A. B. and C.
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"A. B. and C." is the title of the third episode of the British science-fiction-allegorical series, The Prisoner. It originally aired in the UK on ITV on October 15, 1967 and was first broadcast in the United States on CBS in the summer of 1968.
The episode starred Patrick McGoohan in the character of Number Six and featured as Number Two Colin Gordon, the only actor other than Leo McKern who would play Number Two in more than one episode.
Plot summary
The episode opens with Number Two pacing in his offices at the Green Dome, interrupted by the harsh, high bleeping of the red phone on his desk. With obvious reluctance, he takes the call, which is evidently from Number One, about Two's lack of progress in getting information from Number Six. "He's no ordinary person, but if I had a free hand -- ... Yes. Yes, I know -- I'm aware I'm not indispensable." Immediately after that call, Two picks up another phone and makes another call, insisting that "the experiment must come forward," despite the female voice on the other end protesting that "it hasn't even been tested on animals yet!" Two nevertheless insists that "the experiment" will proceed that night.That night, as lightning crashes, an unconscious Number Six is wheeled into a laboratory where Two and the doctor he spoke with are waiting to begin "the experiment". Six is lifted onto a padded bench, and electronic sensors are pressed to his temples; the doctor, Number Fourteen, explains that the sensors are measuring the patterns of Six's brain waves and converting it into pictures on the lab's video screen. As they watch what Six is thinking (an endless repeat of Six storming into his boss' office and delivering his resignation, with footage taken from the show's opening) Fourteen comments "He's not conventional", to which Two replies "I sometimes think he's not human".
Fourteen starts preparing for the main phase of the experiment, by injecting Six with the first dose of the prepared drug. Seeing the three prepared syringes of the drug, Two asks why there aren't more. Fourteen replies that three doses is dangerous enough; four would kill him. While she is preparing the injection, Six opens his eyes and sees Fourteen, who sees herself on the video screen through Six's eyes, and gently closes his eyelids. Two outlines his theory: he believes Six resigned because he intended to "sell out", and has narrowed the people he thinks Six might have sold out to down to three: A., B., and C. With Six's mind made more malleable by the drug, they will feed him footage to make him dream of what would have happened had each of the three approached him with an offer to sell his secrets.
Two and Fourteen first feed Six footage of the place where he might have been approached by any of the three: one of the parties of "the celebrated Madame Engadine", at her mansion in Paris. Once Six is dreaming of walking about at the party and flirting with his hostess, they feed in footage of A., a dark-haired and moustached man that Fourteen recognizes as having defected from the West to the East about six years previously. Encountering A. at the party in his dream, Six is less than pleased; A. hints that Six must have secrets to sell and that he wants to buy them, but Six rebuffs all A.'s advances, telling A. as he told Engadine, that he is going on holiday. When Six tries to leave the party, A. kidnaps him instead with the aid of a couple of henchman, and takes him back to the country he works for now; when they get out of the car, however, Six takes on A. and his thugs in a fistfight, and comes out the victor as the dream ends. With the possibility that Six would have sold out to A. eliminated, Two wants to move on immediately to B., but Fourteen insists that the drug has put such a strain on Six that he must have twenty-four hours to recover from it.
The next morning, Six wakes, aching from the effects of the drug, and opens the door of his cottage in time to see Fourteen buying flowers from a nearby vendor. His memory triggered by the sight of her, he finds the needle mark on his wrist where the drug was injected. He follows her and confronts her at a cafe, stating that "last week, Number Fourteen was an old lady in a wheelchair... you're new here, and you're working for them." Fourteen denies any knowledge of what Six is talking about, but when he apologizes for his "mistake", she replies "Don't worry, we all have to make mistakes... sometimes we have to."
Six goes to see Two at the Green Dome, deliberately showing off his needle mark and making a reference to Fourteen as a doctor. When Six leaves, Two receives a call from One, and promises One results within two days. That night, Six returns to his cottage, says good night to the maid who is just leaving, and drinks a cup of tea that the maid left. Within seconds, Six has collapsed on the floor, the drugged tea falling along with him.
