Angelica's Side: whoa....somebody stop this episode! This episode didn't feel like it knew where it was going...and that made me restless. I was sure it would link back into some plot by the current Number 2, but really, did it have to take quite so long? We've seen alternate realities for Number 6 before, but this one seemed a little out of hand....a Sheriff, in a Western, with horses and a saloon and drunkeness and all that shooting! Maybe I've watched too much Deadwood to appreciate what this episode was all about. I will admit to liking The Kid though...much more than Number 6 in this episode. That was some kind of intensity his character had (while Number 6 in comparison seemed surprisingly flat).
The episode was definitely still watchable, but I guess what sums this episode up for me is: I couldn't wait to get out of the Western and back to The Village...not into some kind of escape plan, but right back smack dab in the middle of The Village. Episode 13, take me back there! Please!
Dave's side:
The VHS tape came out of a sealed box. The box was labelled episode 12 of The Prisoner. I was pretty sure the tape itself said the same. But then, we open the show without the familiar montage, there is a cowboy on a horse, and i wonder if there has been a mistake. Even when i see McGoohan under a dusty cowboy hat, i wonder if the distributing company put something other than a Prisoner episode onto this tape. McGoohan speaks... it's not British. What in tarnation?
Well, it becomes clear that it is an episode of the Prisoner when familiar themes and catch-phrases come into play. But... is this a psychological play taking place in the mind of Number 6? Or is it a historical revelation, showing us that The Village we have come to know is nothing new? And i wonder how many fledgling Prisoner fans in the late 60's skipped past or away from the original airing, confused as i am and maybe more disappointed.
By episode's end, we're comforted by the familiar setting of Number 2's santum. The western players are revealed to be 60's-modern men and woman dressed in cutting edge pop garb. They remove futuristic headphones, discuss their plot to baffle Number 6, and marvel at his super-human ability to know the fantasy for what it was. Thankfully, the episode continues for a while and the western setting is revisted, melding fact, fiction, past, present, hero, and tragedy. That final 10 minutes gave the 40 minute lead-up the meaning i was hoping for. I think the second viewing will be much better for knowing that it's not going nowhere. I suppose i should have trusted McGoohan.
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