1.14: Objects in Space

[Lonewolf89]

From Orbiting Lights:

A bounty hunter (Richard Brooks) is lured into a treacherous game of cat and mouse after he infiltrates the Serenity to deliver the much sought-after River to the Alliance.

[Tabitha]

From www.fox.com/firefly

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“Objects in Space”

1AGE11
Writer: Joss Whedon
Director: Joss Whedon
Airdate: 12/13/02

Serenity glides through space near a moon. Inside the ship, River awakes in her bunk. She leaves her room to find Simon and Kaylee talking and flirting on the couch. Simon is telling a story about getting drunk on sake after graduating medical school, and how good those days were. River thinks she sees Simon turn to her and say, "I would be there right now." Shocked, she leaves. She next comes across Jayne and Book. Jayne is marveling at Book's abstinence. During the conversation, River sees Jayne turn to her and say, "I got stupid. The money was too good," followed by Book saying, "I don't give half a hump if you're innocent or not." She leaves them and continues wandering.

In the cargo area, River steps on what she thinks is a tree branch. She picks it up and suddenly sees hundreds of leaves on the ground. The crew begins to swarm around her, telling her to "put it down." In reality, she had picked up a gun off the floor. Mal eventually grabs the gun off of her. River runs off and Mal tells Simon he needs to take extra care with her.

Continuing through space, a bounty hunter's ship comes up behind Serenity. Inside the ship, we see that the hunter, Early, has "Wanted" posters of River. In the cockpit of Serenity, Mal and Jayne enter, arguing about Jayne leaving his gun out for River to find. Mal wonders if it's time to bolt River in her room. Wash thinks that's a little drastic, and Zoe agrees, saying River has probably never picked up a gun before. Kaylee appears and disagrees.

Outside, Early leaves his ship and floats over to Serenity. In the dining area, Kaylee tells the crew the story of their mission to rescue Mal from Niska. Kaylee was pinned down, and River took Kaylee's gun, closed her eyes and blasted three Feds. Below deck, River is listening to their conversation through the floor. Atop the ship's hull, Early listens in electronically as Mal asks the crew if River belongs on the ship. They debate whether she has psychic abilities.

The crew hunkers down for the night. Early opens a hatch and sneaks into the ship. Mal spots Early. They fight and Mal is knocked down a hatch. Early locks the doors to everybody's private quarters. He finds Kaylee tinkering with the engines. He ties her up and tells her not to make any trouble before asking her where River sleeps.

Book walks back from the bathroom when he hears some noise upstairs. Early jumps down the stairs with a dropkick, knocking Book out cold. Early moves through the ship, finding Simon next. He asks where River is. She isn't in her bunk. Simon refuses to help Early, who says that's fine. He can just shoot Simon now, then go upstairs and have his way with the little mechanic he tied up in the engine room. Simon relents and they go off in search of River.

Throughout the ship, there aren't any signs of River. Early begins to lose patience and shouts out for her to come up before he spreads her brother's brains around a bit. River's disembodied voice speaks out to Early. It says he's wrong about her being on the ship. They didn't want her there, so she melted away. The voice fills the entire ship, waking up Mal from his unconscious state, and awaking Wash and Zoe in their bed.

Early asks what she means. The voice says she's not on the ship. She's in the ship. She is the ship. Simon calls out his sister's name, but the voice says, "River's gone." Early asks whom they're talking to. The voice says, "You're talking to Serenity. And Early, Serenity is very unhappy."

Kaylee is still tied up in the engine room. The voice speaks to her and reassures her. Early isn't going to hurt her. He's only visiting. Kaylee apologizes for telling Early where she was, but the voice says it's okay.
Still in the cockpit with Simon, Early wonders where the voice went. The voice laughs and asks if she can call Early "Jubel." He says nobody calls him that, but the voice says his mother does. Or did. She's dead now. The voice tells Early his intentions are dishonorable. He hurts people. Early says he only hurts people when he has to, and he's about to shoot Simon if she doesn't come out.

