The Prisoner Review: “Free For All” (Episode 2)

Number Two: “Are you going to run?”
Number Six: “Like blazes – the first chance I get.”
– Insert your own joke about every Twitter user who threatened to leg it to Canada in 2016 here.

Airdate: October 20th, 1967

Written By: Patrick McGoohan.

Plot: An election is being held for the position of Number Two. Yes, this weird Village actually does hold council elections, even for the leader! Encouraged to run, Six decides to do so on a provocative platform. This, naturally, gets him in the crosshairs of the council… but not in the way that most of us would expect.

Review:

Amongst the enduring legacies of the Ancient Greek cultures is the concept of democracy. Derived from the word “demos”, referring to the people, Democracy has its roots in the Athenian states, with direct democracy allowing for the Citizen’s Assemblies (for starters.) While quite limited by contemporary standards (women and non-landowners were excluded), the concept of Athenian democracy was radical for the time, contrasting the idea with the absolutism of other ancient societies.

Today, democracy appears to be the popular form of government, at least in terms of public image. Even nations that tend towards autocratic measures at least claim to have some form of democracy, even if the laws within rebut those ideas. That said, the allure of democracy is much more appealing to those outside of the halls of power than those within. I’d go into more detail, but I think Detective Cornfed from Duckman demonstrated the ultimate issue with democratic societies.

That said, I would argue that Democracy is the best system of governance out there. Yes, I’m biased. But if you were to poll me, I would defend to the death the idea of presenting the common man with the ultimate power to choose his or her representatives, to chart the course of national policy in economics or societal platform. Even if I disagree with the final results of elections (as in the election of Donald Trump to the US Presidency), I still love to romanticize this democracy that we live in.

However, democracy certainly isn’t perfect. I mean, nothing is, but there are certainly valid critiques levied at the Anglo democratic system that can be levied… something that “Free for All” takes on.

To get a fine insight into “Free for All” and the world that it entered, one must take a look first at the Postwar Consensus. Finding its roots in the Beveridge Report, the Postwar Consensus governed Britain from 1945 to 1979. It was a broad agreement between Labour and the Conservatives on the Welfare State, the use of national services, trade union strength, and high taxation and regulation.

That was repudiated with the Tory government of Margaret Thatcher, whose transformation of Britain in the 80s (for good and for ill) ironically led to the Thatcherite consensus of privatization, low tax, weaker trade unions, and a tighter welfare state. This consensus wound up adopted by the Major, Blair, Brown, and Cameron governments – with Tony Blair, in particular, marketing his government as “New Labour” to distance himself from the 70s and to gain the favor of some more conservative press members (read: The Sun).

Whether or not your allegiances lie more with the Postwar Consensus or the Thatcherite consensus, I think we can get a look at what this episode will be tackling, overall.

But first, the setup.

Number two is, to the public of The Village, the highest office in the land. The second in command in The Village, in effect, appears analogous to the Prime Minister in nations derived from (and analogous to) Westminister governments – technically the second in command via a constitutional protocol, but the actual force of power in practice. (For example, the Queen technically appoints the PM, but (s)he is almost always the one to get a majority of the seats in the Commons to vote for them. The key word here is “appears”, as the Village is still enigmatic thus far.

But I digress. The position of Number Two, as we saw in “Arrival”, is not locked into one person. Indeed, this suggests that numbers could be used to indicate a certain status within the grand society… or, again, it’s meant to screw with Six’s mind. In fact, the current Number Two demands a challenge instead of an uncontested mandate, arguing that an uncontested mandate would destroy morale. Personally speaking, this maintains some poignance here in America’s two-party system, where several parts of the country (California and Texas, for instance) are considered locks for particular parties. Feeling disenchanted, many “opposition” civilians from those states look to move to a region that tends to favor their ideology… thus entrenching the cycle and entrenching something of a one-party system.

In short, democracy is best when it is contested by multiple people. And Number Two convinces Number Six to run by appealing to the obscurity of information. After all, we all think that once we’re in power, we’ll be privy to information that is not accessible to the general public. There is truth in that – White House confidentiality, for starters – but is it a universal truth? There are few things in life.

