The Prisoner/Dance of the Dead

Dance of the Dead
Season 1, Episode 8
Airdate	November 26, 1967
Written by	Anthony Skene
Directed by	Don Chaffey
← 1x07 Many Happy Returns	1x09 → Checkmate
The Prisoner — Season One

Dance of the Dead is the eighth episode of the first season of The Prisoner. The village is holding its annual carnival where Number Six intends to use to get inside Town Hall.

Starring: Patrick McGoohan (Number Six)

Guest Stars: Mary Morris (Number Two), Duncan MacRae (Doctor), Norma West (Girl Bo-Peep)

with Angelo Muscat (The Butler), Aubrey Morris (Town Crier), Bee Duffell (Psychiatrist), Camilla Hasse (Day Supervisor), Alan White (Dutton), Michael Nightingale (Night Supervisor)

and Patsy Smart (Night Maid), Denise Buckley (Maid), George Merritt (Postman), John Frawley (Flowerman), Lucy Griffiths (Lady in Corridor), William Lyon Brown (2nd Doctor)

Plot Overview

Number 40, a doctor at the hospital, has taken it upon himself to get information out of Number Six without the consent of his superiors. His men sneak into Six's home and fasten a headband to him, which cause a violent waking reaction. He then calls him and uses a colleague of Number Six's from his days in the intelligence agency to get a statement under the ruse of an internal affairs board looking for an information leak. However, Number Six passes out from the stress and Number Two intervenes in the doctor's plans. She sends Dutton back to the hospital and forces the doctor to remove the headband. She explains that he is "not like the others" and must be won over instead of broken.

The next morning, Number Six awakens and is presented with an invitation to attend a "carnival and dance." He makes his way to town square where he sees a parade circling the square over and over again and is approached by Number Two, who tells him that he should meet a woman to counteract his self-serving independence. He immediately goes for a woman who Number Two calls "quite unsuitable" for him, but she only gives him conflicted propaganda phrases and leaves quickly. Rover blocks Number Six's way before he can follow and stop her, but leaves quickly. Six attempts to get into a building that a gardener refers to as Town Hall, but the building pushes him out using an unseen force.

The girl that Number Six was chasing turns out to be his observer, a villager hired to keep track of him at all times. She continues her watch from the video screens in town hall while Six gives up his pursuit in favor of a black cat that keeps following him. He brings the cat home, much to the dismay of his maid. Although the maid attempts to take the cat with her, she's quickly driven away by Six's questions about where the milk and ice cream comes from. Later that night, Number Six's power is knocked out, but flickers on suddenly along with a voice telling him to "sleep gently until tomorrow." This prompts Six to make another escape attempt, which eventually fails when the security system activates once he makes it to the beach. Instead of being captured, however, he instead falls asleep on the beach near some rocks. In the morning, Six finds a boy washed up on the shore of the beach. Upon further examination of the body, he finds what looks like a miniature radio device.

Number Six eventually makes his way back to his apartment where he finds his costume for carnival. While he attempts to listen to the radio, Number Two and the doctor spy on him and plot to get information out of Dutton through underhanded ways. Six attempts to find a high point on the island so that he can find the radio's signal. He succeeds in this in time to overhear plans from what sounds like a group of rebels, but changes the station to the village announcement system quickly when Number Two and his observer catch up with him. She leaves and takes his radio with her. The observer sticks around long enough to be interrogated further by Number Six before she gets flustered and runs from any more questioning.

With the observer and Number Two gone, Six goes to work on another escape plan. He steals a life preserver and some rope from the stone ship and takes them into the cave where he's keeping the body he found. He writes a letter and puts it in the wallet of the dead man before tying him to the preserver and dragging him out to sea. When he looks back at the cave, he sees Dutton standing in the cave where he was keeping the body. Dutton tells Number Six that he told them everything he knows, but they don't believe him. He expresses sorrow over having to go back to the hospital where he'll be tortured for information he doesn't have until he becomes a shell of a man.

Number Six arrives at the party in his tuxedo, but Six's inquisitive nature gets the best of him and, instead of dancing, he tries to question a woman at the party. When he doesn't get the answers he seeks, he leaves the dance and investigates Town Hall while masquerading as support staff. A woman gives him a termination order for Dutton to pass on to Number Two, but he gets sidetracked while wandering into an office and later a locked morgue. Number Two intrudes on him and informs him that he should stop trying to escape to the village because the outside world believes him dead. She leads him back to the party where things take a turn and transform into an inquisition and trial. He is charged with having and using "an object" which breaks the rules of the island. The prosecutor, Six's observer, refers to the radio that he had and claims that because he had no radio on him and could not borrow one, it is an affront to the community. The prosecutor urges the judges, including the doctor, that Six should be punished to the fullest extent. Number Two, on the other hand, poorly defends him and only exists to ask that the judges respond to his flagrant disregard of the rules with kindness. Frustrated with the court refusing to consider him innocent at any time, Six tries to call Dutton as a character witness. Unfortunately, for Six, Dutton is dressed as a fool and has been practically lobotomized by the doctor's tests.

The judges find Number Six guilty and sentence him to death, causing him to run from the mob of people. They partygoers chase him into the morgue where he once was, but Six finds a trap door that lets him out in the main hall. While everyone searches, he makes his way into the parlor which is invisible to the villagers and destroys a printing machine. There, Number Two intrudes again on him and tells him that the villagers are trying to kill him because they don't know he's already dead. She also tells him that the woman observing him will no longer do so and demonstrates the futility of his rebellion by showing the printing machine miraculously completely in tact.