Dosed with the second syringe of the drug, Six is back at Engadine's party, where she approaches and asks about A., her "other handsome guest". Two and Fourteen feed Six with footage of B., but as Six's dream-self merely sits at a table alone sipping a cocktail, they begin to think he is resisting the drug. Soon, though, a maid arrives with a note for Six, which he describes to Engadine as a note from "an old friend", asking him to meet her in the arbor.
In the arbor, Six meets B., a brunette woman wearing a dress of pink and purple. Six and B. seem to be on very friendly terms, but he warns her that A. is about, and would probably kill her given the chance, a possibility she treats very casually. Though B. asks Six a number of questions about his upcoming holiday, he deflects them as they begin to dance. Fourteen warns Two that although Six's dream-self appears relaxed, he is actually fighting the drug so hard, he'll soon burn it out of his system.
Desperate to get information from Six, Two seizes on a speculation by Fourteen that they might be able to influence Six's dream not just with film footage, but with sound. Fourteen worries that Six might hear her voice in the dream rather than B.'s, but Two insists they go ahead. With Fourteen now influencing the dream by providing B. with dialogue, B. becomes suddenly anxious and desperate, begging Six for his help in staving off A. and his companions. She claims she needs information to trade to them in exchange for her life -- such as why Six resigned. Six becomes suspicious, especially after B. says to him "We all make mistakes -- sometimes we have to," very nearly the exact words Fourteen said to him in the waking world. Six directly accuses B. of not being who she says she is. Armed thugs enter the arbor, threatening B., and B. pleads for Six's help, but he says he doesn't believe in her. To prove she is a fake, he asks personal questions about B.'s husband and son; Two and Fourteen can only answer the first of the questions with the information in B.'s dossier. Ignoring B.'s pleading, Six leaves her at the mercy of the thugs supposedly threatening her.
Waking the next morning, Six finds the cup of tea that drugged him on his nightstand, exactly where it would have been if he had not dropped it in his collapse. Examining his wrist, he finds a second needle mark.
Later that day, Six shadows Fourteen, following her at a distance as she goes into the woods, entering the laboratory where the experiment has been taking place. Unable to follow her through the metal door she enters, Six investigates the rock face in which the door is set, and above the door finds a ventilation shaft. Entering the facility through the ventilation shaft -- and narrowly missing being seen by Fourteen as she leaves -- Six enters the laboratory. Six explores, finding the video monitor used to feed him footage of Engadine's party, the dossiers on A., B. and C., and the syringe containing the third prepared dosage of the drug for him. Six squeezes about two-thirds of the drug out into a cloth, and replaces the fluid in the syringe with water.
Two, in pajamas and dressing gown, ascends to his room in the Green Dome, complaining to The Butler that he couldn't sleep. Seeing Six walking about The Village on the surveillance screens, he snarls about Six's constant energy, yelling "doesn't he ever get tired?" Six turns to the surveillance camera and tosses the Village salute as he says "Be seeing you"; Two snaps back "No! I'll be seeing you!"
That night, Six finds another cup of tea left on his nightstand; he stirs it as he walks slowly over, and pours it out into the sink. Smiling with satisfaction, he pours himself a glass of tapwater instead and sips it. He makes it no more than halfway to his bed, however, before he wobbles and falls to the floor.
Additional guest cast
- Blonde Lady: Georgina Cookson
- Flower girl: Lucille Soong
- Maid at party: Bettine Le Beau
- Thug: Terry Yorke
- Thug: Peter Brayham
- Henchman: Bill Cummings
Chronology
It is never definitely indicated whether the Number Two in this episode is the same Number Two played by Colin Gordon in "The General". At the beginning of "A. B. and C.", when Number Six asks "Who are you?" Number Two replies "I am Number Two." At the beginning of The General, when Number Six asks "Who are you?" Number Two (played by Colin Gordon) replies "I am the new Number Two."
In actual broadcast order, "A. B. and C." was the third episode while "The General" was broadcast sixth in order. If the Number Two of each of the two shows is the same character, it would illustrate some of the production problems faced by the show; the Number Two of "A. B. and C." is clearly close to the end of his tenure, and this would indicate that this episode must follow The General in chronology.
Notes
- The episode's plot is discussed by two characters during a heroin-fueled joyride through the streets of Paris in the 1994 film Killing Zoe.
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