Fall Out

And so after 17 episodes I got to the end of Patrick McGoohan's idiosyncratic, often brilliant series "The Prisoner". A contemporary Kafka-esque take on individuality, identity, free-will and the intrusion of privacy spiced up with sci-fi and secret agent tropes, it must have seemed way out there back in 1967 and if truth be told, comes across as not much less baffling today.

Unsurprisingly, reading up on the show's chequered production history, there are occasional lapses in continuity and consistency with one or two episodes bypassing me completely, but at its best, with brilliant episodes like "Arrival", "A B + C", "Living In Harmony", "The Chimes Of Big Ben", "Many Happy Returns", "Hammer Into Anvil" "The Schizoid Man" and "Once Upon A Time" to name but eight, this was an intriguing, challenging series which has deservedly become even more revered as time has gone by.

For this climactic episode, having won his psychological war of wits with Leo McKern's vanquished No. 2, McGoohan's ("Don't call me) No. 6" gets taken to meet the seemingly omnipotent No. 1. What follows next is an absurdist finale with a resurrected McKern and Alexis Kanner both put forward as rebels of the community, before a presiding McGoohan, playing out bizarre scenes in front of a president of proceedings and a seated but highly suggestible audience wearing black drapes and masks.

Finally, McGoohan unmasks No. 1 in a shocking moment and in a crazy finale which sees a rocket go up, a gunplay shootout to the background of The Beatles "All You Need Is Love" and the three rebels jiving to "Dem Bones" in the back cage of an articulated truck, finally he returns to his London flat (or has he?), now accompanied by the impassive dwarf butler.

The whole series could be the subject of a college thesis and still I don't think you'd get to the bottom of it. I certainly didn't but what a strange and immersive experience it was.

As is now better known to the general public, this episode was hatched by McGoohan after he was told that the series was to be canceled. Originally, the preceding "Once Upon a Time" was to be the final episode of the first season. McKern was to die, The Prisoner was on his way to see Number 1, and the audience would have to wait the summer to find out what happens.

McGoohan, whose political and social viewpoint was by then clear to everyone who had watched the series from its inception, was as should be expected miffed by its termination, and decided to give audience and producers alike a run for their money. The surrealism of this episode is never matched again until the finale of 'Twin Peaks'(qv). I give it a 9 rather than a 10 because the preceding episode is im(ns)ho one of the greatest pieces of television drama ever written, and therefore should not ever have another piece from the same series given equal appraisal.

Number six(Patrick McGoohan) has survived degree absolute, and is now brought behind the scenes of power to meet number one, but first must witness the trials of a resurrected number two(Leo McKern) and a number 48(Alexis Kanner) overseen by the president(played by Kenneth Griffith) who lays out their crimes, though both men are defiant, and the president promises allegiance to six, who is satisfied by his victory, but wary of the tribunal and president, but accepts the invitation to confront the elusive number one, so that all will be revealed, but identity and power are not so easy to accept or fully explain, leading to an astonishing unmasking, violent escape, and bizarre happenings leading back to the beginning...

Legendary final episode is a shocking, surprising, audacious, courageous, infuriating and overall brilliant (and yes), satisfying conclusion, though much misunderstood by some not used to the bold and original approach taken by star, writer, and director Patrick McGoohan, who didn't end the series in a familiar "James Bond" style villain and approach, but instead created an inspired masterwork that challenges the expectations and provokes the intelligence of the audience to not be a passive viewer, but actually think about what they are seeing. Describing the on-screen doings is not enough; this demands to be seen as the most unpredictable, innovative episode of television ever aired, though of course some don't understand it, so instinctively dismiss it, yet to do so is an injustice.

Intensely fascinating and ultimately liberating, both incredibly serious yet defiantly inexplicable and comedic("All You Need Is Love" is most ironically used here.) Nothing like it has ever aired again, and it will never be forgotten, even if appreciation of it varies throughout the years. A breathtaking achievement that deeply moved and surprised me like nothing else ever broadcast. It is a sublime masterpiece, and I love it to pieces!

Although I agree with most of what "steve 3285" said in his insightful and comprehensive discussion of Fall Out, that fascinating ultimate episode of my favourite series ever, I have one quibble. I do not think Angelo Muscat, the Butler, was meant to be taking #6's place when he entered the door of his house at the end. I think he was just about to become his Butler. Yes, it was clever that the door opened and closed electronically - one last clue to the multiple meanings in this fabulous series.

I just wonder one thing, out of curiosity. Although I "got" the various allusions to different concepts of "1," and "I" as Steve mentioned, I must confess that I missed the relationship to the word "Aye." I DID see all the others, and I wonder if he noted one more. People often refer to themselves as #1. I could not be sure if Steve meant that, too, when he said #1 in his review. The self as #1, meaning "I'm the most important person in my opinion," or "looking out for #1," that sort of thing, was my first clue to the puns all those years ago when I watched The Prisoner for the first time in stunned admiration.

It was always one of the sadnesses of my life that I never got to meet the brilliant Mr. McGoohan, although we both lived in Southern California at the same time; and another that I have not yet been able to visit Portmeirion - although I have some of the eponymous dishes designed so beautifully by Ms. Susan WIlliams-Ellis.

The Prisoner, and this episode in particular, still stands alone as the most intriguingly surreal television program ever.

After killing Number Two, Number Six is granted his wish to meet Number One. However, first he must meet the Assembly and sit in as the President of the Assembly presides on cases of errant behaviour. The proceedings don't go very smoothly.

For the first 12 episodes The Prisoner was great, an intense, intriguing, intelligent battle of wits and wills between Number Six and a variety of Number Twos and their minions. Then came the 13th episode - Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling - and the quality of the show took a sharp downturn with a plot that was threadbare and didn't make much sense.

The 14th and 15th episodes - Living In Harmony and The Girl Who Was Death - were even worse, suddenly moving the setting to another time and place. Anytime a show suddenly is set in a new location and/or time period (especially) you know the writers have run out of ideas and this exactly what happened there. These two episodes weren't really The Prisoner but rather out-of-place, haphazard stories jammed into the show.

With the 16th episode I was hoping that normal transmission would be resumed and we would again see a Number 6 vs Number 2 battle of wits and wills. Plus, being the penultimate episode I was expecting an indication of how Number 6's predicament would be resolved.

Well, we have the duel and some progress toward a solution but it's not done in a good way. The writing here is all over the place, with random detours, plot developments that make no sense and all sorts of trippy images and scenes that are just there to paper over the lack of genuine plot.

This, the final episode, follows in the same vein. Plot is all over the place, random trippy scenes, stuff that's really in there just to kill time, action scenes that seem very out of place. The resolution is also pretty lacklustre: hardly the clever, gripping conclusion I was hoping for every episode of the show. Quite sad as after the first 12 episodes this was set up for a brilliant, intelligent climax.

Very disappointing.