Hammer into Anvil

This is my favorite Prisoner episode.

656 A girl is in the Village hospital after trying to kill herself.

Number Two is questioning her, trying to find where her husband is, and lying to her about her husband and another woman.

Number Six is near the hospital when he hears a woman scream. He rushes upstairs but is stopped by some men. Number Two had apparently threatened or attacked the girl and she jumps from the window, killing herself in the process. Number Two says "You will pay for this," to Number Six, but the Prisoner replies, "No, you will."

This time when Number Six is out walking he's jumped by a bunch of guys who take him to Number Two who had called Number Six and said he wanted to talk to him previously.

Number Two tries to intimidate Number Six but it doesn't work. Number Two hits Number Six, showing again his violent tendencies. "You must be anvil or hammer" is a saying that Number Two speaks but the Prisoner recognizes.

Number Two gets a call from Number One and Number Six notices how it sort of shakes up Number Two.

Number Two tells the Supervisor that Number Six is to be closely observed, and any unusual behavior on his part is to be reported. Number Six has figured something like this would happen and begins his plan to get back at Number Two. He goes to the store and listens to several copies of the same song, pretending something is different about one of the copies. This gets reported to Number Two but, in reality, there is nothing different even though Number Two is absolutely sure something is different about one of the copies since Number Six acted like something one copy was special in some way.

The Prisoner listens to the recordings and circles the word "security" on the Tally Ho paper he got. He then watches as the store worker leaves, carrying the records he listened to, heading towards Number Two's.

Number Six is aware of one of Number Two's lackies going into his cottage.

A note Number Six had written, supposedly reporting to someone about Number Two.

Number Six goes to the stone boat and leaves some papers which are supposedly the follow-up report mentioned in the note above. The papers, though, are really totally blank. Number Six won't believe that, of course, and starts to question the others around him, thinking they are withholding information from him.

For his next trick Number Six has a notice printed in the next issue of the Tally Ho. It's a quote from Don Quixote.

The next thing he does is to call the hospital and talk to a psychiatrist, pretending he's working with him on a report about Number Two.

Number Six then gives the band a request for a song. It's from the same symphony that the song he listened to earlier is from.

Number Six puts some flowers on the grave of the girl who died, then looks at another gravestone. He drops off a "personal message" to him from number 113, which happens to be the number on one of the gravestones he was examining. This ends up with Number Two confronting the Supervisor and alienating yet more people.

(There is one problem with this prank, though, and that is the message was handwritten, presumably by Number Six, so they would be able to analyze the handwriting and determine it was he who wrote the message. Apparently it didn't occur to anyone to check out this possibility even after they realized that the person who supposedly wrote the message was actually dead.)

For his next trick Number Six shows up at Number Two's, saying that he had been called by Number Two and to report to him urgently. Number 14, Number Two's lackey, confronts Number 6 and the two have a "civilized" fight.

Number Six then works on two pranks at the same time. He buys a notebook and a cuckoo clock with a big box. He uses the box part to catch a bird and send a "coded message", and uses the cuckoo clock to make Number Two think he is getting a bomb. The message on the bird is in code which he knows they can decipher, and it says he will send a vital message the next day "by visual signal."

Number Six sends a nonsense message via mirror and reflected sunlight.

Number Six then talks to Number 14, knowing it will be found out by Number Two and Number Two will think Number 14 is also conspiring against him.

Number Two confronts Number 14. He goes to have a fight with Number Six while Number Two even gets mad at the butler and tells him to get out.

Number Six goes to confront Number Two. He pretends he has been sending messages to their higher-ups and breaks Number Two so thoroughly that he calls himself in as unfit for duty.

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