We are all Pawns #5 - The Schizoid Man
Added 2023-09-19 13:02:00 +0000 UTCAs we continue onto with The Prisoner, this episode Number 6 learns he might in fact be Number 12, or that Number 12 is pretending to be 6. Or is 6 just 12 who thinks he's 6. Or the other way around. Yeah, it gets confusing, and that's why we love this show! But boy does it make recapping everything a doosy.
Comments
What Vince says above - tv was an ephemeral experience in those days. When it was repeated on some fuzzy channel late at night I took b&w photos of the screen to try to preserve the moments! Also - I can't help but see the name of this series "We Are All Prawns".
Alison
2023-09-20 20:53:27 +0000 UTCMemory is fallible AND we need to remember that when this aired there were no VCRs. When viewers watched each episode in 1967, they would have operated under the assumption "I am watching this hour of television that I will never see again" (except they wouldn't have thought it in those terms, because the idea they'd be able to see it again would never cross their mind - even future syndication was never a sure thing). I know this because I had the same assumptions before my family got a VCR in the '80s 😂 So however much of a mindfuck watching The Prisoner is to us (and it is), just imagine if you couldn't rewatch, couldn't rewind, and TRULY had to trust your perception and memory COMPLETELY.
Vince Whitacre
2023-09-19 14:13:12 +0000 UTCTwo things occurred to me while watching this episode again for the I've-lost-count time: The Prisoner could have simply said "You assigned me Number Six. Now you've assigned me Number Twelve. Whatever, that's not who I am," but then I realized he couldn't do that because of the brainwashing they put him through. The Village plugged him through "I am Number Twelve. I love flapjacks" sleep therapy. So yeah, rolling with the new number probably wasn't in the cards. Also as a good spy, he didn't want to tip his hand too early that he didn't care. He wanted to know as much as possible about what they were up to. Also this scenario was a win-win for The Village. If they broke him, BAMM! they've won, but if they didn't break him, then he has still had to defend his identity as Number Six, which he has refused to do up to this point. His position has always been "You can call me Number Six, but that's on you. That's not who I am." Now he's actually had to define and defend himself as Number Six. The Village loves this. Accepting his role in The Village is what they almost but ultimately failed to do in Free For All. PS. I love this episode, too.
Keith D. Jones
2023-09-19 13:48:14 +0000 UTC
