Firefly Monday: The Train Job

[osprey_archer]

It is Firefly Monday again! Except it will soon switch to Firefly Wednesday, because Emma cannot make Mondays.

Today: "The Train Job," in which Inara brushes Kaylee's hair, while Kaylee looks totally blissed out and is all, wistfully, "Do you do this for your clients?"

And when Mal barges in on this, because he is always barging into Inara's shuttle without asking, which prompts this conversation:

Inara: "What did I say to you about barging into my shuttle?"

Mal: "That is was manly and impulsive?"

Inara: "I think the exact word was DON'T."

I do not understand why the writers thought that this whole 'barging into the shuttle without permission' thing so redolent of true love as to make it a recurrent motif - indeed, Mal and Inara's dominant mode of interaction. Please explain this to me.

Later in the episode, Inara smacks Mal across the face as part of a complicated plot to save him from a heist gone sideways. I think she probably enjoyed that.

ANYWAY. Having barged into Inara and Kaylee's hair-combing session without knocking, as he does pretty much every episode, because nothing says love like trampling the object of your affection's personal boundaries, Mal says, "You're servicing crew now?"

Kaylee/Inara. It is visible from space.

(And yes, I am afraid that all of these reviews are going to start with a logbook on the good ship Kaylee/Inara.)

Shepherd Book continues to be Mr. Exposition. I'm starting to think he is a spy - possibly for a faction within the Alliance that is against the men with blue hands? A very bad spy, because his fishing for information about Mal is also visible from space.

I like how Inara puts off his nosy questions by saying that she's been on the ship for eight months, but still doesn't actually know Mal. Never try to play a player, Shepherd Book. Bet Jayne would tell you everything he knows about the captain if you just lent a sympathetic ear, though.

I think probably we're supposed to take Inara's "I don't think I'll ever know the captain" at face value, but I like my interpretation better, because it makes more sense. Why does the show hang its hat on "Mal is a mysterious, mysterious man" rather than some quality that he actually has?

His sense of humor, sense of honor, witty one-liners, his chivalrous affection for his crew - I think any of these things would explain Inara's attraction to him better than "He's mysterious!" Does Mal seem actually mysterious to anyone?

***

In completely random observations: I love the faces Zoe makes when Mal and then Inara feed her the cover stories for how they're going to get out of this mess. Acting is clearly not her bag.

Comments

[silverusagi]

Does Mal seem actually mysterious to anyone?

Now that you mention it, no.
lol

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I know, right! But they push it so hard in the show. Is mysteriousness the new must-have accessory for romantic leads?

[goldjadeocean.livejournal.com]

My friends and I have a theory on Book, but it requires in part having seen everything through to Serenity, so I don't wanna spoil.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I've already seen everything - this is a rewatch, because it's been like seven years. So theorize away!

[goldjadeocean.livejournal.com]

We think he was an Operative in the olden days, but something caused him to lose his faith in the Alliance, which is why he went into the abbey--on good terms with the Alliance, though. And him leaving was when his abbot said, "Enough penance, go out into the world again."

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Oh, and this puts a new spin on his little break-down in episode one: he's not freaked out because he's lived a cloistered life and never seen violence before, but because he went into the abbey to get away from that and AS SOON AS HE WAS OUT, bam!, violence again.

And it explains how he recognizes which one is the Alliance spy, too.

[goldjadeocean.livejournal.com]

And why the Alliance station accepted his ID and gave him medical treatment, and why he knew what kind of operative was following the team in Serenity.

[anactoria.livejournal.com]

I had an argument about Mal/Inara with someone on Facebook last night. Their dynamic really bothers me, and it kind of stops me from liking him.

Inara/Kaylee, on the other hand = best ship.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

The farther I get into this show, the more annoying I find Mal. Not just his relationship with Inara, but the fact that he orders people around and refuses to explain the whys and wherefores of what he's doing. Most of the time they're not on the kind of time crunch that would make that acceptable; he just doesn't feel like explaining himself.

Inara/Kaylee = amazing. I kind of want to write some.