The Prisoner (TV Series) Fall Out (1968) User Reviews

McGoohan's Revenge

[macheath-ny · 9/10 · 1 September 2009]

As is now better known to the general public, this episode was hatched by McGoohan after he was told that the series was to be canceled. Originally, the preceding "Once Upon a Time" was to be the final episode of the first season. McKern was to die, The Prisoner was on his way to see Number 1, and the audience would have to wait the summer to find out what happens.

McGoohan, whose political and social viewpoint was by then clear to everyone who had watched the series from its inception, was as should be expected miffed by its termination, and decided to give audience and producers alike a run for their money. The surrealism of this episode is never matched again until the finale of 'Twin Peaks'(qv). I give it a 9 rather than a 10 because the preceding episode is im(ns)ho one of the greatest pieces of television drama ever written, and therefore should not ever have another piece from the same series given equal appraisal.

I Love this series

[jdredman57 · 9/10 · 18 September 2021]

I was a child when this first aired and as a child fully enjoyed the surreal reality of it. Watching it now as an adult; the visual of how society, any society, tends to dehumanize people and categorize them is very powerful and even more contemporary than back when it was written and filmed. It was quite unusual for its time. And though parts of it are very much "of its time", the issue behind the series is timeless as long as we continue to see others as "them" instead of part of "us" and therefore a threat. Brilliant writing and execution by all involved. Kudos!!

Village outing

[Lejink · 7/10 · 4 November 2018]

And so after 17 episodes I got to the end of Patrick McGoohan's idiosyncratic, often brilliant series "The Prisoner". A contemporary Kafka-esque take on individuality, identity, free-will and the intrusion of privacy spiced up with sci-fi and secret agent tropes, it must have seemed way out there back in 1967 and if truth be told, comes across as not much less baffling today.

Unsurprisingly, reading up on the show's chequered production history, there are occasional lapses in continuity and consistency with one or two episodes bypassing me completely, but at its best, with brilliant episodes like "Arrival", "A B + C", "Living In Harmony", "The Chimes Of Big Ben", "Many Happy Returns", "Hammer Into Anvil" "The Schizoid Man" and "Once Upon A Time" to name but eight, this was an intriguing, challenging series which has deservedly become even more revered as time has gone by.

For this climactic episode, having won his psychological war of wits with Leo McKern's vanquished No. 2, McGoohan's ("Don't call me) No. 6" gets taken to meet the seemingly omnipotent No. 1. What follows next is an absurdist finale with a resurrected McKern and Alexis Kanner both put forward as rebels of the community, before a presiding McGoohan, playing out bizarre scenes in front of a president of proceedings and a seated but highly suggestible audience wearing black drapes and masks.

Finally, McGoohan unmasks No. 1 in a shocking moment and in a crazy finale which sees a rocket go up, a gunplay shootout to the background of The Beatles "All You Need Is Love" and the three rebels jiving to "Dem Bones" in the back cage of an articulated truck, finally he returns to his London flat (or has he?), now accompanied by the impassive dwarf butler.

The whole series could be the subject of a college thesis and still I don't think you'd get to the bottom of it. I certainly didn't but what a strange and immersive experience it was.

Looney yet profound conclusion

[steve-3285 · 10/10 · 7 January 2007]

McGoohan pulls out all the stops in his writing and directing this allegorical conclusion to the groundbreaking TV series. Though there were many hints scattered throughout the series that #6 was essentially dealing with his own demons—that point is made abundantly clear in this outrageously inventive episode. We are all locked in our cells, both the cells of our material bodies and the cells of our past, our reputations, our egos. When #6 begins to address the forces of society his word "I" gets repeated to the point of drowning out his message (it also is the word "aye" meaning yes and a pun for the all seeing "eye" of number one). The ego and ego worship appears as a mad god (#1 or eye). Though many would revere freedom in the abstract, there is a great internal fear of true freedom. McGoohan's character is very controlled and emotionally tight, thus his shadow side (#1) is a complete loon (for example, playing the Beatles tune "All you need is love" over a blazing gun fight). When McGoohan launches #1 into space, a chain of events occur leading the four escapees toward various illusions of freedom within the outside world (hitching a ride to nowhere in particular, joining the halls of political power or racing a sports car). The silent butler appears to take McGoohan place in his home which opens by itself as an extension of the Village.

