling force is discovered to be a computer, and in the episode The Changeling the robot NOMAD is destroyed by some insoluble question. Kirk also destroys a robot with a statement in I, Mudd. The common thread is a super computer that can replace or control humans becomes dangerous — and then must be proven pointless by a hero.

All in all, because I had seen the plot device of a computer controlling everything on Star Trek, I didn’t find this episode to be particularly suspenseful, but I did enjoy seeing some of the inner customs and workings of The Village.

Next Episode: The Schizoid Man
Previous Episode: A, B, And C

IMDB: The General
Wikipedia: The General
The Prisoner Online: The General
Bookmice: The General

iTunes Store Link: The General — The Prisoner (Classic)

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

In this psychological, mind game of an episode, the new Number 2 calls up number 14 in order to perform a medical experiment on Number 6. A sedated number 6 is brought to The Village hospital where he’s strapped to a table. His thoughts are monitored and projected on a large screen. Number 2 and Number 14 can now see that while asleep, Number 6 dreams of his resignation, over and over.

A drug which allows number 2 and 14 to manipulate Number 6’s dreams. They induce a party situation, where he’ll meet a person he once had a relationship with. It’s hoped that Number 6 will tell one of these people his reason for resignation, and with the dream being monitored, secrets will be revealed.

The first individual Number 6 meets is “A”, a defector. Number 6 proves hard to crack and no information is divulged.

24 hours must elapse between each dose of the drug, so Number 6 is returned home. The next day he feels terrible, but something feels amiss. He glances at his wrist and notices a needle puncture.

The second night, back at the hospital, Number 6 dreams of the same party but this time meets “B”, a woman. Number 6 knows her well but he still doesn’t reveal the reason for his resignation.

After Number 6 wakes in his apartment the next morning, he sneaks away and climbs up a cliff overlooking The Village. He finds an air duct that enters the hospital compound. After making his way into the hospital, he finds the very table on which he’s been nocturnally interrogated. He soon figures out that he’s been fed the party dream in an effort to extract the information. Finally, he finds the syringes, and with two empty slots realizes there’ only one left. He takes this third syringe, empties it, and fills it with water, effectively negating the drug.

On the third night, number 6 is injected with the negated water. The party projected on screen looks noticeably different. Number 6 is basically creating this party with his conscious mind to fool both number 2 and Number 14. The third person Number 6 is supposed to meet — “C” — is not divulged so the interrogators don’t know who they’re looking for.

Eventually, Number 6’s dream makes its way to a castle. The voice of “C” comes out from the darkness, and a man in a cap with a black mask over his face. The mask is removed to reveal the face of Number 2.

The screen then shows Number 6 going through a door and entering the hospital room. He gives number 2 an envelope. Inside are travel brochures. His resignation really did precede and over seas holiday. “I wasn’t selling out. That wasn’t the reason why I resigned.”

Thoughts

This episode is a slick movie within a movie and I enjoyed the use of a film to depict the mental state of Number 6. We also saw how deep Number 6’s convictions are — he doesn’t sell out, even during his dreams. The Village has a formidable adversary indeed.

I also found it interesting that this episode’s Number 2 is under more pressure than the others. Someone keeps calling him on the phone, inquiring about the progress made in extracting information. I think it’s a safe bet the impatient caller is Number 1.

Next Episode: The General
Previous Episode: Chimes Of Big Ben

IMDB: A, B, And C
Wikipedia: A, B, And C
The Prisoner Online: A, B, And C
Bookmice: A, B, And C

iTunes Store Link: A, B, and C — The Prisoner (Classic)

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

This episode features the “best” Number 2, Leo McKern who re-appears in the final episodes. He’s a bit more inquisitive to Number 6, striking up friendly conversation while trying to extract the “information”. Number 6 tells Number 2 that he’d like to escape and return to wipe the place off the face of the earth. Number 2 is taken aback by this announcement and seems to wonder if he’s bluffing with such a dire threat. The Village is having an arts and crafts fair, and Number 2 wants number 6 to participate, in yet another conformist exercise.

A new prisoner — an Estonian woman — is brought to The Village. She is dubbed Number 8. She’s called in to meet with Number 2, and bewildered, she asks Number 6 for directions. It’s kind of neat to see the role reversal, as Number 6 went through this same bewilderment in the first episode. Number 8 is as distrustful as he was upon arrival. She claims she’s on The Island because she resigned — as did Number 6.

