So, I saw the movie, then borrowed the series, then bought the series and am working through it. Yeah, I’m an addict.
This bugged me the first time I saw the episode and seeing it again hasn’t settled it, namely, how could the effusive elder at the beginning let ‘Saffron’ worm her way onto the ship?
I mean, it’s a small village. Saffron could not have been brought up in the maiden house as she said. He or the other villagers must have seen the whole marriage ceremony and realized this stranger in their midst was marrying their rescuer. If she had talked the elder into letting her be part of the prize for saving them, why not mention it? (Good bye, good luck, and I hope she makes you happy.)
So, this stranger blows into town, dupes someone who just did you a big favor into marrying him, then disappears just before they depart. It wouldn’t take much to figure shed meant to deal Serenity some serious monetary harm if not bodily (as it turns out). The elder had to be in on it.
If I was Mal, I’d be coming back, and I’d be coming back really pissed.
Given that Book was able to corroborate the ceremony with an outside source, we can rule out the possibility that she was just dancing with the others and the elder saw no special significance in what she was doing.
If I were to fanwank, and I were, I’d say she showed up in the settlement right as the party began, and the natives assumed she was with the Serenity crew. If it was odd that she and Mal were performing their marriage ceremony, why, they might have just looked it up and thought it a good one, a good time, and a good place to hold it. Saffron might even have approached the elder with a story about how she and Mal wanted to get married, and if he could tell her how it was done in his settlement to match the mood of the night…? We know Saffron can manipulate people effortlessly, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she could finagle the ceremony out of the elder and get him to say nothing about it to Mal without raising the elder’s suspicions.
It does seem odd that a ship thief would just suddenly appear on a backwoods planet like Saffron did, and that plot contrivance is kinda weak, but it’s barely a blemish on such a fantastic episode.
I remembe wondering about this, but I remembering feeling the question was answered by something that was said in some scene toward the end of the episode. I can not remember what I thought the answer ended up being. So why am I posting?
I’d say she likely appeared because she scouted him out. Her soon-to-be-eating-space compatriots said something to that effect: “The Girl’s a wonder. She always finds the goods” or something like that, as I recall.
I like the theory that she just appeared mid-party and melded in with the locals. And sometimes in the old west, when a big party like this was thrown people would come from miles around, and even nearby towns, to get in on the festivities. So it’s not surprising that no one paid attention.
It wouldn’t be too far fetched to say that as a frontier community, the town would get new immigrants on a regular basis. A new face in town may not be that big of a deal.
Once she was on the ship and away from the village, she was free to make up lies about the maiden house and being given as payment.
Actually, there’s a throwaway line toward the end of the episode where Mal says they’re going to stop back by the village and have angry words with the village elder. Mal, at least, believes there’s a better-than-even chance that the elder was part of the setup.
My memory, as usual, is faulty, so I may be wr…wro…wron…you get the idea.
Anyways, I think Book corroborated that some, or at least one, frontier soceity (-ies) have a ceremony that resembles what happened in that episode, but not that one in particular.
Personally, my working hypothesis is that she showed up in the village some time before Mal and his crew, perhaps a few months, enough time that she was “adopted” and accepted by the community. For those few months, she did in fact live in the maiden house, and was enough part of the community that she was considered marriageable. Then, when Mal showed up, the villagers really did decide to pay him by wedding him Saffron. The “just showed up” possibility is also plausible (posing as either a frontierswoman or a crewmember), but it has too much potential to be exposed if someone happens to let something slip in conversation. All it would take would be one person to ask Mal “Say, who’s that pretty girl you’re dancing with?”, and her cover would be blown.
Would Serenity have been enough of a high-value target to invest so much time, effort, and risk? I got the impression that this was the kind of routine scam Yo-Saff-Brig could run every other week if she wanted to.
I think it’s more likely that she showed up on the planet that week, probably after doing some research on the local inhabitants so if anyone asked, she could say “I’m Bob Smith’s cousin, visiting from the next town over” or whatever. The cover story would only need to be solid enough to hold up for a day or two.
Did the elder himself ever mention that Saffron was part of the payment for the crew’s services, or did that only come from her?
My guess is that Saffron was actually leading the bandits that Mal and crew put down at the beginning of the show. She insinuated herself into the community to pass information onto them about which caravans were carrying particularly valuable merchandise. She probably deliberatly hung them out to dry when the community hired the crew of the Serenity, figuring that the heat was getting too hot and it was time to move on. So she pulled the “marriage” stunt to get on their ship and pointed them at the wreckers.
That seems like a big investment for a woman of Saffron’s abilities, especially since there’s nothing to imply that that planet is a regular destination for cargo vessels. We don’t see her interacting on-world with anyone, so I think it’s a lot more likely that she just blew into town to pick up Serenity.
Even Miller’s suggestions seems farfetched, as there just can’t be enough money in on-ground bandits to equal the value of a whole cargo ship, can there?
There might be if she sells out the other bandits to a gang of mercenaries and absconds with all the profits while her erstwhile partners are pushing up daisies.
No, he said not a word. That story was all Saffron’s.
And Cervaise, following your hint about a throwaway line at the end, I’ve just re-watched it from the point where she takes out Wash to the end of the episode. After they get control of the ship back, Mal says, “Let’s go visiting.” – place unspecified. It could either have been Saffron’s hideaway or back to Elder Gomen – they’re pretty close together – but the next scene is at Saffron’s. No mention of “Gomen told me where you were.” is made.
Ah, well. Like BayleDomon said, a small blemish on a fantastic episode.