Arrival
Dance Of The Dead
Checkmate
Chimes Of Big Ben
Free For All
Many Happy Returns
The Schizoid Man
The General
A, B, and C
Living In Harmony
It's Your Funeral
Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling
A Change Of Mind
Hammer Into Anvil
The Girl Who Was Death
Once Upon A Time
Fall Out
Mine, with explanations and comparisons.
I. Escape Obsession
1. Arrival
2. Dance of the Dead
3. Checkmate
4. Free for All
5. The Chimes of Big Ben
6. Many Happy Returns
This is the same as yours, except I reverse FFA and TCOBB. This is highly subjective, but after viewing them back-to-back in both orders, FFA-TCOBB just feels much more right. The P of TCOBB just seems more confident, more experienced, more knowledgeable about how things work around the Village.
II. Six and the Village
7. A Change of Mind
8. It's Your Funeral
9. Hammer Into Anvil
10. The Girl Who Was Death
11. The Schizoid Man
12. The General
This group of episodes depicts P's evolving relationship with the Village community.
In ACOM, he seems to have accepted the fact that he's going to be here for a while, as he has built himself a personal gym in the woods. But he wants nothing to do with the community. He wants to be left alone in his personal gym or his cottage. When forced to interact with others, he is thoroughly obnoxious to everyone he meets, and openly contemptuous of the community's brand of enforced conformity.
He never does conform to them, but his act of rebellion against 2 culminates in them conforming to him, marching to his orders. He is a respected member of the community despite his lack of interest in being one.
He begins IYF showing the same attitude as in ACOM. When Monique comes to him for help, he is extremely rude to her and refuses even to hear her out, let alone get involved. Eventually he is persuaded that the danger is real and he does get involved, heroically saving the Village from disaster.
In HIA he needs no prodding to get involved. When he hears 73's scream he leaps into action, then takes it on himself to rid the Village of a sadistic and dangerous 2 and gain a small measure of justice for 73.
By now he's a big hero to the Village and feels protective toward them. In TGWWD, parents are comfortable having him tuck their kids in at night, and he's comfortable doing it. He tells the children a bedtime story about how he saved everybody from a buffoonish villain modeled on 2, and 2 eavesdrops because... it was worth a try.
In TSM, they try to attack his mind by taking away his identity. You put TSM earlier,
@HGN2001, but I prefer it here. Early in the series, he wouldn't care whether people call him 6, 12, or ∛∞. But at this point in the series, 6 stands for something. If people say he's not 6, they're saying he's not the guy who reads bedtime stories to our kids, not the guy who saved us all from Yellowtooth and Hammer, etc.
Head canon: The mass brainwashing technology demonstrated in The General explains how they got the whole Village to go along with the ruse in TSM.
Once again, P perceives a threat to the community and leaps into action, destroying the General.
III. Desperation
13. A, B & C
14. Living in Harmony
15. Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling
16. Once Upon a Time
17. Fall Out
After the destruction of The General (and the Professor, and 12, and Curtis), the authorities decide his rebellion can't be tolerated indefinitely. Under pressure for immediate results, they undertake a series of increasingly invasive and dangerous experiments on his brain, culminating in the bizarre finale.