Number 8 soon attempts escape. She is revealed to be an Olympic swimmer, and tries to swim away from The Village. Rover is deployed. She is pulled onto the beach, unconscious, and taken to the hospital.
Her “rehabilitation” takes place in a room with an alternating current on the floor: three seconds on, three seconds off. Number 2 explains that with confidence, she could time a simple walk to the door and escape. It is a test of her will. But at the last moment she throws herself on the floor, attempting suicide.

Number 6 agrees to watch Number 8 in exchange for participation in the arts and crafts fair. Naturally, he has an ulterior motive, which is an accomplice for escape. Number 6 begins carving a wooden boat, under the guise that it’s an abstract wood sculpture for the fair. Number 2 is not pleased with the tools Number 6 has built but looks the other way.

Number 6 begins conspiring with Number 8 and they deduce that The Village is located on a coast near Poland. She voices her wish to hear the chimes of Big Ben, meaning an escape to London.

At arts and crafts fair, most of the art created by the prisoners feature realistic portraits of Number 2. People seem confused by Number 6’s abstract sculpture. He says his sculpture “means what it is” and is titled “escape”. He wins a prize and uses the prize money to buy a tapestry with Number 2’s face on it.

That evening, Number 6 and 8 move the sculpture onto the beach, and transform it into its true purpose as a boat. The previously purchased tapestry becomes the sail. They depart under cover of darkness.

Rover makes an appearance, and Number 6 and 8 abandon the boat. As they swim ashore, Rover is shot at by a sniper on the beach — an accomplice of Number 8. After a quick conversation, Number 6 and 8 are put in a wooden crates to be shipped to London. Number 6 swaps out his waterlogged watch for the sniper’s working one.

After a long, bumpy ride in darkness, the two crates arrive in London. Two old friends of Number 6, Father Ingay and a Colonel, await their arrival. The Chimes of Big Ben are heard. Number 6 talks with the Colonel about where he has been, describing The Village, who has no idea what he’s talking about. This is a bit odd, as the Colonel was the one who presumably sent him to The Village. Soon the conversation moves back to familiar subject:

The Colonel: Why did you resign?

Number 6: A matter of conscience. Because for a very long time…

Number 6 cut off as he again hears the chimes of Big Ben. He realizes the watch he got was already set to London time, which doesn’t jibe as The Village was supposedly in Poland. His paranoia returns. The traffic and chiming sounds were coming off of a tape recording, and he has been in The Village all along.

He walks out the doors to see Number 2 sending Father Ingay back to London. Number 8 emerges and it’s clear she was working with the powers that be all along.

Thoughts

Number 6 mentions “conscience” as part of the reason (or perhaps the reason) why he resigned. Plus, The Village can obviously go to extreme lengths to maintain a deception. In this episode, they almost extracted the “information” by faking an entire escape situation and making Number 6 think he was back in London, where he would let his guard down.

The Twist Ending

This episode utilizes a “twist” ending that left me questioning the entire episode. So while Number 6 and 8 were in the crates, were they really placed on a plane to complete the illusion? Did Number 2 realize the true nature of the wooden sculpture all along? Did the deception go back as far as having Number 8 subtly goad Number 6 towards escape?

During the episode, I thought something was amiss, but this is likely because since the sixties, many movies utilize a “twist” ending, leaving modern audiences wary for any indication that things aren’t what they seem and the potential for an alternate explanation. M. Knight Shyamalan (some say to his detriment) has practically built a career out of making films that change perspective once the ending is revealed.

Here’s a short list of films I can think of off the top of my head that fall into this category, where nothing is as it seems until the film’s end.

• Matchstick Men
• Memento
• The Usual Suspects
• The Sixth Sense
• Unbreakable
• Vanilla Sky
• The Matrix
• The Planet of the Apes
• Soylent Green
• Fight Club
• The Village

Next Episode: A, B, And C
Previous Episode: Checkmate

IMDB: Chimes Of Big Ben
Wikipedia: Chimes Of Big Ben
The Prisoner Online: Chimes Of Big Ben
Bookmice: Chimes Of Big Ben

iTunes Store Link: The Chimes of Big Ben — The Prisoner (Classic)

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

One pastime in The Village is chess on a giant board with the citizens acting as pieces. However, the pieces aren’t allowed to make moves on their own, rather, two players in high seats wielding megaphones call out moves of which the pieces must dutifully execute.

