"Hammer into Anvil" | |
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The Prisoner episode | |
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Episode no. | Series 1 Episode 10 |
Directed by | Pat Jackson |
Written by | Roger Woddis |
Production code | 12 |
Original air date | 1 December 1967 |
Guest appearance | |
Patrick Cargill | |
"Hammer into Anvil" is an episode of the allegorical British science fiction TV series The Prisoner. It was written by Roger Woddis and directed by Pat Jackson and twelfth produced. It was the tenth episode to be broadcast in the UK on ITV (ATV Midlands and Grampian) on Friday 1 December 1967 and first aired in the United States on CBS on Saturday 31 August 1968.[1][2]
The episode stars Patrick McGoohan as Number Six and features as Number Two Patrick Cargill.[3] The central themes of this episode are insecurity, paranoia, and conspiracy thinking in a leader.
Number Two interrogates a stubborn female prisoner, Number Seventy-Three, in the Village Hospital. Frustrated, he attacks her; she screams, and Number Six rushes to her aid. In the commotion, she leaps from her bed and kills herself by jumping out the first-floor window. Number Six swears to Number Two that he will pay for his cruelty.
Number Two forcibly has Number Six brought to the Green Dome and the two begin a war of nerves. Number Two quotes Goethe: Du mußt Amboß oder Hammer sein ("You must be Anvil or Hammer"). "And you see me as the anvil?" asks Number Six, to which Number Two answers "Precisely. I am going to hammer you." Already aware that he is being watched by the Village's hidden camera and spies at every turn, Number Six proceeds to act in a highly suspicious manner, as if he were some sort of spy or double agent. He takes six copies of the same record of Bizet's L'Arlésienne suite at the music store and plays them, eyeing his watch. He then writes out a message, that Number Fourteen retrieves a copy of, which claims to be from "D-6" to "XO4." Number Two is convinced that Number Six is a plant.
Number Two and Number Fourteen follow Number Six to where he drops a document in the cabin of the stone boat. They retrieve it, but the pages are all blank. After having them tested, Two suspects the technician of working with Number Six. Number Six then goes to place an ad (a quotation from Don Quixote) in the next issue of the Tally Ho. He then calls the head of Psychiatrics, posing as a superior who wants a report on Number Two's mental state. Two monitors the call and starts to become more paranoid at the behaviour of Number Six and those around him. Later, Six asks the town band to play the Farandole from the same Bizet piece, and when the band starts playing, he promptly leaves so that he is not around to hear it. He leaves a message to be read on the radio, wishing himself a happy birthday, with the sender listed as the deceased Number 113.
Number Two becomes increasingly agitated, wishing he could get away with killing Number Six. Number Fourteen offers to do so, making it appear an accident, and challenges Number Six to a game of "kosho" – a Japanese, trampoline-based contact sport – but is unable to "accidentally" drown his opponent. Number Six leaves a cuckoo clock in front of Number Two's door, causing him to panic and summon a bomb squad. Six captures a pigeon, attaches a message to its leg and sets it free in the woods. The bird is intercepted by Number Two's forces, and Two sees that the message states that Six will send a visual signal the next morning. Six goes to the beach and sends a visual signal (in light-flash Morse code) – a nursery rhyme with no apparent hidden meaning, all witnessed by Two.
Later, Number Six is able to trick Number Two into believing that Number Fourteen is conspiring against him. When the other keepers of the village cannot discern the hidden meaning in Number Six's messages, Number Two suspects everyone working for him of being part of a conspiracy. Number Fourteen fights with Number Six, who throws him out of a window. In the end, Number Six confronts an unnerved and agitated Number Two, who expresses the belief that Number Six is really "D-6", a man sent by "XO4" to test his security. Feeding on Number Two's paranoia, Number Six charges Number Two with treason: if Number Two's belief was true, then he would be duty-bound not to interfere. At Number Six's suggestion, Number Two calls the hotline to Number One to report his own failures and ask that he be replaced.[1]