Though many dislike the episode for its unabashed symbolism, it stands as a fitting and provocatively ambiguous end to the series. Along with "Free for All," it's my personal favorite episode.

Fall Out is Brilliant

[emefay · 10/10 · 25 April 2007]

Although I agree with most of what "steve 3285" said in his insightful and comprehensive discussion of Fall Out, that fascinating ultimate episode of my favourite series ever, I have one quibble. I do not think Angelo Muscat, the Butler, was meant to be taking #6's place when he entered the door of his house at the end. I think he was just about to become his Butler. Yes, it was clever that the door opened and closed electronically - one last clue to the multiple meanings in this fabulous series.

I just wonder one thing, out of curiosity. Although I "got" the various allusions to different concepts of "1," and "I" as Steve mentioned, I must confess that I missed the relationship to the word "Aye." I DID see all the others, and I wonder if he noted one more. People often refer to themselves as #1. I could not be sure if Steve meant that, too, when he said #1 in his review. The self as #1, meaning "I'm the most important person in my opinion," or "looking out for #1," that sort of thing, was my first clue to the puns all those years ago when I watched The Prisoner for the first time in stunned admiration.

It was always one of the sadnesses of my life that I never got to meet the brilliant Mr. McGoohan, although we both lived in Southern California at the same time; and another that I have not yet been able to visit Portmeirion - although I have some of the eponymous dishes designed so beautifully by Ms. Susan WIlliams-Ellis.

The Prisoner, and this episode in particular, still stands alone as the most intriguingly surreal television program ever.

Liberation

[AaronCapenBanner · 10/10 · 9 June 2015]

Number six(Patrick McGoohan) has survived degree absolute, and is now brought behind the scenes of power to meet number one, but first must witness the trials of a resurrected number two(Leo McKern) and a number 48(Alexis Kanner) overseen by the president(played by Kenneth Griffith) who lays out their crimes, though both men are defiant, and the president promises allegiance to six, who is satisfied by his victory, but wary of the tribunal and president, but accepts the invitation to confront the elusive number one, so that all will be revealed, but identity and power are not so easy to accept or fully explain, leading to an astonishing unmasking, violent escape, and bizarre happenings leading back to the beginning...

Legendary final episode is a shocking, surprising, audacious, courageous, infuriating and overall brilliant (and yes), satisfying conclusion, though much misunderstood by some not used to the bold and original approach taken by star, writer, and director Patrick McGoohan, who didn't end the series in a familiar "James Bond" style villain and approach, but instead created an inspired masterwork that challenges the expectations and provokes the intelligence of the audience to not be a passive viewer, but actually think about what they are seeing. Describing the on-screen doings is not enough; this demands to be seen as the most unpredictable, innovative episode of television ever aired, though of course some don't understand it, so instinctively dismiss it, yet to do so is an injustice.

Intensely fascinating and ultimately liberating, both incredibly serious yet defiantly inexplicable and comedic("All You Need Is Love" is most ironically used here.) Nothing like it has ever aired again, and it will never be forgotten, even if appreciation of it varies throughout the years. A breathtaking achievement that deeply moved and surprised me like nothing else ever broadcast. It is a sublime masterpiece, and I love it to pieces!

It Took Me A Year To Appreciate

[Pete_Falina · 10/10 · 27 October 2007]

I watched the original broadcast of this episode (and the entire series) on CBS the summer it ran in the United States. After the first viewing, I absolutely hated this episode. I wanted factual explanations, a very real and solid down-to-earth conclusion, and Mr. McGoohan provided imagery and allegory. I was perhaps excessively literal in those days, and may have been led astray by the series itself. While the episode title escapes me at the moment, I'm sure the hard core fans will remember: Number 6 wakes up to a deserted Village, fashions a raft, and eventually finds his way back to London. He works out where the Village might be from a variety of clues and returns in a military plane, only to be ejected and returned to the once-again lively Village. I was looking for something building on that episode's "clues", and was vastly disappointed. As some of you may recall, CBS ran the series again the next summer, and I tuned in again. After a year of contemplation (and maybe some maturing), I was able to accept FALL OUT for the fine work that it was and is.

just to add to other reviews

[nyoman23 · 10/10 · 6 December 2018]

