(Hmm… too much cut and paste. That should be episode four, my apologies.)
I like this episode better than the previous. Strong plot, good character interactions, and tells more of the background. Set on Persephone, it’s the chance to return to a previous site, so that the ship isn’t just gallavanting all over the place. We see Badger again, and so get the idea that episodes will have some continuity.
One nice thing in the series is the attention to minor details. I had noticed a lot before, but listening to the commentary made me realize just how much was there that I took for granted (they have the costume designer on the commentary for this episode):
Zoe’s necklace is something she keeps close representing her marriage
The sign at the pool hall originally said “in case of mechanical failure”, but they made the prop guys fix it
Jayne’s T-shirt is redone each episode. (Anyone want to start listing all the T-shirts, and trying to assign meanings to them?)
Simon is starting to dress down more in this episode (unbuttoned shirt, for instance) to show he’s more part of the crew, but isn’t completely there yet.
The dialogue, as ever, is wonderful, so I’ll stop going on about that so much. What are everyone else’s favorite parts?
They must’ve forgotten that. She’s wearing it in a flashback before she meets Wash.
This episode is what convinced me that Inara is fooling herself regarding the nature of the Companions. She sees herself as a sexual healer and spiritual person. Atherton, like most of her other clients we meet, as well as Mal, see her as merely a status symbol and sure lay. I believe that this is closer to what the companions are all about, and that the spiritual stuff is all window dressing. Inara buys it, but she’s been disillusioned. That’s what she’s running from, a life of prostittution in a temple’s gilded cage. Out on the rim on Serenity, she can set her own rules, keep her own illusions and more importantly, her freedom.
Also:
“They say mercy is the mark of a great man.
(stab)
Guess I’m just a good man.
(stab)
Well, I’m alright.”
In this one, we learn to a greater degree than previously that while Mal may indeed be very, very pretty, he really can be a complete asshole at times. Witness his treatment of Kaylee (“Like a sheep standing on its hind legs”) throughout the episode; and his usual complete dissing of Inara, even when she’s gone out on a limb to help him. This guy’s got major intimacy issues, hey?
We also learn (apparently) that sometime in the past 500 years, slavery, or at least indentured servitude, has made something of a comeback, that polite society has adopted some of the features of 18th-centry France, and there don’t seem to be any police, just Alliance troopers and armed privateers that the troopers seem mostly to ignore.
My two favorite bits both involve Badger: his exchanges with Mal and Jayne early in the ep, and the scene in which River verbally tears him to shreds without his even knowing it. Summer Glau is quite the actress, actually, although her abilities may have been somewhat masked by her alienated performances to this point, she did a pretty serviceable cockney accent in this one.
One other thing I notice is that man, does this cast get injured a lot. This is what, the fourth episode, and not even counting all the punches thrown, so far we’ve had:
Kaylee gutshot (Serenity);
Mal winged by a bullet (Serenity);
Zoe hit full on by a shotgun blast, fortunately while wearing an armored vest (Serenity);
Book bashed over the head by a fire extinguisher (Serenity);
Jayne winged in the leg by a bullet (The Train Job);
Mal impaled by Crow’s hatchet/scimitar thing (The Train Job);
And Mal stabbed repeatedly in this episode.
Clearly, they badly need that doctor on board, and I hope they don’t accidently misplace him anywhere anytime in the near future
I’ve deliberately avoided quoting any lines but one of the rich dialogue in this episode, 'cause I know everyone else will want to post their faves. Carry on.
It’s only the second ep I’ve seen with the commentary, but I really like that it’s done so that you get the perspectives of many people involved in the production.
One thing that I wouldn’t have noticed on my own: the deliberate mixing of period and ethnic styles. The guy whose image is projected before Atherton’s at the beginning is in a 17th century costume; Atherton’s suit at the ball is a classic Indian design. (The costume designer is one of the commentators on this one.)
And another: the writer comments that one of the coolest things about this episode is that she got to write sci-fi and Jane Austen at the same time. The ball has a very similar feel to several scenes in Pride and Prejudice.
There are all kinds of clever moments, but one of my favorites is after River has finished captivating Badger with her Cockney monologue. Jayne says something like “Now that’s the kind of diversion we could have used.” (They’d been talking about how they needed to distract Badger so that they could go save Mal.)
Lots more I could say, but I’ll leave it to others.
I loaned my DVDs to my sister and I haven’t gotten them back yet, so I can’t watch for specific dialogue, but I love the entire bit with Kaylee throughout this ep. That look on her face at the end when she’s just sitting her bunk half-smiling at the dress hanging by her bed is really sweet.
Well, for an insane fanboy of this show, I sure do play devil’s advocate a lot.
This show is a great example of where they got the future right, and where they got it wrong. First the wrong: The ‘electronic’ billiards. And in “The Train Job” the ‘force field’ bar window. This is taking a metaphor too far. We get the frontier aspect. It makes sense. We get the horses and cows and even the train that had a maglev base and rickety cars on top. But there’s no reason in the future to make a pool table that’s exactly like a real one except the cue makes a little ‘zzzt’ sound. And there’s no reason to make a ‘window’ like that. When I first saw it my thought was ‘oh, come on…’ And I’m someone who’s totally into the rural aspect of the show.
But now the good: The other society on the planet had an intriguing mix of period fashions and customs from other times mixed in, plus new customs of its own. That’s a reasonable extrapolation of how society might evolve. The dance was obviously done for comic relief, which was fine. But if you were going to ask yourself, “what if a more formal society arose again in the future? What might it look like?” this is as good a guess as any. And the little touches show that someone is putting serious thought into some of this.
