Firefly Episode 12: "The Message"

As a somewhat jaded consumer of fiction, it takes a lot to make me feel like I might tear up. That "The Message" pulls that off is especially remarkable given the fact that its central character is someone we have never seen before and who is not the sort of character who would normally garner our sympathy. However, skillful storytelling on the part of the writers and stellar performances by all regulars and guest stars make this an outstanding episode which justifiably earned Firefly the second of its three Hugo nominations and may represent its finest hour.

"The Message," in a nutshell, is the story of the death of Tracey Smith, a former private who fought with Mal and Zoe in the Unification War. A flashback to a battle during that war tells us a lot about who he was and is, a young man, idealistic and good-hearted enough to get involved for a cause he believed in, but without what you might call the "street smarts" to take care of himself. Mal and Zoe aren't so much his war buddies in the sense they were with Monty from "Trash" as they are surrogate older siblings stuck looking after someone who can't quite take care of himself.

By now we know enough of the Firefly universe to figure what happened next. Like Mal and Zoe themselves, he became something of a drifter, looking for odd jobs to make money. This much and its inevitable result is confirmed at the point where we enter the story, when Mal and Zoe receive his apparently dead body and a voice message in which he admits to unspecified bad calls and falling in with the wrong folk while asking his old friends to make sure his body gets to his family on St. Albans. The scene where the crew listens to this message is very moving, so that when Jayne takes off his hat in respect, it seems to flow from the mood rather than be a device to insist on it.

A big part of the storytelling magic that ensures we will like Tracey comes from the fact we vicariously remember and mourn him before we actually see him in the episode's own time frame. Our entry point into the real story of his last days or weeks comes when a rogue cop played by Richard Burgi comes after Serenity demanding they hand over the body. They quickly discover that Tracey is very much alive, but trying to escape from people he double-crossed after they fixed him up as an enhanced organ smuggler.

The whole plot of this episode really flows organically (no pun intended) from who Tracey is and the broader life situation in which he found himself. As a character, his main faults are an inability to handle himself and a tendency to behave with extreme selfishness when he panics, which happens frequently. This is balanced, however, with the simple humanity of his desire to return home to his family and maybe help his parents afford a better life. Placing this in the same episode in which we learn that Jayne sends money to his mother highlights the fact that these are simply the conditions under which people in the outer worlds have to survive. Although some claim Firefly's premise was unsound, in the modern world with all its technology, you inevitably encounter pockets like this in the developing world, in the interstices of law and order where people just try to get by. In particular, I suspect the "stateless Arabs," Bedouin who resisted settlement programs and found themselves on without a formal place in the post-Ottoman order, would really identify with the characters in this series.

In the end, when he thinks the crew is about to give him up, Tracey again panics, shoots Wash, threatens to shoot others, and kidnaps Kaylee without realizing that's what he's doing, thoughtlessly and cluelessly going back on his own professed desire not to see her in a bad spot. In the DVD commentary, Alan Tudyk, thought the crew could have just explained the plan to him, but I don't see that as a major issue. Book tried to say something, but Tracey had been drinking and wasn't in a trusting or listening mood. As with the rest of the episode, the fundamental dynamic wasn't going to change because it was based entirely on Tracey himself. As Mal points out: "Far as I can see, nobody's made you do anything. You brought this onto yourself. Got in over your head with these stone cold gut-runners, then you panicked, and then you brung the whole mess down on all of us."

Tracey's fate is telescoped in the early battle flashback. Mal says, "Someone's carrying a bullet for you right now, doesn't even know it." How do you escape when the person is yourself? A few lines later, however, Mal also wants to make sure the shell-shocked lieutenant will be in the clear, for as he says, "Weren't his fault he couldn't take it." That encapsulates exactly how we feel toward Tracey. They lead a tough life, and Tracey has clearly turned to despair. In the end, we feel for him, and mourn with the others at his funeral, despite everything, because while his fate did stem from his own weaknesses, they were weaknesses made fatal only by the life he and the others were forced to live.

"The Message," in short, is a character-driven story firmly grounded in the show's premise. I can't end this review without wedging in praise for Jonathan Woodward, whose portrayal as Tracey was critical to the episode's success, as well as Greg Edmonson's strong score, which really set a nice tone for the piece. Without reservation I give this 10/10.

Mal: "Everybody dies, Tracey. Someone's carryin' a bullet for you right now, doesn't even know it. The trick is, die of old age before it finds you."

Firefly Episode 11: "Trash"

It's hard to know what to say about "Trash." It's there, it's pretty good, but it's not easy to go and dig out what made it good without just summarizing the plot. It strikes me as what might have become a typical Firefly outing if the show had gotten a longer run. The caper is fun, with lots of little moments and great acting that make for a highly enjoyable episode.

"Trash" features the return of Saffron, who left a bad taste in my mouth with "Our Mrs. Reynolds," but came off better here. This wasn't just a case of not having as many flaws as "OMR," but also the fact we got to see Christina Hendricks pull off some great acting. I imagine it's not easy to act as a character who is themselves acting, but she does it really well. She admits Durran is the husband she actually fell for, but how much of her breakdown in the shuttle was an act? I'm inclined to believe a lot of it, but the episode doesn't seem to resolve it one way or the other. Either way, I saw enough here to suspect Saffron could have been a good recurring character.

Mal's response to her interactions with Durran was great to watch, some of the most quietly funny lines in the whole series. His argument with Inara seemed contrived, and his reaction to the "petty" seemed unduly sensitive, but it's certainly plausible he could have an odd spot for that sort of thing. I like the thought of Mal setting Inara up as a failsafe, though it also seems clear Inara was just looking out for Mal's reputation when she told Saffron they expected things to go this way all along. Mal certainly let his guard down in the shuttle after they escaped from the feds.

