Photo: ‘You want the Star Trek set next door…’ Number 2 (Patrick Cargill, right) in Hammer into Anvil …
To count down to our special screening of Fall Out, the final episode of ace television show The Prisoner, PHIL KIRBY introduces a new episode every day in the order outlined by director Alex Cox in his book I Am (Not) A Number…
Tonight’s episode is Hammer Into Anvil …
Number Two and Number Six are at it like hammer and tongs from the off in this episode.
Even before Number Six gets to speak his first line, Number Two has tormented a young woman and caused her to do a high dive out of an open hospital window.
Number Six heard the young woman’s screams from the street below. He rushed into the hospital to intervene – nothing triggers Number Six’s rescue response more than a young woman in distress – but in the confusion caused by his abrupt intrusion the medical staff get distracted and the patient plunges to her death.
No.2: You shouldn’t have interfered, Number Six. You’ll pay for this.
No.6: No. You will.
Number Six treats Number Two to one of his stoniest of stony stares and storms out.
The average viewer watching this is led to believe that Number Two pushed the woman, or at least frightened her into falling. Number Six was trying to save her from the evil machinations of Number Two, after all. But we don’t see what happened.
We see Number Six rough up a couple of attendants, crash through a door, disrupt whatever was occurring, and fail to reach the woman before she leapt. We see a couple of attendants inside the room try to restrain Number Six. We see Number Two a good arms length from the bedside. We see the jump. But we never see how all the pieces fit together (and if you watch it a few times you do wonder if the woman would have been able to go through with a suicide attempt without Number Six crashing in and allowing the hospital staff to take their eyes off her for a second.)
And this is what the whole episode is about. Interpretation. The folly of thinking there’s some logical and evident explanation behind unfolding events. If you piece together all the clues, connections and coincidences you can fathom the conspiracy.
Again, as in the last episode, it’s Number Two who is the unwitting subject of an experiment. This time purely psychological.
After the episode has firmly established that Number Two is the nastiest Number Two yet (a “professional sadist” who threatens to “hammer” Number Six) his weakness is exposed. A “character flaw”.
Number Six nails it in the final moment of the episode,
You are afraid of your masters. A weak link in the chain of command, waiting to be broken.
After discerning Number Two is a paranoid control freak Number Six gleefully embarks on a campaign of absurdist buffoonery designed to provoke total incomprehension and anxiety. Six’s pranks mean nothing beyond the fun of pretending, revelling in the idea they’ll be taken seriously and pored over in minute detail. They seem to be made up mostly on the spot. For instance, he spots a pigeon and has a thought… and a luncheon meat sandwich.
He knows he’s under “special surveillance” and uses this to implicate other oblivious Villagers in his frivolous scheming.
Number Two has his every move reported upon. Every bit of mischief is analysed for hidden meanings. Every Villager who has any contact with Number Six is suspected of knowing something and not telling.
Number Two drags the hospital psychiatrist in for interrogation.
No.2: Would you say that Number Six was mad?
Psychiatrist: Not according to our records.
No.2: Then he has a reason, hasn’t he?
Looking for the reason when there is no reason, a logical interpretation when there are just random antics, is Number Two’s downfall.
Number Six literally sends him cuckoo.
There’s probably a lesson here for any would be conspiracy theorist with a pet interpretation of the series. The Prisoner is a bit like those four sheets of plain A4 Number Six hides in the stone boat; there really is no “message” no matter how hard you interpret.
Here’s my favourite moment. Number Fourteen has threatened to “dust you down”, and he finally gets his chance… assaulting Number Six with a yellow plastic kitchen drainer. That would never happen to James Bond.
Read about previous episode A, B and C here
theCV presents The Prisoner Fall Out plus a Q and A with Six of One’s Ant Brierly and Roy Stambrow moderated by Phil and Neil (God help us!) at The Courtroom, Leeds Town Hall at 19.00 on Friday 25th May 2018. Tickets are £5 (plus booking fee) and are available here