I guess in short I’d llike to see the old west parts more of a derivative of various rural and working class cultures, and less a straight reproduction of the old west.
I was rewatching Children of Dune the other week and something about the actor playing Duncan Idaho just seemed too familiar to me. I had to pause it and look him up on IMDB and low and behold if it wasn’t Edward Atterton, who plays Atherton Wing in this episode. Was very pleased I recognized him, not so much that I didn’t remember from where.
Now I’m not a big fan of this episode aside from how Kaylee wants to investigate/question the buffet table:
[and the always unbearable hotness of Kaylee at any time], but I do like how it sets up the teaser/intro to the next episode. And I’m also liking the finely crafted insults:
I liked how it subtly slipped in some hints of Mal’s background. Anyone else notice how easily he slipped into the dance moves used at the ball? Even commented on how he knew that dance. Can’t imagine why a lowly smuggler would just happen to know of such dances (of course, it’s possible he learned the dance specifically for such occasions as trying to meet clients at formal balls, but this seems somewhat unlikely)
Also liked how the duel showed that while Mal is badass in a fight involving fists, firearms or blunt objects, he just plain doesn’t know how to do some things such as swing a sword.
I liked that part. It showed that no matter what Mal might be considered now, before and during the war, he was an officer, and a gentleman.
Now, I think Inara likes him at this point anyway, but this episode really cemented in her mind, the difference between a gentleman, and a rich “high class” man.
She’s courting the affections of the wrong one.
I haven’t seen this episode real recently (I’ll try to catch it) but one of my favorite parts, besides those already mentioned, was when Inara complained of Mal’s calling her a whore to her face, and Mal explaining the difference between that, and the way “the rich guy” treated her with absolutely no respect.
Well notice he only tears into Kaylee because they won’t shut up about Inara. I think that’s a very real moment he can’t express his feelings for Inara so he picks another target to vent his frustration on.
The way I take that scene, he’s actually being protective of Kaylee, albeit in an insensitive dumb guy way. Kaylee just wanted to be Cinderella for a moment, but Mal wasn’t having any of that. He wanted to protect her from that pretentiousness, not realizing she can handle the difference well enough on her own, thanks.
Mal was guilty of what most of us guys are guilty of at some point, misreading the girls’ communication signals. She wants to be Cinderella, we don’t want her to fall for that bullshit.
He kinda made up for it by buying her the dress that “looks like a wedding cake” or whatever it was he said.
Well it seems to me to be pretty obvious. Every time they mention Inara or the ball he gets more uncomfortable and more annoyed and finally freaks out. Could be wrong of course.
Ooh, you know now that you mention it, you might be right. I think of him as a lieutenant or something, but now I recall a dialogue somewhere when he was just a sergeant, but now he’s “captain” of his own ship.
Actually, the costume designer mentions that Nathan Fillion was doing such a good job with the dance choreography that they had to dub in the “I think I actually know this one” line in post-production so that it wouldn’t seem odd that Mal wasn’t screwing it up.
This episode is great one for Whedon-ish lines. Not quite the quotability quotient of Our Mrs. Reynolds, but pretty darn close. Some of my favorites:
Wash: You want a slinky dress? I can buy you a slinky dress. Captain, can I have money for a slinky dress?
Jayne: I’ll chip in.
Zoe: I can hurt you.
Kaylee: Ooh, mangoes!
Mal: Now we’re favored guests… treated to the finest in beverages that make you blind.
Badger: Had a problem with your attitude, is why. Felt you was… what’s the word?
Jayne: Pretentious?
Badger: Course you couldn’t buy an invite with a diamond the size of a testicle, but I got my hands on a couple.
Mal and Jayne smirk.
Badger: Of invites!
Kaylee: Yes, sir, Captain Tightpants!
Wash: Oh, no, I’m starting to like this poetry idea now. Here lies my beloved Zoe, my autumn flower, somewhat less attractive now she’s all corpsified and gross…
Mal: Use of a s-what?
Jayne: I say Zoe gets nekkid.
Wash: Nope!
Jayne: *I *could get nekkid.
Inara: Are you in pain?
Mal: Absolutely! I got stabbed, you know. Right here.
And of course, Mal stabbing a man while he’s down, this episode’s equivalent of kicking Crow through the engine.
Who the frell wants practical pool balls? They just get tossed around and hit smugglers on the head and start bar fights. 'Sides, holographic pool is cool! Drunk guys like cool stuff! They’ll pay more money for cool! There’s no “need” for video poker now, is there?
How many glassworkers are you gonna pay to go out to all them planets? Who’s gonna sit around repairing broken windows when there’s a simple force window that works just as well and uses less technical skill to install and needs no repair?
For all we know, real glass and pool balls have gotten damned expensive out there in space where you need expensive fuel to ship heavy, non-compactible items. Small (Chinese made, of course) electronic gizmos and holocards are cheaper to ship to backwards countrified planets who can’t always afford enough (heavy, expensive) food to feed their people. On a trip to Bali, it was a lot cheaper for me to ship DVDs home than handcarved wooden chess sets. Multiply that by interplanetary travel.
Oh yeah. Love the ep. One of my favorite, but most of what I like about it’s been said already. But boy do I love how whatsisname shoots down those nasty girls bein’ mean to Kaylee. Jane Austen at its finest, indeed.
And that necklace slipup in the flashback scene of another ep makes me very sad indeed. It bugs me every time, 'cause I love it as (the costume designer says) a symbol of Zoe’s bond to Wash. It’s therefore annoying when she’s wearing it when telling Mal she doesn’t like Wash. Grr.
