Firefly - Kaylee's arrival on board (possible spoilers)

Cafe Society
1

I’ve just watched the entire series of Firefly on DVD, and it grew on me as I watched it. Found it all very entertaining, and like all other fans I’m wishing there was more. I watched them in the DVD order, not the aired order. I’ve not seen the film yet, so please don’t spoil it for me.

Kaylee intrigues me. Watching the pilot episode, she seemed just far too cheerful and chirpy, and I thought “by the end of this, I’m going to want to punch her”. But I got to the end of the pilot, and I didn’t. And as I watched more and more episodes, I just kept getting more interested in her, and wanted to look after her, and protect her from those nasty girls in Shindig.

But in Out of Gas, when we learn about how the ship and the crew came to be together, we see that she was not the first mechanic to serve under Mal - she was recruited by him when he catches the previous incumbent and her inflagrante in the engine room. This seemed out of character for her - the old mechanic says that engines make her “hot”, but I felt that her feelings for Serenity, and mechanics in general, were love-based, not lust. She seems to be quite unsure of herself (not in all situations of course), a shy rose perhaps.

Right after being offered the job by Mal, she goes to check with her parents that that’s ok. That seems to be in character. But shagging a mechanic she’s (presumably) only just met? I get the impression she’d be too shy, and worried about getting caught, to try that sort of shenanigans in someone else’s ship.

What say you?

2

Well, since she did shag the mechanic, clearly she wasn’t too shy or too worried about getting caught. I think you’re misreading Kaylee’s character. She is very open regarding her own and others’ sexuality (“Have good sex!” she calls out to Inara). Needing to talk with her father before taking a job on a space ship doesn’t mean that she can’t be completely free about having sex.

3

Kaylee is nothing if not earthy. In another episode (I think it’s Objects in Space), we hear her telling River a story of a fourteen year old who “must have been some sort of genetic mutation”, the implication being that she had sex with him, not realizing he was only fourteen. Her daddy whipped her for that one.

4

She also mentions certain toys in the movie.

5

I don’t want to hear about that.

6

I’ll be in my bunk.

7

I thought the “Have good sex!”-like comments were more an indication that she’s not judgemental. Inara has sex with people - Kaylee likes Inara, and so wishes her well for today’s work. Just like saying “have a good day” or “have a good trip” or whatever. Very matter-of-fact about it.

I probably am misreading her character - of course, it’s wrong to make assumptions like “she asked her parents before joining up, she must be a virgin”, but when a writer is creating a character, they tend to use little things like that to tell us what their character is like. I just felt that she was the kind of person to prefer relationships to one-night stands. I felt she’d have a few boyfriends in her past, not a string of conquests. However, what DianaG says suggests I’m wrong:

I don’t remember that - how strange. That would be more in keeping with sleeping with random mechanics.

I look forward to the movie ;).

8

:smiley:

9

I don’t remember the 14 year old line either.

And I too thought Kaylee’s intro was very out-of-character. It doesn’t seem to match up with the rest of the Kaylee we’re shown throughout the rest of the series.

However, I thought the toy line in the movie made perfect sense. How odd…

10

Have you not been paying attention to Kaylee’s interactions with Simon? She wants to get him in the sack from the get-go. It’s only when he keeps stalling and putting her off that she starts to fall in love with him.

11

I remember the line. Can’t be more specific though. I took it to mean something other than he looked older, if you know what I mean. I was under the impression that she was young at the time as well.

I see her as very earthy as well. A futuristic Hippie if you will. Free spirited and full of both love and lust.

12

Kaylee: “You mean to say with me as in sex?”

Simon: “I mean to say.”

Kaylee: “Screw this, I’m gonna live!”

Not out of character at all, meesa thinks.

13

From the Objects in Space transcript.

Yup, Kaylee’s a healthy girl, and she likes her some healthy boys.

14

There was a lot of character development Joss ended up glossing over in the first season. We only get pieces of Shepherd’s story (by far the most mysterious I’d say). We don’t know much about Jayne. Etc.

Keep in mind that Kaylee was on board a ship and we rarely saw her on a planet, and when we did she wasn’t often in a position to exhibit her sexuality. We see her at the party where she immediately gets shot down by the other group of women. Etc. The problem is that we weren’t given a sufficient chance to explore this further.

That being said, I bet she’d be fun in the sack!

15

I think you’re misreading not the character, but the sexual mores of the entire show. If Registered Companions teach us anything, it’s that sex is viewed a bit differently by this time. They’re highly respected whores. Mal sleeps with a prostitute, and it isn’t bad. Even Book seems to accept sex, only cautioning Mal that sex with Yosafbrige will send him to “the special hell” because of the power inequity of their relationship - he doesn’t have a problem with the whorehouse, although he doesn’ indulge himself. Kaylee’s open sexuality is another piece of this. Sex, for once in Joss’s bloody career, isn’t bad! Imagine that! You can sleep with a boy and not have him turn [del]vampire[/del] evil on you the next morning!

