The good; We see a more moral side to the Serenity crew and love the face-off between Jayne and the others without Mal around.
The bad; The sick bay design is rather stupid, wouldn't you want some privacy rather than all those windows for people to see in? No one notices Serenity flying alongside the train?
Notches on the Serenity bedpost; Inarra;1-a paying customer who wishes to make her his kept woman Wash; 1-the missus Zoe; 1-the hubby
Capt subtext; Mal talks of'being on the edge' then 'moving towards the middle', possibly alluding to the frontier and the central planets. Innara and Kaylee have a big girly hair-stroking session (how the Summer's girls on Buffy used to express physical affection for one another). Inarra remarks to Kaylee "We could experiment". Mal seems keen on the idea and refers to Inarra 'servicing the crew' but she dismisses that as his 'lonely pathetic dreams'. Summer points out that Mal=Bad in Latin/French. Mal tells Zoe he loves her but it's all part of their cover(?)
Happy high-class hookers in Space (the title the porn industry wished they'd thought of!); Kaylee seems fascinated by the details of Inarra's profession. Inarra claims a companion gets to pick and choose her clients which I think is about as realistic and truthful as the Dollhouse staff pretending to themselves that they don't hire the Actives out as sexual submissives. Mal still needles Inarra about her hooking but does so more subtly and less nastily than he did in 'Serenity'. The nature of the companions work is left very vague here, if you hadn't seen Serenity you wouldn't know exactly what her job is, she could be a beautician. Inarra enjoys turning the tables on Mal, pretending he's her indentured man (some form of community service in the future?).
Questions and observations; We now know the war ended 6 years ago. Inarra has been on the ship 8 months. Here we have a much more upbeat, likable Mal, perhaps the events of Serenity mellowed him? He even says 'It's the right thing to do'. Book refers to the 'Fuzzy wuzzies' referring to Kiplings poems concerning the Sudan campaign Britain fought against Islamic fundamentalists in C19th (and we're still doing it today!). What is the chain of command on Serenity? It seems to go Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Wash, after that anyone's guess. Note Mal doesn't kill the Fed on the train, just knocks him out. Joss refers to Inarra and Mal as Beatrice and Benedict from 'Much ado about nothing', check out the Kenneth Branagh version for the Beatrice and the Duke (Denzel Washington) proposal scene alone. Joss refers to Firefly as Star Trek;TNG dark underbelly, much as what was explored in DS;9. Marks out of 10; 5 out of ten, nowhere near as good as Serenity, not a bad ep in itself but feels cheap in comparison to it's predecessor, like Charmed to Buffy.
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