Foxibex and Stag

Recap: A component in Serenity's engine has blown, eliminating life support. Mal sends off the help flare, evacuates his crew and plans to go down with his ship. The flare brings substandard help, but Mal is nonetheless able to repair Serenity and is saved by his crew. Flashbacks show us how the crew is recruited. Visually, the most striking episodes of the series thus far. I'm reminded vaguely of Buffy's 'The Body,' another episode with dramatic cuts and uncompromisingly visuals. We open on Serenity's halls and rooms, unoccupied. Now, Serenity is a full-sized spaceship, and the crew numbers in the single digits, but because of the way the show has been filmed thus far, it's jarring to see them so empty and dead . The bluish-grey light contributes to this eerie, haunted feel, as Mal falls to the floor. I'm describing this scene in such detail because the most powerful technique that the creators use in this episode is striking contrast. From Mal

Recap: Serenity's crew reaches a of ruthless capitalist foremen presiding over 'mudders.' Their principal export: clay. Jayne tries to keep a low profile as he once stole from the magistrate of this village, but it turns out that he's actually a folk hero because in his botched escape attempt, he dumped the loot out of his spaceship. Jayne is feted by the village until the magistrate unleashes Jayne's ex-partner, whom Jayne sold out, and he reveals the truth. An awesome concept for an episode, and obviously the perfect character to center it around. Jayne is defined primarily by three characteristics: his strength, his meanness, and his stupidity. The circumstances that plague Jayne at the beginning are entirely of his own doing - he used his strength to rob the magistrate, he cruelly ejected his own partner, and he stupidly bungled the operation by losing the money. Yet the interpretation of the events is obviously different from what Jayne remembers. Jayne Cob

Recap: After a wild night of partying to celebrate a rescuing a village on a backwater planet, Mal discovers that he has a stowaway who claims to be his wife. Saffron is a shrinking violet who only wants to please her husband - except for the whole actually-a-honey-trap-who-seduces-everyone-and-sells-out-their-ship part. The crew barely escapes their ship being scrapped with no survivros, and Mal gets a final word in on Saffron but spares her life. I'm sensing a turning point. Actually, I don't know where the turning point would have been. I didn't see signs of the series improving here; I saw a completely different series . 'Our Mrs. Reynolds' is easily the best episode since the pilot and probably better than that. The characterization hasn't changed, but it's being leveraged better. Mal is still an overbearing bastard, but take his interactions with the pastor (who's completely healed) - rather than making unprovoked YOUR GOD SUCKS DON'T TA

Recap: Completing the cattle run results in some damage - the Shepherd takes a bullet, while locals kidnap Simon (and by extension, River). Mal skips town with the bleeding Shepherd but without the Tams, and he manages to find medical care on an Alliance ship using the Shepherd's's mysterious credentials. He returns and rescues River the much-desired doctor, who's about to go down for witchcraft. Flashbacks show Simon leaving home. The first shot of the episode promises excitement. Instead of the desolate, Wild West that we're used to seeing, we find lush greens. Simon's family is well off and unconcerned with the Alliance - and incidentally, it appears that they never wind up feeling like they've lost everything in the War. Unfortunately, the episode itself feels... bad. Simon's flashback is almost entirely wasted. We learn virtually nothing that Simon doesn't directly tell us. I guess it's cool that Pop was a good dude when Simon was a kid? But

After 'Shindig,' a commenter asked, 'Do you consider yourself a strong feminist? All the other people who've watched Firefly and reacted this way to Mal/Inara that I know are pretty big feminists and it might be something like they can't stand that sort of male/female dynamic.' My response: --- Don't know about 'strong,' but feminist, yes. There's a really rape-y 'don't take no for an answer, you know she wants the D' element that rubs me the wrong way, and Inara happily enables it. I'd argue that Firefly encourages you to examine its gender dynamics. It's not an accident that the 'manliest' characters are named Jayne, Mal, and Zoe, for one thing. Inara uses her sex in exchange for capital, and it's discussed in the first episode at length. Zoe and Wash's slightly inverted gender roles are brought to light pretty freuqently. As for its creator, the same year Firefly aired, Joss Whedon had another abu