Jump to content

Type keyword(s) to search

S01.E14: Objects in Space


Lisin

Recommended Posts

From Wikipedia:

Serenity encounters a ruthlessly professional bounty hunter, Jubal Early, who will stop at nothing to retrieve River. But River, feeling unwelcome on the ship, takes a novel approach to escaping from the long arm of the Alliance.

 

And here we are folks, the last episode. An episode which was submitted for canon consideration on Extra Hot Great here if you'd like to listen to our fearless leaders discuss it. 

 

As a River heavy episode I'm imagining this has a lot of mixed feelings in fans. I personally like it fine but I wouldn't say it's a favorite. Possibly because watching it means the show is done and it's time to watch the movie. I'm not positive I can separate my knowledge that it is the final episode with the episode itself. 

  • Love 1
Link to comment

Oh, boy... I fear I have exact reaction like you Lisin, as in that I'm not able to separate knowledge of OIS being last episode in the series, thus making me sad and at the same time angry (at FOX executives, of course). And it overpowers my ability to watch the episode just as one of the episodes within the show.

 

I quite like Early, and he is with Badger and YoSaffBridg one of my favourite suportive characters. It is his calmness when approaching Kaylee and Simon, confidence that he will prevail in his "fight" against River (before she messes with his mind) and then there's the end where he floats in the space completely unfazed that he is (probably) dying... I was literally muttering "wtf" the first time I watched this episode.

 

One of my favourite exchanges in the series have to be this one:

 

 

My reaction was "wtf" with laughing my behind off.

 

I loved interaction between Book and Jayne and I would be a happy puppy (with some Snoopie dance thrown in the mix) if we had more of their scenes together. 

And I loved Jayne's reaction later on- getting back to sleep after hearing the ruckus, but I was also always baffled with it... Any thoughts on the matter?

  • Love 1
Link to comment
(edited)

Jubal is a psychopath, but he's a fun psychopath.  I get the feeling that he's figured out that causing mental pain is much more effective than physical pain.  For all that River says that he likes to hurt people, he inflict a lot of it, and even when he strikes Inara, he doesn't seem to get any kind of rush from it.

 

Maybe it's me, but I really don't think he would have violated Kaylee -- he just knew that that was the most effective way to get her to cooperate.  (What was it River had her do?  She pushed a bunch of buttons, but it wasn't clear to me what they did.

 

After rewatch, this is still one of my favorite episodes.  Great dialogue, great action and what River does actually makes sense.

 

I hand-wave Jayne (and Zoe) figuring there's always thumps and bumps on the ship, there's no reason to believe that the ship or anyone on it is in danger, so back to bed.

 

I don't think I noticed that the ball at the end was the same as the planet at the beginning.  Does that seem right to you?

 

============================================================

 

ETA: The comic book version has the crew holding Jubal and Kaylee threatening to torture him if he doesn't help.  I can see any of the crew doing this except Kaylee.

Edited by jhlipton
  • Love 1
Link to comment

My first post in an episode thread (and it's not going to be a profound one) as I just discovered this forum the other day.  We watched the final episode last night.  This show was getting better with every episode and I was enjoying it more and more with each one.  I share in the fans frustrations that it was canceled so soon.  It's nice that Joss wrote a movie to tie things up for the fans--I'm looking forward to watching it. 

 

This wasn't my favorite episode, but I did get some laughs out of it:  Shepherd and Jayne's discussion in the kitchen, a few of the comments made by River at the end and the occasional line from the bounty hunter. 

 

 

(What was it River had her do?  She pushed a bunch of buttons, but it wasn't clear to me what they did.

She unlocked the cabins so Mal could get out. 

Link to comment

 

 

I quite like Early, and he is with Badger and YoSaffBridg one of my favourite suportive characters. It is his calmness when approaching Kaylee and Simon, confidence that he will prevail in his "fight" against River (before she messes with his mind) and then there's the end where he floats in the space completely unfazed that he is (probably) dying... I was literally muttering "wtf" the first time I watched this episode.

