More Fireflying: Safe and Our Mrs. Reynolds

[dangermousie]

Firefly gets better with each episode and rawles I humbly acknowledge mea culpa. I am now full of Simon love.

Saw Safe and Our Mrs Reynolds


Safe

This really is a Simon-centric episode and it really made me into a Simon fan. He is so socially awkward but he does't really mean any harm by it (his outburst to Kaylee was just a really stressed man unloading, not a calculated insult), and his love for his sister just broke my heart. I like the little glimpses we got of him and River as children, all happy and normal. And the bits where he was trying to find out what happened to her and his family disowned him and he still kept on? Wow.

And now he's given up everything and she is broken (in her words) and it's killing him to try to keep a professional detachment when she is his sister and he is not trained in it (psychology) but is just a surgeon out of his depth. He has infinite patience with her, but it's so hard to for him to see her that way.

I love the bit where he watches her dance on the meadow, happy and normal and carefree for a bit, and he is so happy in her joy. I loved when she brings him the berries to share: that is just a heartbreaking scene. I think he could deal better if she didn't have those lucid, loving intervals. And I loved the fact that even though the villagers kidnapped him, he still sets about helping them.

And when they want to burn her as a witch and he asks them to take him instead and then jumps on the pyre? I am all about Simon love (well, after Mal love) now. It's actually quite unusual to see a really close and loving sibling relationship in a TV show, so tis is cool. I think he is bound to help and help and help her not just because he really loves her, but because of what he already gave up for her: he has to keep believing it's worthwhile.

On the Mal front, I loved Mal going back for River and Simon even though their life would be easier without them, and his "it's our witch" speech. Love. And his incomprehension that Simon won't realize that as a crew member, he will always go back for him because Mal always always takes care of his crew. And his going to the Alliance shuttle (which must have been bad for him) to save Book.

I actually really felt sorry for River in this ep and not annoyed a bit.

Our Mrs Reynolds

OMG, so hilarious. Poor Mal ending up with a "wife" he doesn't remember taking and the ensuing hilarity and verbal play ("my days of not taking you seriously are coming to a middle?" snerk). And I love when he knocks her out at the end. I also love that you really do learn more about Mal. He is lonely. And he really has bedrock hard principles about respecting people as people. He tries to get Saffron to stand on her two feet. He really doesn't take advantage of Saffron (LOL re Book comment about special hell), and even when she is in his bed, he does all he can to get her out of his room, until she really indicates she understands the situation and knows what's going on and is truly understandingly consenting (and also appeals to his sense of chivalry).

Also, Mal/Inara? *squeeeeeeee* She is really really jealous of the other woman. And she can barely keep her control when he starts talking about hypothetical children (territorial much?). And of course when she thinks Mal is dead and runs into the room and kisses him when he is unconscious. And there was much screaming in Dangermousie's house. Of course, then she won't admit what happened and I love the tag line, where he tells her he knows she wasn't woozy from the fall but from Saffron poison lipstick and she thinks that he's realized she kissed him and then he says it's because she's kissed her too (Saffron tried to seduce her). And the look on Inara's face is worht volumes. It's both a "Damn!" and "phew!" These two. It's one step forward two steps back. (For the record, I think he knows what happened. He knows how quickly the poison kicked in, so to have fainted where she was, she'd have had to kiss Saffron in his cabin with his unconscious body lying there. Not very likely. It's one of those situations where you don't want to ask the question because of all the baggage but you want to show you know the answer).

So, a Mal/Inara kiss and so many great lines? Yay.

Comments

[rawles.livejournal.com]

I am now full of Simon love.

Then all is at it should be.

At least in one corner of the universe. *flails*

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Heh. I admit, watching Simon watching his sister dance, all happy, made me sniffle a bit. :)

[thelana.livejournal.com]

I have to admit that I never really got into Firefly. I watched all the episodes that aired conventionally. Out of Joss Whendon and SciFi loyalty I guess, but we just never connected. (might have been partly due to the weird out of sequence showing that Fox is responsible for) For me it had a lot of very interesting concepts (such as the snarky!courtesan, the former rebel, and, well, anybody really), but in end it just didn't work for me. Maybe it was just a snark overdose. Or the Western thing.

However, I thought that Safe was just a thing of beauty. It's the only episode I kept because it's just so pretty. (the only other episode that made me at least go "Wow, kinda cool!" was the Shinding one)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I think Firefly is just one of those really quircky things that just either clicks or doesn't (like Farscape in that regard). It clicked for me about 30 minutes into the Premiere ep, but I can easily see it not working for someon else.

And I don't mind Westerns if well done, and there can never be a snark overdose so it probably contributed to my liking.

