![]() And yet, she is married to Wash (Alan Tudyk), a very talented pilot who is also the comic relief. She calls him "sir" and gives him everything she has to give. (Mal: "Ready?" Zoe: "Always.") She was at his side six years ago, and she's at his side now. Zoe (Gina Torres) is extremely competent, and extremely loyal to Mal. Or maybe he is just angry with himself for caring what she does for a living. He is probably angry about what she does for a living. His manner indicates that he cares deeply for Inara while at the same time he treats her in a cutting manner. He constantly does the unexpected, like shooting Dobson, and Patience's horse, like deciding to take in Simon and River. He has no religious faith now, although he did in the six-years-ago flashback. Mal (Nathan Fillion) is very protective of his crew, and doesn't care what other people think. ![]() ![]() And just like other sci-fi shows that can't use actual profanity because they air on network television, Whedon also invented his own swear words: gorram, rutting, humped. There were bits of Chinese Whedon has obviously seen Blade Runner. Some of the dialogue reminded me of the old West. Just as in the Buffyverse, Whedon's characters don't speak like we do. If it felt cramped like a submarine, it wouldn't feel like freedom. And the ship itself is oddly big, full of wide open spaces and hidey holes. Named after the final battle in Serenity Valley, Serenity represents freedom to Mal by taking to space, he has refused to surrender. Deeply cynical and disillusioned, Mal has decided that all he wants out of life is to keep going on his own terms, to be as free as he can. He has total control over his ship and crew, which includes the violent wild card which is Jayne. He cuts right through the bull, every time. What I came away from this pilot with was mostly how much I loved Mal. In this setting, there is no law but Mal. Everyone is the enemy, even the people Mal does business with. It's also very much a western where it is high noon every day. There's a bit of Star Wars, with the Alliance as the evil Empire and our heroes cast as rebels. Firefly is a specific, well-defined science fiction universe: a disintegrating society of humans on numerous terraformed worlds, an evil government, subhuman space pirate monsters. ![]() And we get the impression that this is not an atypical day. A job goes very wrong, and nearly everyone gets shot. Serenity takes on a group of new passengers that includes two fugitives and a fed. He has a crew of four: second in command Zoe, pilot Wash, engineer Kaylee, and. Captain Malcolm Reynolds, who was a sergeant on the losing side in the war six years ago, is now something of a space pirate who makes money any way he can in order to keep his ship in the air. This pilot established the basic blueprint of the show. If everything were right, we'd be in jail." ![]()
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