 

 

 

 

He was such a strong character I hoped he survived like Darth Vader did at the end of Star Wars in what we thought was a short ranged fighter, with the Rebels fighters being long range strike fighter/bombers

Jubal is a psychopath, but he's a fun psychopath.  I get the feeling that he's figured out that causing mental pain is much more effective than physical pain.  For all that River says that he likes to hurt people, he inflict a lot of it, and even when he strikes Inara, he doesn't seem to get any kind of rush from it.

 

Maybe it's me, but I really don't think he would have violated Kaylee -- he just knew that that was the most effective way to get her to cooperate.  (What was it River had her do?  She pushed a bunch of buttons, but it wasn't clear to me what they did.

 

I felt sure that if there were time in the script today he would have started to rape her to get Simon to move. When it was first run there were only a couple of regular characters who were raped on screen but that chilling "have you ever been raped?" still resonates 13 years later. I think Kaylee released the locks on the bunk doors

  • Love 1
Link to comment
On ‎14‎/‎05‎/‎2014 at 7:03 PM, Lisin said:

From Wikipedia:

 

And here we are folks, the last episode. An episode which was submitted for canon consideration on Extra Hot Great here if you'd like to listen to our fearless leaders discuss it. 

 

As a River heavy episode I'm imagining this has a lot of mixed feelings in fans. I personally like it fine but I wouldn't say it's a favorite. Possibly because watching it means the show is done and it's time to watch the movie. I'm not positive I can separate my knowledge that it is the final episode with the episode itself. 

But River is actually the key character in the series.

 

On ‎27‎/‎09‎/‎2015 at 3:27 AM, Raja said:

 

He was such a strong character I hoped he survived like Darth Vader did at the end of Star Wars in what we thought was a short ranged fighter, with the Rebels fighters being long range strike fighter/bombers

I felt sure that if there were time in the script today he would have started to rape her to get Simon to move. When it was first run there were only a couple of regular characters who were raped on screen but that chilling "have you ever been raped?" still resonates 13 years later. I think Kaylee released the locks on the bunk doors

Nasty stuff, there is an award winning paper to be written on 'Rape in the Jossverse'

 

On ‎14‎/‎05‎/‎2014 at 9:59 PM, decembar13 said:

Oh, boy... I fear I have exact reaction like you Lisin, as in that I'm not able to separate knowledge of OIS being last episode in the series, thus making me sad and at the same time angry (at FOX executives, of course). And it overpowers my ability to watch the episode just as one of the episodes within the show.

 

I quite like Early, and he is with Badger and YoSaffBridg one of my favourite suportive characters. It is his calmness when approaching Kaylee and Simon, confidence that he will prevail in his "fight" against River (before she messes with his mind) and then there's the end where he floats in the space completely unfazed that he is (probably) dying... I was literally muttering "wtf" the first time I watched this episode.

 

One of my favourite exchanges in the series have to be this one:

 

 

 

 

My reaction was "wtf" with laughing my behind off.

 

I loved interaction between Book and Jayne and I would be a happy puppy (with some Snoopie dance thrown in the mix) if we had more of their scenes together. 

And I loved Jayne's reaction later on- getting back to sleep after hearing the ruckus, but I was also always baffled with it... Any thoughts on the matter?

Maybe he thought it was Zoe and Wash going at it again?

 The good; All of it, very, very good, especially love the opening of Summer as she prowls around the ship listening to everyone's thoughts, the character of Jubal Early, the crew's meeting to discuss River and her plan is inspired.

The bad; River's reluctance to use firearms to dispose of Early seems a little strange, she's never seemed to have any reservations before. Plus shooting him would be a lot more humane than leaving him to suffocate?

Kinky dinky; Early threatens to rape Kaylee to get her co-operation. We take it that when he talks of giving Kaylee and 'present' and ridding her off a 'problem' he means River but maybe he takes her as a virgin and is telling her they're going to have sex? River observes he's all about "Power, control, pain' River voyeuristically 'mindrops' on Wash and Zoe getting kissy on the bridge (aside from Homer and Marge they seem to be the most sexually active married couple ever). Topless Simon for the straight girls and sly boys (Joss admits he doesn't mind giving his audience some cheesecake) plus him playing footsie with Kaylee. He also relates the story of some youthful streaking to celebrate his graduation as a surgeon. Book is celibate but avoids the question of masturbation.