The B plot, while small, was very, very good, and makes me revise my "Ariel" rating to a solid 10/10. Commenter Sandy said in that post that Simon knew about Jayne's betrayal all along. I initially thought he figured it out in this episode from River's sensing of Jayne's fear, but Sean Maher's acting clearly conveys that he's in control of the situation there, and betrays no surprise whatsoever. This also clears up why the alleged change of plans Jayne used to get them out of the examining room didn't come up, as Jayne wouldn't mention it, and Simon is clearly intent on ignoring the matter. The scene in Serenity's medical bay is perfectly played, and River's warning at the end is also just perfect. Jayne's reaction to Simon, which Adam Baldwin manages to convey with only his eyes, is a very human moment.

So altogether, I liked this a lot. Not only is it a fun and solid outing, as I said, but thanks to the Simon/Jayne material and the suspicion that was laying groundwork for further Saffron developments, I'm giving this an 8/10.

Durran: "Now I'm intruding."
Saffron: "Durran, this isn't what it looks like."
Mal: "Unless it looks like we're stealing your priceless Lassiter, 'cause, that's what we're doin'. Don't ask me 'bout the gun, though, 'cause that's new."
Durran: "Well, I appreciate your honesty. Not, you know, a lot, but..."

Firefly Episode 10: "War Stories"

This episode has a lot of great moments and produced some of the series's more memorable lines, but I still have trouble dealing with the whole. That whole follows two main threads. One is Wash's relationship with Mal and Zoe. That aspect was fine, and well telescoped through earlier arguments we'd seen bits of, such as one in which Wash wanted to just tell Mal they were taking time I'm. (I don't remember which episode.) The problem I have is with the show's use of torture. Torture is a live issue in most of the world, including, these days, in the United States. I also think it's been well handled within the genre, most notably in Star Trek: The Next Generation's "Chain of Command" and Martok's character arc from later Star Trek: Deep Space Nine."

Cheryl Cain, however, took the Hollywood route of simply using it as a plot device to show Our Heroes being heroic and the Bad Guy being bad. The philosophy woven throughout the episode is mentioned at the beginning, when in a nice bit of continuity, Simon and Book are discussing the aftermath of "Ariel." Book refers to the belief attributed to a Shan Yu that the way to meet the real person is to torture them. This, let it be said, doesn't seem to make any sense as a reason for what was done to River, but that aside, this philosophy is continually invoked, forming the show's philosophical backbone.

After Wash gets bothered by Zoe telling a war story, something she shares with Mal. Wash's jealousy has roots in an insecurity fed by the fact Zoe defers to Mal as captain and has a much longer history with him. That and a later fight over the fact Zoe agreed with the captain in rejecting one of Wash's ideas drive him to sabotage the shuttle with which they're going to take some of the medicine from the Saint Lucy's heist to a local fence. His price for fixing it is that he and not Zoe will accompany Mal on the mission, which Mal, anxious to get underway, simply agrees to after Zoe bows out.

The two are then captured by Adelei Niska from "The Train Job," who plans to punish them for going back on their deal by torturing them to death. The scenes right after they were captured were good, with Wash trying to deny his obvious fright, while Mal tried to both deal with him and figure out what's going on and how they can escape. The two start an argument, which continues once Niska has begun torturing them, and Niska seems to actually enjoy following their argument, as it means they're not breaking and he might be able to prolong their agony.

After the crew ascertains what happened to them, they pool their money and Zoe goes to Niska's skyplex to offer ransom. Niska offers only one, but is thwarted in his hopes of forcing her to choose when she quickly picks her husband. He then offers Mal's severed ear as "change." On the DVD commentary, Alan Tudyk wonders if she chose Wash just because she knew he wasn't going to last, but her concern for Wash is evident, and she shows no signs of planning a rescue before Wash brings it up. I guess this newfound respect and courage is supposed to be the "real him" brought out by the torture.

The rest of the crew takes up arms to join in the rescue mission. Book's knowledge of things preachers don't generally know is put to good use here, and I like the fact Jayne looks to him in a fight even though the source of that knowledge remains unknown. Sean Maher and Jewel Staite also get props for great acting jobs from the moment their characters decide to join the rescue. In fact, something about this whole show really brought out just how good this ensemble can be. The action sequences were also good.

The problems I have with the show's handling of torture really come out in the ending. Mal was literally tortured to death, then tortured a bit more, and yet still strong enough to fight with Niska's muscular henchman? I simply don't buy it. What's more, while the line about how the captain doesn't have to finish the henchman himself is funny, when you think a minute it shows just how the writers took torture and its psychological effects as a Hollywood cliche rather than a real part of life. Mal stops being human and becomes some sort of superhero whom nothing can stop. Once he's back on the ship, though he's still in pain, as when he tried to laugh and when Jayne slaps him in the torso as he claims Zoe's soup, he's still very much himself. The whole thing seemed disrespectful to actual victims of torture.

Perhaps I'm moralizing about this a bit much, and I admit I tended to be put off by the gruesomeness of some of the torture scenes regardless of any philosophical qualms. Still, the show goes in for its Shan Yu view of torture despite the evidence based in psychology that it does things to people from which they have to recover. Despite the many things it does well, I have to knock it down to 7/10.

Zoe: "Preacher, don't the Bible have some pretty specific things to say about killin'?"
Book: "Quite specific. It is, however, somewhat fuzzier on the subject of kneecaps."

