(Episode 14 – “Living in Harmony” & Episode 15 – “The Girl Who Was Death”)
Remember in my last Prisoner diary post, when I noted how things started to switch gears? It turns out I was right, as things still haven’t switched back to the way they used to be. Rather than episode after episode of watching Number Six in the same ol’ Village, going about his business (or at least making it appear so), the locales have changed and the methods the new Number Twos are using to attempt to extract information from Six are growing more absurd … or are they ingenious?
As with all of the Virgin Diaries, I’m not going to get into the exact details and plots of each episode — if you’re reading these, chances are you’ve seen the series (or at least these episodes) already. If you haven’t, then shame on you, you spoiler-peeking fool!
The first thing that “Living in Harmony” reminded me of when I caught the gist of what was going on was an episode of the original Star Trek series. At first I thought that The Prisoner was taking a page out of the Trek book in giving us a new setting and dropping even more bizarre science fiction into a show that typically didn’t do a whole lot of that, with the exception of seeing a Rover or the hidden headquarters of Number Two and company.
As it turns out, Star Trek may have been taking a page from Prisoner‘s book, not the other way around. I was reminded of the Star Trek episode “Spectre of the Gun” when watching “Living in Harmony,” and, as it turns out, “Spectre” aired in October of 1968, while “Harmony” aired January of that same year. Interesting that they were both in the same year and carried the same feel.
I’ve been reminded of Star Trek several times with this series, actually. The film quality, some of the music, and the fighting scenes — oh lord, the fighting scenes.
Both of these episodes were confusing as hell to watch in that they were so far removed from how the rest of the series had progressed so far, that I wasn’t sure if I’d forgotten some past plot point coming into each episode. Just as with every other episode so far, these episodes appear self-contained. One episode doesn’t bleed into the next, and I’ve yet to see some aspect carried over from a previous episode.
Lastly, one thing I don’t believe I’ve noticed in previous episodes of The Prisoner was shown in “The Girl Who Was Death”: Kids. Seeing kids within the confines of The Village was both surprising and sad. To know that there are children who’ve likely been born into that odd world, sheltered from the rest of humanity, is almost macabre.
Only one more diary entry left for this series!
Past posts: Episode 1, Episodes 2 & 3, Episodes 4 & 5, Episodes 6 & 7, Episodes 8 & 9, Episodes 10 & 11, Episodes 12 & 13
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on Aug 03, 2009 @ 15:00 EST5EDT
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Have a great time watching the finale, and try not to bring 2009 sensibilities of wanting every question answered to it. Remember, it was the late 60s, and it was more about the trip than the explanation.