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The Prisoner
"Schizoid"
TV Episode
Written by Bill Gallagher
Directed by Nick Hurran
Original U.S. air date: November 17, 2009 |
6 is confronted with a double of himself who embodies 6's animal
desires.
Read the
summary of this episode at IMDB
Characters appearing or mentioned in this episode
Michael/6
Lucy/415 (voice on cell phone message, deceased)
2/Curtis
2x6 (6's double)
508 (taxi only)
11-12
M2
313
147
Shopkeeper
545
21-16 (147's wife)
909 (seen in old video, deceased)
Didja Know?
This episode gets its title from the episode of the original
series, "The Schizoid Man".
Both episodes deal with a double of Number 6 appearing in the
Village. Additionally, 2 seems to adopt an alternate personality
(Untwo) for a large portion of the episode.
The title
"Schizoid" is a reference to schizoid personality disorder, a
personality disorder which evidences secretiveness, emotional
distance, lack of sociability, and tendency towards solitude.
Didja Notice?
The responding Fire Station No. 5 at the site of the explosion
that kills Lucy appears to be a fictitious one for New York
City.
At 1:14 on the DVD, 2 is eating what appears to be hard-boiled
quail eggs (or similar) and caviar with Melba toast.
At the Go Inside club at 2:57 on the DVD, 2 looks up and
chuckles at the penny-farthing hanging from the ceiling. It's a
sort of wink to the audience about the flourish, which
acknowledges the original Prisoner series. But might it
also be possible within the context of the story that 2 is
familiar with the original Village (and
its symbols)
that existed in the 1960s?
In the hospital at 8:22 on the DVD, notice that the "Village Eye
Chart" is made up entirely of Village emblems at differing
orientations, decreasing in
size!

At 10:35 on the DVD, a straw boater hat is seen on the shelf in
the shop behind the shopkeeper. Boater hats were seen on many
Village men in the original series.
At 11:58 on the DVD, the taxicab of 545 is seen.
The car that hits 6x2 at 12:06 on the DVD looks to be a
Volvo
Amazon, manufactured 1956-1970.
During 6's altercation with the vengeful 6x2, his left cheek
gets cut and we see the scar for the rest of the episode. This
may be a nod to an episode of Star Trek, "The Enemy Within", in
which Captain Kirk is split into two individuals, his good and
evil halves; the evil one gets severely scratched on his left
cheek by Yeoman Janice Rand when he tries to rape her and the
scratch haunts him for the rest of the episode, marking him as
the "other".
2's car at 14:49 on the DVD looks to be a
Rolls-Royce.
The song that plays on the soundtrack as 2 is discarding his
normal identity is "You Are My Sunshine". The song has been
covered by numerous singers and bands since it was written in
1939; I've not been able to identify who performed the version
heard here.
At 16:36 on the DVD, a
Volkswagen van
is seen driving through the Village.
The vehicle that drives behind 2's bus bench at 16:53 on the DVD
looks to be a 1960's model
Jeep
Wagoneer. What looks like the same vehicle drives past 6 at
48:02.
As 2 walks into the Village Shop at 18:09 on the DVD, the
shopkeeper is hanging up a scarf that looks similar to ones worn
by a few of the Number 2's in the original series. The
Shopkeeper is later seen wearing the scarf when he is dragged
off to the hospital near the end of the episode.
The shopkeeper tells 2 they haven't carried cigarettes for 8
years and 5 months. Were they banned from the Village at that
time? The rather specific amount of time he states suggests that
he may be someone who quit smoking at that time, but has
continued to crave them ever since. He does, however, go on to
find a sealed pack of Village Cigarettes under the counter.
When Michael writes the phrase "ANYONE CAN FAKE A RECEIPT" on
the Access Man's receipt pad at 27:33 on the DVD, he has
misspelled "receipt" as "reciept".
At 27:47 on the DVD, a
View-Master is seen on
147's coffee table. It probably belonged to his daughter 832,
who vanished into a hole in
"Darling".
View-Master is a line of stereoscope viewers for 3-D viewing of
specially-made
View-Master reels.
When 313 tells 2 she keeps having strange dreams, he quotes,
"Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there". This is from
the Christian hymn "Leave It There", written by Charles A.
Tindley in 1916. Then he sings, "The animals went in two by two,
hurrah, hurrah..." This is from a children's song, "The Animals
Went in Two by Two ('Into the Ark')", sung to the tune of the
American Civil War song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home"
written by Louis Lambert (Patrick Gilmore) in 1863.
The car 11-12's friends are leaving the palace in at 44:16 on
the DVD appears to be a
Mercedes-Benz.
At 46:38 on the DVD, one of the people seen on the video display
screens at Summakor is
909 (11-12's gay lover in previous
episodes, killed by 11-12 in "Anvil").
At 47:13, 147 is seen on the screens.
Memorable Dialog
nobody resigns from Summakor.wav
they're selling tickets for your execution.wav
to hurt
me.wav
I keep my faith in the Village.wav
where is the Village?.wav
that's a bit philosophical for a Thursday.wav
nobody ever said that dreaming would be such hard work.wav
if we are one then we can defeat 2.wav
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Prisoner Episode Studies