November 24, 1967 Season 1 Episode 9
If you want to see where we are…HERE is a list of the episodes.
Hard to believe…we are over halfway through. Checkmate is one of my favorites. This episode drops Number Six into one of the Village’s more elaborate games, a human chess match where the residents are sorted into opposing sides. The setup looks like a harmless diversion, but the rules are social as much as they are strategic. People are pushed into roles, told who their allies are, and encouraged to treat the other side as the enemy. Number Six plays along long enough to understand the board, but he’s really watching how quickly the Village can turn a crowd into pieces.
It starts with a strange human chess game in the Village, where people stand in for the pieces and obey the moves given to them. Number Six notices that the “queen” seems different from the others; she still has some independent spirit. He later learns from the old chess master that in the Village, people can be divided into two groups: those who obey and those who command. Number Six thinks that idea might help him find allies for an escape.
He begins testing people to see who still has a will of their own. He gathers a small group, including the Rook and a few others, and they build a raft in secret. The plan is to slip away by sea, but the Village is always built on suspicion. The problem is not just the guards or Rover; it is trust. Number Six believes he has found the difference between prisoners and collaborators, but the Village turns that against him.
Number Six tries to break that rhythm of the village by talking to both sides, refusing to treat the other group as less human. He looks for weak points in the setup, not just to win the game, but to prove the whole thing can be disrupted if people stop obeying the script.
The rook and Number 6 devise an escape plan, and this time, the rook is not really a stooge of the village…but he was suspicious, just like Number 6, which didn’t help with the plan. The chessboard is a symbol, but the message is clear: keep people separated, keep them competing, and they won’t unite against the ones running the game. In the Village, even play is a trap, and every move is watched, but he keeps aiming for the one move they can’t plan for, refusing to be just another piece. Be Seeing You!
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another interesting concept. Who would decide the moves in such a game?
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Oh the players do…they are the chess pieces in more ways than one lol.
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Once again the question for everybody- who is trustworthy?
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Yea…he can’t even team up with anyone…or them to him.
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I am so much at odds with what Max says about this episode that I wanted to rewatch it after reading what Max wrote. A brief explanation, I have previously viewed the next episode of The Prisoner the weekend after Max posts his write up.
I remain holding a very different opinion of this Checkmate episode.
Max writes about the chess game and sees things I don’t. I see a single character calling the moves, with little else of consequence. These characters are supposed to do as the single character, of whom little is revealed, calls and when Number 6 does not immediately move as so called the Village, i.e., the system, breaks down repeating the move from various speakers and vantage points. Okay, Number 6 rebels. Tell me something new.
I don’t see people pushed into roles except that instead of being called by the Village assigned number they are called by their position in the chess game. Number 6 is now the Queen’s pawn. A rose by any other name would still be a rose.
The use of humans as chess pieces is not unique nor even new to the Prisoner.
The fact that during this episode the Rook is called the Rock, even outside the chess game, and not by the two digit number (fifty something, but it moves too fast to catch and is ultimately of little importance) seems more to me than the show makes of it, or Max for that matter.
Max concludes that the problem is not just the guards or Rover, it is trust. The whole show is about trust. Number 6 does not trust anyone or anybody, and that is fundamental to the show.
And what of the beginning, where Rover seems to leisurely roll through the Village without target nor goal. Huh?
Max says the Rook is not really a stooge of the Village. I don’t see anything to suggest that. Indeed, the most interesting thing about the Rook is when we are told the Rook thought Number 6 part of the Village power structure. A wonderful mind game. But isn’t the whole thing just a mind game. We are repeatedly told that the information Number 6 has is too important to harm his well being, but we have nothing to base this on other than the set up of the show.
In the comments, Max says the characters in the chess game decide their moves. No, the moves are ordered by the one man, not the game players and someone the show keeps anonymous.
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Ok…. I guess we agree to disagree! lol. I was watching it AS I was writing it…so I guess we just see it differently. NO I didnt say in the post that the players made the move…in the comments I did which was probably wrong…but that was NOT part of the post.
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Part of the appeal of this series is that two people can see the same episode and walk away from it with totally different views. I love it.
How’s the truck?
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Oh yea it is…but the funny thing is…this one is the only one I watched while I was typing it.
Oh…we got everything disconnected and we are ready to pull it out. It started to rain and turned cooler. But…I learned a lot. I took the driveshaft, alternator, and other things out…if not for the rain we probably would have pulled it…but that took us a while
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