"Here We Go Again" - The media trope and The Prisoner

[innerspaceboy]

*** Spoiler - Prisoner ending ***

I've spoken previously of my fondness for the unparalleled 1967 ITC miniseries, The Prisoner and for the psychological, moral, and socio-cultural subject matter it explores.

In 1977, the Ontario Educational Communications Authority featured a rare interview with The Prisoner creator and star, Patrick McGoohan discussing the series in a feature called "The Prisoner Puzzle."

At the close of "The Prisoner Puzzle," McGoohan calls attention to Number 6's apartment door opening by itself at the end of the controversial finale, "Fall Out" signifying that the end is simply the beginning - an inevitable return to the Village, that The Prisoner is effectively an ouroboros or Möbius. I am instantly reminded of James Joyce's quote from Ulysses where he writes, "Think you're escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home." And of course, Finnegans Wake famously begins mid-sentence and concludes hundreds of pages later with the beginning of that sentence - a literary Möbius!

Is this perhaps a fundamental allegorical element of storytelling - something Joseph Campbell may have discussed in The Power of Myth or The Hero With a Thousand Faces? (If so please direct me to the applicable quote!)

And in "Little Gidding," the last poem of The Four Quartets, T.S. Eliot writes,

"With the drawing of this Love and the voice of this Calling
We shall not cease from exploration
and the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."

It is a theme that is repeated often, as there is a fundamental truth to be found within its wisdom.

I'm curious where else in classic literature or cinema that this trope is explored? I searched the TV Tropes website and found what appears to be this trope which they call, "Here We Go Again." The pages' Live TV examples folder directly calls attention to The Prisoner.

Quickly scanning through other Live TV examples I see several mentions of episodes from The Twilight Zone as well as Cheers, which began the series with Sam Malone coming out of the back room, turning on the lights and opening the bar, while the series finale ended with Sam locking the bar, turning off the lights, and strolling back into the back room. Seinfeld did the very same, ending its last episode with the main characters in jail, having exactly the same conversation that opened the first episode.

I'll explore the various other media folders to see what I can find, but I'd love to hear favorite recollections from the community of media which explored this trope.

Here's the page on TVTropes: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HereWeGoAgain

[Guybrush]

It's a good trope! I can't actually remember many examples besides Back to the Future which might be too much on the nose?

They of course arrive back to the near present and see their previous selves travel back to the past from earlier in the movie, but it's not exactly a loop so probably doesn't count 🤔

[grindy]

Lost Highway has that going on and it's awesome.

[Guybrush]

[DJChameleon]

It's a good trope! I can't actually remember many examples besides Back to the Future which might be too much on the nose?

They of course arrive back to the near present and see their previous selves travel back to the past from earlier in the movie, but it's not exactly a loop so probably doesn't count 🤔

I feel like a similar scenario happened in Quantum Leap but I could be wrong. I was too young when I saw that series.