Number 6 was a Plant: Arrival

You can read the introduction to this series of posts here: https://culttvblog.substack.com/p/number-6-was-a-plant-introduction

I was surprised when reading up for these posts, to find that David Stimpson objects to the theory that Number 6 was a plant in the Village, on the grounds that it makes a nonsense of his resignation (see the introduction linked above). In fact I profoundly disagree with that and believe that the resignation scene makes more, not less, sense if Number 6 is a plant.

The likely scenarios to explain Number 6's planting in the Village would be that there are concerns about it: either that the security of the place designed to keep secrets contained has been breached, it is being spied upon, or about the treatment of the residents. His inspection obviously has to be of the reality of the Village and he needs to go there in such a way that the public face of the Village isn't on display.

But to go there he has to resign, and it also has to be a fully convincing resignation. Whether Number 6 is a senior agent who has made the decision to inspect the Village himself or has been placed there by his superiors, he has to appear to resign.

In fact the idea that Number 6's resignation has all the appearances of a real resignation but isn't one is the best explanation of the resignation sequence, which I have always thought rather theatrical and unconvincing. Seriously, watch the sequence with the assumption in your mind that Number 6 is pretending, and it suddenly makes sense. In fact it's clear that he doesn't only want to appear to resign in a quiet way but wants the rest of the building to know about it as well by shouting and slamming his fist on the desk, and behaving in a way which will have his boss talking about the extraordinary way in which [Name] resigned today and spilled tea everywhere.

So we have the apparent resignation out of the way and Number 6 proceeds with the plans he has been making for a holiday. I would suggest that his holiday plans are not a secret in any way, although they seem superfluous to the plan to get taken to the Village. I would suggest a possible explanation is that he was planning a holiday and everyone knows that so that it would give him a week or two of time when he isn't expected to be at work. The holiday is essentially the cover story for the time he expects to spend in the Village, not realising he won't be able to get out again, or for whatever could happen after he appears to resign.

And so the wheels of his transfer to the Village take place.

I'm going to say something else here, which is obviously a personal opinion and other people may disagree profoundly from this, but looking at Number 6's face I don't think he is at all surprised to have woken up in the Village. In my opinion the look on his face is much more one of jubilation and relief that it's worked. He has obviously not been there before so everything beyond its bare existence is a surprise, but I honestly think he was expecting to find himself in the Village and is pleased to find his pretend resignation has worked.

I would suggest the surprises do start kicking in when he asks the lady at the cafe for help, and everything else is genuinely new to him. I don't think this need militate against the possibility of him being a plant, merely indicate that the Village is, in fact, secret.

For the rest of Arrival, Number 6's experiences divide neatly into discovering about the Village and very firmly indicating that the Village can't keep him there. In fact he says as much to Number 2, and his insistence on their inability to keep hold of him may simply be part of his investigation of Village security, which assuming he is only expecting to be there for the span of a holiday, of course he starts straight away. His actions completely accord with the idea that he is there as a plant to test the Village, as it were, to destruction.

This is actually a very strange way to think of this show, that Number 6's intention isn't to get out, it's to make sure the Village can keep him in. He is on the side of 'them'.

Another thing which this viewing of the show has highlighted for me is how much the Village resembles what would then have been called a cult: it keeps people in, makes them think a particular way, discourages dissension, cuts people off from their old lives, promises them all sorts of things, has a charismatic leader, the members have behaviours and volcabulary not understood by outsiders, the flow of information in and out is very firmly controlled...the Village makes all cult indicators light up like a Christmas tree. I have never thought of it in this light before and this might be another interesting way to think about the show. According to the Oxford Handbook of [as they are now called] New Religious Movements the anti-cult movement started in the mid to late 1960s so could well have been an influence. Unfortunately I have been unable to find out whether this perspective is original to me or whether it has been thought of before, and would be interested to hear in the comments.

In conclusion I believe that far from negating the possibility that Number 6 is a plant, the events of Arrival support the idea, and when seen from this perspective take on a new appearance.

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