I have this episode in the Firefly 4-Disc DVD set.
The crew
of Serenity helps out a town in need by taking care of (read: disposing of) a
local gang of thugs and the people are so grateful that they throw a party. Mal
does more than his share of celebrating, and after taking to the air the
following morning finds a woman stowaway named Saffron onboard claiming to be
his wife.
Unable to
return her to the Triumph settlers they just left - thanks to one of the
bandits being a prefect’s nephew – Mal decides to bring her with them to their
next destination which is six days away. He spends much of that time hiding from
her advances and dodging the crew’s jibes, until he finds Saffron in his bed.
He
struggles to keep away, but finally gives in and kisses her…and then passes out
on the floor.
He wakes
up to find Simon and Zoe leaning over him, Wash covering a head wound, Book
looking judgmental, Inara lying on his bed, Saffron gone, Serenity heading
somewhere unintentional and Jayne and Kaylee trying to get back onto the bridge
– which is sealed off.
They
manage to get enough systems back online to see that they’re heading towards a
net used by scrappers to catch any vessels that come near. If that wasn’t bad
enough, the net is also capable of killing anyone inside said vessels before the ships get taken apart.
Mal tells
Wash and Kaylee to keep working on getting control back while he and Jayne suit
up for open space and shoot out one of the net’s conduits. Serenity makes it
through the net safely, and navigation is restored.
Mal
catches up with Saffron in a winter cabin somewhere. They fight, Mal gets the
upper hand and asks her what her real name is…but knocks her out before she
answers, saying that she’d only lie anyway.
Notes of Interest:
1) First
of all, sharp-eyed readers will notice that this episode aired before “Shindig”. I may have mentioned
this before, but I’m old and forgetful so I’ll say it again. There were two
things Fox had absolute control over during the production of this series: which
episodes aired at all, and in what order. Given the choice between following
this series as the network presented episodes to us, and following this series
as the creators of the show intended
the episodes to be aired, I’ll stick with the creators thank you very much.
Besides, this is the order in which the episodes are presented on the DVDs.
2) Mal’s
room, last seen in Serenity (the
series pilot episode) is shown again here.
3) It’s
revealed that he’s from a planet called Shadow, and was raised on a ranch run
by his mother and about 40 hands. This explains his comfort level with cattle,
his work ethic and his desire to live life on his own terms. It also explains
why he would fight for independence and against the Alliance
4) Mal
has a tremendous respect for women.
He doesn’t like having one at his beck-and-call and spends a lot of time trying
to convince her to fend for herself.
WTF? Moment: When Mal catches up with Saffron
at the cabin, I expect them to fight - but his speech about having people who
trust and care for one another sounds forced and out of place.
WTF? Moment #2: Watching Mal’s behavior around
Saffron and the others is hilarious. This has to be the funniest episode so
far, and it’s all because of Mal being out of his comfort zone.
WTF? Moment #3: Going back to the scene in the
cabin with Saffron, it seemed to me that she and Mal could have a very
interesting relationship. Almost Catwoman/Batman-ish in nature. In fact, I
started wondering why they couldn’t
be good together until I saw the final scene between Mal and Inara. It felt
like that last scene was needed to remind us that “Oh yeah, these two are supposed to wind up
together.” Had the series continued, that’s how it would have played out.
However, I think Nathan and Christina showed a chemistry here that wouldn’t
have been denied by the powers that be…had the series continued.
WTF? Moment #4: Don’t Mal look just hi-larious
in a bonnet?
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