For those new viewers, I'd like to point out that it was very rare for a song from a big band (none bigger than the Beatles) to be featured in a TV show. It just wasn't done as far as I know. So as a 17 year old watching this and then "All you need is Love" coming out made my jaw drop. The masks at the trial; noticed that the black side of masks had the smile and white the frown. Dark comedy? Who knows? Throughout this episode I wondered (as did #6, I think) is this another more elaborate set up to break #6? To play to human weakness of wanting to be #1, top dog, etc.... electronic door at his old residence does lead to a "hmmmm" moment. I agree butler went in to be butler. I thought perhaps he was #1, as he was always there. "The butler did it". I wonder if Dennis Potter used tune Dem Bones in his Singing Detective as a suble homage to the prisoner. Good reviews, all you folks before my little additions

As unconventional as it gets

[Mr-Fusion · 6/10 · 13 October 2017]

'Fallout' brings about the end for "The Prisoner" with Number 6 speeding along the highway. Exactly how the show started out, yet offering no concrete answers. Was there any other way for such a mystifying show to end? It picks up directly following the events of 'Once Upon A Time', with the tease of revealing who is Number 1? And that's one of the real answers it doesn't offer. Along with the more important question of why.

For me, this doesn't measure up to its predecessor. It's surreal, maddening, hallucinatory; like strolling into a nuthouse. 'Once' was equally demanding, but it was dramatic, featured a McGoohan/McKern showdown and promised something special.

In comparison, this is far more draining, but it's also the show's finish. No matter how grating it is to hear "Dem Bones" repeatedly, I've never been able to just avoid this episode. I find myself needing to hang in there until the very end, even if it is disappointing. That doesn't happen often (ever?) with my favorite TV shows, which is why it's a testament to this series' craft that it's so addictive.

5/10

Very disappointing ending to what could have been a brilliant show

[grantss · 5/10 · 30 April 2022]

After killing Number Two, Number Six is granted his wish to meet Number One. However, first he must meet the Assembly and sit in as the President of the Assembly presides on cases of errant behaviour. The proceedings don't go very smoothly.

For the first 12 episodes The Prisoner was great, an intense, intriguing, intelligent battle of wits and wills between Number Six and a variety of Number Twos and their minions. Then came the 13th episode - Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling - and the quality of the show took a sharp downturn with a plot that was threadbare and didn't make much sense.

The 14th and 15th episodes - Living In Harmony and The Girl Who Was Death - were even worse, suddenly moving the setting to another time and place. Anytime a show suddenly is set in a new location and/or time period (especially) you know the writers have run out of ideas and this exactly what happened there. These two episodes weren't really The Prisoner but rather out-of-place, haphazard stories jammed into the show.

With the 16th episode I was hoping that normal transmission would be resumed and we would again see a Number 6 vs Number 2 battle of wits and wills. Plus, being the penultimate episode I was expecting an indication of how Number 6's predicament would be resolved.

Well, we have the duel and some progress toward a solution but it's not done in a good way. The writing here is all over the place, with random detours, plot developments that make no sense and all sorts of trippy images and scenes that are just there to paper over the lack of genuine plot.

This, the final episode, follows in the same vein. Plot is all over the place, random trippy scenes, stuff that's really in there just to kill time, action scenes that seem very out of place. The resolution is also pretty lacklustre: hardly the clever, gripping conclusion I was hoping for every episode of the show. Quite sad as after the first 12 episodes this was set up for a brilliant, intelligent climax.

Very disappointing.

Fine climax

[samourx1 · 9/10 · 10 November 2014]

My father who in the 1960's worked on a number of film studio productions in the art and engineering Dept, as well as briefly on screen, corroborated the story linked to the final episode of the Prisoner.

He was on good terms with Patrick McGoohan who would take breaks between shoots by snoozing on a table in Shepperton. Turned out to be the same place that I many years later would be having quick nap when I was acting at Shepperton in Inkheart! For the final episode Patrick hadn't written much, and the deadline was getting closer and closer. Finally he and a co writer had to stay up all night to complete the script. This rush explains why there are some even more surreal scenes than usual. The piece with all the singing been a case in point.

Number 6 has a disturbing problem which skews this episode away from Number 5's eternal struggle to showing that the System may be about to crumble.

