Foxibex and Stag

Episode 14 - 'Objects in Space' Recap: The hallucinating River gets hold of a gun, which makes the crew of Serenity very unhappy. A bounty hunter infiltrates Serenity while the crew sleeps and neutralizes everyone he encounters in pursuit of River. River's disembodied voice floats through the PA system, claiming to be Serenity and guiding everyone... until the bounty hunter finally realizes that she has infiltrated his ship. This advantage allows the crew to overcome the bounty hunter. Another episode, another guest star that the show just loves . He talks an absolute ton , and he never comes close to losing a fight. He's efficient and he'll threaten rape (but not want to commit it!) He sucks the oxygen out of the episode and it's satisfying to watch River get the drop on him. She's the real star of the episode, after all. This is the type of payoff episode that you need for River, and probably more often given that whenever she's prominent, she...

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Recap: A package has arrived for Mal - the erstwhile dead body of his former squadron mate, Tracy. After a touching recorded message, it turns out Tracy isn't quite dead, and that he's trying to use Mal to smuggle his juiced up organs. Tracy is hunted down by Alliance marshals, so he turns on Mal and Book when they attempt to open the doors to the cops. This of course winds up in his death. So Tracy coming back to life is both hilariously obvious and a cool narrative device. One of the best parts about Tracy's presence is the way that others react to his message both the first time and the last. It seems like everyone's head is bowed and eyes are moist when they first hear Tracy's titular message, but the sympathy quickly turns to incredulity and disgust when they see Tracy's true colors. Yet by the end of episode, as Tracy's voiceover montage returns - and we are fully aware of its insincerity - Simon and Kaylee nonetheless link hands again, Jayne takes o...

Recap: Mal encounters Saffron, married to one of his war buddies, and hears of a job from her. He brings her into the crew this one time, and they infiltrate yet another one of her 'husbands.' The mission goes off correctly, and Saffron double-crosses Mal - but Inara is there to clean up the mess. A hilarious, thoroughly enjoyable episode. Christina Hendricks's 'Saffron' - aka Bridget, aka Yolanda - is as delightful as she was in her first appearance here. She's very clearly been assigned the role of punching bag rival - competent enough to get the drop on Mal, but not enough to avoid getting immediately outed (by herself!), punched in the face by Zoe, and even punked by Inara ('You can't do this! I have a condition!! ') And her heist gives us the chance to make a super-fun mission, complete with a description of 'The Plan' and accompanying montage of execution. There's a nice backdrop with Mal and Inara's conflict, too. Mal as ...

Recap: Wash becomes jealous of Zoe's relationship with Mal and insists upon taking Zoe's spot for the medicine sale to gather some 'war stories.' Niska catches up with them and captures them. Zoe buys Wash's freedom, interrupting his and Mal's latest conflict-under-duress. The crew of Serenity regroups and rescues Mal. Another episode of Firefly that demands you examine its gender dynamics. It's fairly ham-fisted this time. Wash complains that he's not an action guy despite being a reasonably muscular man. (The fact that the Shepherd is shown lifting weights and then being an action hero this same episode seems to confirm, intentionally or not, that this is indeed a failing on Wash's part.) Wash also insists that perhaps there are 'too many husbands' in his relationship, which, alright, buddy. Fortunately (?), it turns out that he's mostly just jealous of the relationship that Zoe and Mal share. We've seen the way that Wash and M...

Recap: Serenity visits the Core Planet Ariel so that Inara can get her official medical checkup. With River's condition worsening, Simon proposes breaking into the hospital to use their diagnostic equipment. The mission to check out River is successful, but Jayne sells Simon and River out, and the Alliance captures them all, including Jayne. The trio is rescued by Mal's reinforcement, after which he confronts Jayne. Real talk - this might be the most important Jayne episode yet, even more so than the eponymous 'Jaynestown.' Simon's decision to break in to the hospital provides the plot of the episode, but there's no meaningful conflict without Jayne's decision. One of my favorite scenes from the first half of the episode is Jayne's dedication to learning medical jargon. Zoe, Mal, and Jayne partake in a good-old-fashioned training montage, which is actually a little cringe-worthy. But then, we go to the actual mission - and Jayne is dead serious abou...