By this time, Mal is coming to. The voice says she needs him to do her a favor. Over in the engine room, Kaylee is now untied. She sneaks out the door and through the ship. Just outside the cockpit, she unlocks the door. Inside Wash and Zoe's room, the voice describes Early to them, and says they can't use any guns on him. Just sit and be good and he'll go away. Below deck, the voice tells Mal to go now.

In the cockpit, the lights go down. The voice tells Early he's not welcome here. He says he ain't leaving empty-handed. The voice tells Early all about his past. He became a bounty hunter because he likes the power. The pain. Early finally realizes. She's not in his mind, she's on his ship! We see River sitting in Early's pilot seat. She says she can see everything from there and tells him to put his gun away. He does. He tells River not to fiddle with any dials. River says he's not righteous. He has issues. He nervously agrees with everything she says.

She says not to worry. She's going away with Early since she's too dangerous and nobody trusts her on the ship. She'll become his bounty and just fade away. Early begins walking back to his ship, but Simon attacks him. They struggle briefly, but then Early shoots Simon.

Early walks down the stairs from the cockpit when Simon jumps him from behind. Early knocks him off. He exits through a hatch on top of the ship and watches his ship glide toward Serenity. Mal appears behind him and shoves him off into space. He slowly floats away. River floats down to Mal and the Serenity's crew is back together. Simon talks Zoe through surgery to remove the bullet from his leg.

As the ship returns to normal, Kaylee and River happily play a game together, and we cut to Early floating in space. Alone.
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[Tabitha]

Poll added.

[Dave]

Originally posted by Tabitha
and we cut to Early floating in space. Alone.

At this point, he also says something like "that's where I am." What did that mean? But then I didn't understand the whole 'objects in space' thing. Am I missing something?

Or was it possibly another 'Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai across the Eighth Dimension' reference? "Wherever you are, there you are!" It frequently crops up in Star Trek where it has cult status among the effects staff, and it just appeared in Odyssey 5 in the episode 'Harry Mudd' (but then Peter Weller was Buckaroo Banzai.) Personally, I didn't think much of that film.

As Jubel Early walks past the unconcious Book, Simon exclaims "You hurt a Shepherd!" and Early replies "He's no Shepherd!" Seems we are unlikely to find out any more about Book, but this confirms my suspicions about him.

Just an observation, but the ship has been boarded on two occassions now, and both times Jayne was conveniently missing. Once he was injected with knock-out drops, and now he is asleep, locked in his quarters. Is he really that good, that the writers need to keep him out of the way? More likely they just like making the other characters use the weapons, because they always need to make a moral judgement beforehand.

[Tabitha]

Not sure about the "and here I am reference" - maybe Obcooke will have some ideas.

Book, ah, ever the mystery! I think I am more anxious to find out more about him than about River!
How did Early know Book was 'no Shepherd'? Book didn't even have the opportunity to defend himself.

Jayne hasn't really proved himself to be much use at all, has he, in fact, more trouble than help overall.
I did enjoy the shot of him pulling off the blanket he keeps his guns behind, and then rolling over and going back to sleep :lol:

Making the other characters use weapons doesn't seem to have been that much trouble for most of them, even for River!

[Dave]

Originally posted by Tabitha
How did Early know Book was 'no Shepherd'? Book didn't even have the opportunity to defend himself.

I got the impression that Early had been following them for some time -- listening to conversations -- Wash had a thermal image on his sensors that he couldn't explain, and so ignored.

The Alliance would also have given him information on the crew of Serenity. He knew things about all of them.

[Tabitha]

Fair enough.

*Note to self, rewatch Bushwacked and look out for Books interview with the aliiance Captain.
There may be a clue in there somewhere that I missed before.

[ray gower]

I've come to the conclusion that everybody in the Firefly Universe is a loopy as River. Certainly this bounty hunter deserves to be put in the fruitcake farm as quick as possible.
For a while I wondered if River was strting to take over his mind? Perhaps a first inkling as to what she can do with her surgically modified mind?
Certainly the mind games she played made this one of the cleverest episodes yet.

I think it is definitely time for them to put door bells on the doors though. Somebody comes aboard in the depths of space and the first they know about it is when they all get brained?

