"Fall Out" is the 17th and final episode of the allegorical British science fiction series The Prisoner. It was written and directed by Patrick McGoohan, who also portrayed the incarcerated Number Six. The episode was first broadcast in the UK on ITV (Scottish Television) on Thursday 1 February 1968 (it appeared on ATV Midlands and Grampian the day after) and first aired in the United States on CBS on 21 September 1968.

The episode omits the usual long opening sequence in favour of a recap of the penultimate episode, "Once Upon a Time". It is the only episode in the series in which the show's principal outdoors location, Portmeirion, is given a specific credit in the opening titles. This resulted from an agreement with Portmeirion's architect, Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, that the location would not be revealed until the series finale.

The title "Fall Out" invoked the subject of nuclear fallout, which had been a subject of public concern in the 1960s. As two words it would appear to suggest also the opposite of the military order to "fall in"—aligning with the theme of No. 6's resignation from service and rejection of authority, as well as with the plot events leading to his and other characters' dispersal from the Village.

Plot summary

After besting Number Two at a battle of wills in "Once Upon a Time" at the apparent cost of Number Two's life, Number Six requests he be taken to see Number One. He is taken by The Supervisor to a large cavernous chamber that includes a British assembly hall with a number of masked delegates, whom the Supervisor joins, and a large metallic cylinder with a mechanical eye, labelled "1". Number Six is shown to his seat, a large ornate throne, to watch the proceedings.

A master of ceremonies ("the President") announces Number Six has passed the "ultimate test" and won the "right to be individual", but there are matters of ceremony involved in the "transfer of ultimate power". The caged room where Number Two died is brought to the chamber with his body still in it; medical personnel recover the body, resuscitate him, and give Two a make-over. Number Two, along with Number Forty-eight—a young modishly-dressed man—are presented as two different examples of "revolt" to the assembly. Number Forty-eight refuses to cooperate and drives the assembly to sing a rendition of "Dem Bones" before he is restrained. Number Two reveals he too was abducted to the Village and spits at the mechanical eye in defiance. Both men are taken away.

The President then presents Number Six as a third form of revolt, but as "a revolutionary of a different calibre" to be treated with respect. Number Six is shown his home in London is being prepared for his return, and he is presented with a million pounds in traveller's cheques, petty cash, a passport, and the keys to his home and car. The President says Number Six is free to go home or go wherever he wants, but requests that Number Six stay and lead them as his behaviour has been so exemplary. The President then asks Number Six to address the assembly, but as he begins each sentence with "I" the assembly drowns him out with shouts of "Aye! Aye! Aye!..."

thumb|right|Patrick McGoohan as Number One

Number Six is shown into the metallic cylinder. He passes transparent tubes holding Numbers Two and Forty-eight along with a third, empty tube, each labelled as "Orbit"; the third tube has no number. Climbing a stairway, he finds a robed man in a mask and a circled "1" watching surveillance videos of Number Six. Number Six pulls off the mask to find a gorilla mask underneath, and then under that, a man seemingly identical to Number Six. The robed figure escapes into a hatch above. Number Six locks the hatch and recognises the cylinder is a rocket like the one in "The Girl Who Was Death". He initiates its countdown, sending the President and Assembly into a panic, and an evacuation of the Village is ordered.

Number Six frees Numbers Two and Forty-eight, and along with the Butler, they gun down armed guards, making their way to the caged room which is revealed to be on the bed of a Scammell Highwayman low loader. They drive away from the Village as the rocket launches from the abandoned Village. Rover (the security of the Village) deflates and is destroyed (to the accompaniment of "I, Yi, Yi, Yi, Yi (I Like You Very Much)") upon exposure to the flames of the rocket's exhaust.

