The Prisoner/The Girl Who Was Death

The Girl Who Was Death
Season 1, Episode 15
Airdate	January 21, 1968
Written by	Terence Feely
Story by	From an idea by David Tomblin
Directed by	David Tomblin
← 1x14 Living in Harmony	1x16 → Once Upon a Time
The Prisoner — Season One

The Girl Who Was Death is the fifteenth episode of the first season of The Prisoner. Number Six, apparently during his days before the village, attempts to save London from a mad scientist who plots to blow up the city with a giant rocket.

Starring: Patrick McGoohan (The Prisoner)

Guest Stars: Kenneth Griffith (Schnipps), Justine Lord (Sonia)

with Christopher Benjamin (Potter), Michael Brennan (Killer Karminski), Harold Berens (Boxing M.C.), Sheena Marsh (Barmaid)

and Max Faulkner (Scots Napoleon), John Rees (Welsh Napoleon), Joe Gladwin (Yorkshire Napoleon), John Drake (Bowler), Gaynor Steward (Little Girl), Graham Steward (First Little Boy), Stephen Howe (Second Little Boy)

Plot Overview

An elaborate plot at a cricket match ends with the death of Colonel Hawke and results in the involvement of Number Six (who, in this scenario, is not on the island). Six meets with Potter, a fellow spy in order to get information on Hawke's focus prior to his death. Potter tells him that Hawke was close to discovering the whereabouts of a mad scientist bent on creating a rocket that would destroy England. He's directed to go to a record shop and speak to the chief in a listening booth.

Number Six takes over where the colonel left off by taking up his position in cricket. Before long, Six hits the ball into the forested area where it is switched by a woman wearing a white dress. Instead of hitting the ball, Six catches the pitch and hurls it away from the field. It explodes upon impact with the ground and he finds a note asking to meet at the "usual pub." Six arrives at the bar and has a beer, but as he drinks he finds a message at the bottom of the glass slowly revealing itself to say "You have just been poisoned." After getting the message, Six starts ordering shots of everything he can so that he would vomit out the poison before it could affect him. Six is directed by another note to a Turkish bath, where the woman in white attempts to lock him into the steam chamber. Once again, Six escapes but is directed to a boxing booth at the fair where he's paired against Killer Karminski.

The match is punctuated with directions from Karminski, who doesn't know the woman who gave him the message but insists that he must go to the Tunnel of Love. Karminski gets one good punch in that causes Six to fall to the ground. He later finds himself in the tunnel of love with the woman behind him. She tells him that she'll be seeing him again soon, but when Six turns around he only finds a voice recorder that explodes after he throws it. Six tracks the woman from ride to ride at the carnival, but doesn't manage to catch up with her despite his best efforts. The chase by foot turns into a high-speed pursuit on the freeway. She leads him into a town called Witchwood where Six loses her until her booming voice is broadcast from nowhere in particular. She tells him that her name is Death and claims to be the daughter of Schnipps.

Six is lured into an abandoned building that's laden with booby traps including an automated machine gun, a pit of electrified spikes, mined floors and exploding cyanide gas candles. Number Six daringly escapes all of these traps, but is faced by the woman with a machine gun once he gets outside. He evades being shot and takes control of a bulldozer in the blacksmith shop while the woman is insisting that he join her and her father. Six uses the bulldozer as a shield against he gunfire, but the woman is undeterred. She uses mortar fire and grenades to destroy the engine and eventually uses a rocket launcher to blow up the bulldozer.

Thinking that she had killed Number Six, the woman inspects her handiwork before running off to meet her father. Six, however, was hiding in a tunnel and follows her to a helicopter. The woman takes off with Six clinging to the tail end without her knowledge. Once she lands, Six hides in the woods and follows her from a distance. He discovers a cave dwelling outfitted as a laboratory, obviously the headquarters of Schnipps. A man dressed as Napoleon comes down a ladder and Six proceeds to knock him out and steal his clothes. In the lighthouse, Schnipps (also dressed as Napoleon) directs his United Kingdom nationalist troopers while Number Six breaks into the armory. Six fools with several guns and grenades but it's not long before Schnipps realizes that one of his marshals is missing. He sends all of his men after Number Six, who are all killed when their guns backfire.

Six's luck seems to run short when he gets to the top of the lighthouse where he's tied up by the woman and forced to stay in the lighthouse which is actually the massive rocket. Schnipps and his daughter leave the lighthouse and head for the boat from which they'll fire the lighthouse rocket. Six unties himself by removing the backrest of the chair he's tied to and destroys the control panel for the rocket. He rapells out of the nosecone and steals the speedboat while Schnipps and his daughter and wasting their time packing their documentation on the rocket creation. They attempt to stop Number Six with grenades, but they use the tampered with ones which blow up in their hands, killing them and destroying their rocket tower.

A book closes, the entire event was Number Six telling a story about how he saved London to several young villagers. This angers Number Two (Schnipps) to no end because not once in the story does Number Six drop his guard. Of course, Number Six knows that they're watching and bids them good night.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• The Village: This is the only episode in which children are shown to be prisoners of the island as well. Whether they were captured in the way Number Six was or if they were born there is unknown but they do not appear to have parents. This plot point is not followed up on as this is the last episode before the two-part finale.

Trivia

The Show

• Crossover?: Some fans of the series claim that The Prisoner and Danger Man are linked through the appearance of Potter. Christopher Benjamin appeared in both this episode and the Danger Man series as a similar man who shared the same name. McGoohan, however, vehemently denies that the two series have any connection at all.

Behind the Scenes

• Origin: This episode was adapted from the unused script of a two-part episode from Danger Man, a series which starred Patrick McGoohan as an ace spy for Britain. Incidentally, the bowler in this episode is played by John Drake, which is the lead character's name from Danger Man. McGoohan reportedly hired the actor based on this alone because the coincidence amused him.