Firefly/Serenity: Whats Book's story?

Cafe Society
1

Just about everyone on Serenity has a secret or a past or a secret past and the movie Serenity answered almost all of those questions except for Book.

I could go into extensive detail about the clues but anyone watching the show would come to the obvious conclusion Book wasn’t always a Shepard and he has serious Alliance connections. In "Objects in Space’ River has a premonition were Book says “I don’t care if you’re innocent or not. So where does that put you?”. Is he referring to her and if so what does he mean?

I’m sure theres no definitive answer in the Canon so what does Joss Whedon say is Book’s past?

2

Joss refuses to say.

3

A guess but Whedon obviously didn’t get to use whatever story he had created for Book’s character. But rather than simply throw it away he may have decided to save it for possible recycling for a different character in some future project.

4

I don’t think there is Word of God on Book’s past.

However, looking at the series after watching the movie, I think it’s made pretty clear that Book was an Operative, just like the one in the movie. He followed a path much like that Operative: a highly trained, highly skilled, top secret agent who discovered something that shattered his world view and made him question what he was fighting for. He resigned or broke rank and disappeared into the Bathgate Abbey for many years, trying to come to terms with the things he did in his past life. He found Serenity when he left the abbey to go on his sojourn.

Again, nothing is said explicitly, and that preceding paragraph is simply a guess. But I think it’s a pretty solid guess given the evidence.

5

I think the best supposition is that he’s an ex-‘operative’ who found God and quit. I’m not sure the Alliance even knew he had ‘quit’, since it gave him so much deference when he was wounded. My suspicion is that he was sent out as a deep-cover operative to infiltrate the browncoats, and he became disillusioned and dropped out.

6

It sounds like Joss or Tim Minear had different ideas about what Book’s story was or the idea changed by the time of “Serenity.” If Book was an ex-operative who became disillusioned and found God, he probably wouldn’t be thinking something like that, particularly since he delivered that line almost malevolently.

Probably the most likely option is that Joss had several different ideas about what Book’s backstory could be and kept any hints vague enough so that nothing would be ruled out. It was only until “Serenity” came along that he apparently decided that to lay a clearer hint that Book was a former operative.

7

I think River’s vision of Book was a recollection, not a premonition - “I don’t care if you’re innocent or not” is the kind of thing he’d have said in the past if he were an operative.

8

Lots of people seemed to know who Book was, which doesn’t seem very top secret. Judging by the series alone, I pegged him as a high ranking general in the Unification War. Someone Mal and his fellow *browncoats * would hate, but not necessarily recognize face to face.

9

Not necessarily. I don’t recall “lots of people” knowing Book; the one instance I do recall is in Safe when the Alliance officers check his ident card, changing their tone immediately. My guess is the ident card shows he has extremely high clearance and probably standing orders from high authority saying ‘render any and all aid unto this man’, without actually specifying what his position is. A similar thing happens at the beginning of the movie: the project director (according to IMDb, Dr. Mathias) demands to know who the Operative is, the Operative scans his fingerprints into a terminal to pull up his info, and Dr. Mathias falls over himself apologizing for his rudeness and thereafter cooperates with him.

10

I have a hard time believing an Operative going off the reservation wouldn’t be tracked down by ‘Mister Bluehands’, and even if he managed to evade them his ‘cover’ is a high profile Alliance ally?

I’m guessing he was a deliberate plant to see what this girl knows and what she can do.

11

If he was a plant, why did he leave the ship between the TV show and the movie, while River was still running free?

12

The Bluehands were from the research facility, I believe. The blue gloves looked like surgical latex gloves. They were only concerned with River and nothing else.

The Operative in the movie appears to be able to move with significant autonomy, perhaps to allow the politicians and military leaders plausible deniability when he does something heinous to ensure the Alliance’s safety. If Book had that same autonomy, he could possibly disappear for years and not be considered missing.

Admittedly, that sounds weak to me. It’s possible he left the service under better circumstances than the movie’s Operative and as such retained his standing with the Alliance.

13

Of course there is! How do you think he became a Shepherd?

Oh, wait, you said “on”, not “in”.

14

Except the other things River was “hearing” from the other characters were things they were almost certainly thinking in the present - like Jane’s “I got stupid, the money was just too good” and Mal’s “None of it means a damn thing” when dealing with Inara leaving.

15

Nope. The comic book dealing with their fate showed that the blue hands weren’t gloves, but part of a onesie blue skintight suit they wore under their regular suits.

