The Prisoner - Many Happy Returns

Episode Name: Many Happy Returns
Original Air Date: November 10 1967
TV Airing Order: 7
KTEH Airing Order: 6
Summary - After waking to find the Village deserted, Number Six returns to England but doesn't know whom he can trust there.

In case you were wondering, the summary for Many Happy Returns is not a joke. Number Six does find the Village deserted, and he does return to real old England. As you might guess, he also winds up back in the Village. What happens in between makes for one of the more difficult episodes to decipher. In a way, the plot is structured similarly to The Chimes of Big Ben, the difference being that this time, he actually gets to London. But it also feels entirely different. Very little of the episode takes place in the Village, instead focusing mainly on his journey. There is action at sea, adventure on land, and very little dialogue overall. When he gets home, there is all sorts of technical chatter as he and his old friends try to determine the location of the Village.

Many Happy Returns feels more like an episode in a classic spy show, and I suppose that there is a reason for that. This is the first episode in the KTEH ordering that was not part of McGoohan's original seven, and in fact all of the episodes from here on out are part of the extra ten shows, save for the final two. With that in mind, it is understandable that it feels like there is little going on. But I do feel that there is some reason for its existence. It exists as a character piece, showing us just how good of an agent Six was in his former life, and how he behaved when he was at home working with his mates.

There is also one major point revealed at the end, when one of Six's colleagues has a line that says something like "he is an old friend, a man who doesn't know when to quit." This single utterance gives us the most important clue about Six. He is good at his job, but he can easily become single minded in his pursuits. This gives context to his early escape attempts, and why the Village is always able to get him back. It may even be another clue as to why he resigned (he was already a part of a system he wanted to be rid of). Six is a smart man, but he is flawed, and these flaws are why he cannot be free, no matter where he goes. And even if he were rid of those flaws, the nature of the world is such that there may no where that is free from the control of the powers that be.

At this point I thought it would be appropriate to mention another aspect of 60's television production. Back then, TV viewers rarely watched every episode of a show every week. This is why an episode like this one can be similar to Chimes, and why the show would have been hurt by having stricter continuity between episodes. The Prisoner can be trippy enough as it is, let alone if it relied on last week's story to make a lick of sense.

Many Happy Returns might be our first example of filler, but you could do a lot worse. The quiet scenery within is beautiful, and where previous episodes brought feelings of fear and despair, this one has a subtle but overwhelming sense of hopelessness.