A former Number Two (Leo McKern) returns to the Village and obtains permission from Number One to use the Degree Absolute technique to break Number Six (Patrick McGoohan) and get his information. The prisoner is put into a trance state and regresses back to his childhood. He is taken to the Embryo Room below the Green Dome, where there is a caged room and a number of props. Number Six, the umbrella-toting Butler (Angelo Muscat), and Number Two are locked in the room for a week. Number Two begins regressive therapy through Shakespeare’s Seven Ages of Man with Number Two playing the authority figure in each scenario. During the first six days, Number Six develops an aversion to speaking the word six and Number Two comes to respect and admire him.
On the final day, Number Two acts as military jailer and interrogates Six as a prisoner of war. The prisoner begins to blather and states that he knows too much about Number Two. The latter becomes agitated and Six calls him a fool and an idiot. Suddenly, Six starts to count down from six and at zero has regained control of his mind. Two is exhilarated and shocked. Six tells him that Degree Absolute is dangerous to the one performing the therapy if he has his own psychological problems. Six asks Two if he wants to resign, which he finds funny.
Number Two recovers and offers Six a tour of the Embryo Room. At five minutes to room opening, Two becomes frightened and pleads for the information. He pours a glass of wine for them both, Number Six locks Number Two in the cage. The Butler takes the key. Number Two paces and a voice screams, “Die, Six, Die!” The timer ends, the room opens, and Number Two falls as if dead. The Supervisor (Peter Stanwick) waits. He asks Six what he wants and Six says, “Number One,” and the Supervisor offers to take him there. He, Six, and the butler leave together.
This, the next to last episode, was written and directed by Patrick McGoohan. The conflict between Six and Two was so intense that Leo McKern had a heart attack or a breakdown and they had to stop production for a while, because the actors had gotten so caught up in the roles. Six, who had become cool and self-assured in his rebelliousness over the series, returned to his early tense edginess. At the start of the episode, Rover is in Number Two’s chair, which was obviously built for it. Number Six was a World War II veteran of the RAF and had bombed Germany. This was Patrick McGoohan’s favourite episode. He wrote it under the name Archibald Schwartz because he thought it would be ridiculed, but it is the favourite of many fans.
Number Two calls Number Six a lone wolf, which is the code name for John Drake, played by McGoohan in Danger Man. McGoohan denied that Six was Drake, but producer George Markstein said he was and the series was promoted that way. Of course, McGoohan and Markstein had a falling out. Many fans asserted that Number Two says, “Report to my study in the morning, Drake,” proving that Number Six was Drake, but what was said was, “Report to my study in the morning break.” Nice try. It has even been asserted that Number Six is Number One because in the opening, when Number Six demands, “Who is Number One?” Number Two seems to say, “You are, Number Six.” I heard no such thing.