Firefly 1x14
Added 2023-12-31 19:52:09 +0000 UTCWe're close to the end, which is SO SAD. Thank you to everyone on here who followed me for this series, only two episodes thingies to go!
Comments
wow this whole episode suddenly make a lot more sense now haha, this is such a great dissertation indeed. I didn't realize her internalizing the order and stuff, it's really interesting!
Vic
2024-01-11 21:53:06 +0000 UTCGreat dissertation, very thoughtful and comprehendible :). You brought up things that I never considered (like Early's voice waking River up and alerting her to the danger).
Eric H
2024-01-03 21:06:10 +0000 UTCI absolutely love this episode. It's tied with Out Of Gas as my favorite of the series. So I can't resist writing a long dissertation here. The opening scene gives us a glimpse into River's mind. We realize the incredible struggle she lives with constantly hearing snatches of everyone else's thoughts all jumbled together. But right at the end of the jumble we hear a voice that sounds to me like Jubal Early saying "we're all just floating". River's eyes snap open and she starts prowling the ship. If I'm right about that being Early's voice then that gives me my whole interpretation of this episode. River's mind has been shattered by the experiments done on her. Telepathic and genius, but fragmented. As she says, "She understands, she doesn't comprehend." On some level she's heard a stranger's voice and takes it as dangerous. She immediately goes to every member of the crew and confirms it wasn't one of them. One part of her then procures a gun for self defense, while the conscious part of her hallucinates that it's a stick. "It's just an object. It doesn't mean what you think." But Mal takes the gun away and orders her "No touching guns." which she repeats back to him. Now the defense strategy part of her brain has to come up with a new plan, one without touching guns. Instead of shooting Early when he boards the ship, which she could have done easily, she now has to outsmart him by getting inside his head. We've already seen a less involved version of this in Shindig when Badger notices her. As soon as he asks "You got a secret?" River perceives danger, gets inside his head, and creates a story that she instinctively knows he will believe. She does the same with Early but since he already knows who she is she needs a much more involved story. Worse yet, she knows Early is also very perceptive, so it has to be a story the Simon will believe too, otherwise Early will see Simon doesn't believe it. So she plays with his head with the "I'm not River, I'm Serenity" game to buy time to come up with a good enough story to fool everyone. (And time to get Kaylee to free herself then free Mal so Mal can get into position.) Early would never believe River volunteering to go with him unless the story was so convincing that even Simon believed it. So she used the crew's earlier conversation that she eavesdropped on as the raw materiel and came up with a story that worked. Simon believes it, so Early believes it and finally lets his guard down so he's completely taken by surprise by Mal on the outside of the ship. All this is necessary because she internalized Mal's order "No touching guns". She even repeats the rule to Zoe when Zoe is getting ready to take a gun and go out to confront Early. To me this is such an insight into how River's maid works. She's capable of incredibly complex plans on one level, but on another level she barely understands what she's doing. If she could think logically, she could have just warned the crew that Early was coming. She could have just ignored Mal's order and gotten another gun, knowing they would forgive her once she saved them from Early. But her brain works in fragments and she has to do the best she can with those fragments of sanity. "She understands, she doesn't comprehend" is the perfect essence of who River is at this point.
The Value of Life
2024-01-02 22:25:45 +0000 UTCOh that makes a lot more sense, I was quite confused about what he meant.
Vic
2024-01-02 03:13:54 +0000 UTCThey did so well with what they had
Vic
2024-01-02 03:12:28 +0000 UTCAs much as it sucks not getting a season 2, if you look back, it's a complete show, you get a variety of types of episodes from fun, dramatic, sad, action, even a heist episode. Topics of betrayal, loyalty, class lines in society. Even the back stories of all the crew were flushed out in how we got where we are. Still some untied loose ends but in the end still a complete season of great TV that never jumped the shark and went last season of lost on us. Thin but a silver lining none the less.
Bubba Fett
2024-01-01 21:15:11 +0000 UTCThe next thing to watch, ideally before the movie, is the River Tam sessions. This is a series of promo material that was released before the movie.
Eric H
2023-12-31 21:39:39 +0000 UTCYes, this is a River episode. Summer Glau said this was her favorite episode to film. We are introduced to an evil bounty hunter, who we learn is capable, scary and intimidating. Yet, Jubal Early is completely outmatched by River. While this episode is not the best way to end the series, it does reveal things about how River thinks, and what a force she is.
Eric H
2023-12-31 21:38:09 +0000 UTCPart of Mal's motivations with Inara is that while he wants Inara to stay, he doesn't understand her feelings for him and he would never want to interfere with her life decisions. When Mal says "none of it means a damn thing", he doesn't understand that it DOES means something, because Inara does love him. As for Inara, I think she is wanting Mal to say something heartfelt, but this complicated. If Mal would become Inara's boyfriend, how would that work with her occupation? He needs her to reach out to him, and she needs him to reach out to her. But neither is capable.
Eric H
2023-12-31 21:32:09 +0000 UTCFunny you said in the outro that "you saw more of Willow's abilities" :)
Eric H
2023-12-31 21:22:07 +0000 UTC