Then the episode goes into even greater flights as one of the most psychedelic works of the decade. Just remember it wasn't planned. More of a case of stream of consciousness to complete a script that was urgently needed.

I have just one question.

[FilmManRetaliates · 1/10 · 28 August 2021]

The village was in a secluded island (Episode: Many happy returns). In the final episode, they used a lorry to flee back to London from the village.

What were they smoking?

Pure Speculation

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 23 February 2015]

After the previous mind-bending episode, the conclusion of the series isn't quite as stellar, but it is still quite striking. If, indeed, we are watching a man who has come to a sense of great inner pain and has lapsed into being a prisoner, we then see this as a kind of psychedelic journey (which would have been cutting edge in the sixties). Number Six is brought to see Number One, or so he thinks, and finds himself at a kind of tribunal with a panel of half black faced jurors. There is also a person in the robes and wig of the British judiciary who holds court over everyone. As Number Six sort of double talks as the tribunal goes on, he is reintroduced to his time in the village. They bring up the time he said he would escape and come back and obliterate the whole place. There is so much that is symbolic in all of this, but, ultimately I believe that the "I" or the Number One is a shadow with multiple layers that is not unlike the subconscious mind. I have not figured out the guy who played "The Kid" in the Western episode. He sings the song "Dry Bones" over and over, I suppose to bring us back to a kind of reality where things leave what is in the mind to corporeal being. He ends up hitch-hiking on the highway, but with little success. This may take a few more viewings. What an amazing series. I first saw it when it ran for the first time, nearly fifty years ago. I wish it could be viewed again with fresh eyes in the current political and social climate.

Saving the Best Episode for Last

[Samuel-Shovel · 10/10 · 8 August 2019]

Typically I start off my reviews with a quick little recap of the episodes but in this case I don't think that that would do this episode justice. This is quite possibly the best series finale I've ever seen, encapsulating all parts of what made the show great and turning it up to 11. We get closure (despite what some people will tell you), a new level of surrealness surpassing anything prior in the show, some great directing from McGoohan, and a Beatles song to boot!

The music, the optics, everything works. All the actors are on top of their game and the background actors in the robes are fantastically eerie. There was one shot that really stood out in my mind afterwards: when Number Six is going down to meet Number One. We get this great shot from the angle of his feet looking up at the smoke from the hole above. That shot is absolutely stunning. If I hadn't been won over already, it was right here where they got me.

There's enough ambiguity here to make people still talk about the ending to this day: the butler opening his door a la the Village, the final shot of Six in his car, it's just enough to make everyone still think.

To me personally, I believe the whole "1 = I" theory that we are all prisoners to ourselves, no matter where we go in life. Being an individual outside of society means you're always going to be imprisoned by the conformist nature of our culture. If any other Villager had met Number One, they wouldn't have seen One as Number Six did... They would see Number One as themselves.

The Butler ????

[barone66 · 10/10 · 15 August 2019]

I like how at the end, #6 goes into his car and the Butler walks inside #6 London residence, but the address on the door is #1

Today Portmerion, Tomorrow the World

[WarrenPiecz · 10/10 · 25 December 2022]

I'll be as brief as possible.

I believe this was a prescient view of the "New World Order".

It appears to me that EVERYONE in the "Village" was there for #6. The whole joint was a set-up for him. Why? To get him out of the way. Temporarily.

They let him go. Why? Because everything was in place. The entire world had succumbed to the "New World Order"....the entire world had become the "Village".

If they broke him while they were keeping him out of the way, more power to them. If they didn't, who cares, when he got back to London, there would be nothing he could do about anything. Sure, it's kind of outlandish that one man could have done anything to stop the tsunami of a One-World Government, but there was always the risk that his individuality and his inner power could inspire and foment a revolution. So keep him out of the way until it was impossible.

The weird rocket launch at the end? Dunno. Maybe # 1 was all about creating the N. W. O, but wanted no part of it for himself.

The Village being on the British Mainland the whole time? (the only way that weird truck could have driven to London)...er....

The brilliance of this ending is that my interpretation can be no more or less valid than others who saw the same thing, but interpreted it as something entirely different. Just like decades later, dinner discussions over the end of "Sopranos" went all the way through dessert, then single-malts....

McGoohan was WAY ahead of his time.