Firefly Episode 9: "Ariel"

"Ariel" is one of the most powerful Firefly episodes, largely because of the last few minutes. The directing was good enough that I noticed it, which I don't normally do, and the weaving together of the hospital theft story, Simon and River's issues, and the Jayne betrayal is flawless on the emotional level. The only problem is that at the logical level, certain elements simply don't make sense, and it requires a major suspension of disbelief to conclude that what Jayne did wouldn't come out very quickly.

I love the understated title, which suggests just a run-of-the-mill episode that you only find out at the end plans to deliver a bang. In some ways, it reminds me of Babylon 5's "Objects at Rest," though here the relationship-altering drama was quietly woven throughout the episode rather than brought out suddenly at the end, and it took place in the middle of a season rather than in a planned penultimate episode, which changes the expectations game. It's a title that says simply, "Let's hear about what happened at Ariel," with no clue as to the actual situation.

The early chatting among the crew gives us a good idea of what the core worlds are like, fleshing out earlier vague statements and the flashbacks in "Safe" with discussions of the concrete attractions found on the inner planets, as well as what Zoe at least perceives as over-regulation by the authorities. Normally we are out on the frontier; here is the world of plenty, and we understand a bit of how much Mal and those like him value their independence by the fact they fought not to become part of it.

River's stabbing Jayne across his "Blue Sun" T-shirt is a nice arc-related visual, one to which our attention is called verbally by her "He looks better in red." It also helps take the edge off Jayne's decision to turn them in for a reward, as in his mind she has clearly become dangerous. Jayne is loyal to himself, not the crew, and when he thinks the crew is starting to slip off the rails of a sensible, profitable life, he feels little compunction about starting to go his own way.

Simon's hiring of the crew is well scripted, and he lays out his plan in the time-tested manner in which capers are cinematically laid out. All these scenes were simply fun, though the brief concern about stealing medicine seemed too forced, an obvious concession to the network's concern for not drifting into glorifying crime. I mean, couldn't people hypothetically need most of the stuff they steal or smuggle? Simon is also clearly becoming more comfortable in the world in which he has found himself, earning a bit of respect even from Jayne.

Jayne's attitude toward the siblings is something I watched the show three times trying to pin down. There are three places - when Simon is saving the patient in the hospital, when they learn what happened to River's brain, and when Simon confronts McGinnis, when Adam Baldwin has to convey something entirely without words, and his success was mixed. What I caught in the first of those scenes was concern over whether they would be followed, though the simple fact the scene exists makes me suspect there was supposed to be more. In the second he seemed bothered and disgusted by what had been done to River, though he's amoral enough that it didn't deflect his plans any. It's when Simon confronts McGinnis that I think he showed a clear respect.

The plot holes, or at the very least, the parts where the plot seems badly stretched, are those which involved Jayne's betrayal plot. Why wouldn't the authorities want to nab the fugitives at the earliest possible opportunity? I can see Jayne wanting to keep them away from Mal and the others, which explains why they weren't waiting at the entrance. However, why wouldn't they be ready to just come to the recovery room, or the room with the brain scanner? The most important reason, of course, is that the plot needs Simon to get the scans; given that, we're left filling in the blanks on our own.

Those blanks can probably be filled in several different ways, but there is a bigger problem in how Jayne avoids detection by the crew afterwards. Mal knows they went out the back entrance - that's how he knows Jayne betrayed them. In fact, putting such a move into the betrayal plan may have been done by the writer just to give Mal something to go on. In any case, this means that on the way back to the ship, they went over how they were captured. Jayne had told a lie about Mal allegedly ordering a change in plans. How does this not come up? Even if it doesn't come up then, why not in the next day or so? I just don't buy it.

One forgives those flaws, though, because of the good character drama, which comes to a head at the end when Mal confronts Jayne about what he did. This, too, isn't as strong as it could have been, as for some reason the writer felt compelled to make Simon look like a naive fool right beforehand. In any case, Jayne thinks he got away with it when Mal, whose earlier comment about the payday was clearly loaded strikes him. The keelhauling scene shows a lot of who Mal is, and in the end, a bit of who Jayne is. Mal values loyalty above all, and both gives it to and expects it from his crew. This is the opposite of Jayne's attitude. At the very end, though, he begs Mal to hide his treachery from the others, showing when pressed a sense of shame and remorse that moves Mal to give him another chance. This is great stuff.

We also got our first extended look at the Hands of Blue, who kill a number of people just for having spoken with Simon and River. Their slightly off way of moving is well conceived, and the fact of their existence as well as their actions shows how important the River's secrets must be. It's too bad we didn't get to see the original resolution to all of this, though Serenity was awesome in its own right.

As you can tell, I liked this episode, despite some plausibility issues. Those issues are the only reason I can't go higher than an 8/10.

Jayne: "What are you taking this so personal for? It ain't like I ratted you out to the feds!"
Mal: "Oh, but you did. You turn on any of my crew, you turn on me! But since that's a concept you can't seem to wrap your head around then you got no place here! You did it to me, Jayne, and that's a fact."

UPDATE: After considering "Trash," I've decided to revise this rating to 10/10.

Firefly Episode 8: "Out of Gas"

Many bad episodes have come out of putting ships and crews in mortal peril. Is there anyone who yearns for reruns of Star Trek: The Next Generation's "Disaster?" The problem, of course, is that you know they're going to get out of it, usually with some technobabble solution. "Out of Gas," however, is one of Firefly's strongest episodes, interspersing the relatively simple plot of Mal fixing the ship with two sets of flashbacks: one explaining how the crisis developed with an emphasis on how the characters dealt with their desperate circumstances, the other showing how each came to be aboard Serenity. The overall effect is that, as we see the role the ship plays in each of their lives, we come to feel for it as they do, and sympathize with Mal in his struggle.

