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1.9 Ariel Simon: "For this to work, River and I will have to be dead." Jayne: "I'm starting to like this plan." Again, a strong episode that showed Simon in a wonderful light: clever, courageous, risking his life for his sister. It's like Simon is our conventional hero, while Mal is our anti-hero. I'm not quite sure what Jayne is. It's funny how Jayne can remain so likeable even while doing such a despicable thing. I particularly liked how he absolutely had to give his rehearsed line even when it wasn't needed, and how he had the grace to look guilty when Simon was praising him to the skies. In fact, we got the key to Jayne in that final scene, when Jayne, facing death, asked Mal not to tell the others that he had betrayed them. Just as in "Jaynestown," Jayne wanted to be good. He would like to be a hero. He just isn't. But the desire counted for something. At least to Mal it did. I didn't think for a moment that Mal would kill Jayne. Not because Mal doesn't have the nerve -- I think Mal was more than ready to do it -- but because Jayne is just too good a character to throw away. Jayne adds a lot of necessary conflict to their happy little space family. Oddly enough, this whole incident may have defused the anger between Simon and Jayne. Simon now thinks Jayne is, like, the best. And Jayne will probably continue to feel guilty for at least a few days. The Blue Hand Group was back, with a nasty little killing device. Many scalpel scars in her brain, huh? Poor River. The fact that she can't control her fear or any other strong emotion explained a lot. Were the surgeries intended to remove her fear? In the final scene, River was drawing a picture of what looked like those nesting dolls where you take the top off and there's a smaller doll inside, and a still smaller doll inside that, and so on. It was evocative of River herself, because there's so much of River that is concealed. Bits and pieces: -- My favorite scenes were of Simon rehearsing the crew on how to act like paramedics. And Zoe knocking the nasty doctor out with defibrillators and saying wryly, "Clear." -- Did River cut Jayne with the knife because she knew he was going to betray them? Did River's attack push Jayne into betraying them? This felt circular, didn't it? -- Wouldn't it have been more logical if Mal had stayed with Simon and River while Zoe and Jayne pulled the heist? Unless Mal was testing Jayne. No, I think Mal would have contrived a less dangerous test if that was what he wanted to do. -- Jayne was absolutely right that Mal had a double standard, that Mal wasn't as concerned because it was Jayne that got hurt instead of, say, Inara or Kaylee. -- We learned here that companions, by law, have to get regular check-ups. -- The scene where Simon stopped to save the dying man was like what Harrison Ford did in The Fugitive. -- The diagnostic machine River was in was like a very, very open MRI. -- It was fun to see them in a city for a change. Lots of sci-fi-like location scenes. This episode couldn't have been easy to make. -- Shepherd Book was not in this episode. -- This week's planet: Ariel, one of the "core planets." Ariel featured museums, restaurants, sensors, feds, moving billboards, pigeons, and bioluminescent lakes. Quotable quotes: Wash: "Don't you just hate doctors?" Simon: "Hey." Simon: "River, you have to eat. It's good. It tastes like... (makes a face) It's good." Jayne: "It smells like crotch." Mal: "Could have been meditating on the wonders of your rock garden by now." Jayne: "Well, it beats just sitting." Wash: "It is just sitting." Kaylee: "What's the companion policy on dating?" Inara: "It's complicated." (So they can date, huh?) Mal: "Patients were cynical, and not responding..." Mal: "Pupils were fixed and dilapidated..." River: "They took Christmas away. I came downstairs for the shiny presents. They took the tree and the stockings. Nothing left but coal." What was she referring to? What the Alliance did to her mind in that school? Made the Alliance sound like the Grinch. Mal: "You know, I hear tell they used to keelhaul traitors back in the day. I don't have a keel to haul you on, so..." River: "Is it time to go to sleep again?" Simon: "No, mei-mei. It's time to wake up." Three out of four stars, Billie |
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