“Once Upon a Time” is episode sixteen of The Prisoner.
The butler brings breakfast into Number Two’s room. However, when Two’s chair rises, it contains Rover. The butler rings a bell and Number Two rises out of a different place. He tries the food, then tells the butler to remove it. He then picks up the phone and demands Rover be removed as well; he is not an inmate. Two tells the person on the other end that he was brought here. He said they were using the wrong approach. Do it Two’s way, or use someone else.
Two is watching Number Six, asking why he cares. Then rings him and asks the same. Six says he knows the voice; Two says he’s been there before (in “The Chimes of Big Ben”). Six tells Two he will never know, and leaves his cottage, before approaching a random resident of the Village and interrogating them.
Two is reading the progress report on Number Six and watching videos of Six. He picks up the phone. He requires approval of Degree Absolute. One of them must be risked. Two is a good man, but Six will be better. There’s no other way. Two is given a week, though he thinks that’s not long enough. And it starts tonight.
Two heads to the control room and tells the Supervisor about Degree Absolute. One week. Release the rest of the personnel. They spy on Number Six in bed as something is done to him. Two leaves and tells the Supervisor it’s all his for the next week.
The light is pulsing and lowering over Number Six’s head in bed as Number Two sings nursery rhymes. Two then removes the light and asks Six if he wants to go walkies. Six, who’s expression seems odd, gets out of bed and Two tells him to wash and dress quickly. He will show Six some nice things. Six is wheeled into Two’s room in a wheelchair by the butler whilst he eats an ice cream. The butler descends on a platform, then Six and Two do as well.
They enter a room with toys and things; the butler is wearing odd glasses. Two tells Six that this is it for one week. Neither can leave ‘til death do them part. Two dons some similar glasses. He says that it’s William Shakespeare’s seven stages of man. He will find the missing link and put it together. If he fails, bang!
Two then tells Six he’s his father and they are going for a walk in the park. Park sounds play as they get on a seesaw. This is followed by school, with Two the headmaster. On graduation, Two demands to know why Six resigned.
Six has been regressed to childhood, and Two leads him through different stages of life, each time trying to get him to reveal why he resigned. It’s not working and Number Two is getting more and more involved and annoyed (to the degree that it actually affected the health of his actor, Leo McKern). Nothing he’s trying is working and Number Six is not cooperating. Number Two started off angry and only went downhill from there.