During the game, Number 6 resists making the move he’s given. After discussing a potential escape with the woman representing the queen (Number 8 — Rosalie Crutchley), a stout man playing the rook (Ronald Radd) performs the ultimate rebellious act: making a move of his own and without orders. He’s carted away to the hospital by ambulance.

Number 2 (Peter Wyngarde) invites Number 6 to observe Rook’s hospital “rehabilitation.” He’s been confined until dehydrated and desperate for water. He’s then placed in a room containing several water coolers. An electric shock is administered whenever he reaches for a drink on his own volition. Only when a voice over a speaker says that it’s okay is the shock withheld and the patient allowed to have some water. Number 2 tells Number 6, “In this society, one must learn to conform.”

Later, both outside, Number 6 confronts the nervous Rook with the potential of escape. They begin working together, and steal a video camera.

Number 8 is also taken in for rehabilitation. She’s hypnotized and told she’s in love with Number 6. She’s also given a locket containing a transistor — a monitoring device of the woman’s vital signs. The idea to is to keep track of Number 6 through Number 8’s proximity to him.

The Rook and Number 6 meet at the beach, where Rook is doing something technical with the camera they stole earlier. He says he needs a transistor to complete his modifications.

Number 6 finds Number 8. Number 8 naively shows Number 6 the locket, thinking he had given it to her. When Number 6 realizes the locket is electronic and contains a transistor, he takes the locket and gives it to Rook.

That evening, Number 6 uses the modified camera to send a may day call. He gets a response from a ship. Rook is dispatched to sea in a life-raft, along with the camera as an electronic beacon that will attract the rescue ship.

Number 6 and several other prisoners that desire escape arrive at Number 2’s. Inside Number 2’s office, the beacon is being monitored. The signal abruptly stops. Sensing that something has gone wrong, Number 6 runs out to the beach to find the raft ashore, but abandoned. Rook is nowhere to be found. In the distance is the rescue boat.

A desperate Number 6 paddles out on the raft to the boat. Once on board, he is welcomed by the crew. Unfortunately, Number 2 appears on a monitor, informing Number 6 that the ship belonged to The Village all along. But that’s not all. Rook appears on the screen. He thought the escape was a trap all along, and deliberately botched the futile escape attempt. The other prisoners hoping for escape are captured and undergoing hospital “rehabilitation.”

In a final fit of frustration, Number 6 tries to commandeer the boat for himself, beating up the crew. But The Village has one last move: Rover appears from beneath the water. The butler returns a pawn to the the chessboard.

Thoughts

One strength the prisoners have is sheer numbers. They could conceivably band together and revolt against The Village. But by instilling paranoia, mistrust, and doubt through hospital rehabilitations, peer pressure, and planting of spies, no prisoner can fully trust another. Therefore, any collaborative escape effort is highly unlikely and revolt dissipated.

The episode’s title “Checkmate” is quite appealing: it refers to the literal board game of chess, the way Number 2 eventually beats Number 6 at the end of the episode, and Number 8 monitoring Number 6 (“checking” up on him) while believing she’s in love with him (his “mate”).

Peer Pressure

In the past, there have been human behavior experiments that demonstrate the suppression of individuality to peer pressure.

1. Expert Peer Pressure: The Milgram Experiment

A person receives orders from a superior to administer an electric shock to a prisoner. It was found that many people were willing to do this if they were assured that the superior would be responsible for the harm inflicted on the prisoner. Supposedly abdicated of any responsibility, many of the participants were surprisingly willing to administer lethal doses of electric shocks, demonstrating that the excuse of “just following orders” can sometimes override one’s moral responsibility.

2. Normative Influence: The Asch Conformity Experiment

Individuals may suppress a known, obvious truth to avoid voicing a different opinion from a group (Normative Influence). Subjects were told to match two lines of the same length. The answer is obvious, however other people in the room (all planted) were told to say a blatantly incorrect answer was the right one. The majority of individuals voicing a wrong answer often leads the test subject to say a falsehood is true, even though they very well know it’s wrong. This shows how the pressure to conform can sometimes override one’s public version of the truth.

3. Response to Captivity: The Stanford Prison Experiment

A group of “normal” people were given the chance to play prisoner and captor. The individuals took to the experiment all too well, with the captors exhibiting “sadistic” behavior and some of the captives traumatized. The experiment had to be called off early as it was proving too traumatic to the participants. This shows how when a large group of people play specific roles, the roles begin to define their personalities.

