Multiple #2s


I've watched 3 episodes so far. I just watched Checkmate. I enjoyed the series up to this point, but Checkmate really sold me. I have a question about #2. What was the point of having different people play #2? Would it have been possible to create a better, more adversarial dynamic between #2 and #6 by using the same actor/actress? I realize there is some symbolism for the change (I don't think I have it completely figured out yet), but with a person nearly every episode, #2 doesn't seem to be a true enemy, nemesis, adversary, etc. of #6. Maybe this is cleared up later in the series, but I was just curious about other people's thoughts.

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What was the point of having different people play #2?


Easy.

A major theme of The Prisoner was bureaucracy, a system of organization in which no one is really seen as special or irreplaceable. Everyone is just a number and easily replaceable. The rotating #2s are just an example of how dehumanizing bureaucracy is. Bureaucracy couldn't care less about who fills a position as long as there is always someone else to pick up where the last person left off. A person could be the smartest, most dedicated and loyal person there ever was working for a bureaucracy. It doesn't matter.

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There are basically two purposes for the different Number 2s.

The first is to help maintain the facade of the purpose of the Village, which is to break #6 into giving the real reasons for why he resigned and to resign himself to the comfort of the Village itself. Pitting 6 against different 2s keeps him guessing as to what tactic the Village will use.

The second is a little more subtle. I see #2 as a bit of a demon of the Id, the dark subconscious. That, really, it doesn't matter who #2 is, because he is merely a construct of the Id in 6's own mind. In most of the cases where #2 is employed, he or she is trying to make 6 feel comfortable with his environment to the point where he feels obliged to tell them why he resigned, but this is a ploy that 6 eventually uncovers. What's really going on here is #2 is changing his face and persona in order to get #6 to believe that possibly that the Village itself, and the apparatus behind it, can change according to his liking.

In other words, 2 is 6's rationalization for his conscience (remember, 6 always says that he resigned as a matter of conscience). 2 serves a dual purpose in that he's both a focus for 6's antagonism to the Society, the powers that this represents, and for 6's own desire to find any sort of escape, even if it means changing the Village to suit his liking. It cannot work though because the Village, I believe, represents a facade of a society that he doesn't care for, for reasons only 6 knows.

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I-I-I-I-I like this interpretation very much. :)

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