Keylee’s a very sensual, not just sexual woman, as evidenced by her delightful strawberry fetish. She’s more interested in the food table in Shindig than in the job. But let her play Scarlett O’Hara, surrounded by a dozen handsome men talking spaceships, and she’s just as happy as can be. (I mean O’Hara literally - the shot was an obvious homage to the “eatin’ barbeque” scene in Gone With The Wind.)

There’s nothing incongruous in Kaylee being both sweet and innocent and being a randy bitch, if you watch the show through the lens of the universe it happens in.

16

That’s not the impression I got - but I’ll happily concede I need to watch the series again and consider that possibility. I didn’t see lust in her first interactions with him, and all I remember is her frustration at his inability to make his feelings clear.

ronincyberpunk makes a good point - the character development was sped up a bit for the briefness of the series. I thought, for example, that Wash’s complaints about there being an extra husband (Mal) in his marriage to Zoe would be a background storyline to several episodes, and even longer. But no, it was apparently resolved in that episode. And I want to know what was up with Book, too.

WhyNot, you’re right that sex is a lot more of an open topic in this Universe (I hope it doesn’t take 500 years for that to happen in real life!). However, it does still seem to be at least a bit taboo - although Mal does care for Inara, he will insist on calling her a “whore” even though a companion is quite different. “Whore” is obviously still insulting, or she wouldn’t complain so much - perhaps just because the difference between “whore” and “companion” is like that between “cabbie” and “chauffeur”.

Shepherd Book does seem to accept that sex is not to be condemned, but I don’t think that’s typical behaviour from a Shepherd. Inara expects a sermon from him in the pilot, it seems clear she’s received them from other Shepherds in the past.

I’d expect Kaylee, if she were to be played as a randy bitch, to have worn something figure hugging and revealing to the Shindig, not the enormous frilly thing she had on. I suppose the cutting remarks from the other women would not have made much sense that way, though. I thought her conversation with the men about engines showed she loved talking about engines, not that she loved talking to men. It was only a short shot, but it told me that she was enjoying the men recognising and respecting her mechanical knowledge.

When they went to the whorehouse, too - she comments “Ooh look, they have male whores”, and I think even wonders aloud if they entertain female clients. But the way it was played just made me think that she was intruiged - she’d learned something new about the world. Again, sex is not the taboo it is now, so there was nothing dirty about it. There didn’t seem to be any indication that she was considering making use of them, just that she found it interesting.

Having said all of this, I know girls in this Universe who are sweet and innocent and also randy bitches (not enough of them though ;)) - it’s certainly possible for a character in the future to exhibit the same characteristics. And I’ll be the first to admit I know nothing about critiquing cinema :).

17

Thanks for mentioning this! The scene felt vaguely familiar from somewhere - but I hadn’t seen GWTW in 30 years, so I couldn’t place it. Now it all comes back.

18

Well, she’s definitely sweet on him from the start. I’d argue that it’s not only physical attraction, as she’s very impressed with his medical background, and with his caring for River, but it’s not just a crush on his personality either.

Keep in mind that Mal’s attitude towards sex is not exactly healthy, either. He may be the hero, but he’s a flawed guy. And I think Kaylee is supposed to be far more open than Mal by nature, about everything. She’s open with her emotions, her opinions, and her desires, whereas Mal is only really open with his opinions.

He doesn’t seem to immediately approve of her job at the beginning, either. But then, it’s not exactly unheard of for the average person on the street to disagree with religious leaders about politics. :stuck_out_tongue:

You’re missing the point, though. Kaylee’s not a randy bitch. She’s just comfortable with her sexuality. She likes having sex, which doesn’t mean she’s going to hit on every guy she meets, nor that she’s a nymphomaniac. She wears what she wears because she likes the clothing, or because it’s comfortable- what other folks think be damned!

The conversation with the men in “Shindig” was exactly what you thought- she likes talking about engineering. It had nothing to do with the gender of the people she was talking to. It’s still totally consistent with the openness of her character, though… she doesn’t think it’s weird for a girl to like mechanical stuff (even if those around her do), because, hey, she likes machines and she’s good at working with them. She wasn’t trying to get in those guys’ pants in that scene, because as previously mentioned, just because she enjoys sex doesn’t mean she’s obsessed with it.

Again: NOT a randy bitch. Open sexuality does not equate to nymphomania (or bitchiness, for that matter). Kaylee is exactly as cheerful and fragile as you initially thought. Her lack of inhibition about sex doesn’t change the fact that her character is the heart and soul of Serenity.

19

You may want to revisit that scene as well.

20

I could stand to hear a little more.