Firefly“Serenity Part 2”
Original Air Date: 20 December 2002
Rachel – Two Cents Staff Writer
rachel@thetwocentscorp.com
In the second part of this two-parter pilot episode, we learn the story of River and Simon. In a nutshell: she is freaking brilliant, the Alliance recruited her for a “special” program at age 14, something went horribly wrong, and (prompted by cryptic message from River) Simon rescued her. Now on the run from the government, the two have brought even more risk to the crew of Serenity. Mal decides to throw them off the ship in the next port.
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ReplyDelete“Serenity Part 2”
Original Air Date: 20 December 2002
Rachel – Two Cents Staff Writer
rachel@thetwocentscorp.com
In the second part of this two-parter pilot episode, we learn the story of River and Simon. In a nutshell: she is freaking brilliant, the Alliance recruited her for a “special” program at age 14, something went horribly wrong, and (prompted by cryptic message from River) Simon rescued her. Now on the run from the government, the two have brought even more risk to the crew of Serenity. Mal decides to throw them off the ship in the next port.
Meanwhile, Dobson is still tied up in a storage room but manages to offers a slice of the River reward money to Jayne if he helps him. Jayne asks if helping Dobson out means turning on Mal. Dobson replies, “Yes, it does.” Jayne starts to smile.
And as if that weren’t enough of a threat to the happy home that is Serenity, the Reavers show up. Reavers are sort of the boogie man of Firefly: it’s as if the family from Texas Chainsaw Massacre got a fleet of ships and roam around the outskirts of charted territory eating people. Nice. To put it into even more scary terms, I quote Zoe: ““If they take the ship, they'll rape us to death, eat our flesh, and sew our skins into their clothing. And if we're very, very lucky, they'll do it in that order.” So the Reavers fly by and don’t bother Serenity. For now.
Back inside the ship, Mal corners Simon and tells him that Kaylee has died from her wounds. In slow motion, Simon runs to the infirmary to find Kaylee sitting up with a goofy grin on her face waving at him. Cut to the bridge where Mal, Zoë, Wash, and Jayne are laughing hysterically. “Ah, ya should’a seen his face!”
So the crew heads to the planet Whitefall to finish their latest smuggling job. Things don’t go too well: there are shots fired. But that is not the worst of it: while most of the crew is off ship, Dobson escapes, knocks Book out, finds a gun, and kidnaps River. Mal, who is over the whole Dobson thing and angry from the messy exchange of goods, walks onto the ship and shoots Dobson dead. No drawn-out speechifying here. That’s a good thing because the Reavers show up again and this time they are hungry.
As Wash tries to maneuver away from the Reaver ship in a somewhat Zen state, he asks that Kaylee get to the engine room so they can do an “Ivan” ala Hunt for Red October or Top Gun. Much chasing (that is hard to describe in print) later, Serenity’s engines are turned one at a time, completely reversing her course. They fly right past the Reaver ship and go for hard burn, knocking the Reavers out in the wake of their jump out of the moon’s atmosphere.
Mal announces to the crew that they are “out of the woods.” They will need some repairs and fuel soon, but for now, they are fine. In Inara’s shuttle, she tends to Books bleeding head. As he sits before her, he confesses that he thinks he is on the wrong ship. She tells him he is exactly where he ought to be. This is my favorite shot in the episode, by the way… the preacher blessed by the harlot.
On the bridge, Mal guesses that Dobson tried to make a deal with Jayne and asks him why he didn’t turn. Jayne says the money wasn’t good enough. Mal asks him what will happen when the money IS good enough, to which Jayne responds: “Well, that’ll be an interesting day.” Mal then offers Simon the post of ships doctor. Simon asks how will can trust that Mal won’t kill him in his sleep. Mal responds: “If I ever kill you, you'll be awake, you'll be facing me, and you'll be armed.” Mal then remarks that he has had a good day because they are still flying.
Why this episode is important:
The arc of the Simon/River story drives the series and is the basis for the movie Serenity. Although this is a great ensemble series, River is really the Samantha Mulder of Firefly. BUT, there are other themes going through the series. For instance…
There is a theme running through Firefly of lost faith. This issue is continually dealt with in the relationship between Mal and Book. Not that they are enemies, quite the contrary, but the two disagree greatly on the whole “God is looking out for you” front. So keep looking for quiet comments and glances between the two as they struggle to confirm their own beliefs.
While we are on Book, he is a complete mystery to me. It is unfortunate that this character could not be explored in a second or third season of the show. He knows things that a shepherd usually doesn’t know. In this episode, as Kaylee instructs him on how to go for a fast burn, he actually knows where engine parts are and what he is doing. In addition, he was pretty stealth taking out Dobson. There is more there than we know. We will get more questions about Book than answers in this series. I am interested to know what your own theories are on this one.
Your Two Cents:
What do YOU think? What was your favorite moment? What was your favorite line? Give us your Two Cents… We’ll use it to bid on Firefly stuff on Ebay.
Next Week: “Out of Gas”