Why assume he left the service at all ?
Who knows, maybe he’s tracking some other fugitive(s) and figures that he’s bound to run into him/her/them by sticking with Mal et al. The movie’s Operative might have not known about him or who he was, since most spy operations work on a need to know basis.

16

My total crackpot theory about Book is that he’s part of the underground resistance that helped Simon get River out of the academy; specifically, he’s Simon’s guide. He finds Serenity on his own, while Simon follows a short distance behind and books passage as well posing as a stranger.

There are little clues here and there that support the theory. At the end of the first episode Book goes to Inara to have his injuries looked after instead of the doctor; this is because he was having a moment of weakness and needed to save face in front of his charges. He speaks fondly of Simon and about what he had to go through to get River out of the academy. Later, in “Jaynestown,” Simon leaves River in the care of Book; the first time they’re apart.

It’s a total crackpot theory, but I like it :slight_smile:

17

This is what I figured, more or less.

18

I saw Ron Glass at Dragon*Con this year, and in his panel, he said that there was a wrongful death that caused Book to leave the life he had led as an operative.

I wasn’t able to get in line fast enough to ask if that meant that Book had been in a “blood on the badge” situation.

19

Unless we’re dealing with jurisdiction boundaries that are frankly unheard of, I can’t see Book hanging around on a ship with fugitives from the Alliance without notifying someone, nor could I see him let Mal get away with shooting an Alliance agent in front of him, as in the pilot ep. At the very least, he would be the Alliance’s advocate on the ship; if not vocal, then at least subtle. No, if he ever had ties to the Alliance, he cut them before ever setting foot on Serenity.

20

Book’s story is a mystery that likely will never get answered.

Mal: “You have to tell me that story sometime.”
Book: “No, I don’t.”

(paraphrased from Serenity) That was basically Whedon giving us his answer.

As for observations and guesses,

We know he was someone important to the Alliance. His identity and clearance got him a lot of respect from Alliance officers in “Safe”. At least at one time he was someone significant to them.

Question: would his status as “Shepherd” get that kind of respect? I don’t think that was what was intended by that scene. I get the impression that Whedon’s intent was that, if anything, Companions had more status than Shepherds.

He claimed to have gone off and spent a long time in isolation in the monastery. Now he could have been lying, but in “Serenity” (the original series premiere, not the movie) he is shown wandering around somewhat lost before finding Serenity. He would have had to have been really good at setting up his cover to be that in to it before he even knew he was near Simon, much less River. It is very doubtful he was a deliberate agent sent to track them. Furthermore, he never does anything to impede Serenity, Mal, or the Tams, and actively helps them evade and survive. So it is not likely he is a current agent of any means.

He did have a fair amount of knowledge your typical Shepherd wouldn’t be expected to have, from skill with weapons to dealing with criminals and cops to knowing how the Operative would work. All of which is just elaborating that he had a mysterious past prior to entering the monastery for that long period of reflection.

Was he an Operative? I’m not convinced, though it is possible that was what Whedon was hinting at by having the Operative in Serenity. Though I suppose every Operative would be a little different. He was certainly someone with more Alliance clout than the bounty hunter Jubal Early.

What are we to make of the one scene cited where he “thinks”, “I don’t care if you’re innocent or not. So where does that put you?” It does come of strangely at odds with his behavior, and malevolent in tone. It was rather more judgmental than a Shepherd should be. But he gave no outward appearance of that attitude, from dealing with River directly to doing anything to impede the group. Unlike Jayne, who several times took acts against the group or the Tams for his own self-interest.

It’s possible that Whedon had a couple ideas for Book’s past, and hadn’t decided what he wanted to do. Given Whedon’s style, though, I think he probably did have something concrete in mind as to who Book was in his former life and why he was on board. I mean, his role is to be Mal’s conscience and sounding board, but clearly Book has some aim for continuing to hang around.

I think whoever Book had been, he got disillusioned in his job and left for the monastery, but not on bad terms with the Alliance, just kinda quit and went his own way. After decades of reflection, he went back out into the world to explore and maybe find a way to atone, and thus stumbled upon Mal and the Tams. He decided they were a good starting place. His not caring whether River was guilty or innocent was meant in a more benign way, but River’s perception was off.

I don’t think he had a role in the Unification War, because he was in the monastery during that time. My guess is that he was either an Operative or some high official or military leader back when Mal and the gang were children, who took on a new identity “Derrial Book” once he joined the monastery as a sign of giving up his past life.