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.