Notches on the Serenity bedpost; we don't know what happens between Kaylee and Early after he ties her up but I don't think so. She also relates a possible story about bedding a 14 year old 'genetic experiment' but again, unconfirmed.

Capt subtext; Mal says that he's perfectly fine with Kaylee never having killed anyone, he wants to keep her the one sweet and innocent thing in his life. Early's fate, left hanging in space with an uncertain future is a metaphor for the series itself. When Jayne threatens that he and Wash will 'Go somewhere' over his teasing Wash says he hopes it's somewhere with candlelight.

How'd they get away with that? Early threatening Kaylee is hard to watch as is his pistol whipping Inara across the face. Early licks the ship? Is he descended from Benton Fraser RCMP?

Fanfic; Plenty about the future adventures of Jubal Early. Amongst the means for his survival are; 1) Venting air from his spacesuit to propel him back to his own ship 2) Boosting the power of his magnetic shoes in order to attract him back to it 3) Remote control of his own ship once Serenity is out of sensor range (it does seem to fly off under some form of direction) 4) Firing his gun to use the recoil to direct himself 5) Picked up by the blue gloves who are also trailing Serenity. Unfortunately some include him making good on his threats to Kaylee.

Missing scenes; or deleted scenes in this case 1. Scene where we see Zoe and Mal being picked up by the rescue ships after the battle of Serenity. Very graphic with the ground littered with corpses and Zoe in particular looking as though she's on her last legs. It's a powerful scene but if they had left it in it would have detracted from Mal's 'loss of faith' moment in the pilot. 2. Zoe tells Simon about the battle of Serenity in all it's gory detail, 500,000 killed in less than 2 months. What makes this more interesting is that she states that the Browncoats leaders left them to rot on the battlefield for a week, they resent the Independents High Command as well as the Alliance.

Well I guess I owe Alan Tudyk an apology, there IS an incestuous subtext between Simon and River (at least on River's part) he didn't just make it up out of the blue in his commentary for War Stories. It's all actually quite innocent, like a little girl playing at weddings and casting her father or brother as the groom. She accuses Saffron of being a thief, the crew think she means snaffling the food but she actually means more than that. Mal's speech to Saffron about standing up for herself shows his attitude towards women and gives her the idea of how to hoodwink him. This scene also explains why Summer Glau had no lines in the whole of Our Mrs Reynolds.

Inara announces she's leaving, excised because of the crazy order in which the show was shown so as to make more sense. Also reputedly Zoe and Wash asking Simon about starting a family

Questions and observations; I had thought it was stupid that Serenity had controls allowing someone to seal the crew into their cabins from the outside but it was pointed out if the ship was depressurised they would need to be able to seal off each compartment. Note Kayleigh is the only one not to have any hidden thoughts for River to read, she's totally open. Book's thoughts make you wonder if he was previously a cop or judge? As early observes, "That's not a Shepherd" Jayne appears to cook pancakes. Note when River has the gun it's Kaylee who backs away most having seen what she's capable off. The crew still don't know about Jayne's betrayal on Ariel. Mal sure does love his double negatives when talking. Wash seems to delight in teasing Jayne although you'd wonder if he'd be quite so brave without Zoe to back him up? He also thinks telepathy is science fiction even when he's on a spaceship, very postmodern. It appears people eat horses in the future. Early is the kind of interesting recurring villain the series sorely needs.

Unfortunately this is the final ep. Marks out of 10; 9/10, nice to see the series go out on a high.

And that unfortunately is that, I guess better to have a strong but short-lived series than one which outstays its' welcome? I'm also reviewing Buffy and Dollhouse so please pop on over. 

Link to comment
8 hours ago, Joe Hellandback said:

River's reluctance to use firearms to dispose of Early seems a little strange, she's never seemed to have any reservations before.

It was a callback to the earlier gun moment in the episode.  "No touching guns!"  It showed that she was learning to integrate into the 'verse again, by comprehending something someone not her brother told her, and using it herself in somewhat appropriate context.

Link to comment
×
×
  • Create New...