Episode 5 -   The Schizoid Man

The recap below contains plot spoilers about Episode 5, "The Schizoid Man." If you haven't seen "The Schizoid Man" yet, you can watch the full episode online.

Efforts are made to split No. 6's personality and make him believe he is someone else.

No. 2 (Anton Rodgers) puts into operation the most far-reaching effort yet to break No. 6 (Patrick McGoohan) when No. 6's double is brought into The Village.

It begins when a girl, No. 24 (Jane Merrow), displays a close telepathic understanding with No. 6, their minds so closely attuned that she is able to identify all the cards he selects from a pack. During this game, the only mishap is when she accidentally knocks something onto his left hand and bruises a fingernail.

No. 6 finds himself undergoing a strange transformation. Put into a state of electronic hypnosis, he undergoes a form of brainwashing that changes his tastes, his right-handedness to left-handedness, and even his instincts. He even awakens to find himself looking different, with a mustache and darkened hair. The calendar has been put back several days to indicate that one night has passed, instead of several days. Everyone in The Village, from No. 2 downward, greets him as No. 12, instead of No. 6.

Meanwhile, the double (Patrick McGoohan) has assumed the identity of No. 6 and is living in his house. Brought face-to-face with him, the bewildered No. 6 summons all his will power to fight against the steadily mounting evidence that he is someone else, but finds that everything the double says and does provides No. 6 with more confirmation that he is No. 12 and simply imagining that he was once No 6.

The drama is played out with bitter realism, with No. 2 playing that he believes No. 6 to be who he says he is and that the other man is masquerading. But by degrees No. 6 comes to realize what has happened and how it has been achieved, and, unwittingly, it is the girl, who has helped to try to destroy him, who provides him with the clue to it all.

The drama reaches a tragic climax, enabling No. 6 to convince No. 2 that he is really the double and that the Prisoner has met his death. Arrangements are made for him to leave the Village, his work completed. The door to freedom is open for the Prisoner at last, but for a cruel twist of fate…