1.06: Our Mrs. Reynolds

[Lonewolf89]

Discuss the third episode of Firefly.

[Tabitha]

From www.fox.com/firefly

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“Our Mrs. Reynolds”

1AGE05
Writer: Joss Whedon
Director: Vondie Curtis Hall
Airdate: 10/4/02

We join the crew of Serenity riding a horse and buggy through a stream. Mal is disguised as a settler woman and Jayne as his husband. Suddenly a group of bandits storms them. Mal and Jayne surprise the bandits and pull out their guns, while Zoe appears from the back of the buggy to get in on the action.

Later that night, the crew is in a local village celebrating the victory from their latest job. Inara remarks to Mal that he should celebrate because they were finally hired to be heroes, and not criminals.

Mal and Jayne both get drunk at the ceremony, dancing, enjoying the people. A young woman places a headdress on Mal and gives him something to drink. He then dances with her around a large bonfire into the night.

The next day, back on Serenity, the crew is prepping to leave as the villagers pay them with what little they have. Up in space, Mal is putting things away when he happens on a stowaway. It’s the same woman he danced with the previous evening.

She tells Mal that she’s bequeathed to him. The dance and headdress from last night were in fact part of a marriage ceremony, rendering Mal her husband. Mal is in a state of shock as the rest of the crew enters the cargo bay to find out what the news is.

Zoe hams it up, introducing the woman to everyone as Mrs. Reynolds. The woman begins crying when Mal tells everyone she’s not his wife. Mal tells Wash to turn back, but unfortunately they can’t because right after they left, an Alliance ship touched down on the village.

Wash tells them they have to continue on. The woman runs off when Mal asks Shepherd what it’ll take to get a divorce. Mal finds her crying in the engine room and tells her that they have five days left on the ship until they reach their destination, so it’s best to remain friends and make herself comfortable.

The woman tells Mal she’d be a very good wife, but he tells her that he wouldn’t be a good husband. She then runs off and cooks Mal a meal. She tells him her name is Saffron. Shepherd then approaches Mal and tells him that if he takes sexual advantage of Saffron, he’ll go to a special part of hell, reserved for child molesters and people that talk at the theatre.

Meanwhile, the rest of the crew continues to tease Mal about his new “wife.”

Over in Inara’s shuttle, Mal tries to hide from Saffron. Inara tells Mal that she finds his whole “marriage” degrading. He begins to play around and tease her, when Inara snaps and kicks him out of the shuttle.

Jayne confronts the Captain telling Mal that he doesn’t feel appreciated. He offers to trade his favorite gun for Saffron. Mal yells at him, telling Jayne that she’s not to be bought or sold.

Saffron overhears his conversation with Jayne and tells Mal that she’d rather work on a ranch than be wed to Jayne. Mal tells her that it’s good work and reveals that his mother owned a cattle ranch on Shadow, where he was brought up.
Mal catches himself talking about his past, but notices that he seems to have ease telling Saffron about it.

As Serenity flies through space, it passes by a small moon, where some men in a chop shop are analyzing Serenity, preparing to steal it.

Zoe and Wash discuss Saffron, and Zoe can’t believe how Saffron flaunts herself over the captain. Wash defends her, saying she’s just following customs and traditions. Zoe blows up at him for no real reason, but she feels that Saffron is trouble.

Over in Mal’s room, he finds a naked Saffron, waiting for him in bed. She ends up seducing him. When he kisses her, Mal comments that he’s going to hell, but then he suddenly passes out, poisoned by her kiss.

Saffron then enters the cockpit, where Wash is sulking by himself. Saffron closes the doors and tries to seduce him too. When it doesn’t work, she kicks him in the head instead, knocking him out.

Saffron takes over the cockpit and rewires the ship, as well as sealing the cockpit doors. She then runs off, looking for a shuttle to get off Serenity when she runs into Inara. She seduces Inara until an alarm suddenly sounds, tipping Inara to Saffron’s game.

