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...

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

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...

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...

Recap: Badger approaches Mal and offers him a job, if he can entice the client. To do so, he needs to go undercover at a high society ball on the planet Persephone. Also at the ball: Inara, accompanied by a rich client who wants her to stay with him. Mal jealously takes issue, and the client exposes his misogyny as he challenges Mal to a sword duel. Inara distracts the master duelist, allowing Mal to sneak-attack him and win. Mal wins the girl and the client's cargo: cows. Almost unquestionably the worst episode of the series yet. Mal's creepy, jealous-possessive relationship with Inara is by far the worst part of the show so far, and it's kind of disgusting the way Inara responds to it positively. Whedon clearly wants us to ship the pair, though - the client turning out to be a Major Asshole conveniently forces us, essentially, into rooting for Mal during the duel. But it's not like the show is entirely unaware of the fact that Mal is really the villain in this sto...

Recap: Serenity hits a dead body in space, and the crew boards a seemingly deserted space vessel. It turns out that the ship was hit by reavers, and they left one survivor, who Mal takes in. An Alliance ship catches Serenity and its captain boards the Firefly, but before they discover Simon and River, they're beset by the survivor - who has gone insane. Mal saves the captain of the Alliance ship and is let go, though stripped of his non-human contraband. Two distinct halves to this episode. The first half is great - a horror movie for the small screen, menace in every shot as the crew of Serenity explores the dead ship, trying to figure out what happened. The dread is palpable the whole time. Excellent atmosphere here. The second half of the episode is less scary and a little more procedural - a story about the scruffy outlaw saving the life of, and thus winning over, an authority figure in over his head. The Alliance officer voices his suspicions about Mal and proceeds to menti...

Recap: Mal accepts a gig from a creepy Eastern European dude named Niska: a train heist. As standard operating procedure, he doesn't ask questions. Mal, Zoe, and Jayne pull off a crazy heist, but only Jayne escapes, and Mal discovers that the cargo they stole was medicine needed for the inhabitants of the mining planet. Going against his deal, Mal returns the stolen goods and sends Niska's money back, not taking no for an answer. Here's a relatively straightforward, procedural episode after the overwhelming double-length opener. There's not a ton to dissect from its main action. The most important work going on here is the characterization. Mal can appear amoral and he certainly is fond of violence - he instigates a barfight, licks his chops at taking on a whole squadron of feds, and dives right into combat with Niska's henchmen - but when it comes down to it, his principles render him more fettered than he lets on. While awaiting investigation, Zoe reassures Ma...

Without commercials, the first episode of Firefly runs an hour and a half. It also makes a daring decision to start things off with a battle that's muddled in uninteresting dialogue and visual muddiness. Trying to make out the action, in conjunction with the dread of a lengthy episode, had me dropping the series for nearly a decade. Over the last year and a half, I watched through Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff series, by the same creator. The quality of them were so thorough that I felt I owed it to myself to find out why people were so upset about Firefly. Prepare for lots of references to Buffy, because I can only interpret things by comparison and that's my most recent measuring stick! Recap: Mal Reynolds is on the losing side of a war, but he sees his squad through the battle. Six years later, he runs an old junker ship named Serenity , doing odd jobs for sustenance and avoiding the Federation that won the war. His crew consists of his right-hand woman soldier...