For the Adherent of Pop Culture
Adventures of Jack Burton ] Battlestar Galactica ] Buckaroo Banzai ] Cliffhangers! ] Earth 2 ] The Expendables ] Firefly/Serenity ] The Fly ] Galaxy Quest ] Indiana Jones ] Jurassic Park ] Land of the Lost ] Lost in Space ] The Matrix ] The Mummy/The Scorpion King ] The Prisoner ] Sapphire & Steel ] Snake Plissken Chronicles ] Star Trek ] Terminator ] The Thing ] Total Recall ] Tron ] Twin Peaks ] UFO ] V the series ] Valley of the Dinosaurs ] Waterworld ] PopApostle Home ] Links ] Privacy ]

The Prisoner

Episode Studies by Clayton Barr

enik1138-at-popapostle-dot-com
The Prisoner: Schizoid 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!

Village Eye Chart

 

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

Back to Prisoner Episode Studies