The Prisoner/A Change of Mind

A Change of Mind
Season 1, Episode 12
Airdate	December 31, 1967
Written by	Roger Parkes
Directed by	Joseph Serf
← 1x11 It's Your Funeral	1x13 → Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling
The Prisoner — Season One

A Change of Mind is the twelfth episode of the first season of The Prisoner. Number Six's antisocial tendencies come around on him when he is declared "unmutual" by the committee and is forced to undergo a personality rehabilitation procedure.

Starring: Patrick McGoohan (Number Six)

Guest Stars: Angela Browne (Number Eighty-Six), John Sharpe (Number Two)

with Angelo Muscat (The Butler), George Pravda (Doctor), Kathleen Breck (Number Forty-Two), Peter Swanwick (Supervisor), Thomas Heathcote (Lobo Man), Bartlett Mullins (Committee Chairman)

and Michael Miller (Number Ninety-Three), Joseph Cuby (1st Member of Social Group), Michael Chow (2nd Member of Social Group), June Ellis (Number Forty-Eight), John Hamblin (1st Woodland Man), Michael Billington (2nd Woodland Man)

Plot Overview

During his routine private workout in the woods, Number Six is attacked by two goons wearing striped shirts. They provoke him into beating them down and go to the committee about his violence against them. He goes to meet with the committee, but is absolutely hostile towards their questioning and procedures, particularly when they demand a confession from him. Although, before his punishment can be levied, the committee goes out for tea. They plan to resume the meeting at a later date, so Number Six leaves and picks up a newspaper which reports on the investigation into his insubordination. Six returns home to find Number Two sitting at a table in his home. He warns Six that if the committee were to see him as "public enemy number six," he would be powerless to help him. He also introduces Six to Number Eighty Six, a woman who has special knowledge of the committee.

Number Eighty Six attempts to council him on how to work with the committee and keep his standing in the eyes of all villagers, but Number Six is naturally hostile towards such a thing. Never the less, he goes with her to the social group but is called a reactionary rebel when he "undermines" the rehabilitation of the depressed poet from the committee lobby. He's then whisked away to his medical examination. They find him fit for all contingencies, but don't mention what exactly they have in mind for him. Before he leaves the hospital, he attempts to save a man who's suffering in aversion therapy and meets someone who underwent therapy for being "unmutual." Number Six ends his trip with the completion of his earlier meeting with the council, who deems him "unmutual" and will take action if further complaint is lodged against him.

After Number Six leaves the meeting, he finds the streets empty and a newspaper stating the results of his committee meeting. The radio also announces his "unmutual" standing as he goes into his home. Before long, the appeals subcommittee, which now includes the depressed poet, appears at his door. They leave when they realize that looking for contrition in Six is "premature." After this, Six is subjected to what Number Two refers to as "real loneliness" in order to progress the plan of breaking him. While in the cafe, Number Six's table is avoided by the villagers and the waiter refuses to serve him coffee. When Six returns home, he finds the subcommittee again who explains his loneliness as the act of socially conscious citizens. Number Two calls him and describes social conversion as "the isolation of an aggressive frontal lobe." Number Six walks outside and is beaten with umbrellas before dragged to the hospital, where he's injected with a sedative and strapped to a table for his conversion. The conversion is essentially a combination of electroshock therapy with an ultrasonic laser beam, which the committee sits in on by way of closed circuit TV.

Number Six awakens from his treatment and is sent home with his new, less aggressive attitude. Six again peaks in on the aversion therapy man but feels no compulsion to help him. A parade sees Number Six home, where he again meets Number Two. After Two leaves, Six watches his caregiver drop a pill into his tea and drains the drink into a vase while she isn't looking. Thinking Six drank the drugged tea, the woman leaves to let him sleep. Shortly after, Number Two returns of Six's flat to interrogate him about his resignation but gets nothing out of him. Two decides to leave Six and return at a later date. Six investigates the bandage and sees the scar, proving that something was done to him, but he is still suspicious. Number 86 and Number Two look on and 56 mentions it was the drugs that would have prevented the aggression, not the phony ray gun. Number Two asks her to return to Number Six's home and "step up" the injection of drugs into his tea. He pours out the drugged cup by insulting her tea drinking and makes his own batch. Knowing that she will drug his cup, he switches them and causes her to drug herself. She's called back to Number Two while Number Six leaves his home and meets the man who also went under social conversion.

Later on, Number Six goes to his hidden gymnasium for a workout, but can't seem to bring himself to work on either the bar or the punching bag. The two thugs appear again to fight him, thinking that he's become a far more social being but he gets the better of them again. He meets up with Number 86 again, but she's still affected by the drugs. She's called by Number Two again, but Six hypnotizes her into believing that he is her superior and that she'll give him a full report on his own procedure. She admits that the whole thing was a sham and Number Six gives her further instructions on what to do next.

Six goes on to meet with Number Two in the green dome and plays along with his pretense of personality rehabilitation. He recommends that he speak out on why he resigned from duty to the entire village in hopes of flushing out others who are withholding secrets. The villagers are called to the town square, where Number Six addresses them about social conversion. During his speech, the bell rings at 4:00 and Number 86 confesses that Number Two is an "unmutual" and must undergo the procedure. He asks that they reject the false world of Number Two and the mob drags him off to the hospital, just as they had done Number Six. Meanwhile, the omnipresent butler walks in the opposite direction, undeterred and unseen.