Application

These experiments demonstrate that society is much more complex than a collection of individuals. Society influences our personal behavior to a large degree without our awareness. Because individual behavior is so malleable at the behest of a group, there is the paranoid thought that the “powers that be” (government, organized religion, military, corporations) could employ peer pressure of the above nature to subconsciously influence a population. Of course, ethics would be ignored in the name of power.

In The Prisoner, The Village applies these tactics to make Number 6 conform, after which it is hoped he’ll confess his secret information. Eventually, one central conflict is Number 6’s determination to rebel against this conformist desire of The Village. The show becomes more than just a prisoner attempting to escape his captors — it comments on the nature of society itself, and how any individual must accept a conflict between the desires of society and our own free will.

Next Episode: Chimes Of Big Ben
Previous Episode: Dance Of The Dead

IMDB: Checkmate
Wikipedia: Checkmate
The Prisoner Online: Checkmate
Bookmice: Checkmate

iTunes Store Link: CheckMate — The Prisoner (Classic)

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

This time, Number 2 is a woman (Mary Morris). She assigns a new, young girl (Norma West) as the next “watcher” of Number 6.

The Village is having a “carnival and dance” costume ball. Number 2 urges Number 6 to attend. He chooses his “watcher” as his date, who rebuffs him with the statement “questions are a burden” and runs into the Town Hall. He follows but is struck by a force, preventing him from entering.

Number 6 brings a black cat into his home. His housekeeper says animals aren’t allowed, to which he replies that the rules don’t apply to him. At night, he evades the electronic appliances monitoring him in his house — the television, hidden cameras, and a light turning on and off. He sneaks out, running along the beach, in another futile escape attempt — there’s always Rover. He falls asleep on the beach.

Number 6 awakens to find a dead body washed up on the sand. On it, he finds a small radio. He takes the radio to various locations in The Village, trying to pick up signals, perhaps to determine his location, or to mentally hear comforting sounds from the outside world.

Number 2 and the “watcher” confront Number 6, questioning his lack of interest in The Village. It contains everything he could need, and he should side with the community and the values of the masses. Always the stubborn rebel, he’s more interested in maintaining his individuality.

Alone, Number 6 wanders down to a boat and takes a life preserver and a rope. He sneaks off into a cave where he has hidden the dead body. He puts on the corpse a picture of himself and a village map has has drawn. He wraps the life preserver and rope around the body, and places it back in the water, seemingly an attempt to send a message to someone in the outside world who may find the body.

A villager appears in the cave — it’s an old colleague of Number 6: Roland Walter Dutton, who’s been a prisoner for several months. He says he told The Village everything he knows, but they don’t believe them, and that he’ll die at their hands.

It’s time for the costume ball. Number 6 wanders off from the music and dancing, using this event to explore the town hall he was denied entry to earlier. He puts on a doctor’s lab coat. Mistaken for an employee of The Village, a lady gives him an envelope to deliver to Number 2. In it is a black paper containing the name of his friend, Roland Walter Dutton.

Number 6 finds a basement room with morgue cabinets. In one is the corpse of the dead body Number 6 placed back in the water — his plan to signal the outside world has been foiled.

Number 2 escorts Number 6 back to the costume ball, to a court and trial. The judges are the doctor (Napoleon), the maid (Queen Elizabeth), and a man (Caesar), symbolizing a twisted legal system. The charge against Number 6 is effort against the community from possession of the radio. Number 6 questions why these rules are never made public.

Obvious he’s going to be found guilty no matter what, Number 6 calls a witness: Roland Walter Dutton. He’s brought in, wearing a Fool’s outfit, lobotomized — and can’t testify in Number 6’s defense. The Prisoner just can’t win.

At the last moment, the blond watcher stands up in protest. The sentence is death. Number 6 makes a hasty exit, chased by an unruly mob of citizens, determined to kill him. He runs through the Town Hall into a library room with a teletype machine. Angrily, he disembowels it, causing it to stop clattering. Through a one way mirror he sees the crowd, still searching for him.

Number 2 appears in the library. Number 6 says, “You’ll never win,” to which Number 2 replies, “Then how very uncomfortable for you, old chap.” The machine mysteriously reactivates, to the laughter of Number 2.