This is something that The Prisoner knows – few universal truths exist in life. In effect, he decides to run a campaign that is highly subversive. He outright renounces his “number” in the very first sentence of the campaign, as well as calling to encourage the citizens to reject their current status of beautiful imprisonment in favor of a more open, personal existence for themselves.

You’d expect him to be dropped into nowhere that moment. Well… for one, there are fifteen other episodes to be looked at after this, so that ain’t happening. In fact, it appears at first glance that the Village has a disturbing tolerance towards his rants at the offing. And disturbing, indeed, it is.

For do you really think Number Six has any sort of chance to become Number Two?

Look at the newspaper, for instance. In lieu of his comments of “no comment”, they write down sentiments that are clear people pleasers. Clearly, a take on the yellow journalism of the late 19th Century, as well as a forerunner to the current state of some of the more polarized media sources (The Guardian, The Sun, MSNBC, and FOX News all come to my mind). In effect, the electorate remains in the dark, uninformed, as the press manipulate those in power. And since the press is controlled by those in power (be it government figures or Murdoch-esque moguls)… well, pick your poison. That’s not to give legitimacy to Trump calling every slight against him “fake news” – just take a look at the editorial stance of your source into account, and double check an alternate source.

This continued rejection of convention, however, winds up being part of his undoing – after telling off the council to their faces, he appears to wind up brainwashed. Afterward, he conforms to these “acceptable” answers in lieu of this popularity for a brief while… before snapping again. Personally, I did find it a bit repetitive, taking up space that could’ve been used to enhance the world, but that’s just me. In effect, the council has created this aura of a democracy that they immediately neuter to suit their own ideas. And yet again, they keep up with this idea of Panem et Circrendi – just enough democracy to satisfy the masses, not enough democracy to make a real impact. The Village is therefore perpetually stagnant.

There are vague differences in the leaders, but they all follow the same vague platform… vague being intentional to keep the Village as enigmatic as humanly possible. In fact, as the Prisoner is apparently brainwashed, the round dot and the square dot – think the round peg and the square hole from “Arrival” – merge into one another. The truth becomes more diluted and unrecognizable in his head… and possibly in the heads of our elected officials, sometimes.

Six wants to be a populist candidate, but purely so he can flee the island and destroy the system. Does he care for their well-being? Possibly, but his desire to run for office was driven by his own selfish interests. In this case, it’s understandable to us the viewer, but it does add a touch of grey to his character.

In effect, we are forced to wonder… what is the truth? What is the lie? How can we weed out the selfish interests of our politicians from their more altruistic rationales for getting into politics? It is Number Six’s more selfish interests that drive his attempted escape (twice in two episodes), and might very well have helped the brainwashing go along – all part of the subconscious.

But it is the capture by Rover that reorients him back to a more radical position that he tries to get out against the brainwashing that he took up – his ideas fighting against the conventions, a battle now within himself. Said ideas harken back to the 1960s-era liberalism and the Civil Rights Movement – movements that would climax during 1968, when Western Europe, the United States, and Canada would experience quite an upheval. (France had the Student Strikes; the USA had Robert F. Kennedy’s rise interrupted by his assassination, two months after MLK was shot; Canada had the election of Pierre Trudeau as PM, promising a “just society”.) In effect, the government is trying to drag him to a win that he doesn’t really want, or wants for reasons that are not what they seem in public. “To hell with the Village”, he proclaims.

And in the incumbency, they promise the continuity. No radical reforms, no gambling on freedom, no giving the inexperienced a new chance. Now, this doesn’t mean that we should always gamble on the unknown, but it does showcase the continued complacency of both the electorate and the incumbent governments. Of course, we have to wonder if this is just sabotage on their part, given what happens at the end.

Of course, being the show that this is, there is all a nefarious plan within. Number Six, as you can gather, was set up. For one, Six is drugged while having a drink with Two – thus incapacitating him during the last part of the campaign. Therefore, we can only guess at what happened in the meantime. Six does win overwhelmingly (in a ballot that is not exactly secret – probably dissuading others from voting for the incumbent, a-la the bandwagon tendency), but when his victory is announced… the response is more or less muted. If not rather hostile. Once he gets back in, Number 58 – his secretary – paralyzes and attacks him, effectively deposing him and becoming the new number two. In effect, the election was a setup. Change in the regime may never be, due to the powers within.

