The Schizoid Man (The Prisoner)

Infobox Television episode
Title = The Schizoid Man
Series = The Prisoner
Season = 1
Episode = 5
Guests = Number Two - Anton Rodgers
Alison - Jane Merrow
Writer = Terence Feely
Director = Pat Jackson
Production =
Airdate = October 29, 1967
Episode list =


Prev = Free For All
Next = The General

The Schizoid Man is an episode of "The Prisoner".

Plot

In an extremely complex plot of bluff and double bluff, Number 2 brings a lookalike of Number 6, referred to as "Number 12", to The Village. The "real" Number 6 is subjected to aversion therapy to alter his tastes and instincts. When he awakes, he is treated as "Number 12", while the lookalike assumes the role of Number 6. The real Number 6 is informed by Number 2 of the plan to break "Number 6" (actually the imposter) by convincing him that he is not Number 6 at all.

The two engage in various challenges to prove which is the real Number 6, the aversion therapy resulting in the imposter behaving more like Number 6 than the real one does. The plot is seemingly contrived to confuse Number 6 into lowering his defences, and to make him accept his place in The Village, having consistently rejected the moniker "Number 6" in the past.

At the end of the episode, the real Number 6 overcomes and kills the imposter. Pretending to be the imposter, he reports to Number 2 that Number 6 is dead. He is then put onto the helicopter to leave The Village. Blindfolded, and believing himself to have duped Number 2 into letting him escape, the helicopter returns to The Village, where Number 2 reveals that he had deduced the truth due to his inaccurate answering of a trivial question about Number 12's family life just before boarding.

Additional guest cast

* Supervisor: Earl Cameron
* Number Thirty-Six: Gay Cameron
* Doctor: David Nettheim
* Nurse: Pat Keen
* Guardian: Gerry Crampton
* Guardian: Dinney Powell

Notes

* The character of Alison is unusual in that she is a Village resident/inmate yet is referred to by name not only by Number 6 but by Number 2 as well. She is also one of the only female characters in the series to have any sort of relationship with Number Six, in which Number Six actually reciprocates (although the episode stops short of suggesting anything romantic).
* This is the only episode in which Rover is referred to by name. Prior to this, the device was never referred to by any name, although scripts and the spin-off novels refer to it as the Guardian.

Trivia

* The title of this episode was later reused in the "" episode of , as Patrick McGoohan (Number Six) was set to guest star as Dr. Ira Graves.
* One reason that Number 12 is the impersonater because he is Number 6's "double" and 6 doubled is 12
* As the episode featured a doppelganger of McGoohan’s Number Six character McGoohan's stunt double on the show Frank Maher has a lot of screen time in this episode alongside the ‘real’ Number Six.
* The helicopter scene at the end briefly shows the helicopter without pontoons.