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Finding Firefly - Part Two |
By Joe Utichi. |
As part of our celebration of Serenity - we bring you our guide to the show that started it all, Firefly, with an exclusive episode guide. You can read Part One from the link at the bottom of the page, and in Part Two we cover episodes Safe, Our Mrs. Reynolds, Jaynestown, Out of Gas and Ariel.
Important note: The verdicts on this page relate only to Firefly, so a two-star review means we think the episode is worth it agaist the rest of Firefly only. |
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Safe |
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THE PLOT:
As the crew offload Badger's cattle on a world away from prying Alliance eyes, Simon and River are captured by villagers in dire need of a doctor. As Mal takes off without them, hope that they'll be rescued grows thin and when River says something she shouldn't, all of a sudden the townsfolk are getting ready to burn her at the stake for Witchcraft.
THE REVIEW:
Poor Kaylee (Jewel Staite) - all this time waiting for Simon to satisfy her cravings and, in the same episode, he insults Serenity and then goes all missing. Truth is, crew of Serenity, it's clear by this point in the run of the show, get themselves into more than the usual amount of scrapes and, this week, it was just Simon and River's turn. Not particularly outstanding among the Firefly flock, but nonetheless the proud possessor of some of the show's best character moments.
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BEST LINE:
Kaylee and Zoe are looking over Book (Ron Glass) following his shooting.
Kaylee: How's he doin'?
Zoe: I cleaned it out, wrapped it up - best I could. I don't know.
Kaylee: But we're heading for help, right?
Zoe: Cap'n'll come up with a plan.
Kaylee: That's good. Right?
Zoe: Possibly you're not recallin' some of his previous plans. |
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Our Verdict:  |
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Our Mrs. Reynolds |
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THE PLOT:
After a plesant night's party, Mal discovers his cargo is slightly overloaded, to the tune of one woman claiming she was bequeathed to him as his wife. With his crew finding the prospect mighty hilarious, Mal does his best to spurn her advances without fracturing her delicate sensibilities. But all is not as it seems with Our Mrs. Reynolds.
THE REVIEW:
To most television producers, "let's give character x a surprise wife and see what happens" would be the signal for some shark-jumping. To Joss Whedon, it's key for one of the best Firefly episodes. Christina Hendricks is one of the series' most memorable guest stars, delivering a wonderfully complex performance as Mal's would-be wife, and Mal's interaction with the rest of his crew as they react to the news is brilliantly funny. This episode is also significant as the possessor of one of Inara's few moments of letting her guard down.
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BEST LINE:
Book has his own unique brand of counsel for Mal.
Book: If you take sexual advantage of her, you're going to burn in a special level of hell. A level they reserve for child molesters. And people who talk at the theatre.
Mal: Wha-- I am not-- Preacher, you got a smutty mind.
Book: A special hell. |
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Our Verdict:  |
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Jaynestown |
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THE PLOT:
When the crew touch down on a planet of mud-mining settlers, Jayne's jumpiness is well placed - especially when they discover a statue of him in the town centre. Seems a foiled robbery some years back made a hero out of Jayne and his return is, for the villagers, something of a second coming.
THE REVIEW:
It's about time we got a good Jayne (Adam Baldwin) episode, and this one surely suffices. Jayne is probably one of the most fascinating and loveable characters on the ship, the deceptively deep big-guy. This episode is fairly thin on plot development, by the end of the episode things have been worked out without much revealed of worth, but Jayne's developed so much, become even more complex, that you just can't help but love it.
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BEST LINE:
Book is looking after River while Simon is planetside.
Book: What are we up to, sweetheart?
River: Fixing your bible.
Book: I uh-- WHAT?
River: Bible's broken. Contradictions; false logistics. Doesn't make sense.
Book: No, no, you can't--
River: So we'll integrate non-progressional evolution theory with God's creation of Eden. Eleven inherent metaphoric parallels already there. Eleven. Important number. Prime number. One goes into the house of eleven eleven times, but always comes out one. Noah's ark is a problem.
Book: Really?
River: We'll have to call it early quantum state phenomenon. Only way to fit 5000 species of mammal on the same boat!
She rips out another page.
Book: Give me that. River, you don't fix the bible.
River: But it's broken. Doesn't make sense. |
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Our Verdict: |
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Out of Gas |
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THE PLOT:
Mal's reluctance to replace components stretched to breaking point comes back to haunt him when breaking point arrives and Serenity is left dead in the water. Mal insists the crew abandon ship in the shuttles while he prays for a rescue that doesn't look likely, all the while remembering Serenity's finest moments.
THE REVIEW:
Not, as the synopsis might suggest, a clip show this early on in Firefly's run, but rather a brilliant story to fill us in on the background of those crewmembers already on board in the pilot episode. Out of Gas is, without a doubt, the best Firefly episode by a long shot - mixing humour, drama and sci-fi as only Firefly can. It's really a testament to the brilliance of this show, that Serenity can be so rickety not as the result of an alien attack or a crash, but just because Serenity is all rickety and stuff. If Firefly had run ten seasons, Out of Gas would remain one of its finest hours.
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BEST LINE:
Zoe's reluctant to put her faith in Serenity as Mal shows her around for the first time.
Mal: Come on! You haven't even seen most of it - let me show you the rest. And try to see past what she is and onto what she could be.
Zoe: What's that, sir?
Mal: Freedom is what.
Zoe: I meant, what's that?
She motions to something on the floor.
Mal: Oh... Yeah, just step around that; I think something musta been living in here. |
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Our Verdict:  |
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Ariel |
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THE PLOT:
Serenity touches down on a core planet, one under extreme Alliance control, and the crew are a mite jittery. But Simon, who wants to use some Alliance medical equipment to check up on River, has a plan which could net them a lot of money.
THE REVIEW:
As Firefly's take on some Ocean's Eleven-style breaking-and-entering, Ariel is rich storywise and makes some damn entertaining television. It's also part of what would have been Firefly's ongoing storyline; discovering what it was at that Alliance facility caused River's brain issues. The movie, Serenity, picks up on this storyline, while abandoning some of the extraneous elements introduced here for time and clarity, and so in light of Serenity, Ariel becomes even more interesting.
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BEST LINE:
Kaylee's filling Inara in on what she's missed in her absence.
Kaylee: Hey Inara, how was your check-up?
Inara: Same as last year. What's going on?
Kaylee: (Cheerfully) Oh, well, let's see... We killed Simon and River, stole a bunch of medicine and now the Cap'n and Zoe are springin' the others got snatched by the Feds. |
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Our Verdict: |
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Elsewhere... |
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| Catch up on the TV show that launched this boat. |
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| We conclude our guide to Firefly. |
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