“Our Mrs. Reynolds” is one of my favorite episodes, and is certainly the most quotable. The dialogue absolutely sparkles- perhaps not surprising, considering that Joss penned it himself. Book’s “special hells,” geese juggling, Saffron’s introduction (complete with appropriate reactions from each member of the crew), and my personal favorite moment, Jayne offering Mal his best gun. I particularly love Mal’s off-the-cuff quip: “Well, my days of not taking you seriously have certainly come to a middle.”
Make sure not to miss the deleted scene (found on Disc 4). Spoilers for the scene follow:
Although it doesn’t add anything to the plot, which is presumably why it ended up on the cutting room floor, it is still a very funny scene, and serves as (if memory serves) River’s one big moment in this episode. I think it’s also the first time that River’s oddness is played for laughs, in contrast to previous episodes, in which it either informs the plot, freaks out the other characters, or both.
Saffron executes her plan so well, which makes it a shame that the plan is so stupid to begin with. How exactly did she infiltrate the village where she marries Mal anyway? What was up with the scene where the net guys were talking about Serenity? Didn’t they know what ship they were going after? And the ep is home to the most notorious “is it an error or not” moment of the series, regarding whether Vera needs to be in a suit to fire.
But despite all these little things, this is a favorite ep of mine as well. The dialog cracks, the actress who plays Saffron is great.
They don’t pick specific targets together. I think Saffron goes in and sabotages whatever ship she can, while the net guys just wait until she sends the target flying towards them, and then snatches it. Clearly, the net guys have decent sensors that can detect ships in the area, so that they’re prepared in advance, just in case that incoming freighter is Saffron’s latest prey.
Not one of my top 3, but up there. Saffron is, to pick a phrase “really hot!” - definitely my favourite TV psycho hose beast.
Having saiod that, my favourite quote has got nothing to do with her :
MAL: “Now you can luxuriate in a nice jail cell, but if your hand touches metal,
I swear by my pretty floral bonnet, I will end you.”
It’s that combination of dry humour and deadliness that does it. the man is a God.
Oh, and Wash is a great husband, with real willpower.
Darnit, Sam, I was looking forward to posting this.
Anyway, this is definitely my favorite episode. It’s not the most character-development-heavy one, although you can pick out a lot of small things here and there, but the jokes and quotes abound. I can forgive plot holes (like how Saffron infiltrated the township and how she knew that was where a stealable ship would come) if the result is humor.
As for the factual error about Vera, my take on it is that it doesn’t matter in the slightest. There would have been no change to the plan; Jayne would simply be sitting there at the airlock with Vera. The only thing it changes is the addition of the line “See, Vera? Dress yourself up, you get taken someplace fun.” Not a bad line at all.
I like this episode primarily for the teaser. The entire plot with Saffron is great, but Serenity’s crew hunting down the bandits and the celebration afterward is the best part. For the time being, they’re not being chased by the Alliance, they’re not running scummy jobs for the likes Badger or Niska, and they’re the guests of honor at the party. This must be one of the few times Mal and everyone get to feel like real Big Damn Heroes, not only to each other, but to an entire town. The good feelings are running high, and it’s just an enjoyable scene overall.
The only other thing I want to point out for now is that this is the first episode, IIRC, where Mal isn’t only ordering Jayne around or knocking him down a few pegs. We start to see some camaraderie between them, and we see that they don’t mind hanging out with each other from time to time. It makes some amount of sense, given they’re the only two “guys” on the boat. Wash is married, Book’s an older, dignified man, and Simon’s far too prim and proper. It might just be that they’re drinking buddies, but it shows a level of acceptance for Jayne beyond simply being on the ship for the money.
Apart from that, I thought it wasn a “Is it or isn’t it an error” so much as Joss Whedon coming straight out and saying, “Yeah, we screwed up our research”.
Yeah, it’s not a major plot hole, and I usually don’t let plot holes take away from the enjoyment of a show anyway.
This does remind me of probabily the biggest piece of character development that does happen in this episode. Inara unambiguously reveals her actual feelings for Mal to the audience. We had hints and some tension in earlier eps like Shindig, but this is the first one where she out-and-out drops her facade and kisses him. Everything becomes clearer, particularly her deep annoyance at the whole situation between Mal and Saffron.
Inara trying to cover up what she did is another hilarious bit in this episode. Morena Baccarin does such a good job of frantic desperation mixed with trying to keep her cool. The lady, she doth protest too much.
Lots of good lines in this one - my favorites have all been quoted, I think.
As for Vera in a spacesuit: In an odd way, it reminds me of the opening scene where Mal is dressed up in a bonnet. Makes it funnier (to me, anyway).
One thing that puzzles me (maybe I’m dense): how does Inara recognize Saffron as a fake? I’ve watched that scene several times today, and other than the alarm going off, I don’t see any obvious moment of recognition.
The alarm going off would be it, I think. Not because it’s an alarm, but because the sudden loud noise pulls her out of Saffron’s “spell” long enough for her to realize how wrong the whole situation is. That was my impression at the time, anyway.
I think it’s because they both had the same kind of training. Saffron doesn’t make any obvious mistakes that the audience who didn’t have that training would notice, but Inara recognized all the tricks she had learned and used herself as a companion. She just doesn’t say so at the first suspicion, but waits and listens for a while until she’s certain.
I didn’t see it either, but Inara mentioned there were subtle clues like gestures, body language that companions use for seduction. Of course, when she said that she was also covering her own ass. I think Inara had it figured out about the time she was inviting Saffron back to her shuttle, and the alarm klaxon going off.
As for how Saffron infiltrated the village, I kinda assumed out on these rim planets, swindling people is pretty common, and Saffron probably had a deal with the villagers to act all innocent and set up passing strangers with valuable ships.
The one bit of dialog I didn’t like in this episode was the confrontation between Inara and Saffron, where suddenly one says, 'You’re good!" and the other says, “No, you’re good!” That little exchange just felt wooden and unnatural.
Inara: “I guess we’ve lied enough.”
Saffron: “You’re good.”
Inara: “You’re amazing. Who are you?”
Saffron: “Malcolm Reynolds’ widow.”
If you watch carefully, you can tell Saffron is indeed rushing, and it’s obvious someone trained in body language like Inara would catch on that something’s wrong. Particularly, the line “I don’t mean to intrude, the life of a Companion is so glamorous” is very telling when you know what to look for. She’s coming up with some BS flattery to try and put Inara at ease, but like Inara said, “You don’t play a player.” I’m sure she got suspicious the moment Saffron started talking, and it was confirmed when the alarm went off.
That’s another thing about Companions I wish Joss Whedon had time to explore. Exactly what is a Companion?
It almost seems he’s patterned them on Frank Herbert’s Bene Gesserit. A Companion adept isn’t just well trained in seduction & pleasuring people. Did Saffron pick up her skills after she left the Companions, or did she learn her skills at the temple? Inara can pilot the shuttle expertly, what else could she fly if she had to? Saffron knew how to expertly disable a Firefly and I don’t think she had time to study up on it first. Saffron is apparently a pretty good hand-to-hand combatant, and I got the impression that if Inara hadn’t been so concerned that Mal was dead, we might have had a pretty impressive fight there with Saffron.
Any thoughts? Might there be quite a bit more to the Companions than Whedon got a chance to show us?