The Jayne is asleep trick is the Firefly equivalent of ST red shirts falling down like nine pins. Can't kill him, because he is a central character, so needs to be kept out of the way.

Did anybody make out what Mal said when River was listening into private thoughts at the beginning?

[obcooke]

[ray gower: Did anybody make out what Mal said when River was listening into private thoughts at the beginning?]

You have but to ask...

INARA: It's not a threat, Mal. I just can't do my work under these circumstances.

MAL: You knew the drill when you signed on.

INARA: This is the third planet in a row where I can't find decent clientele.

MAL: Well, I'm sorry if I'm cutting into your retirement fund but would it kill you not to spread for a spell?

INARA: You are unreal... I don't know why I haven't left already.

MAL: Ah, no one's forcing you to stay.

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In River's head, they talk to her directly:
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INARA: I'm a big girl. Just tell me.

MAL: None of it means a damn thing.

[ray gower]

Thanks, that was I thought he said, but it was a little fuzzy on the recording and didn't make a lot of sense at the time.

[Tabitha]

Ray already asked this, but I felt like pushing the issue. Do you think Early is just plain mad, or is River actually causing some of his craziness directly, not just manipulating him verbally.

There is an exchange with Simon, that I believe goes something like this:

Simon: Are you a bounty hunter?
Early: No, that's not it at all, I'm a bounty hunter.

There are a couple of other bits and pieces like that too. I acknowledge the fact that Early has 'issues' before meeting River, but I wonder if she was actually messing with him telepathically? We have seen her read people before, and with Early, knowing what he was thinking might be enough to send him over the edge on its own, but there is definitely a suggestion that there is something deeper going on.

[Status]

I must admit, this was a strange one. A lot of the conversations didn’t make a lot of sense to me, but the acting was very convincing. I really enjoyed the mind games that River played with Early.

Originally posted by obcooke


In River's head, they talk to her directly:
----------

INARA: I'm a big girl. Just tell me.

MAL: None of it means a damn thing.

These comments made absolutely no sense at all to me, but then I’m wondering if any of the episode was supposed to make sense.

Originally posted by Tabitha
Ray already asked this, but I felt like pushing the issue. Do you think Early is just plain mad, or is River actually causing some of his craziness directly, not just manipulating him verbally.

There is an exchange with Simon, that I believe goes something like this:

Simon: Are you a bounty hunter?
Early: No, that's not it at all, I'm a bounty hunter.

There are a couple of other bits and pieces like that too. I acknowledge the fact that Early has 'issues' before meeting River, but I wonder if she was actually messing with him telepathically? We have seen her read people before, and with Early, knowing what he was thinking might be enough to send him over the edge on its own, but there is definitely a suggestion that there is something deeper going on.

I got the impression that he was already very close to the edge and River’s playing with him just finished it. I think it would have been better for them to finish him off completely rather than just leave him floating in space.

Originally posted by ray gower
I've come to the conclusion that everybody in the Firefly Universe is a loopy as River. Certainly this bounty hunter deserves to be put in the fruitcake farm as quick as possible.
For a while I wondered if River was strting to take over his mind? Perhaps a first inkling as to what she can do with her surgically modified mind? Certainly the mind games she played made this one of the cleverest episodes yet.

I think it is definitely time for them to put door bells on the doors though. Somebody comes aboard in the depths of space and the first they know about it is when they all get brained?

This episode certainly made almost everyone look mad. Perhaps this could be contributed (to some extent) as to River’s perception of them all?

As for the doorbells, I thought it very strange Early (or anyone for that matter) being able to board the ship totally unknown by everyone. Was really a confusing episode leaving many unanswered questions.

[Dave]

It was a confusing episode to end the series on, but now I've watched them all, in the correct order, it does make more sense that it did the first time.

Mal's conversation with Inara and their thoughts -- this make much much more sense when you realise that it follows directly on from the ending of 'Heart of Gold'.

BTW there are two versions of the scene -- one is part of the deleted scenes on the DVD.

River was reading minds, she wasn't simply making assumptions about Early from his possessions aboard his ship, such as the photograph of the dog, because she knew that he had mistreated the dog.