Thoughts

I feel that the trial was for show, as part of the play-acting of the costume ball. The Prisoner can’t be physically killed as his mind holds the information desired by The Village.

Throughout the series, various methods are employed by The Village to extract information. In this episode, the issue of conformity is raised. It’s clear that someone who sees themselves part of a group will be more willing to participate in its desires, and therefore willingly offer the information.

This alternate ending (found via the Unmutual Prisoner Article Archive) sheds some light on the subject:

The screened ending is literally a deux ex machina conclusion — as it stands, it makes little sense. Death should have been complete as the Prisoner descends in the morgue (surely symbolic). He is in no position to show the initiative which gains him access to the special room and the telex. The Prisoner’s “you’ll never win” is ambiguous and inconsistent with the general movement of the episode. It is only with the original ending that “Dance of the Dead” makes sense, and I summarise here a section from Dave Barrie’s article (ITV 3, P19):

Confronting Number 6 in the telex room, Number 2 says: “A man can only die once. And “you’re already dead, aren’t you? In our little room”. Led to the girl observer, Number 6 says: “I’ll never give in. Being dead does have its advantages”. He then smashes the telex. The script reads: Turning to the girl he asks: ‘Shall we dance?” They leave Number 2 surrounded by the broken parts of the telex. They return to the ballroom where a hectic formation dance is in full swing. They join in. They dance as if the devil is playing. Continuing the music faster and faster. The Village is brightly illuminated. No-one about. Pull back so the sea comes between us and it, until the Village is only a glow in the darkness of the night. END CREDITS.”

What becomes clearer through this ending is Dance of the Dead dealing with literal death, but a metaphor for the passive inhabitants of The Village — their free will has been crushed to the point where they’re arguably no better than dead. Individual will has been replaced by the will of The Village. There’s also the implicaton that Number 6 could actually choose to be part of The Village if he’s able to mentally resist, and somehow, subversively destroy things from within.

This episode also features some rather blunt symbolism:

• Number 6 attends the costume ball in a tuxedo and later dons a scientist’s lab coat. He resists dressing in a fanciful costume, displaying his continued attachment to the outside, “real” world.
• The “watcher” dresses as Little Bo Peep: Tending to a flock. Her job is to watch Number 6 and try to get people like him to conform. At episode’s end, she loses one of her sheep — Number 6.
• Number 2 as Peter Pan: Imaginary childhood friend, symbolizing freedom. I think the implication is that the villagers should follow Number 2. Here, the freedom Peter Pan offers is a deceptive offering.
• Black cat: Death? The cat turns up in later episodes.

The episode’s end, with Number 2 laughing at Number 6’s defiance, indicates the stalemeate Number 6 finds himself in. While The Village will never win until Number 6 confesses, they also won’t ever lose, which is just fine with The Village: he’s still their prisoner, and in terms of physical freedom, already the loser. They always have the upper hand.

Resistance

Number 6 is determined to physically escape from The Village, but his resistance becomes an issue of individualism vs. conformity. Note how he complains at the start of each episode that he’s a man, not a number.

Eventually, he seems less concerned with physical escape and contemplates destroying The Village, either in the process of escape, afterwards, or from within. It’s not enough that he escape: he begins to consider the entire operation an evil that must be eradicated.

Number 6 employs an escape strategy that involves succumbing to the will of The Village on a physical level, but resistance on a mental level. It’s a more difficult challenge but explains some of his behavior in future episodes.

This resistance on a purely intellectual level raises the question: how can The Village identify a resistor if their resistance is only mental and not physical? And how can a captor exert control over this last bastion of freedom? Hence the various excursions into the realm of the mind.

Can phsyical freedom be transcended through mental freedom alone? Prisoners have been known to endure years of physical imprisonment, remaining focused on escape. The mind is a powerful weapon indeed.

Next Episode: Checkmate
Previous Episode: Free For All

IMDB: Dance Of The Dead
Wikipedia: Dance Of The Dead
The Prisoner Online: Dance Of The Dead
Bookmice: Dance Of The Dead

iTunes Store Link: Dance of the Dead — The Prisoner (Classic)

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.

One strange thing about The Prisoner is that the exact episode order is unclear. Free For All aired as number 4, while it’s number 2 on the DVD set. This series of blog posts follows the DVD order.