The four drive towards London. Nearing the city, Number Forty-eight alights and hitch-hikes, without regard for direction. Just outside the Palace of Westminster, the truck is stopped by the police. The three abandon it and leave their separate ways. Number Two enters the Palace by the Peers' Entrance, while the Butler escorts Number Six back to his home, where his Lotus 7 car waits, and the Number 1 appears on his door. Number Six sets off in his car, while the Butler enters Number Six's home, its door opening in the same manner as the automatic doors in the Village. The episode ends with the thunder claps from the series' opening sequence, as well as with the opening shot of Number Six driving on an open country road. McGoohan commented on the final scene that it is meant to show that "freedom is a myth," and there is no final conclusion to the series, because "we continue to be prisoners". As ITC managing director Lew Grade said in the 1984 documentary Six into One: The Prisoner File, McGoohan, despite having promised earlier that he would conceive an ending for the series, came to him admitting that he was unable to come up with an ending.

At the time "Fall Out" was first broadcast, there were only three television channels available in the UK and it was claimed that the long-awaited final episode of the series had one of the largest viewing audiences yet seen.

The finale intentionally avoided answering any mysteries regarding the origins of the Village, its intentions for Number Six and his reasons for resigning; there is also no clear explanation for why the Village releases Number Six. The episode depicts Numbers Six, Two, 48 and the Butler shooting their way out of the Village; this is in stark contradiction to the previously established absence of weapons in the Village and its impenetrable security. The Village's proximity to London in the finale is also confusing and unexplained (especially since the Village escapees all use helicopters as if it were an island). This resulted in bafflement and anger among the show's viewership to such an extent that McGoohan had to leave the country and go "into hiding" for a few days as dissatisfied viewers stormed his house. He explained that his enjoyment with the outrage was in line with the show's message, "as long as people feel something, that's the great thing, it's when they're walking around not thinking, not feeling, that's though, that's where all the dangerous stuff is, cause when you get a mob like that, you can turn them in to the sort of gang that Hitler had". The popular press joined in with the public indignation at this "rubbish" McGoohan had foisted on them. Although it is sometimes claimed that McGoohan never worked in the UK again after this, this is untrue as, for example, he starred in the Channel 4 production The Best of Friends (1991), and also appeared in the film Mary, Queen of Scots (1971), which was partially filmed in the UK. He did, however, tend to work in American television thereafter, including a Prisoner-tinged appearance on Columbo a few years later.

In 2001, TV Guide listed "Fall Out" as the 55th Greatest TV Episode of All Time.

Sequels in other media

There have been two licensed sequels to this episode in other media, plus one that is implied to follow on from its story.

  • The Prisoner: I Am Not a Number, a 1969 novel by Thomas Disch, is set after this episode and has Number Six living in London with the Butler as his servant, but Number Six's memories of the Village have been erased. The novel suggests that this episode was a hallucination during the memory erasure process. The amnesia itself is a Village plot to manipulate Six into regaining his memories and inadvertently reveal secrets he would otherwise guard. However, Disch's novel additionally suggests that the Village may be a dream, a state of consciousness, a set of false memories or a virtual reality simulation. It is left to the reader to wonder which of these theories may be true.
  • The 1988 comic book sequel, Shattered Visage, declares that this episode was a drug-induced psychodrama in which Number Two staged his own death and resurrection, and that the onscreen images are part of the Degree Absolute process that began in the previous episode, "Once Upon a Time". It offers two contradictory accounts, however: Number Two claims that in this episode, "The man that would not bend simply broke. Shattered and alone, he chose a number and christened himself Number One. He had accepted. He was ours, body and soul. We had won!" In contrast, a British intelligence officer reviewing the Village files reports, "Number Six made several attempts to escape. The administration, in turn, interrogated him repeatedly. And, as far as I can tell, he did not talk."
  • A 2018 comic book miniseries, The Prisoner: The Uncertainty Machine (Titan Comics), does not feature Number Six (despite images of Patrick McGoohan from the series used on the covers of each issue), but is set in the present day in the same continuity of the TV series and as such is implied to take place after the events of "Fall Out".

References

Sources

  • – script of episode
  • The Fall Out Theory
  • Articles and views on the episode
  • Full episode published to YouTube by ITV