Two favorite scenes from my favorite episode of The Prisoner, “A. B. and C.” No.6 is drugged; his thoughts, oneiric and otherwise, projected onto the big screen as images. Here, the technician sees herself as seen by her victim on the gurney. In a moment, she will pull his eyelids closed as you would with a corpse.
Somehow, it all brings to mind a favorite song by Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, Just a Dream:
…
I dream I was in the white house
Sittin’ in the president’s chair
I dreamed he shook my hand
Said “Cleanhead, I’m glad you’re here”
But that was a dream
Just a dream I had on my mind
Hey when I woke up baby
Not a chair there could I find
In the end, No. 6 confronts and outwits his tormentor. Here, in his dream, albeit a dream that he dreams without outside interference from the Village interrogators, he meets his current inquisitor, masked. It’s a set-piece surrealist scene except that it’s performed at a meta level, with a heavy dose of sardonic humor.
Journey to Perplexity 