Firefly's down-to-earth approach shines through in the nature of the problem itself. There's nothing that needs recalibrating in the phase coils or anything. There's just a part that's damaged and no longer fits. It's also an interesting break in conventional patterns that the drama is supplied to the process of fixing it by a physical struggle rather than a leap of technological creativity at the last minute. The immediate precursor to this sequence, the encounter with the space pirates who have the needed part, also shows a lot about life in the outer worlds.

The real backbone of the episode is the "how things got to this point" set of flashbacks. We begin with crew camaraderie, which sets the stage for the "how they all joined" sequence as much as it does the tough times to follow. Once the disaster does occur, outstanding acting conveys the seriousness of the situation long before we learn that the life support is down. Nathan Fillion brilliantly sells every scene he is in. Jewel Staite and Adam Baldwin also show great range in playing their characters outside their usual personalities, which greatly develops the mood.

There were two points I wish had been addressed. One was the possibility of fixing the auxiliary life support, which someone would have thought of, if only to have it dismissed. The other is Kaylee's warning Mal about the compression coil in "Serenity" and "The Train Job." I mean, when we've seen it come up in two of seven episodes, it seems odd for everyone to act like this suddenly came out of the blue. None of those is a major quibble, however, and the dramatic tensions of Wash's quarrels with Mal and character moments like River's encounter with Book and Simon's conversation with Inara about Serenity mean we readily forgive them.

Simon's disregard for the ship is one thing that subtly marks him as an outsider in this bunch, as most others love it, as Inara says openly. The key relationship with the ship is, of course, Mal's. On the DVD commentary, writer Tim Minear said the episode was a story of Mal's love for Serenity, but what he wrote is a little more complex than that. In introducing the ship to Zoe, he talks about freedom, which is what he's after, but there's also the "small crew" aspect that led to the family that is the show's ensemble. Wash was certainly eager to make something of it in the flashback to his hiring, while Kaylee jumped at the chance to be its mechanic. The exception here is Jayne the mercenary who joined for the profits. In any case, the scene where Mal has just been rescued by his crew and wants to make sure they'll still be there emphasizes the personal bonds that have developed from roots such as these.

In the end, though, Wash and Zoe are together, Simon and River are bonded, Jayne just goes from opportunity to opportunity, Book and Inara have professional roles, and even Kaylee is young and optimistic enough that she can find something else later. For Mal, however, after losing in the war, Serenity and its community is all he has, and he is willing to die attempting to preserve it. After all, as we learn at the end, he picked her out across a crowded, err, yard of spaceships.

At this point, Firefly had really hit its stride. Following "Jaynestown" in the originally intended viewing order, this is the second outstanding outing in a row, one I give 9/10.

Mal: "Ship like this, be with you 'til the day you die."
Zoë: "'Cause it's a deathtrap."

Firefly Episode 7: "Jaynestown"

"Serenity" and "Bushwhacked" proved that the Firefly writers could do some great storytelling, but "Jaynestown" showed that they can make those stories meaningful, as well. The episode provides a well-designed commentary on faith, one not every series could do given that many flawed characters, such as Battlestar Galactica's Baltar and Babylon 5's Londo already delude themselves into thinking they are heroes. As we learn, Jayne's arrogance doesn't extend into the moral realm, which adds nice character development for him, as well.

The episode starts off with one of the episode's many secondary themes, with Simon and Kaylee arguing over whether he ever swears. The fact he doesn't when he sees what Jayne has done in the infirmary only emphasizes the moment when he does after seeing the statue of Jayne in Canton. This also fits with their discussion on propriety later in the episode, a discussion which suggests that as much as Kaylee sees his reserve as a form of arrogance toward her, in her own way she's failing to accept him, as well.

Canton is probably the worst place we've seen so far on the series, inhabited by indentured workers whose life consists of messing around in mudpits, with the profits going to the magistrate, whom Jayne once robbed. I loved the way the crew didn't find out the reasons for his fame until partway through the song. The dropping of a box of money from the robbery was also perfectly believable, as was people's reaction to it.

Jayne, who initially had contempt for the mudders, is overwhelmed by the idolization, to the point of having scruples over using it to further the crew's job. He cites the difference he made in their lives. His decidedly unheroic side, however, comes out with the appearance of Stitch, whom he pushed out of their escape vehicle before giving up on any of the money. Stitch appears as Jayne is speaking on "Jayne Day," and tries to burst people's bubble by telling them the real story. The gathered crowd takes this in, but when Stitch moves to shoot Jayne, one of them jumps in front of the bullet, sacrificing himself despite everything. Even after that, a boy returns Jayne's knife to him, while Jayne, overcome with guilt over the part he is playing, pushes down the statue of himself before the crew returns to the ship.

Emphasizing one point of this story is the B-plot involving Book and River, with River trying to fix mistakes in the Bible and Book explaining that: "You don't fix faith, River. It fixes you." Mal makes a similar point to Jayne, later: "It's my estimation that every man ever got a statue made of him was one kind of sommbitch or another. Ain't about you, Jayne. It's about what they need." In both cases, the flawed object of reverence isn't the point. People's need to "be fixed" is, and they look to heroic symbols to show them the way. There's also a bit of meaning in the idea of taking pages out of the Bible and making them just paper as opposed to the symbol that is the whole, but I don't know quite how to express it, so I'll just leave it at that.

The episode didn't address the point directly, but I suspect Jayne's fame rested more on his having stood up to the magistrate than his accidental largesse afterward. It certainly inspired them to stand up for themselves in keeping the money, and then rioting over the statue. There's also some suggestion of this in Fess's story, a forgettable sub-plot made even more forgettable by Zachary Kranzler's totally flat performance. This is not to deny the importance of the "Robin Hood" element, but given how hated the magistrate is, I suspect Jayne would still be a hero without it. This also points toward why Stitch's tale doesn't dent his stature among the mudders. He's still a proud, independent man, exactly what they dream of being.

