The Prisoner/Recap/E17 Fall Out

If I could do it again, I would. As long as people feel something, that's the great thing. It's when they are walking around not thinking and not feeling, that's tough. When you get a mob like that, you can turn them into the sort of gang that Hitler had. —Patrick McGoohan in 1984, on the outrage that followed the series finale

Quoting Wikipedia:

After besting Number Two at a battle of wills in "Once Upon a Time" at the apparent cost of Number Two's life, Number Six requests he be taken to see Number One. He is taken by The Supervisor to a large cavernous chamber that includes a British assembly hall with a number of masked delegates, whom the Supervisor joins, and a large metallic cylinder with a mechanical eye, labelled "1". Number Six is shown to his seat, a large ornate throne, to watch the proceedings.

A master of ceremonies ("the President") announces Number Six has passed the "ultimate test" and won the "right to be individual", but there are matters of ceremony involved in the "transfer of ultimate power". The caged room where Number Two died is brought to the chamber with his body still in it; medical personnel recover the body, resuscitate him, and give Two a make-over. Number Two, along with Number Forty-eight—a young modishly-dressed man—are presented as two different examples of "revolt" to the assembly. Number Forty-eight refuses to cooperate and drives the assembly to sing a rendition of "Dem Bones" before he is restrained. Number Two reveals he too was abducted to the Village and spits at the mechanical eye in defiance. Both men are taken away.

The President then presents Number Six as a third form of revolt, but as "a revolutionary of a different calibre" to be treated with respect. Number Six is shown his home in London is being prepared for his return, and he is presented with a million pounds in traveller's cheques, petty cash, a passport, and the keys to his home and car. The President says Number Six is free to go home or go wherever he wants, but requests that Number Six stay and lead them as his behaviour has been so exemplary. The President then asks Number Six to address the assembly, but as he begins each sentence with "I" the assembly drowns him out with shouts of "Aye! Aye! Aye!..."

Number Six is shown into the metallic cylinder. He passes transparent tubes holding Numbers Two and Forty-eight along with a third, empty tube, each labelled as "Orbit", the third tube has no number. Climbing a stairway, he finds a robed man in a mask and a circled "1" watching surveillance videos of Number Six. Number Six pulls off the mask to find a gorilla mask underneath, and then under that, a man seemingly identical to Number Six. The robed figure escapes into a hatch above. Number Six locks the hatch and recognises the cylinder is a rocket like the one in "The Girl Who Was Death". He initiates its countdown, sending the President and Assembly into a panic, and an evacuation of the Village is ordered.

Number Six frees Numbers Two and Forty-eight, and along with the Butler, they gun down armed guards, making their way to the caged room which is revealed to be on the bed of a Scammell Highwayman low loader. They drive away from the Village as the rocket launches from the abandoned Village. Rover (the security of the Village) deflates and is destroyed (to the accompaniment of "I, Yi, Yi, Yi, Yi (I Like You Very Much)") upon exposure to the flames of the rocket's exhaust.

The four drive towards London. Nearing the city, Number Forty-eight alights and proceeds to hitch-hike, without regard for direction. Just outside the Palace of Westminster, the truck is stopped by the police. The three abandon it and leave their separate ways. Number Two enters the Palace by the Peers' Entrance, while the Butler escorts Number Six back to his home, where his Lotus 7 car waits, and the Number 1 appears on his door. Number Six sets off in his car, while the Butler enters Number Six's home, its door opening in the same manner as the automatic doors in the Village. The episode ends with the thunder claps from the series' opening sequence, as well as with the opening shot of Number Six driving on an open country road.

• Evolving Credits: The final episode does not include the usual voiceover in which Number Six asks what the Village wants and Number Two replies "Information". This is because it is the second part of a two-episode story, and Number Six finally broke and told Number Two what he wanted to know in 'Once Upon a Time'.
• Mind Screw: Even more so than usual for the series. The gorilla? The missile? The Beatles's music used in the background of the big fight scene? The live rendition of 'Dem Bones'? Decades later, fans still don't know what to make of all of the elements in this episode.