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The Prisoner
"Arrival"
TV Episode
Written by Bill Gallagher
Directed by Nick Hurran
Original U.S. air date: November 15, 2009 |
A man
mysteriously
finds himself in a place the inhabitants refer to only as
"the Village".
Read the
summary of this episode at IMDB
Characters appearing or mentioned in this episode
6 (Michael)
93
147
832 (photo)
554
Lucy
898
2
313
Shopkeeper
508 (mentioned only)
33
(mentioned only)
29
(mentioned only)
11-12
458 (mentioned only)
512
M2 (2's wife)
21-16 (147's wife)
Rover
Didja Know?
The 2009 version of The Prisoner is a reimagining of
the classic 1967 TV series of the same name.
This episode gets its title from the first episode of the
original series, "Arrival".
An 8-page promotional comic book featuring a few scenes from
this episode was published by Marvel Comics and available only
at San Diego Comic-Con 2009.
Didja Notice?
As the episode opens, a shot of a computer display is seen for
only a split second. If you freeze-frame it, a date of August
15, 2006 can be seen in the upper right corner, which may
suggest the date this episode opens (even though it was filmed
and aired in 2009).
Many (not all) of the flashback images seen as 6 treks through
the desert towards the Village harken back the
"resignation" scenes of Number 6 in
the original 1967 series of The
Prisoner, seen in its first episode (also called
"Arrival")
and in the opening credits of most of its episodes (a shot of
tall office buildings; a scene of our unnamed hero driving into a
parking garage; our hero passing through "Way Out" doors; our
hero resigns from his job).
At 4:47 on the DVD, we see in 6's flashback him placing a
passcard into a reader slot to drive into a Summakor parking
garage. We will later learn that 6 worked for company called Summakor in the
"real world". "Summakor" doesn't seem to
be an actual word in itself, but may be a portmanteau of the Latin
word summa ("highest") with the Hebrew word kor
("body") to form a new word meaning "highest body", which makes
a certain amount of sense by the time we learn the final
revelations of the mini-series; we might even interpret it as
meaning "Number 1".
At 4:48 on the DVD, a computer screen flashback reads "NUMBER_1"
at the top, as well as "SUBJECT: YAN MILES, D.O.B. 1971, BORN:
LONDON, ENGLAND". Yan Miles was an editor on the series; he is
also in the audio commentaries of the episodes on the DVD set.
London
is the capital city of England.
At 4:51 on the DVD, Michael's car is a 2007
Subaru
Impreza WRX STI. The New York license plate on 6's car in
the flashback is AWQ-2538. This same license also appears later
in the TV series Person of Interest, also starring Jim Caviezel!
Notice that the stylized "O" in the title card "THE PRISONER"
has the number "6" hidden within it.
At 5:58, 6 gets a ride in the taxicab of 147. 147 tells him he
only serves local destinations; the taxi driver in the
"Arrival"
episode of the
original 1967 series of The Prisoner said the
same thing.
The automobiles in the Village all have their steering wheels on
the right, as in Great Britain.
147's daughter is 832.
6 befriends a waitress
called 554
at the Solar Cafe after 93
tells him to deliver a message to her.
At 9:08 on the DVD, 898 tells 6 where to find 554.
At 11:25 on the DVD, notice that the building 6 is in appears
to be called UOIOU. This could be pronounced as each individual
letter, U-O-I-O-U, or "you owe I owe you"---in Village communal
parlance, it might suggest, "You owe I, I owe you."
At 11:48 on the DVD, notice that 2 is tossing a grenade up and
down in his hand as if it were a ball.
At 12:21 on the DVD, the blurred, "double exposure" image of 2
in 6's sight causes the illusion of a third eye in the middle of
2's forehead. The third eye is a term
used to describe the intuition or clairvoyance of certain people
who seem to know things about others without being told, or of
knowing the future; in many traditions, it is said to be located
in the middle of the forehead.
6's doctor in the hospital is 313.
When brought into 2's office to meet him, 6 pounds his fist on
the desk, jostling a teacup and saucer, just as Number 6 did
when he resigned from his job in the original series at the
beginning of
"Arrival".
At 16:41 on the DVD, notice that 6's sweater has a very small
"6" sewn into the left breast.
Notice that the beer bottles in 6's refrigerator are Village
Beer.