After everything I've said above, this probably goes without say, but I rate this as 10/10.

Folk Singer: "Jayne / the man they call Jayne / He robbed from the rich, and he gave to the poor / Stood up to The Man and he gave him what for / Our love for him now ain't hard to explain / The hero of Canton, the man they call Jayne / Our Jayne saw the Mudders' backs breakin' / he saw the Mudders lament / and he saw the Magistrate takin' every dollar, and leavin' five cents / so he said, "You can't do that to my people" / he said, "can't crush them under your heels" / Jayne strapped on his hat / and in five secons flat / stole everything Boss Higgins had to steal / He robbed from the rich, and he gave to the poor / Stood up to The Man and he gave him what for / Our love for him now ain't hard to explain / the hero of Canton, the man they call Jayne / Now here is what seperates heroes / from common folk like you and I / The man they call Jayne he turned 'round his plane / and let that money hit sky / He dropped it onto our houses / he dropped it into our yards / the man they call Jayne he stole away our pain / and headed out for the stars / He robbed from the rich, and he gave to the poor / Stood up to The Man and he gave him what for / Our love for him now ain't hard to explain / The hero of Canton, the man they call Jayne! "

Firefly Episode 6: "Our Mrs. Reynolds"

With the possible exception of "The Train Job," Firefly didn't seem to have any episodes that were bad in the sense of unwatchable. "Our Mrs. Reynolds," however, while it contains a lot of interesting pieces, never seems to fit together, and the way the characters move according to the script rather than vice versa puts it in the series's bottom half.

The best part of the episode is Saffron, who would have been a great recurring villain. Her attempts to seduce Mal are convincing, and her comment at the end that the payoff isn't the reason she plays that game opened some interesting character questions. She's clearly her own agent, rather than just a member of a petty crime ring as she seems to be until that point, and one wonders what real status she might eventually enjoy in the series's underworld.

Several of the crew's reactions, however, seem off. Mal's attitude is fine, and exactly what we would expect of him, which makes Book's suspicion that he will take advantage of Saffron seem an off flip-flop from his confidence in previous episodes that Mal will do the right thing. Inara also seems oddly irritated about the whole thing considering Mal is clearly not interested in Saffron and wants to dump her from the ship as soon as possible.

The largest problem with the story as we have it, however, is one that occurs via absence. River clearly could have sensed what was going on, but rather than deal with the issue up from, they omit her from the story altogether, which seems strange. Then, as noted above, other characters seem to move by the demands of the story rather than having the story flow naturally from them. Once the writers need Inara's affection for Mal, she flips on a dime. This could be explained by her discovery that Saffron had Companion training, but then why couldn't she figure that out in the cargo bay earlier?

Near the end, Mal talks about the value of having a crew that trusts each other. Even if that was meant as a throwaway line in response to Saffron, it seems oddly out of place in this episode, which contains no obvious examples of trust, and several of clearly misplaced distrust. Still, there were some good moments, like the crew making fun of Mal when Saffron first appears. On the whole, this episode merits a 4/10.

Saffron: "Everybody plays each other. That's all anybody ever does. We play parts."

Firefly Episode 5: "Safe"

Right after the Mal/Inara relationship episode comes an important installment exploring Simon's bond with River, with their relationship with the Serenity crew in the background. I definitely liked this better than "Shindig," as the characters were strong and consistent with several underlying points tastefully understated in the context that Joss Whedon would probably characterize as being about family.

I can say the latter with some confidence, as Whedon has said that everything he does is ultimately about family. This is quite literal in the case of Simon and River, the brother who has given up everything to save his sister. Through flashbacks throughout this episode, we found out just how much that was, but also why a dedicated and sincere person such as Simon felt no other options. It's striking how he is more attuned to his sister than their parents are, picking up on clues in the letters that they simply cannot bring themselves to see.

It was also good to see the contrast between their lives in Alliance territory and their current situation on Serenity. A minor lead-in to this was River playing war on the side of the Alliance rather than the Independents favored by their crewmates, but it's also visible in the different levels of technology and general infrastructure and security we see on the inner planets, which I'm pretty sure are presented here for the first time. Simon's stress quite naturally focuses on that when he boils over and rants to Kaylee about his situation, alienating her by demeaning the life she chose and loves.

Simon, however, isn't the only one who gets to show some stress, and Mal is clearly frayed by hauling a herd of cattle and worried about River's effects on them. With characteristic bluntness he orders Simon to keep her quiet, and then to take her away from the area during the sale to their contacts on Jinyiang. That the latter decision leads directly to their kidnapping is a nice touch, one that the show addresses by showing a brief look of self-recrimination on Mal's part before he decisively moves forward, intent on finding a medical facility to save Book's life.

Summer Glau does some of her best work of the series in this episode, shifting between the highly disturbed girl she usually is and the happy teenager of the village dance, as well as the caring and anguished younger sister when she tells Simon she understands what his concern for her has cost him. When Simon tried to stop the hill folk from burning her, his attempts are true to his character and perfectly ineffective, for this is no more his world than Serenity. He is a brilliant doctor, but cannot communicate in the local fashion. Finally, we get yet another sign, this one very clear, that Book is more than just a Shepherd, though sadly that thread was never developed.

The ending undoubtedly merits some comparison with that in "Objects in Space," the final episode. Whedon said in the commentary track for the pilot that the acceptance of River by the crew allowed the series to become an arc of sorts, with that as its denouement. It was this episode, however, when Mal fully acted as if they were part of his crew - even calling Simon that at the end - and not just refugees whom he was sheltering, as in "Bushwhacked." This is a thread to watch in the rest of the show's run.