Synopsis

The individual known as Number 2 changes in almost every episode. The new Number 2 (Eric Portman) pays Number 6 a visit, introduces himself, and a young foreign woman, Number 58 (Rachel Herbert), who is cheerful and seemingly a bit dumb. There’s an election for a new Number 2, and Number 6 is more or less drafted into running, with Number 58 as his assistant.

Number 6 is initially skeptical of the proposition, but is promised he’ll get to meet Number 1 if he wins. He may also learn more about The Village and a means of escape.

In his initial campaign speech, Number 6 informs the villagers they’re all brainwashed like rotten cabbages (to no effect). That won’t do, so he’s shunted into a strange political meeting and a subterranean chamber, where he’s brainwashed by a doctor into the perfect, puppet candidate. The campaigning then becomes surreal, as Number 6 chants promises that sound meaningful but are devoid of content to the empty human vessels of The Village.

The brainwashing however, isn’t totally effective. During moments of lucidity, Number 6 attempts a failed escape by boat, and also voices some doubts in The Cat and Mouse night club (nice name) where he demands a stiff drink. As a result, he’s again captured and hospitalized for more brainwashing.

Despite his confusion, Number 6 wins the election and becomes the new Number 2, and is granted access to The Village control room, along with Number 58. Strangely, the usually enthusiastic Number 58 turns cruel and cold, and starts to slap Number 6, breaking him out of his brainwashed trance. The true Number 6 emerges, and he immediately tries to stage a revolt, shouting over the speakers to The Village denizens that they’re all free to leave The Village. There is no reaction from the population.

At this moment, guards appear and drag Number 6 off, but not after he’s seen the odd sight of four guards wearing sunglasses, watching a sleeping rover. Beaten, he’s lectured by Number 58 on his futile situation, also revealing that she’s perfectly fluent in English — and was a plant all along. The entire election was a farce partly designed to break the will of Number 6.

Thoughts

This episode demonstrates various powers of coercion at The Village’s disposal: brainwashing, people not who they seem to be, and contrived situations — all designed to mess with Number 6’s mind and edge him closer to confession.

• Brainwashing: I really liked the brainwashing sequence, where Number 6 is seated in a chair, while a silhouette shows both a lie and the truth moving towards his head simultaneously using a circle and a square set on ramps. It’s a simple but eerily effective image. Throughout the series, The Village becomes more invasive with these psychological techniques.
• Pretenders: Number 58 is a “watcher” and a plant — assigned to shadow Number 6. Through most of the episode she’s cheerful yet dumb, while the language barrier implies that she’s incapable of comprehension, and is therefore harmless. More two-faced citizens are yet to come.
• Contrived Situations: The election is amusingly satirical in its pointlessness, as the vote accomplishes nothing in the closed environment of The Village. It really doesn’t matter what Number 2 or Number 6 say in their speeches — the result is essentially the same. There’s one particularly funny scene where Number 6 is riding on a car, megaphone in hand, chanting numbers. Also funny is a reporter questioning Number 6 questions and the words that end up in the paper are not his. The whole situation demonstrates how The Village can create complex, alternate realities at will.

Through these various means, The Village is able manipulate Number 6’s entire reality. When the bars clang shut at episode’s end, I’m left with the odd, soon to be familiar feeling, how is this guy ever going to get out of here? The capabilities of The Village are quite formidable indeed.

Next Episode: Dance Of The Dead
Previous Episode: The Arrival

IMDB: Free For All
Wikipedia: Free For All
The Prisoner Online: Free For All
Bookmice: Free For All

iTunes Store Link: Free for All — The Prisoner (Classic)

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

The show’s opening lays out the premise. After thundering storm clouds in a blue sky, a determined man drives his cool car, straight toward us, on an empty road. He speeds into an underground garage, and marches through a door labeled “Way Out.” A thunder clap repeats as he confronts someone sitting behind a desk by pacing and pounding on the table. He’s angrily quitting his job. Driving away, he’s followed by a black car. A typewriter blots out a file with his photograph, and drops it into a filing cabinet labeled “Resigned”. Once home, the man hurriedly packs for a trip, tossing a beach photograph into a suitcase. Suddenly, gas floods the room via a keyhole. He passes out.

This is the introduction to The Prisoner, and repeats before each episode.

The man wakes up in a strange bed. Where is he? The phone doesn’t dial out, and a grocery store only has local maps. People say goodbye to him with the phrase “Be seeing you!” We’ll soon consider this a reminder of the constant surveillance in The Village.

