I think River and Book, discussing her “revisions” to his Bible, are probably the allegory you’re looking for.
How’s that for summing up the episode (and the boy’s actions at the end) pretty nicely?
Would you please say more about this?
So, I watched this last night. It really does have some VERY amusing moments, but I agree that the plot is pretty weak. Gives you a lot less to talk about overall, I think. I’d like to hear more about the Jayne myth vs. the Biblical myth as well, Cervaise.
I’m watching it again momentarily. Maybe I’ll find more…?
GT
Oh, it’s nothing too complicated. Just consider how River is trying to come at the stories in scripture from a hyperrational point of view, trying to make logical, real-world sense out of them (“only way to fit five thousand species of mammal on the same boat”), and thereby misses the point of why people have been telling those stories to one another for however-many-thousand years. And then look at the coda between Mal and Jayne, where Mal says the townsfolk are probably putting the statue back up as they speak, and Jayne says, “Don’t make no kind of sense.”
Just a bit of thematic counterpoint, exploring the reasons why people tell these stories: they want to make sense of an insensible, insensitive universe and thereby try to glean some meaning out of the meaningless chaos that surrounds them.
Thanks for elaborating; I see what you mean now.
Watched it again and I think another interesting item is the way Simon’s character is woven throughout the episode along with (or counter to, really) Jayne’s. It’s Simon’s focus on maintaining gentility versus Jayne’s crudeness, violence, and attempt to puzzle out why the mudders have made him their idol. I’m not sure exactly where to go with this, but it seems like this contrast is what they were trying to use to hold the episode together.
GT
As a fan of a good double-take, I have to say that Mal’s double-take when Janes comes out of the ship in his goggles and hat getup is just hi-larious. Perfect.
Some of the lines kinda clunked for me, though. Like when Simon repeats, “No, this is what going mad must feel like”. It just didn’t feel right, from a comedic standpoint.
And the mudder throwing himself in front of a shotgun blast was way too cliche’d. I wish they would have found another way to make that point. It would have been better if the kid had just stepped in front of Jane and said, “You’ll have to kill me first!”, and had Stich shrug and go, “okay…” and kill him.
It was this episode that convinced me that Daldwin might be a big honking star. It’s very rare to see the thug/bully show selfdoubt or fear. Yes, the writers gave him the opportunities, but the delivery is perfect - from the tearing of the tape around his waiste (which does hurt, no matter how tough you are) to the bewilderment when seeing the statue.
People aren’t really noble and caring and altruistic - they are more like Jayne: Heroes when need to be, egotistical assholes most of the other time. Yes - the plot is weak, but itrealy is in most episodes. It’s a character driven show.
Baldwin brings so much to the character in many subtle ways. When I first started watching the show, Jayne was my least favorite character. By the end of Objects in Space, he was easily my favorite (and that’s saying something considering how perfect that cast was).
And after seeing him play Hamilton and realizing he wasn’t just Jayne in a suit, I realized the man can do the one thing most important to me as a viewer: make me believe he is his character. I would really like to see him become a major movie star.
Oh, and this episode was hilarious and probably one of my top five. I love how we find out how Jayne was a “hero” and how perceptions change people’s realities. I also love his confusion at the end, that the boy died for him when he knew he wasn’t worthy of it.
A lot of the funny lines have already been mentioned, but I like this line:
Jayne:Shake your head boy, yer eyes’re stuck.
(Gosh, I hope I got that right)
Not funny, I just like his delivery. I always say it to myself whenever I’m gazing and can’t move.
There’s nothing indicating Stitch spent the entire four years in that box and never got out at all. IMO, he (and his fellow convicts) were probably some kind of forced-labor for 12+ hours a day, and crammed back into their boxes at night. Could explain the tremors and stiffness Stitch evinced when Higgins let him out of the box: hard labor, poor diet, and confined quarters.
Then again, if that were the case, you’d think that he’d be covered in mud head-to-toe, wouldn’t you?
But Mal’s not heeding Jayne’s warning that things may not be so shiny there on Canton where he’s concerned is a decent sized plot hole.
I liked Jayne’s speech. Totally naff but still rousing. It weant something like.
“You guys got the short end of the stick in this Universe”
yeah…yeah…clap
“Well you took that stick”
clap
“You held onto that stick”
clap ???
“Well that’s something”
Yeah… Yeah…Clap…Cheering
Wasn’t it,
“You took that stick, and…well… you took it!”
I believe it was:
“You guys’ve been given the shortest end of the stick in this crap-hill 'verse.”
“But you took that end… and, well… you took it.”
What makes it so awesome is the intense-eyed (and doomed) Jayne-worshipper clapping and nodding so intesely throughout.
Come join us as we run Out of Gas.