[thelana.livejournal.com]

I guess my problem with snark is that I have a hard time believing that many people being that snarky or that cool at the same time. So it's often a question of realism for me :D

I did like (some of) Buffy though, I think it's probably because it felt like each character had a different kind of snark, coming from different places. Or it just worked better for me since the characters in question were teenagers and I saw it as their coping mechanism.

I don't think that I have ever seen a full episode of Farscape, only bits and pieces. It always looked a bit slow to me. Actually, that's also pretty much the same thing I feel about the new Battlestar Galactica.

But thank God I have you to keep me up to date, without me having to watch it :)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

LOL. We do seem to have different tastes in BW movies, so the show taste isn't a surprise. Is it realistic for everyone to snark all the time? I don't know, I snark a lot. But plus, it's fiction and is it realistic for people to have adventures? Not reall. But who wants to watch a show about daily life of an accountant.

[thelana.livejournal.com]

Oh snarkiness is great. It's just the weird to me if too many people are doing it. Kinda like with slash. Maybe somebody can sell me on there being one (previously non-canon) homosexual pairing on a show, but everybody suddenly being gay and getting paired like that is the fastest way to get me to go for the exit button. There are times on Firefly where it felt more like Mystery Science Theater to me. It kinda takes you out of the action, if the characters themselves aren't taking it seriously. Kinda ruins the emotional mood for me.

I also have trouble buying people being too snarky (all the time) in the face of actual danger. I mean, it helps if the person in question is a vampire or a superhero, so they know that their chances of actually being hurt are somewhat slimmer. But if the character in question is a normal, vulnerable human... only very few people (actors, writers) can make me buy that kind of attitude. And it's going to be even harder to convince me that a character can be like that without it going hand in hand with the character (1) having a major deathwish (2) being insane (3) being an asshole.

Doesn't mean that I'm completely opposed to snark. I used to have a phase (post Smallville) where I read a lot of comics, where cracking jokes in the face of danger is all the rage. But at least there I can take all the characters and file them firmly under a combination of (1) and (2).

We do seem to have different tastes in BW movie

Awww, at least we can agree that we like Karam. Even though it's probably for completly different reasons :D

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

I told you Simon grows on you. He's one of those characters that the more you watch him the more you think "I really kinda like this guy". I love the facet to him on the ship that he's really probably the most "gentle" out of the group. He's never going to be able to hold his own in a physical fight, which is how men are seen by their worth in a typical "western", but he's still got his own special niche on the ship and no one seems to hold it against him that he's not "tough" (except Jayne, which Jayne doesn't think further than you can throw him anyway). Simon's got a big heart, he's just thrown into a painful and impossible situation now that he's on the run with his sister.

I honestly like the little gender role reversal with Simon and Zoe. She's a female warrior and he's a male caretaker.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

the little gender role reversal with Simon and Zoe. She's a female warrior and he's a male caretaker

Yes. He is very sweet (though I'd stay far away from him relationship-wise, because you'd always come second to River).

It's weird, because how close he is to River and how protective he is of her makes me mildly uncomfortable, which is ridiculous. It's just you are not used to seeing such a close sibling relationship on TV.

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

That's the funny thing with that relationship. I never get any sexual vibes out of it. It's more "over protective mother" vibes from Simon. I think the weirdness comes from them being so devoted. Simon is willing to give up everything for her because he loves her. You don't get that kind of blatant honesty on shows especially coming from a guy.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's what I meant. There isn't any sex!vibe, it's just the super-protectiveness is something you usually see in a romantic relationship on TV but not familial. Makes me wonder how Simon got that way, since his parents were more concerned with their position then with loving their kids.

[grace-om.livejournal.com]

Makes me wonder how Simon got that way, since his parents were more concerned with their position then with loving their kids.

Maybe that's the reason--with the distant parents, all River and Simon had to meet their emotional needs was each other. But I agree, his feelings towards her are more parental than romantic. He'll do anything to protect her, and if he can't...then he'll go ahead and die with her rather than letting her die alone. ::sniff::

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

then he'll go ahead and die with her rather than letting her die alone.

I thought that was such an amazing scene, especially since she had no idea of what was really happening or what he was doing for her. *sniffle*

[grace-om.livejournal.com]

And his incomprehension that Simon won't realize that as a crew member, he will always go back for him because Mal always always takes care of his crew.

This does sink in...slowly.

I think that's part of what makes this show work better when you watch the DVDs rather than the broadcast. That is the characters do grow and change. Their bonds develop over time, and it's harder to see that with episodes all chopped up by commercial breaks and broadcast a week or more apart, etc.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I love having DVDs because I can watch them all at a go (did so with a huge chunk of Farscape and had the best time). Not just because of impatience, but because you can really see nuances better this way.