Number 6 was a Plant: The Schizoid Man
You can read the introduction to this series of posts considering the theory that Number 6 didn't resign and was a 'plant' in the Village here: https://culttvblog.substack.com/p/number-6-was-a-plant-introduction
Oh alright, even though I love the theory greatly and it's one of the best explanations for what's going on to my mind, I'm damned if I can twist the events of The Schizoid Man to fit the theory that Number 6 was a plant.
I mean, I'm sure all sorts of organisations get inspected or audited all the time but nobody has to face a workplace event in which they are just practicing their psychic ability when they are faced with an exact double of themselves and tortured into believing the double is them. And I'm supposed to make sense of this? It's one of the favourite episodes of the show, doubtless because it's one of the more fantastic, but the events are difficult to fit into a mundane explanation.
Instead I'm going to talk about the matter of the flapjacks given to Flapjack Charlie. It has bugged me forever watching this show, that the problem is those are not flapjacks. They look more like what are called in this part of the country Staffordshire oatcakes, which are more like pancakes but including oats. In the picture the foods are called in British English from left to right: Staffordshire oatcakes, oatcakes and flapjacks. The word oatcake on its own means something much firmer and more like a biscuit.
It was the Free for All podcast (go and listen to them, it's great) that sorted this for me, by suggesting that in parts of the USA the food on the plate might be called a flapjack. That would mean this is one of only two occasions I know of where US English is used on the series, the other being where Number 6 refers to 'candy'. Anyway I found one site which asserted that in the south of the USA flapjacks is used for flat griddle cakes (although the site described them as larger than pancakes and they're definitely the size of pancakes in Staffordshire, although it may only be the north of Staffordshire traditionally). Apparently they don't necessarily include oats but in Britain all three foods always do.
At least I have an explanation for why Number 2 is giving Number 12 Staffordshire oatcakes to eat and calling them flapjacks. Although I was even further confused that the website that told me this included a picture of what I would call girdle scones, and that's even without going into scones, muffins and pikelets.
I'll tell you right now, my head is spinning so much that any critical comments to this post will certainly result in a lengthy explanation of why tea tastes better in Birmingham than anywhere else in the country. Including Yorkshire.
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