He finds his way to a house with the number “6” on a sign pointing to the door. This is his new home — and his new name: “Number 6.” The phone rings — it’s “Number 2″ inviting him to the Green Dome. There, a silent midget butler leads Number 6 to a James Bond / Blofeld room, with modern furniture and a penny-farthing bicycle. A man in a big, spherical chair with a cane greets him — he is “Number 2″.

Angry, Number 6 demands answers. Number 2 explains that he’s is being held prisoner in The Village, because of what he knows and “they” want to know the reason for his resignation.

After a fruitless questioning session, Number 6 steals a car in an attempt to escape. Directed by village-wide cameras feeding into a control room, a large inflatable ball (“Rover”), tracks him down and he’s captured. A brute force, obvious attempt at escape is impossible, due to the surveillance and mysterious technology behind Rover.

Number 6 awakens in a hospital where he meets an old colleague, Cobb. Number 6 unsuccessfully tries to get information out of him. After seeing some strange sights in the hospital, Cobb suddenly jumps out the window, killing himself.

At the funeral, Number 6 finds a distraught woman who knew Cobb. She offers to help Number 6 escape, by giving him a device that will hold Rover off for a time, so he can steal a helicopter.

The plan works for a time. As Number 6 flies away in the stolen helicopter, an elderly, chess playing man mutters to the woman, “We’re all pawns, my dear.” As the meaning sinks in, we see the helicopter returning to The Village, under remote control.

We learn that the woman was deliberately set up to mislead Number 6 — Cobb’s death was faked. “They” foresaw that she would help him, and in what exact way, to teach him a lesson about the futility of escape. We never see her again; presumably she is eliminated.

Dejected, Number 6 exits the helicopter back at The Village. The closing sequence features his face rushing towards us as jail bars slam shut, signifying his thwarted escape attempt.

Thoughts

So where to begin? I’ll start by mentioning some series-wide concepts introduced in just the episode’s opening sequence alone:

• Thunderclaps = anger, conflict.
• A man driving down the road = freedom.
• Man quitting his job = rebellion.
• Faceless technology typing over his face and dropping the image into a filing cabinet = a man reduced to “a number” by an impersonal system: suppression of the individual
• Shadowed by a person in a black car = surveillance.
• Gas = loss of control.

In this first episode itself, through the workings of The Village, these concepts are reinforced. Number Six wants to escape The Village and regain his freedom. He rebels against authority by not telling Number 2 why he quit, destroying the tinker-toy sculpture, and attempting escape. Surveillance is everywhere, and the impersonal system finds it’s greatest symbol in the form of Rover, and loss of control is exemplified by the remote-controlled helicopter.

The Village

I suppose I’ll mention some thoughts about The Village as this is my first post. Through the invasive power of technology, The Village keeps a constant watch on all its inhabitants and uses this information to control them. It becomes a statement about society as a whole. What is the value of privacy? Can we really trust those that collect information to not use it for their own purposes?

It’s implied that because The Village knows so much about its population, it can predict their behavior in particular situations, manipulate them into certain actions, and even worse — do this without their knowledge, so they believe they’re acting on their own volition. Their freedom of choice or freedom of will are illusions.

But it gets worse. The Village is superficially a nice place — a sunny beach resort, where lodging, food, and entertainment are provided. The Village pretends to be free in certain ways when it explicitly is not. It’s status as a prison seems to be a non-issue to many of the inhabitants: they have been manipulated through various means (which become clearer later in the series) to the point where they no longer wish to escape.

This situation is more relate-able if the village metaphor is extended to that of a nation. Imagine that as a citizen, you are told you cannot venture beyond its borders. Meanwhile, you’re given anything you could ask for in terms of comforts. There are stories about people trying to escape and done away with, but you figure it’s easier to just stay where you are, maybe for the greater good.

Would you still feel like a Prisoner? How can one be sure freedoms exist that are never tested? Does a lack of freedoms really matter if there is no desire to use them?

A prisoner literally means one without freedom. The citizens of The Village are physical and psychological prisoners. How Number 6 deals with this injustice is explored through the series.

Next Episode: Free For All
Previous Episode: The Arrival

IMDB: The Arrival
Wikipedia: The Arrival
The Prisoner Online: The Arrival
Bookmice: The Arrival

iTunes Store Link: Arrival — The Prisoner (Classic)