Altogether, this was a solid character outing which probably made for one of the show's best installments. I'm giving it 8/10.

Zoe: "You sanguine about the kind of reception we're apt to receive on an Alliance ship, captain?"
Mal: "Absolutely. What's 'sanguine' mean?"
Zoe: "Sanguine. Hopeful. Plus, point of interest, it also means 'bloody'."
Mal: "Well, that pretty much covers all the options, don't it?"

Firefly Episode 4: "Shindig"

"Shindig" is the first Firefly outing that moves past exposition of the setting to explore the relationship between two characters, in this case, Mal and Inara. We've known about sexual tension between them ever since the pilot, but this episode brings that to the fore. By the end of it, we've learned a little more about both characters and their relationship to their very different worlds, as well as gotten some more of those side moments highlighting other characters at which Firefly excels.

One way in which Firefly differs from most science fiction shows of its type is that it's not afraid to show Mal, as captain, on something other than an even keel. On Persephone, he's clearly bothered by feelings of jealousy such that even mentioning Inara's name and hinting at her work causes him to become more distracted and surly than usual. It's probably a matter of taste, but I found it almost too much. If he his feelings lead to awkwardness that easily, how have they been functioning together for almost a year?

The two are clearly from very different worlds, though at the risk of disagreeing with the episode's writer, Jane Espenson, from the DVD commentary, I felt she fit into his a lot better than he did hers. Mal was able to fit in at the ball, but only as long as he focused on his objective - meeting Harrow, a client who won't deal with Badger, but whom Badger suspects Mal might be able to win over.

The three main guest stars, by the way, were all fine. Mark Sheppard is a great actor with an interesting recurring character whom I would have loved to see more often in future episodes. Larry Drake struck just the right note with Harrow, as a man within elite society who's well aware of its more unsavory characters. If anything was missing, it was in Edward Atterton's Atherton Wing. This is probably mainly a writing flaw, but while he did a come job as coming across as the smooth, arrogant rich kid, it was never quite clear why Inara genuinely liked him as she professed to do.

Matters come to a head when Mal punches Atherton for the latter's own jealous reaction and assumption that he owns Inara now that he's paid her. This leads to an obligatory sword duel over the matter of honor, and Atherton, naturally, is an expert swordsman. There's a great scene in Mal's room on Persephone where Inara comes to try and help Mal escape, and instead ends up teaching him swordfighting. Mal draws a distinction between not respecting her work and not respecting her, and coming as close to begging as Mal ever does in asking her not to accept Atherton's offer to stay with him as his personal Companion.

During the course of the show, we also see more of the everyday life of the crew, with what we might call Wash and Zoe's personal interactions and the card game over chores between Book, Simon, and Jayne. Simon is starting to fit in more, taking part in discussing plots to rescue Mal and being referred to by Jayne as "the doctor" rather than as some outside refugee. River also gets a bit more development in that wonderful scene where she reads Badger, who had come aboard to prevent the others from rescuing Mal, in his own dialect, concluding that he was a "sad little king of a sad little hill." Badger becomes an even more interesting character by responding with amusement.

In the end, Atherton is about to win the duel when Inara offers to stay with him if he'll spare Mal, a sacrifice which shows her own affection for him. Mal uses this to get the better of Atherton, but declines to "finish it" so that Atherton will be left with the reputation of a coward. Inara provides a finishing touch by telling him he will become persona non grata to other Companions. In the show's final scene, the two share a moment in the cargo hold, looking over Harrow's herd of cattle while making a common bond out of not wanting to leave Serenity.

Altogether this was a decent episode - I haven't even mentioned Kaylee's dress and its associated moments. As noted, I did wonder a bit about elements of the characterization, and the pacing of the ball scenes also seemed off, though maybe I just haven't seen enough balls on TV to judge appropriately. As a complete package, I'll give it 6/10.

Inara: "I am grateful, you know, for the ill-conceived and high-handed attempt to defend my honor although I didn't want you to."

Firefly Episode 3: "Bushwhacked"

No, I haven't forgotten my plans to review Firefly. However, it's been a busy couple of months. I'm getting back in the groove now, though, with the show's third installment, "Bushwhacked," a short horror flick designed as a formal introduction to the Reavers, whose brief appearance in the pilot simply let us know they were horrible. "Bushwhacked" lets us see the horror, which is made all the more compelling by the fact they themselves never appear. All we see is their shadow in the actions of the crew and the transport ship's lone survivor.

The transport ship is portrayed in a suitable dark and eerie manner, which sets the tone for the eventual discovery of the bodies, at which Mal immediately orders everyone back to Serenity. The discovery of the survivor contributes to the sense of urgency, as it involves Jayne panicking over a fight, assuming he is far more vicious than he actually is (at that point). In an equally eerie medical bay, we see the survivor driven mad, to the point where Mal, who has obviously encountered their handiwork before has Simon put him to sleep out of mercy.

Mal and Jayne then describe the Reavers to a skeptical Book. This skepticism sets the stage for the even bigger skepticism of Commander Harkin, who arrives with an Alliance cruiser to accuse Mal of committing the atrocities on board the transport, as well as the standard illegal salvage operation. In the end, however, he is forced to acknowledge the truth and Mal, driven to speak poetically in trying to get Harkin to understand, saves his life by killing the Reaverfied survivor despite being in handcuffs.

