The first time I saw that I was freaked out. “No, no you are not going to do what I think you’re going to do!”
Then, when he asked Jayne, “can you move your arms & legs?” I was, “no! Simon really did turn evil!”
It was also horribly cute when Simon mentioned Jayne’s spine and Jayne responded, “pine?”
“Yeees.”
“Is 'pine ok?”
When Simon said, “I will never ever harm you. You’re on this table, you’re safe,” I wanted to reach into the TV and give Simon a hug.
Sorry for the double post, but that reminds me of one of my other favorite lines, right after Saffron/Bridget/Yolanda’s reunion with “the evil biotechnologist.”
“We gotta move fast.”
“Yeah, he might come back and hug us in the act.”
It’s the look on Mal’s face that really sells this one. 
Yippee - YoSaffBridge, my fave. psycho hosebeast.
So what do we think, was Durran a mass-murdering Mengele? 'cos Mal let him off very lightly if he was…
My fave quotes:
Mal: “Oh, you’re a tweaked one, you are.”
Saffron: “But face it, hubby…I’m really hot…”
I’d have to agree with her.
I love this episode. Nekkid captain!!! Yay.
The nekkidness is actually completely hilarious, when Mal is picked up and just stands around cheerfully. The other crewmembers are looking at him and thinking “Um, captain, you have no clothes on. Think you could go do something about that?” And Mal is just completely oblivious. He had a good day! Who cares about clothes?!?
Wash’s reaction to Saffron’s appearance cracks me up, too. “How did she get here? We’re in outer space!”
I’ll probably have more after I rewatch the episode this evening.
Well, as to the YoSaffBridge/Mal/Monty moment, first, as has been pointed out, there’s the War Buddy thing. Mal and Monty are obviously old friends on good terms. YoSaffBridge, loving, hot, young wifey she may be, still threw down on Mal first by grabbing for the passing crewman’s holstered gun, which kinda lends credence to Mal’s claims.
And I’m willing to bet her fighting skills (frankly, she kicked Mal’s ass) came as a bit of surprise to Monty as well.
This episode was just chock full of great, snappy dialogue.
And Simon’s treatment and speech to Jayne was an awesome character defining moment, well played by all parties involved (Sean Maher, Summer Glau, Adam Baldwin).
The passing ship briefly focused on when Mal and YoSaffBridge are stealing the Lassiter…
…belongs to Jubal Early, a bounty hunter, who pops up in the final ep. Objects in Space.
IIRC, according to the commentary for this ep, Nathion Fillion was protecting his modesty using a 5x7 glossy of Joss Whedon taped to his personal regions. So whenever another cast or crewmember glanced down at the Captain’s First Mate, they’d see Joss Whedon smiling right back at them. 
I was paying close attention to this scene last night, and given Mal’s mannerisms, his exaggerated head motions (when talking to Kaylee in particular), it was obvious he was teasing the heck out of everyone. “C’moooon, say it! I dare you!”
And, I have to say it. Nathan Fillion’s got a great butt.
“I don’t recall pulling over!”
It’s that last line that kills me.
Well, there are nuances of meaning!
BTW, there’s a shot (sometime around when Mal and Saffron arrive at Durran’s place) at that shows an SR-71 flying by in the background.
If I could make a spaceship look like a SR-71, I would. It remains one of the coolest designs ever.
I like the turnaround from the pilot episode there - Simon is still making up for bargaining his way onto the crew with Kaylee’s life. I also like to think that’s part of way he’s so standoffish, even when Kaylee is all over him - as a victim of trauma, she probably doesn’t remember Simon standing over her telling the captain he will let her die, but Simon sure does. And Jayne was there, too (and wanting to dictch Simon and Rivier), so Simon is offering a fresh start on several levels.
Simon definately has more darkness in him than his tweedy doctor act lets on. (OMG, he’s the Giles of the series!)
Yeah. Ditto.
At last, a male star who isn’t <0.1% body fat. The captain looks like a normal fit guy.
So who thinks River can kill with her mind? And is that what “two by two, hands of blue” do when they kill? What then is the little metal rod thing the “hands of blue” guys use?
This episode has a commentary? How the hell did I miss that? Firefly has some of the best commentaries ever.
The DVD box doesn’t say it does, so unless it’s a secret commentary…
Hrm… I dunno, I heard it somewhere. Might have been the commentary on another episode. Maybe I have voices in my head talking about my favorite movies and TV shows again. A while back I had convinced myself that they were coming out with a Boondock Saints special edition DVD, which turned out not to be the case. :smack:
It was the commentry of another episode. The Pilot episode I think. Though I’m not sure the comment wasn’t a joke not meant to be taken seriously.
They did, in Star Wars episode I.
I like this episode a lot, even though it contains a rather big plot hole I haven’t been able to reconcile for myself (more on that in a minute).
Good bits, besides those already mentioned:
The expression on Saffron’s face when Mal lets her out of the box, and as we realize that she’s been locked in there for probably hours.
This is part of a longer exchange with a nice payoff. Wash says, “I have a question.” Saffron says, “You’re wondering why I don’t just do this myself.” Then Wash says the line above. And then, later in the scene, Jayne says, “I have a question, why don’t you do this yourself,” and there’s an absolutely perfectly timed beat where everybody looks at Jayne, including Saffron with an utterly priceless “this guy could not be more perfectly stupid if he tried” expression. Then she says, “Good question,” and Jayne looks smug. Cracks me up.
Oh, and the thing at the end where Inara points the Lassiter at Saffron and says, “Wonder if it still works” and pulls the trigger without hesitation. Rather an interesting insight into her character, that she’d be willing to kill Saffron in cold blood. Of course, then she has a real gun, and she doesn’t shoot Saff with the weapon she knows is functional. Maybe she was only willing to kill her if the death was, y’know, ironic.
Plus, if Saffron were to die, then we wouldn’t have the possibility of seeing her psychotic-but-eye-meltingly-hot character again. Woo mama.
Okay, here’s the plot hole:
The heist centers on the trash disposal. Mal and Saff break in, free the Lassiter, and toss it in the garbage hole, and thus into the trash bin hanging off the bottom of the floating habitat. When that happens, the disposal system is activated, and the trash bin is grabbed and flown off by the drone. The plan is to reroute the bin so they can retrieve the Lassiter at their leisure.
But here’s the thing: Isn’t that an awfully huge bin for one small piece of trash? Are we supposed to believe that every time somebody tosses something in the garbage, one of these drones comes along and takes the enormous dumpster box off to the incinerator or wherever?
Seems like if the plan is supposed to make sense, then the system needs to have been rethought a bit. There are two possibilities, I think.
The timed schedule: Every ten minutes during the day, the bin is flown off, and a new one drops in. The plan requires Serenity to hover, waiting, until they get word from Mal that he’s dropped the Lassiter. Then they have X minutes, depending on how long it’s been, to reprogram the destination.
The weight trigger: The drone is summoned whenever the trash bin accumulates a certain amount of material. The plan requires Serenity to tap the bin and then wait until it gets to 99%, and then have Mal toss in the Lassiter. Alternative, you could have a comedy scene where the bin gets to 80%, but they can’t wait any more, so Mal tosses in the Lassiter and then runs around grabbing and throwing in every other heavy object in the room.
As it is, though, the plan just doesn’t make any logical sense to me. Can anyone explain what they thought the writers were getting at?