If I might for a second, I have to give credit to Number 58. Rachel Herbert sells 58 as the ultimate of double agents – a child that winds up at the top of the regime. All that flightiness makes her such an endearing character during the first half… and makes her turn on Number Six so haunting. Every slap delivers a body blow to Six’s composure and soul, leading him to a devastating breakdown, a last attempt to get the citizens to rise up… one that can not be. In this instance, we figure out just how tight the control is, psychologically and politically.

It not only solidifies the autocracy within The Village, but makes Number Six realize the depravity of said autocracy and the despair of his situation, one that he likely thought a bygone memory in his native Britain… that is, we can suspect. Either way, he is no closer to Number One now than he was when the gas first hit him.

And is it Britain? After all, the last line of the episode is “Give my regards to the Homeland.” Now, he could be referring to London – the center of the British Empire during its existence – but the vagueness of the word suddenly adds a new aura of enigma to the situation Number Six is in. Maybe this whole thing is international…

To be honest, while I did like this episode, I did feel like it suffered somewhat from a lack of ideas that were put on paper. There was a lot to analyze in the political sphere, even in the age before Social Media, Trump-esque flamboyance, and the twenty-four-hour news cycle. This was the era of liberalism and the civil rights movement, an era that also coexisted with fears over the Soviet Union (even in the post-McCarthy era), but it feels like it went through the motions a bit during the middle of the episode. Hell, we could’ve learned a bit more about the ties between Number Two and Number One, even if the writers wanted to keep it enigmatic. Just add some hints that I felt were lacking from this particular episode.

Of course, maybe that was the point. Democracy is all about repetition, swinging from moderate politics towards radicalism, and vice-versa. That’s what we’ve learned time after time. The pendulum constantly swings back and forth – parties first try and appeal to the base before swinging to the centrists. America and Britain swing between periods of leftist and right-wing politics, even if superficially so. And so on and so forth. So maybe that’s what the writers were trying to convey. It’s just not my cuppa in this particular instance.

But again, I did like this episode. “Free for All” does a good job at dissecting the hidden dark side of democracy, the powers behind the powers, and how the estates can often work with one another to stagnate the political climate. Whether you watch it in a vacuum or with the politics of either the 1960s or the 2010s in mind, it’s certainly an interesting hour of television. A bit more plot would’ve accelerated this to a new level of brilliance, but maybe Patrick McGoohan wanted to showcase the despair of his character that much more. Either way… it’s pretty good, just not great.

Tidbits:

• This episode is the first one I’ve covered to use a new opening sequence. It basically recaps the first episode, albeit with a slightly amended intro song and some dialogue from the first episode. Notably, instead of calling himself a “person” in strong terms, we go for a line with more driven and desperate delivery – “I am not a number. I am a free man!” Followed by the haunting laughter of Number Two…
• The incumbent Number Two in this episode is played by Eric Portman. Portman was known for his roles in the Powell and Pressburger films during the 1940s. He’s somewhat more of an obscure figure now, but at the time, he was one of the most famous men in British cinema.
• Apparently, Rover can pop out of the sea. Alright… you just made that robot even creepier.

Wrap-Up:

Favorite Scene: I did like the exposure of Number 58. Brilliant acting on Herbert’s part, selling the duplicity.

Freakiest Scene: Neither the use of Rover nor the exposure of 58 makes it here. Rather, it’s 6’s breakdown after the latter, as he screams for the people to rebel by taking command of the intercom system… all as the people go about their daily activities. Haunting…

Memorable Quote: “No Comment” – Number Six. Ah, yes, the man sees through the newspaper. He sees their game. If only he comprehended how deep the game ran.

Score: 8. Like I said, I liked this episode, but some less repetitive plot elements within (which I am being generous on this time around) would’ve made this episode sublime.