Even as it establishes both the horror of the Reavers and the general skepticism about them on the inner planets, the episode fits it lots of nice character moments. The basketball game at the beginning is one, showing the crew just having fun together for the first time in the series. Shortly after that, Simon's fish-out-of-water position and his courage are seen simultaneously as he falls for Jayne's trick to don a spacesuit and enter what he believes is a vacuum. We see the same thing when he enters space for real with his sister, whose bright inner spirit comes through for the first time in her enjoyment of the experience. Finally, we see Mal demonstrate his sense of honor and/or loyalty when he hides Simon and River rather than use them as a bargaining chip with the Alliance, as both Simon and Jayne expect.

In one or more of David Eddings's series, a character uses a technique of requesting random objects to ostensibly torture people, on the theory that their imaginations will come up with worse stuff than he could actually do. "Bushwhacked" uses the same theory brilliantly. Had we actually seen the Reavers torturing and killing, the show would have simply become a gorefest. By leaving them offstage and focusing just on reactions, the show puts us inside their effects, giving us a similar reaction that of the characters. All in all, it was a nicely done piece of work which I give an 8/10.

Mal: "That poor bastard you took off my ship. He looked right into the face of it — was made to stare."
Harken: "It?"
Mal: "The darkness. Kind of darkness you can't even imagine. Blacker than the space it moves through."
Harken: "Very poetic."
Mal: "They made him watch. He probably tried to turn away, and they wouldn't let him. You call him a survivor? He's not. A man comes up against that kind of will, the only way to deal with it, I suspect, is to become it."

Firefly Episode 2: "The Train Job"

As we all know, FOX decided not to air the Hugo-nominated "Serenity" as the pilot. Instead, we got "The Train Job," which according to the DVD commentary Joss Whedon and Tim Minear had to write over a single weekend. The result, for DVD viewers, is an underwhelming 45 minutes of redundant exposition on the sidelines of which is told a rather predictable story.

The opening barfight scene is where we actually learn what Mal's war was about, and if memory serves is where the word "browncoats" first entered the show's lexicon. Beyond that, however, it suffers in comparison to the comparable story elements in "Serenity," a thought I had many times while watching this show. The effects, however, were really interesting, such as being thrown out the electronic window.

After various scenes that explain the story's premise via the, err, "Tell, don't show" method, we learn that life is hard and the main characters are criminals, while Simon and River come from an Alliance world where she was subject to some sort of mental experiments. Moving right along, however, the crew gets a job from a businesslike yet cruel crime boss named Adelei Niska to steal cargo from a train. The scene makes two points 1.) They don't know what it is they're stealing and 2.) If they don't follow through, Niska will try to torture them to death. One realizes quickly that they will, in fact, cross Niska, probably by not doing the job, and that the identity of the cargo will play a role in this.

When Mal and Zoe board the train as part of the crew's plan, they discover a bunch of Alliance soldiers on board. I'm not sure Mal's "Cool - we get to make them look bad" reaction worked with me - it seemed too much a contrast with his previously established annoyance with bad luck, and made his hatred for them seem almost puerile. That said, as mentioned on the DVD commentary, the studio wanted a more jovial Mal, and I guess this is the best they can do on short notice.

The job goes off without a hitch, except that Mal and Zoe are detained by police at the train's destination investigating the theft. The planet's story does put some meat on the "life is hard" bones otherwise declared mainly by writer fiat, and the Alliance regiment on the train served a second purpose by demonstrating that government's lack of concern for these backwaters. The revelation that the cargo was medicine gets the appropriate profoundly bothered look from Mal, followed presumably by a commercial break.

As far as the shipboard plot, I couldn't get around a single point: Given what we know about Jayne, and more importantly what we know Mal knows about Jayne, why is he in charge? Granted, that doesn't carry the same weight it would on a military-based show like Star Trek or Babylon 5, but seriously, who would put Jayne in charge of anything? Simon gets a nice moment by doping him, for which Mal later congratulates the young doctor, further rendering the situation inexplicable.

Eventually, Inara uses her status as a Companion to get Mal and Zoe back to the ship, where Mal immediately announces they're returning the medicine to the planet. Maybe it's just me, but somehow the evident ease of that decision contradicted Mal's earlier professed unconcern with what Niska wanted them to steal in the first place. I'm also not sure what the point of the fight with Niska's henchmen was, or even how they happened to show up so conveniently to begin with.

Maybe I'm being too hard on this as an episode because it does immediately follow and invite obvious comparisons with "Serenity," but there's really no scene here I would rave about the way I would the Kaylee shooting scene or the Patience confrontation from the original pilot. (I didn't actually do that much raving in my review just to keep it at a reasonable length.) However, I can't be the only one who winced at Kaylee's bright "Crime!" when Simon asks her what's up, which seems to embody too much of the episode. I do think the texture of the Firefly world was there, but the characters were all reduced to a mess of roles mandated by the need to do too much in too short a time. I give this episode a 4/10.

Sheriff: "You were truthful back in town. These are tough times. A man can get a job, might not look too close at what that job is. But a man learns all the details of a situation like ours, well... then he has a choice."
Mal: "I don't believe he does."

Firefly Episode 1: "Serenity"

As the show's intended pilot, "Serenity" does everything you could ask. Not only do we get to know all the characters, but many of their future interactions are hinted at, as well, in the midst of an entertainingly told quiet but not boring storyline which kicks off the arc that would define the series. FOX's decision not to air it until last was one of their many dumb decisions in the way they handled Firefly.

The episode opens with the Battle of Serenity Valley, in which Sergeant Malcolm Reynolds leads a daring operation that he thinks may turn the tide in his side's favor. Despite the operation's success, his commanders opt to surrender to "The Alliance," and Mal and Zoe are the only two survivors from his unit. From Mal's despair, we flash forward six years to when he and his crew from the small, worn transport Serenity is performing an illegal salvage operation on a wrecked spaceship when they are caught by an Alliance cruiser. They escape, but not before the cruiser puts out an APB on them.