Saffron takes off in one of the ship’s shuttles before anyone knows what’s happening. Inara goes searching for Mal and finds him on the floor. She thinks he’s dead, but when she finds him breathing, she kisses him with relief and is also poisoned from Saffron’s kiss.

Mal wakes up with the crew around him. Inara tries to tell everyone she fell, not letting them in on the kiss. The crew finally gets the cockpit open and realizes that Saffron wired the ship so the crew can’t turn Serenity around. Both Wash and Kaylee marvel at how Saffron wired the ship. Inara then adds that Saffron was trained in her art of Companionship as well.

The men from the chop shop wait for Serenity to come in. They both comment on how good Saffron is.

Wash and Kaylee get the ship back online. They quickly realize that they’re running towards an electromagnetic field that would kill them all on the inside while maintaining the ship for the chop-shoppers.

Mal tells Kaylee to keep on the ship while he comes up with a plan B. He and Jayne get in their space suits, and Jayne fires at the chop shop with his gun (encased in its own space suit to provide it with oxygen to fire) that he offered to trade with Mal.

The shot hits the magnetic field and blows up the chop shop. They regain control of the ship and go off to find Saffron. When Mal storms into Saffron’s room on a nearby planet, he finds out that she was working for the elders of the town that they saved earlier.

He asks Saffron what her real name is, she stares at him blankly and he knocks her out cold.

Back on the ship, Mal confronts Inara about the real reason for her loss of consciousness. Thinking that he knows the truth, Inara is excited, only to learn that Mal smugly thinks that she kissed Saffron.
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[Tabitha]

Poll added.

[Dave]

I still think it was a complicated way of capturing the ship. If we are to believe her intention all along was to lead Serenity to the 'chop shop', then Saffron had planned this very carefully right down to the 'marriage ceremony'. If Shepherd's encyclopedia is correct about it, then the settlers on that planet must also have had a hand in it, how could she be 'given away' otherwise. Yet these settlers had been helped by Serenity's crew for little reward, and they all seemed very pleased. If I was Mal, I would make sure no one did them a favour again.

I liked the ending with Mal and Inara. I expect there will be more made of this relationship in future episodes.

[Tabitha]

It did seem over-complicated, and while it seemed unlikely that those townsfolk (so to speak) would have betrayed Serenity and her crew, perhaps there was more to it than that. Perhaps Saffron got stuck on this out-of-the way planet after her last ambush, and was just taking the first opportunity to get off the place.
It might well be that although this was an accepted marriage ceremony on some planets, it wasn't on the one they were on - she set it up so that the locals wouldn't recognise it either.

There have been several mentions made in the series about Serenity being a below-par, or old fashioned ship, (I think these are made quite frequently - it shouldn't be spoilerish), so it seems even crazier that she would go to all those lengths to steal/capture such an out of date vessel.

It was still a very good episode, I especially liked Inara's slip up, and her dialogue with Saffron - and the ending!

I hope we see Saffron again.

[Dave]

Originally posted by Tabitha
There have been several mentions made in the series about Serenity being a below-par, or old fashioned ship, (I think these are made quite frequently - it shouldn't be spoilerish.

The 'chop shop' men said Serenity was only good for spares, but Shepherd said in the episode 'Serenity' that it was a Mark 3 Firefly and that he had only been in a Mark 1 without some features (I forget exactly!) So, it's not state of the art, but it can't be that old either.

I agree with your point though.

[Tabitha]

Another thing that just came to mind - at some point Saffron makes a comment that suggests that she isn't in it for the money, but for the thrill of the adventure, or of manipulating people. Perhaps this one comment could explain it all?

[ray gower]

I got the impression that Firefly was an old ship, but of a type that forms the backbone of anywhere outlandish, like some places still use DC3 Dakota's or Twin Otters. There are far better ships/aeroplanes, just that none do the same job for as long.
Besides the gap between Mk1 and 3 need not be very long. Book mentioned about the Firefly having additional stabilisation, which is quite a deirable item.

