Firefly 1x14 Review: Let's Get Metaphysical

“Objects in Space”
Written by Joss Whedon
Directed by Joss Whedon
 
The Story
After River gets hold of a gun (by accident, not that anyone else knows that, or that it makes a practical difference), Kaylee tells the rest of the crew about the fun time River shot three dudes dead in two seconds with her eyes closed. They’re flying in the middle of nowhere space. Inara’s still working on arrangements for leaving the ship. Zoë and Wash are possibly working on making a baby. Simon and Kaylee are working on stalling out some more. And there’s a bounty hunter here for River. He creeps around the ship while everyone’s asleep, knocking out Mal, locking the rest of the crew in their bunks, tying up Kaylee (after some truly repugnant threats), knocking out Book, and forcing Simon at gunpoint to help him search for River. The bounty hunter’s primary tactic for keeping Simon off-balance is unsettling non-sequiturs. River turns that tactic against him by pretending she’s become one with Serenity, when really she’s just sitting in Early’s ship playing with the coms. She orchestrates a clever plan to get rid of Early without anyone getting killed, which Simon almost ruins by diving for Early and getting shot in the leg. Early ends up floating around in his spacesuit, with no way to get back to either ship. The crew continues life as usual.
 
Things I Liked

• The kind of tour of River’s brain sequence at the beginning, I particularly like the bit with the branch becoming a gun. It’s probably the only way to
• “Anybody remember her coming at me with a butcher’s knife?” “Wacky fun.” “You wanna go, little man?” “Only if it’s someplace with candlelight.”
• The up and down swooshing to the two eavesdroppers on the big conversation about River
• “Psychic, though? That sounds like something out of science-fiction.” “We live on a spaceship, dear.” “…So?”
• Mal running into Early in the hall like you’d bump into someone rounding a corner in a building. So mundane it’s kind of hilarious
• Shirtless Simon like whoa
  

• Early licking the pole
• River screwing with Early by using his same weird headtrippy strategy, only way better
• “Where’s your sister?” “I can’t keep track of her when she’s not incorporeally possessing a spaceship; don’t look at me.”
• “Am I dreaming?” “We all are.” [eye roll] “Don’t make faces.”
• “He’s wearing armor.” “What about his face? Is his face wearing armor?”
• The switch to classic Firefly style music as soon as Early realizes River’s on his ship. She got him good!
• Jayne dramatically ripping the curtain away from his guns…so he can use it as a blanket.
• Zoë super not appreciating having to pull the bullet out of Simon
• More Book and Jayne being workout buddies!
• Dude, the bouncy ball River and Kaylee are using to play jacks is the same as the planet Serenity flew past at the very beginning of the episode. Not exactly the same, but close enough that I think it was on purpose.
  

Things I Didn’t

• DANGIT, BOOK. Blew the chance for a Simon/Kaylee kiss!
• Early’s gross threats to Kaylee
• Early’s weird tangents
• The freaky cuts to Early laughing psychotically
• Them not keeping Early’s ship? Couldn’t they have fenced it?

 
The Characters
Dangit, Mal, just tell Inara you want her to stay! I do like his interactions with River, though. It’s kind of the first time they’ve really had significant one-on-one dialogue.
 
Zoë hasn’t interacted much with River so far either. I want more of that.
 
I also want more of Wash poking fun at Jayne, because that stuff is hilarious. I think he can do it so nonchalantly because his warrior woman is right there, and she’ll beat Jayne up if he so much as looks at Wash too menacingly.
 
Inara clearly didn’t know anything about Early’s rape threats, or she wouldn’t have wasted her breath trying to talk him down from this sordid bounty hunting life.
 
Jayne missing pretty much the entire action sequence.
 
The sequence with Kaylee and Early proves that Kayelee is a Hufflepuff, not a Gryffindor. Selfless and brave, but not as much when the danger passes.
 
Why are moments so fragile that they shatter when interrupted? Simon let a perfectly good opportunity to kiss Kaylee slip through his fingers just because Book walked between them for about two seconds. But then, with Early, Simon is incredibly brave. He’s got guts when he’s treating medical conditions and when he’s protecting River, just not when it comes to dating.
 
River started this episode feeling like she doesn’t belong in the crew. I think she proved by the end of it that she does belong. She can work with them against threats, she cares about them, and she can have fun with them.
 
Dangit Book, what is your backstory?! (I will find out. I bought all the Serenity comics thanks to this rewatch. They should arrive in the mail next week.)
 
Overall Rating
4.5/5