[Michelle-21 · 10/10 · 14 January 2024]

(If you haven't read Kafka's "Trial" before seeing this, I highly recommend it. Things will make much more sense.)

Imagine a Kafka-esque world with the insane, blind Elder God Azathoth in charge.

This is the situation Number 2 finds himself in in "Fall Out".

He defeated them, never revealed why he resigned, and before he's allowed to meet Number 1, he presides over an insane mockery of a British trial.

Allegories set aside, this is the brilliant final episode of an incredible and very prescient TV show.

When "WarrenPiecz25" wrote in his review, "Today Portmerion, Tomorrow the World", he called it.

In fact, Leo McKern (as Number 2) boldly stated a desire for the New World Order in "The Chimes of Big Ben":

No. 2: "There are people who talk and people who don't, which means some people leave this place and some who do not leave."

No. 6: "You are obviously staying. You're just as much a prisoner as I am."

No 2: "Of course, I know too much - we're both lifers.

I am an optimist. It doesn't matter who Number One is.

It doesn't matter which side runs the Village.

It's run by one side.

But both sides are becoming identical.

What has been created is an international community, a blueprint for world order.

When both sides realise they're the same, they'll see this is the pattern for the future."

No 6: "The whole earth as the Village?"

No 2: "That is my hope."

Why did Number 6 resign? My theory is he found out about the New World Order, and who was running it. He found out about Klaus Schwab and George Soros, back when they were still lurking in the shadows, and he had to be silenced so they could continue to work from the shadows.

Cop-out Ending

[Eradan · 2/10 · 26 January 2022]

The only discernible thought in this farce is the suggestion that TPTB will gracefully submit to a successful rebel as the rulers of the Village are shown doing to Number Six. It's utter nonsense of course as anyone who actually studies history or political science could tell you. Just for one, if old corrupt establishments did things like that, events in the US since November, 2016, would have been rather different, you think?

So much for the only idea in this crapfest coherent enough to be critiqued. The rest of this is obscurationist bullshid. The creators of the show subjected their audience to this cloud of bs because they didn't know how to end the story they'd started. It's a histrionic, psychedelic version of the "It was all a dream" cop-out used on shows like "Dallas" and "Lost".

Too bad. "The Prisoner" had a promising start and there were a few good eps along the way.

What happened?

[andrew12111211 · 2/10 · 16 November 2020]

This episode is a great example of just how far the series had fell since it's premiere. The writing is pure nonsense and I'm surprised this episode was even approved for production. Nothing in this episode make sense and we don't ever get a real explaination as to who number 2 is or why number 6 is here. This is really disappointing when you've invested 16 hours of your life watching the series (albeit there were some good episodes). A really disappointing ending to a show which could have been so much better had better writers been employed.

Overrated episode of an overblown show

[aramis-112-804880 · 5/10 · 27 April 2022]

Now we've seen all the episodes of "The Prisoner" (for me, perhaps for the twelfth time, since I own two sets of the DVDs) let's admit Patrick McGoogan's "The Prisoner" is the most overrated show ever. Like abstract art people praise as genius the less sense it makes. I've been watching this show since I was a teenager back in the 1970s. I was captivated by its color and, I'll fess up, by its weirdness, the way I was as a first-generation American "Monty Python" groupie. Or the way I loved its contemporary spy show "The Avengers" (another confession: when I was a teenaged lad Diana Rigg had a lot to do with that show's captivating me).

Let us all come clean and admit "The Prisoner" was an elaborate practical joke, especially this notorious swan song. Oh, it may not have started out that way. After playing so many grim but solid episodes of "Danger Man" McGoohan and his collaborators might well have started out trying to make a statement or two about the individual; statements with which I wholeheartedly agree, as a lifelong and proud individual in a world increasingly collectivized, where people are forced into groups like so many branded cattle. "A Change of Mind" is more relevant than ever in the twenty-first century. I've been treated like no. 6 in situations where if you're "unmutual" they shun you and maybe blow your house down.

But is the humor pervasive in most episodes (which is similar to the wonderful "Danger Man" episode "The Ubiqitous Mr. Lovegrove") a byproduct, or is it the point?