The link between the marriage and subsequent hijacking is a little precarious. Did Saffron actually do those things, or did she simply stow away, then caught out Mal afterwards?

It would at least leave the locals moderately blameless?

[Tabitha]

Arg, I wrote a whole long reply and my browser crashed

It basically consisted of: How did you like the development of the Inara-Mal relationship, I still get a giggle out of the scene when she kisses him and then passes out :lol:

I think Saffron probably used a marriage ceremony that those settlers didn't actually know, and embroidered her backstory for the crew accordingly.
I wouldn't have thought the settlers were complicit in the whole piracy set up.

/edit

Another thing I just remember I really liked in this episode was the scene in which Saffron is discovered. Mal tells Zoe to "Get Wash", and she calls the entire crew to the cargo bay - Mal replies, "I said GET WASH", meaning not the entire crew. The first few times I saw this scene I was sure he had said "I said "Get Washed" " :lol:

I know, I know, I am easily amused.

[ray gower]

Originally posted by Tabitha
It basically consisted of: How did you like the development of the Inara-Mal relationship, I still get a giggle out of the scene when she kisses him and then passes out :lol:

There was also Inara's rather horrified gasp when Zoe announces Mal is wedded. Yes, there is certainly a great deal of entertainment value in this relationship. Worth a discussion on its own as well as the Kaylee/Simon thing

Originally posted by Tabitha
I think Saffron probably used a marriage ceremony that those settlers didn't actually know, and embroidered her backstory for the crew accordingly.
I wouldn't have thought the settlers were complicit in the whole piracy set up.

That could explain a lot, or that it is something the settlers practice, but don't force it upon or expect it from visitors?
It does make the plot hole somewhat smaller

[Tabitha]

Well, I just figured that the Firefly universe is pretty big - hundreds and hundreds of planets with diverging cultures. A marriage ceremony for one planet might be something completely different in another culture, or just plain well unrecognisable.

New thread for Inara/Mal definitely sounds like a good idea. In fact some character threads might be interesting.

[markpud]

I agree with what others have said, it's more likely that Saffron used a marriage ceremony that the locals weren't aware of, but she must have been there for a little while to get in with them and be accepted enough to hog the night with the hero of the moment..

She did a very good job of hiding her true intentions behind the country girl persona, but Inara recognised her training eventually. The problem is when you have a new character pretending to be someone else and you don't get any clues, theres no way to know..

What was the deal with the shepherd, and his "special hell for child molesterers"? she wasn't that young, and she was quite willing.. There were a few lines of dialogue when she was in Mals cabin that had me wondering if this was actually TV-PG as advertised, but I guess the innuendo would go over the head of younger viewers..

I loved the scene at the end where Mal thought he'd sussed out why Inara collapsed, " I knew you let her kiss you"

So another interesting episode, but my Firefly marathon for today may have to be paused as I've gotta cut the grass

[ray gower]

Just a nit-pick. Why did Vera need air in which to work?

The idea behind a bullet is that when the cordite is fired it produces it's own gases (including oxygen to support the combustion). It is the gas that propels the projectile.

In a modern round, there is no spark that needs to be carried to create the initial firing of the charge, so they can even work under water.

The biggest problem I can see is that the bullet appearing out the end at 1000 feet per second, will result in the user disappearing in the opposite direction at the same speed. (Newton's Laws)

[Status]

But if I'd watched this episode first I probably would never have continued watching it. Yep, you guessed it, I didn't like it much.

I thought the innocent act so fake it was obvious that something else was up. Come on now, no one is that innocent. And women have a bad enough rap to begin with, who needs something like this episode to add to it.

There were some cute parts in there but over all it was bad (In my opinion anyway). Will watch the next one to make sure it was an accident. :lol:

[ray gower]

I am inclined to agree with you Status. It is not the best episode of the series.

I've been rewatching my copies and the plot hole to introduce Saffron only ever becomes bigger.