I personally think the biggest clue as to the nature of the Village is in Many Happy Returns, where #6 wakes up only to find that the speaker isn't telling him "Good Morning," and the Village is completely deserted, except for a black cat. Then 6 builds a raft, takes some supplies, and escapes, returns to London, tells his people all about the Village, and then goes on a flight to find it, only to be dropped right back in there again.
You'd think that after the second episode, where he manages to escape with a supposedly Lithuanian Swimmer, he wouldn't bother to try to escape to England where he personally knew some of the people there, and they betrayed him to the Village already. But, more importantly, the very fact that it is implied, based on 6's reaction, that the Village was properly populated the very day before, only to have everyone, from the old-timers in the old-folks home, to the marching band, and the storekeepers and restaurant people, and #2 are all gone. If the Village can do that, why bother to attempt to escape to England? You and I'd have gone anywhere else, but he goes right back to England, and to London. Why?
Because it's the world he knows, the one he's comfortable with. And that's the key to understanding this show. He could've just as easily floated his way to the continent, maybe find a way to make it to the East, or even to America, maybe work his way to where he needs to go, and never worry about the Village ever again. But he goes to the world he knows, believing that he's been abducted by a foreign power, choosing to believe that, rather than the obvious - that he's been betrayed by the very elements inside his own mind - to keep him in his comfort zone.
Because, the comfort zone is our prison. It's the thing that prevents 6 from trying to fend for himself in the continent, to try to venture out into a world he doesn't know, perhaps find help somewhere, anywhere else. He goes to London, finds his place occupied by someone else (who we know later is #2), and here he begins to let his guard down after his harrowing trip. It appears his life may just in fact be returning to a sense of normalcy and under his own personal control. But it's a trap! A trap of the Comfort Zone.
The casual viewer of this series might not have picked up on this. I didn't the first couple of times around. But when I realized that McGoohan was trying to make a point here, I realized that this wasn't really so much of a mistake in continuity as it first appeared.
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Owlwise
8 years ago
How I love this series & the thoughtful discussion it creates. :)
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