And what about McGoohan? Despite featuring some of the most fetching women ping-ponging around 1960s British TV from "The Saint" down (this side of D. Rigg)--Annette Andre, Jane Merrow, Angela Browne--no. 6 can't be romantically involved. Given his situation, it makes sense to elude a honey trap. Obviously in "Schizoid Man" he and Alison (Alison?) Are just friends, the way I've been with some women all my life. This is because of McGoohan's Catholic beliefs. Fine

He also doesn't use a gun (and did only a few times in "Danger Man." Like that other big, fat, lying hypocrite, MacGyver.

"MacGyver's" refusal to use guns nearly lost him some innocent people. And though he didn't want to kill anyone with a gun he (like McGoohan) he didn't mind using sledgehammer, disfiguring fisticuffs. And MacGyver loved rigging up Rube Goldberg devices so a ton of lumber would smash down on villains' heads, perhaps giving them brain damage. I'd rather be shot.

And how honest was the uber-Catholic McGoohan? In some interviews he's claimed he even hummed the music. I'm in the arts, though not music. But let me extrapolate what I do. If I were hired to do the music for a TV show and the star butted in, I'd tell him to bug off. Or I'd quit, saying I was hired to do the music and if the star can do a better job, let him.

What other lies did McGoohan tell over the years? That he could only think up about sixteen or seventeen stories. Now we know that's rubbish. In fact some episodes, like the one we all hate where poor Nigel Stock--a good actor but hardly Mr. Excitement--was left blowing in the wind on a leathery-creaking rope until our star got through making "Ice Station Zebra," were intended for series two.

In fact, "The Prisoner" died hemorrhaging money to maintain its quality and wasn't long for the world.

Allegedly McGoohan, insomniac, penned this episode over a weekend. I wouldn't have believed he gave it that much thought. My personal belief is, he wrote this episode to get back at the people who yanked the rug out from under his lovely show. It has all the earmarks of a revenge killing. Or a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

I love "The Prisoner." I'm tickled by its straw hats and pennyfarthing bikes and its band music and lava lamps and its officials who wear silk toppers with striped shirts with no collars or ties. It all adds up to make "The Prisoner" genuinely timeless. It doesn't seem stuck in the 1960s where youth culture preached "love, love, love" (unless you disagreed with them; they were indeed the fathers and mothers of today's snowflakes).

Even the lava lamps don't date the show as they fit right in with the rest of the old-fashioned look. I'd even want to live in Portmerion except for the weather on Wales.

My Favorite episode may be "It's Your Funeral," with the funniest no. 2--despite and perhaps because I had to watch it three times running before I understood it. I love the series' occasionally more serious episodes if the actors are up to it (as with Patrick Cargill's gradual meltdown in "Hammer into Anvil"). But most of all I respect and dote on the silliness. The child-like maps of "Arrival" leading to an almost childlike attitude throughout, the childhood glee blending with childhood fears of a monster in the closet. Like an idyllic childhood full of swell adventure but broken by school where teachers demand answers.

"The Prisoner" was one of the most beautiful shows ever. The writing was clever. It was chock full of fine actors (not only as no. 2s but in other parts here a Donald Sinden, there a Christopher Benjamin--and can that really be Richard Caldicott? And John Castle?

This quality meant long filming and a lot of money to produce. And so the show ended and McGoohan wrote this despicable mess of a final episode. Now we can freeze it and go through it frame by frame. And we can invent answers or take it for what it is--the result of a desperate man writing with no destination in a fit of pique, dashing ideas against a wall and not caring if they stuck; showing about as much cleverness as "Bobby in the shower." If not for the old spiritual "Dry Bones" (is there any better music than old spirituals?) and a few more bits of weirdness shoehorned in, this episode would be a total wreck. It's static, pedantic, self-righteous and ugly.

It's all a big leg-pull. But coming off at the end of a delightful and well-written series it's like finishing a mug of your favorite drink and finding a cockroach at the bottom. Or "You have just been poisoned."

But I forever enjoy that feel-good shot of the three men in the caged truck dancing down the freeway.

I guess Patrick McGoohan always wanted to be a comedian.

[Reviewed · 2/10 · 27 June 2019]

Thigh bone connected to the...are you serious? Funny episode of sorts, but McGoohan is putting us on. Nothing profound about it. Almost (but not quite) as screwed up as "Once Upon a Time". I did get some laughs here.