Firefly
“Safe”
Review by John Howard
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ASM Quick Facts |
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Episode Title: Safe |
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This is a vague follow-through to last week along with some threads previously introduced. See, Serenity lands on a little backwater planet by the name of “Jiangyan” — I think. They’re there to deliver the cargo picked up in “Shindig”, which is cattle. While they’re still in space, however, Simon (Sean Maher) is trying to calm down River (Summer Glau), but he’s only making her freak out more. Mal (Nathan Fillion) comes in, concerned that Rivers’ screams of incoherent paranoia will cause the cattle to turn the cargo hold into a meat grinder.
They land, and rustle the cattle out into a pen. The Shepherd (Ron Glass) makes a joke about how the title is a figurative thing, and Jayne (Adam Baldwin) just stands around hitting the cattle with a bundle of rope. He likes hitting things, he says. Wash(Alan Tudyk) mentions that they should try and break into the black market beagle smuggling ring, as the cattle make a large cargo. Mal gets annoyed at River poking around the cows, so he “suggests” Simon take her into town.
In town, they poke around, and Simon offends Kaylee (Jewel Staite) inadvertently. He loses track of River and ultimately finds her in a field. She’s dancing at a local festival. She has fun. She laughs. She plays. Back at the inconspicuous cattle herd, Mal’s clients, a couple of disreputable fellows, appear. The Law makes an appearance as well, and shooting goes on. The gunfight ends, and it turns out that Book, the shepherd, has taken a bullet just above the heart. He needs a doctor. Simon is just such a learned professional. However, he’s been captured by the local hillfolk. Whoops.
Mal and Jayne have the money dropped by the now-captured disreputable men they were selling cattle to, and despite not having Simon or River, Serenity leaves. Book needs a doctor. The nearest medical facility is ten hours (or days, I forget which) away. He can’t last that long, so they go for the next best thing; the Alliance cruiser Magellan. They dock, and the Alliance men nearly send them back, but Book has a strange ident card which seems to give him some kind of pull with the Alliance. He gets his treatment, and Serenity leaves.
Simon and River are in this village they’ve been whisked away to, because it needs a doctor. What it doesn’t need is a witch. River’s taken as one, because she can read minds, it seems. “Cleanse the devil from her” say the hillfolk, in their ignorance. Fire’s good at cleansing. They set her up on a pyre, thinking to burn her. Simon decides that, if he can’t go in her place or free her in any way, he’ll burn with her. And Serenity arrives. It makes Mal look all heroic, apparently. Mal later says that he came back for Simon and River because they’re part of the crew. Such a nice guy, him.
Pros:
- The black market of beagle smuggling
- Book has a secret
Cons:
- Nothing substantial
Overall: A good, solid episode. A much more liberal dose of that Asian language than ever before, too. It bothers me, yes. But at the same time, the not-explaining of it is good, because it makes it seem like a real culture. It’s mostly used as a guttural tongue, though. It seems to be virtually all the vulgarity they use. I wish I knew what specific language it is. Is it Cantonese? Mandarin? A mixture? Or is it not Chinese at all? Korean? Made-up?
And yeah. Go see this episode.