Firefly 1x04 Review: "High" Society

“Shindig”
Written by Tim Minear
Directed by Tim Minear
 
The Story
While Serenity is docked on a core planet, Inara attends a high society ball with a recurring client, Atherton Wing. Who is an elitist git. Badger strong-arms Mal into making contact with a potential client, a wealthy man who won’t deal with Badger because he’s too much of a lowlife. Turns out he has to make that contact at the very same ball Inara and Atherton are at. Mal escorts Kaylee in a fancy new dress, and things look promising until Mal punches Atherton for insulting Inara. Atherton takes this as a formal challenge, so it’s swords at dawn. Inara tries to give Mal some instruction in sword-fighting (which he’s never done before), and the rest of the crew tries to plan a coup against Badger and his men. But Mal manages to win, and the client is so pleased with his performance that he’ll give them his business. Which is to transport a small herd of cows to another planet.
 
Things I Liked

• “Too much foofera. If I get a dress, I want something with some slink.” “You want a slinky dress? I can buy you a slinky dress. Captain, can I have money for a slinky dress?” (Jayne:) “I’ll chip in.” (Zoë:) “I can hurt you.”
• Mal being all grouchy because they’re talking about Inara getting gifts from her clients, and he’s jealous but doesn’t know it, so he inadvertently hurts Kaylee’s feelings instead.
• “There’s a trick to it. Wood alcohol.” “Ah, now we know we’re favored guests. Treated to the finest in beverages that make you blind.”
• Simon, Jayne, and Book all playing cards and gambling with their chores
• “I cannot abide useless people.”
• Sir Warrick is just awesome
• Mal and Inara dancing
• “Ath”
• Wash’s hypothetical eulogy for Zoë
• Kaylee at the center of a knot of raptly attentive gentlemen as she talks engines
• Mal repeatedly poking Atherton with the sword because he’s just an “alright” man

 
Things I Didn’t

• Holographic pool balls? How can that possibly be cheaper than real ones?
• “Are we gonna play cards or screw around?” *cut to post-coital Wash/Zoë* A rather inelegant transition, that.
• Atherton, but not liking him is kind of the point.
• I’m not sure how I feel about this future society having a class system identical to the mid-1800s. It seems like they opted for style over logic on that one, because what would a Western in space be without the same kind of society as in the actual Old West?
• Okay, I don’t actually like Kaylee’s dress, because so much pink and the bodice is weird, but she’s so happy about it that I’m not really complaining. I’m a much bigger fan, again, of Inara’s dresses.

The Characters
Mal was kind of right about the difference between him and Atherton. Atherton uses a lot of fancy words and flattery, but he really does just see Inara as an object. Mal sees Inara for who she is—charming, genuinely kind, and very intelligent—, and considers her profession to be beneath her character. His method of apologizing to Kaylee is pretty funny. Instead of actually apologizing to her, he came up with an “assignment” that would involve buying her dream dress for her and taking her to a party where she could show it off. He probably could’ve taken Zoë, so choosing Kaylee was a deliberate indirect act of penance. Bahaha.
 
Zoë definitely fell for Wash because he makes her laugh. It’s so adorable. But he does also have those impressive arms. I bet they didn’t hurt his case. I love how easily she shuts Jayne down for even the slightest hint of a crude suggestion about her. The two of them haven’t directly interacted much, but now I’m really curious about that.
 
Wash is interesting. He loves flying spaceships, which can be a very dangerous and thrilling job, but he doesn’t like getting involved in violent situations.
 
I’m not sure I get why Inara apparently fell for Atherton’s gentleman act as long as she did. Usually she’s so perceptive about people, but it was obvious pretty much from the start that he was a massive jerkwad. Maybe it was that he was also pretty smart, so they were intellectually compatible? We Ravenclaws are suckers for good conversation.
 
Jayne seems to get along much better with Simon when Kaylee isn’t around. But I suppose if you’re playing poker for not having to do chores, you’d buddy up to anyone.
 
Kaylee definitely likes to be girly sometimes, but she’s never encountered upper class snobs like the girls at that party. She’s incredibly nice, and Inara, the only upper class lady she’s ever interacted with on a regular basis, is also incredibly nice, so she probably assumed everyone else would be nice too. I love that old man who dissed the rude girl and led Kaylee over to all those gentlemen who could genuinely appreciate her.
 
Simon is starting to loosen up and fit in with the crew better, instead of just being super paranoid and tense all the time. I think Mal hiding him and River from the Alliance in “Bushwhacked” really helped cement his trust in these people. He can even plan elaborate diversions and takedowns with them! Too bad we didn’t get to see how that would’ve played out.
 
River can also mimic accents! High five, River. I love doing that. But yeah, she’s not really improving. She has her lucid periods and her ripping labels off canned goods periods.
 
Book is fitting in quite well with the crew. Poker with Simon and Jayne, the two characters who dislike each other the most? Very impressive. I’m not sure I get how it worked out that he ended up staying on the ship longterm.
 
Overall Rating
4.5/5