"The Prisoner" connections with DougieCoop (Prisoner spoilers)

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Cappy
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"The Prisoner" connections with DougieCoop (Prisoner spoilers)

Post by Cappy »

The situation DougieCoop is in (memory wiped, dropped into another man's life) reminds me of The Prisoner. I'm sure others are making more articulate comparisons between these two series, and I admittedly haven't watched The Prisoner in some time, but DougieCoop's dilemna reads as a long-form Prisoner episode. I could see The Village doing something similar to No. 6 (played by Patrick McGoohan), wiping his memories in an attempt to convince him he was someone other than who he was. I think the Prisoner episode "Schizoid Man" has a similar premise actually, where No. 6 is convinced by The Village that he was simply a spy impersonating No. 6, and that his memories of life as 6 were implants as part of his cover. Obviously DougieCoop's predicament is different, but it does feel like a mysterious entity is attempting to prevent him from realizing his own identity. We could even draw parallels between the idyllic community of The Village and DougieCoop's enchanted life, where everyone is bending over backwards to assist him, he has a wife and son, and he can detect insurance frauds and win jackpots with relative ease. There is something about DougieCoop's life that seems like it is constructed to placate him.

Also, The Prisoner's final episode features what is seemingly a confrontation between No. 6 and an evil doppelganger of sorts, which was how the original Twin Peaks concluded, and might be where the new series is headed as well.
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Gabriel
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Re: "The Prisoner" connections with DougieCoop (Prisoner spoilers)

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Cappy wrote:The situation DougieCoop is in (memory wiped, dropped into another man's life) reminds me of The Prisoner. I'm sure others are making more articulate comparisons between these two series, and I admittedly haven't watched The Prisoner in some time, but DougieCoop's dilemna reads as a long-form Prisoner episode...
Funnily enough, UK Channel Four ran The Prisoner not that long after Twin Peaks first aired back in the 1990s. It went down a storm, especially with Twin Peaks fans! There's even a dwarf with ambiguous loyalties. It's very much the funky 1960s overture to Twin Peaks.
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OrsonWelles
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Re: "The Prisoner" connections with DougieCoop (Prisoner spoilers)

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Just started a The Prisoner-topic in the general discussion forum. Anyway, I do think the premise of both identity thefts are different. The Prisoner is not about loss or lack of identity, it's about conformity, lack of individuality. The schizoid man is meant to make him disoriented, making his individuality break, so he gives up his secret (Why did you resign). DougieCooper has no individuality. And I don't think this is intentional. It's not like Bad Cooper wants it to keep it this way either. He just wants him dead and gone.
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Re: "The Prisoner" connections with DougieCoop (Prisoner spoilers)

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And the red balloons everywhere are miniature versions of "Rover" hehe.
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Re: "The Prisoner" connections with DougieCoop (Prisoner spoilers)

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The Prisoner is the best series of all time, and The Schizoid Man is the best episode!!
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Cappy
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Re: "The Prisoner" connections with DougieCoop (Prisoner spoilers)

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OrsonWelles wrote:Just started a The Prisoner-topic in the general discussion forum. Anyway, I do think the premise of both identity thefts are different. The Prisoner is not about loss or lack of identity, it's about conformity, lack of individuality. The schizoid man is meant to make him disoriented, making his individuality break, so he gives up his secret (Why did you resign). DougieCooper has no individuality. And I don't think this is intentional. It's not like Bad Cooper wants it to keep it this way either. He just wants him dead and gone.
Is DoppelCooper the one that ordered the small assassin to kill DougieCoop? I was initially under the impression that Bruised Office Woman, who was coordinating the initial hit on DougieCoop, was acting on the behest of Phillip Jeffries. She was having some sort of contact with that box in Argentina.

I might be wrong about this, but I read the scenario as DoppelCoop wanting to send Dougie to the Lodge in his place, and routing Cooper into Dougie's life. This somehow kept Cooper from retaking his original body, and DoppelCoop going back into the Lodge. By this logic, I would imagine that DougieCoop being killed might have adverse effects on DoppelCoop. I thought that the attempted hit on DougieCoop was somehow connected to contract on DoppelCoop referenced in episode 2.

Again, I'm not 100% sure about this, and this is just the way I've pieced together the current pieces.
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OrsonWelles
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Re: "The Prisoner" connections with DougieCoop (Prisoner spoilers)

Post by OrsonWelles »

Cappy wrote:
OrsonWelles wrote:Just started a The Prisoner-topic in the general discussion forum. Anyway, I do think the premise of both identity thefts are different. The Prisoner is not about loss or lack of identity, it's about conformity, lack of individuality. The schizoid man is meant to make him disoriented, making his individuality break, so he gives up his secret (Why did you resign). DougieCooper has no individuality. And I don't think this is intentional. It's not like Bad Cooper wants it to keep it this way either. He just wants him dead and gone.
Is DoppelCooper the one that ordered the small assassin to kill DougieCoop? I was initially under the impression that Bruised Office Woman, who was coordinating the initial hit on DougieCoop, was acting on the behest of Phillip Jeffries. She was having some sort of contact with that box in Argentina.

I might be wrong about this, but I read the scenario as DoppelCoop wanting to send Dougie to the Lodge in his place, and routing Cooper into Dougie's life. This somehow kept Cooper from retaking his original body, and DoppelCoop going back into the Lodge. By this logic, I would imagine that DougieCoop being killed might have adverse effects on DoppelCoop. I thought that the attempted hit on DougieCoop was somehow connected to contract on DoppelCoop referenced in episode 2.

Again, I'm not 100% sure about this, and this is just the way I've pieced together the current pieces.
Might be Jeffries, though we do see the machine achter Bad Coop's prison call. But even With Jeffries behind the hitmen, I do think the nature of the duality of Number 6 and The Prisoner as a program had a every different idea behind it.
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Cappy
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Re: "The Prisoner" connections with DougieCoop (Prisoner spoilers)

Post by Cappy »

OrsonWelles wrote: Might be Jeffries, though we do see the machine achter Bad Coop's prison call. But even With Jeffries behind the hitmen, I do think the nature of the duality of Number 6 and The Prisoner as a program had a every different idea behind it.
I definitely agree with you on that point. The Village is attempting the break 6's individuality for the purposes of getting him to confess why he resigned. In Twin Peaks: The Return, Cooper's memory is wiped and dropped into another human's life, but for purposes I don't fully comprehend at the moment.

I suspect that DoppelCoop has to keep DougieCoop alive in order to prevent himself from being sucked back into the Black Lodge. However, he also needs DougieCoop to remain ignorant of the truth of the matter, to prevent Cooper from fully regaining his memories and figuring out a way to stop him. So DoppelCoop has constructed this fake life that can potentially make DougieCoop content. If Cooper finds himself transplanted into a life where he is happy (or just complacent), DoppelCoop is betting that Coop won't have the willpower to shatter the illusion and thwart whatever else he is planning.

This is a lot of guessing though. I still don't have any clue what DoppelCoop's ultimate aims are beyond getting some sort of information from Hastings' secretary, and whatever that shape was on that playing card in episode 2.
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