This encounter brings out something I like about the series, in that the Alliance isn't actually villainous, and in fact, in most shows would represent the good guys. The cruiser's captain is understandably contemptuous of what he sees as a group of scavengers turning profit off a tragedy, while a little later in the show, the ship's pilot point out that, "We're criminals. If everything we're right, we'd be in prison."

The crew had been hired to steal the goods by Badger, a crime lord on Persephone. Badger, however, refuses to touch the goods now that they're known as stolen, and refuses to pay. Mal decides to try selling them to a woman named Patience on a moon called Whitefall, saying he doesn't hold a grudge over the fact she once shot him.

On board also are three passengers they had taken on to make extra money and give them an excuse for their next journey: the elderly Derrial Book, a Shepherd (Christian Preacher) fresh out of the abbey and going to do God's work in the universe; Simon Tam, a wealthy, somewhat edgy and pushy doctor from the Alliance worlds with a large storage unit; and Lawrence Dobson, a schmo. There is also Inara Serra, a Companion (courtesan) who has been with them for awhile hoping to see the universe while getting them access to places that wouldn't accept just any rundown freighter.

Mal tells them the Alliance has ordered them to drop medical supplies on Whitefall, batting back an array of questions from Simon. However, they detect a message from within the ship to the alliance, meaning there is a mole on board. Mal immediately believes it's Simon and confronts him in the cargo bay, but Book to the side declares he has the wrong man. The Dobson appears, holding a gun. The gun, however, is primarily aimed at Simon, whom Dobson says is a wanted fugitive.

In the resulting commotion, Dobson shoots Kaylee, the ship's young and perpetually happy mechanic. Simon starts to treat her, but when an Alliance cruiser appears, he refuses until Mal agrees to change course and flee. Initially stubborn and continually put off by Simon's elitist manners, Mal gives the order at a moan of agony from Kaylee, and then he and Simon get her to the medical bay where she is treated. Mal, however, decides to find out what all this is about, and opens Simon's container, which turns out to be a cryogenic suspension chamber containing his sister, River, whom he has rescued from an Alliance facility where she was being harmed in some unknown manner.

Mal decrees that they will be put off at the next stop as a danger to the crew, despite protests and an open promise by Inara that if he puts them off, she's gone. When they reach Whitefall, however, Dobson escapes, beating up Book in the process. (Book had been Dobson's protector on the ship, especially against Jayne, the ship's tough who wants to kill him as quickly as possible.) He then goes to the medical bay and takes River, threatening to kill Kaylee if she does anything. Eventually he reaches the cargo bay with her, where Simon confronts him with a gun. After another shuffle, Dobson has a gun to River's head and Book hobbling off to the side. Mal, returning from an exciting visit to Whitefall, sizes up the situation while striding aboard the ship and shoots Dobson. They then escape from the Reavers (did I mention them in all this?). In the end, Mal offers Simon a position on board as ship's physician, which he accepts.

I went through a lot of summary mainly because there was a lot worth summarizing. Much of what I didn't mention is also good, such as Mal's encounter with Patience on Whitefall. Also important are the key interactions between characters, particularly Book and Inara, Mal and Simon, and Mal and Jayne. The dinner scene does a good job establishing the crew as a family-like atmosphere with Mal at its head; when Jayne is taunting Kaylee over her crush on Simon, Mal gives him one warning before ordering him to leave the table.

This also establishes Mal as a protector of the crew, and one easily ties this to the opening in which he lost almost everyone under his command. What's more, no matter how much he pretends otherwise, he's responsive to their opinions, as his decision to allow Simon and River to stay is prompted as much as anything by the urging of the wounded Kaylee and Inara's strong stand. Further strenghtening this point is the fact his reluctance to do so is grounded in the danger they pose to the crew, a point with which he at one point confronts Simon in what I believe was a test.

"Serenity" also did a great job at establishing the universe, both the lawless atmosphere of the outer worlds where the characters do business and the cultural elements which show creator Joss Whedon wished to mingle - the crew drinks out of Western-style mugs while eating with chopsticks. The ship itself is also established as an important character - not much to look at, but a home with which everyone is bonded and which given the proper care can perform.

The one element that seemed too much was the Reavers. The plot could have gone just as well without them, and it would have given the audience less to try and assimilate if their introduction had been postponed just a couple of weeks to "Bushwhacker." Still, this was a great introduction to the show, one which as an episode I would assign 8/10.

Mal: "Had a good day."
Simon: "You had the Alliance on you, criminals and savages... half the people on the ship have been shot or wounded including yourself, and you're harboring known fugitives."
Mal: "We're still flying."
Simon: "That's not much."
Mal: "It's enough."

Firefly Reviews

For Christmas, my brother and sister-in-law got me the complete Firefly TV series DVD set. Firefly, of course, is the greatest creative loss to science fiction television, as it was cancelled after only half a season. The fact that Serenity, the 2005 movied based on it, won the Hugo Award is testament to its excellence, as is the dedication of the hordes of "browncoats" who keep clamoring for more. Although not a fan in the most extreme sense, I've decided to try my hand at reviewing each episode as I watch it. I've never tried this before, as I don't like feeling committed to watch every episode of a TV show I like, and but in this case there are only 14, I have them on DVD, and they're just new enough to much of the world not to be thoroughly hashed over. (I include myself in those to whom they are new, as I never saw the show until the run-up to Serenity, and still haven't seen every episode.)

I'll probably have the first review up this weekend, but won't commit to a schedule beyond that. After all, I've been thinking the past week or so that I need to relax more, not give myself more deadlines to meet! However, if you drop in about once a week or so, you'll probably find something new.

UPDATE:

Episode 1: "Serenity"
Episode 2: "The Train Job"