For nearly sixty years, the most important question posed by The Prisoner has remained unanswered.

“WHY DID YOU RESIGN?”

On the 3rd of November 2025, fifty-eight years to the day since the transmission of The General, the solution to the biggest mystery in Patrick McGoohan’s TV masterpiece, The Prisoner, will finally be revealed in…

THE SECRET OF NUMBER SIX

Why The Prisoner Resigned

For nearly sixty years, fans of The Prisoner have asked why Number Six resigned. There have been plenty of theories put forward, but they have all been general rather than specific.

All that is about to change with The Resignation Theory.

Why did Six resign?

There are only two possible explanations:

1] he resigned over something he didn’t want to do.

2] he resigned over something he did.

Number Two has his file. They have his resignation letter. But they don’t know why he resigned. Why not?

The reason? He resigned because of something he did…

The Inciting Incident.

Something happened before his resignation, an event so devastating that it forced him to question everything. His superiors covered it up, shattering his loyalty.

He needed peace of mind, and there was only one way to get it. He had to resign. And when he did, he killed his career and his future with Janet Portland.

But what was it that drove him to resign?

Patrick McGoohan knew the answer, but kept it hidden, creating television’s most enduring mystery.

Countless theories have been put forward but none have ever really solved the puzzle of The Prisoner. Until now.

The answer has been hidden in plain sight all this time, scattered clues throughout all 17 episodes: fragments of dialogue, psychological tells and symbolic moments that reveal the truth about why Number Six resigned.

The Resignation Theory collects the clues and constructs the psychological profile of a man trapped, not by The Village, but by his own conscience.