Question: Just who was Number 1?
Chosen answer: We were never told. In the series finale [Spoiler alert] Number 6 demands an answer to that question, only to be shown his own reflection.
Answer: The Prisoner was first shown on British television in 1967. I did not watch it then, but the series was was repeated on UK television in 1977, at which point it became a massive cult. Certainly, I was hooked. Well, ten minutes after I started watching The Prisoner, I was 110% certain as to who Number 1 was. In my opinion, the identity of Number 1 was so utterly, glaringly obvious that I could not understand how anybody could even ask such a question. I thought there was only one candidate for the identity of Number 1, and it was so plainly visible that nobody could even vaguely consider it to be anybody else. So, who did I think Number 1 was? you all ask. My answer? Himself! Patrick McGoohan (or rather, the character Patrick McGoohan played in The Prisoner) was Number 1. I was proved right. In Fall Out, the seventeenth and final episode, "The Prisoner" gets to meet "Number 1." Now this is a real "blink and you'll miss it" moment, but Number 1 has his face covered. The Prisoner pulls off the covering to see a mask, he pulls off the mask, to see himself! The Patrick McGoohan in Number 1's costume laughs in The Prisoner's face and runs away. Unfortunately, I don't know why Patrick McGoohan should be both The Prisoner and Number 1. I don't think anybody does.
Question: In the opening credits of Arrival and most subsequent episodes of The Prisoner, Patrick McGoohan/The Prisoner/Number Six walks into a government office and resigns his post. He returns to his house. A man, dressed like an undertaker, pumps gas through the keyhole. He falls unconscious and revives in "The Village." My questions? Is there a "knockout gas" that would render somebody unconscious like this? If so, after inhaling the gas, for how long would they remain unconscious? We never know where "The Village" is, so we cannot know how long it took to move Patrick McGoohan there, but how would they keep him unconscious until they got him to "The Village"? As soon as he comes to in "The Village" he seems 100% fit and alert and immediately begins to explore his new "home." Wouldn't he have a splitting headache, and be dazed, confused and disorientated after being unconscious for so long and then waking up in such a strange place?
Answer: Carisoprodol, Cyclobenzaprine, Ether, Chloroform and Nitrous Oxide have strong sedating effects. As for waking up alert, once the effects of the gas wear off, he could wake up as thou had a long sleep.
Answer: It's even more obvious than you think, you know who number 1 is in the very first episode. When 2 replies to the question "who is #1?" Change the way he answers from you are number one (in the monotone or accented answer to, "You are, number 6. The comma gives you the answer. #6 is #1. It's the tone of the answer.