6 goes to the Village Store and asks for the biggest map they
have.
In the
"Arrival"
episode of the
original 1967 series of The Prisoner,
Number 6 did the same.
At 20:09 on the DVD, 147 is leaning against the taxicab of 508.
508's taxi is seen again briefly in "Harmony".
During 6's flashback at 21:50 on the DVD, notice that his
diner number at the cafe is "2".
At 26:34 on the DVD,
a Piaggio
Vespa is
seen in the background in the Village. (6 also briefly rides one
in one in one of the deleted scenes on the DVD.)
Near 6's apartment are the apartments of 33 and 29.
The apartment of 93 is somewhat similar to that of Number 6 in
the original 1967 series of The Prisoner,
including a lava lamp seen at 27:31 on the DVD.
A bottle of wine seen at 27:45 on the DVD is called Village
White.
2 suggests to 6 that perhaps 93 was seeking a portal that
leads to Never Never Land. Never Never
Land is a concept from the stories of Peter Pan created by
J.M. Barrie in 1904, a land found in the minds of children, each
child's vision different from the next.
|
The drawing that 6 finds in 93's apartment is of
Big Ben. |
 |
 |
| Big Ben sketch |
Big Ben (photo from
Wikipedia, by Diliff) |
At the Clinic, notice that 147 and his wife are apparently
scheduled to meet 2 at 2:00.
When 2 is presenting the medallion to 147, he asks him what he
made of "Number 6"...not just "6".
The sketch 554 gives 6 of the image in her dreams is of the
Statue of Liberty.
The boy with 2 is 11-12, revealed to be 2's son.
At 36:38 on the DVD, the gravestone of 458 is seen.
As they lay in the dirt looking up at the night sky, 313
corrects 6's guess of a hundred billion stars in the galaxy,
saying it's actually 400 billion. This is roughly the correct
number of stars in our Milky Way galaxy by modern estimates.
During his discussion with 313, 6 lists off the names of several
historical personalities, all real, but they are unknown to the
residents of the Village: Isaac Newton (physicist), Galileo
(astronomer), Plato (philosopher), Socrates
(philosopher), Karl Marx (sociologist), Groucho Marx
(comedian), Darwin (naturalist), Kennedy (U.S. president), Bob
Dylan (musician), David Beckham (professional soccer player). He
also mentions Alexander Graham Bell as inventor of the telephone
and Joseph Swan as inventor of the light bulb (pointing out it
was not Thomas Edison as most people believe). This is all true.
313's life in the Village tells her that the light bulb was
invented by 512.
At 39:59 on the DVD, we see in the flashback that 6 met Lucy
on Madison Avenue in
New York City. This is an actual street in
New York City.
As 6 is about to enter the Solar Cafe at 42:51 on the DVD, he
hears what seems to be an errant broadcast over the radio listened to by an old man playing solitaire at an outdoor table.
The voice in the broadcast talks about gridlock on the GW and
the Jersey after some kind of gas explosion in the heart of
Brooklyn.
Brooklyn is one of the major boroughs of New York City. "GW"
and "Jersey" are references to the
George Washington Bridge and the
New Jersey
Turnpike in the area.
As 6 lies stunned in the aftermath of the explosion at the Solar
Cafe, notice that glimpses of 554 appear in his flashbacks.
Notice that the reflections of clouds can be seen in the glass
of the two towers...yet there is not a cloud in the sky! This is
said to be an intentional artistic choice in the audio
commentary of the episode.
In this version of The Prisoner, Rover is much larger
than in the original.
The very last, briefly glimpsed, image of the episode is a
computer display reading "File.Sys.554 Closed", indicating that
554 has died.
The ending credits of the episode indicate that 6's real name is
Michael, but it's not mentioned in the episode itself (his name
is also mentioned in the audio commentary of this episode).
Additionally, the woman being cared for by 2 (later revealed to
be his wife) is called M2 in the
credits.
Notes from the Audio Commentary by Trevor Hopkins
(Producer) and Yan Miles (Editor)
Patrick McGoohan was offered the role of 93, but declined.
The series was shot in the desert of the African nation of
Namibia, and the Village (with some additional structures built)
was filmed in the actual town of
Swakopmund,
a resort town.
2's palace is actually a hotel in Swakopmund.
