Circumcised?
The metaphorical cherry?
I didn’t read too much into this line. It sounds like Book’s just being as tactful and circumspect as possible, especially in the face of such blunt openness as Jayne’s showing off.
Either that or he’s actually part cyborg. 
I was just thinking about this, and this discussion reminded me that it is Jubal’s voice that wakes her up, before her walk through the teaser. So this is what I think is happening. She walks through the ship to see whose voice it was, and doesn’t find the person. So it could be that she realizes (in her stream-of-consciousness way) it must be an outsider, and an evil outsider, so she gets the gun as the best protection–that is why it appears to her in such a benign form.
Then Mal tells her no guns, she understands but doesn’t comprehend why no guns when there is danger around (the it’s getting too crowded line–she knows there is at least one person too many, but can’t verbalize). Then she finds a solution that doesn’t need guns, in her genius type of way.
On a total other note, not sure that Jayne could have helped, even if he had woken up–wasn’t he locked in at that point?
Jubal Early was terrifying to me not just because of his actions and threats but because of his intellect and the way he spoke so calmly.
Great episode.
Nope. At the point Jayne wakes up, pulls down the blanket and rolls over the crew cabins have all been unlocked by Kaylee.
I hadn’t put it all together like that, but I really like this interpretation. Nice. 
The other fun thing I noticed, while we are on River and guns, is that it appears that the Israelis are still a force in the Firefly universe, because the pistol River picked up was unmistakably a Desert Eagle semi-auto. 
Beats the hell out of and makes more sense than shooting with her eyes closed.
Think I’ll watch this one again after reading the thread.
I wondered what to make of Early’s voice at the beginning; I didn’t even notice it at first, but it’s pointed out in the commentary. Excellent idea, merrily.
GT
That was an excellent break down of the ep! THis is my favorite ep, probably of TV ever, and I’d never connected all those dots. After having read that, though, it seems so much better, the interweaving, the clarity and amazing continuity.
Man, I love(d) this show.
[Bump because I’m seeing this show/episode for the first time.]
Holy crap. Best episode yet. It was really hitting its stride. I want to live in a universe where Firefly wasn’t screwed and instead delivered 5-10 years of thought-provoking, witty, etc. television. Anybody got a Quantum Mirror?
Having seen the series in its entirety, I now feel free to go to the theater and see Serenity. It has been killing me not reading the threads.
Here’s to a sequel!
To think that I never heard of this show when it originally aired…
I absolutely [heart] that there are Dopers who know their weaponry.
Have they shown this one SciFi yet? I though it was due this week but they had a movie on instead.
My TiVo didn’t record it, so I don’t think it was on, unless I somehow screwed up the scheduling.
I, err, didn’t exactly watch it broadcast. I assumed it was shown, but the dish was down, and I found it at Hello Cowgirl instead.
Yep, checked. For whatever reason, it’s on next friday.
I thought the melting into the ship thing was great. The thing about River is, she knows she freaks people out… And so she uses that to her advantage, by deliberately freaking them out. See also, “I can kill you with my brain” from “Trash”. Can she? We don’t know. And it doesn’t matter. Her purpose was to make sure that Jayne had a healthy respect for her, and it worked.
I think my favorite line, incidentally, was “I have a hard enough time keeping track of her when she’s not incorporally posessing a spaceship”.