Fuck yeah, just give the ancient Greeks hindu-arabic numerals and watch them lose their minds. Teach Zeno calculus and watch him try to prove it wrong.

If you’re looking for the biggest change in our timeline for the littlest work I’d give a hindu-arabic numerals to early Greek mathematicians. Watching those guys try to wrap their heads around zero, that would fuck Pythagoras.

Too much work. If I want to disappoint a lot of people I’ll just go to a family reunion.

Sorry I’m late but I needed to catch up. Just to start with this one is NOT a charming, funny romp, unlike The Train Job. Seriously tonally this episode sticks out like dog’s bollacks, compared to the ones around it, and I love it. Creepy first look at the Reavers and what they do. “Reavers ain’t men. Or they forgot how to be. Come to just nothin’. They got out to the edge of the galaxy, to that place of nothin’, and that’s what they became.” I mean we hear Zoe talking about them but damn that reveal of the pile of corpses was chilling. The episode started slow for me but one River started Riverin’ and we find the crazy guy I was all in on the space-western / slasher film combo.

More Stand Out Moments:

• The opener with the crew playing a modified version of Tlachtli was a hoot. Everyone getting in to the games with Inara and Simon sitting on the outside looking in. You get the feeling the cast was having fun with the game too.
• I especially like how Jayne keep going a little too hard with the trash talk. It solidifies him as an asshole but gives him room to grow.
• The mystery of River’s powers are starting to grow and it one of the thing I really wish they had had the time to properly do.
• Book talking them in to the need to take care of the dead “How we treat our dead is part of what makes us different… than those did the slaughtering.” and then the switch where it turns out Mal was worried about a bomb.
• Mal’s plan to hide the Tams - the way he yells at Jayne to pull the cargo out the hidey-hole and his “I aint’ fixin to argue” to the reveal of them being suits outside. Just an awesome bait and switch.
• The cops tossing the dinning room, like dude the Tams aren’t under the place mats why are you throw the shit all over the floor?
• Interviews: – Zoe going “We don’t like to talk about our relationship” going to a hard cut of Walsh not shutting up about hot his wife is. – Kaylee bitching about engines to the point where the officer is rolling his eyes. – Inara … what can I say she’s just so cool. – The whole thing is just little masterclasses in each character.
• Shout out to the whole bit from Zoe “You fought with Captain Reynolds in the war?” - “Fought with a lot of people in the war.” - “And your husband?” - “Fight with him sometimes, too.” - My partner wet themselves laughing at that one.
• The ratcheting up of the tension during Mal’s interview is a nice touch too setting up that Brody vs the Mayor in Jaws vibe where he knows whats coming and nobody is believing him. <chef’s kiss>
• I’d really like to point out the violence, or really the lack of on screen. The cuts in the Alliance emergency room where we see the survivor pull out his knife and then just blood splatters. The violence I’m imagining is going to be more horrifying then what they could have put on screen and so I’m more tense from not seeing it rather then if they showed it to me.
• And the same hold true at the climax when Mal has to snap the guys neck to save the commander, what we see isn’t as important as what we don’t.

Finally the ending where the Commander lets the Serenity go but seizes the cargo. Firefly was very ACAB way before ACAB was even a movement. Mal - “He had to (take the cargo). Couldn’t let us profit. Wouldn’t be ‘civilized’.”

I went back and watched the full credits on my version and I realized the voice-over introductions are only on the iTunes and any original TVRips you can find. The DVDs are lacking the voice-overs and the previously on. So I’m guessing the voice-over was added later by Fox.

Well that’s what I kept skipping over I guess. What threw me was the flag. We see it in the Train Job and it sure looks like a US/China Alliance. So who did the terraforming then?

I’d hope so but I always thought the Alliance colonized the whole system. Isn’t said that they’re the ones terraforming moons and making them habitable? If that’s the case the outer moons are breakaway colonies more like the US and Brittan, India and Brittan, and well most of the world and Brittan. 😆

So let’s kick this off with a bit of honesty … I haven’t watch Firefly in about 5 years and I remember from then not liking this episode. Having just watched it I can say I was an idiot. This was a charming, funny romp with more great dialog, exciting action, and some great character moments. The only reason for this I think is, I didn’t like it before was because it took the place of the pilot in airing order and I guess I resented it. Go figure, like I say an idiot.

Some stand out moments for me:

• The cold open on U day with Mal and Zoe going looking for a bar brawl. Don’t tell me Zoe didn’t know exactly what Mal was doing from the start and you know she encouraged him. Jayne with his ‘I didn’t fight in no war’ kills me because you know he doesn’t care about any of this crap but he’s still down for a good ol’ bar brawl.
• The prototype for our big damn hero’s moment when the Serenity pops up from the cliff and bluffs the townsfolk.
• Such great dialog from Mal and Book discussing God, and then Inara and Book talking about praying for the crew. I especially like how she slips in that she prays and the look he gives her acknowledging her a woman of faith in her line of work.
• “We’re doing crime” - you have to love Jewel Staite she can deliver the cheer and cute while still being spunky.
• Niska should be a bit over the top from the writing but the actor sells his menace moving him from Bond villain to Hanable Lecter.
• The Heist is exciting especially Mal’s glee at being able to get one over on the Alliance soldiers, and then the twist when he finds out he’s stealing much needed medicine. I love how he’s a crook but he’s not a bad guy. Fillion really sells the charming rouge, I’d love to see him play a bard in another D&D movie. Right up there “So, is his job open?”
• Alec Baldwin in his best blow hard Jayne trying to take over, bulling Wash and Kaylee and then having Book point out that he’s being an idiot and is likely to get them killed with his plan. Topped off by badass bookworm Simon slipping him a micky to put him out.
• It’s interesting to see Inara pulling a con to get Mal and Zoe out of trouble, and an interesting tidbit about indentured servitude being allowed in Alliance space.
• I really like the good guy Sheriff being able to figure it all out and letting the Serenity crew go because time are tough and people make mistakes but as long as you try to put right, that’s what counts. Good Moral especially for show about a crew of lovable rouges.
• Finally the attempt to be honest crooks with Miska’s men and the first guy trying to be hard and just getting kicked into the engine was gold, although I suspect Kaylee gave it to Mal later about treating her girl like a garbage disposal. And now I’m looking forward to War Stories and Miska’s return.

But with opener about U-day and Mal and Zoe’s fierce patriotism to the Independent Faction, I guess we should talk about the elephant in the 'verse. Firefly is a space-western, heavy on the western. The styles, the personalities and everything in between, but here in our world the western period is right after the US civil war. In Firefly we’re watching right after their civil war too, and it feels like The Independents are really strongly modeled after the confederacy in the US. A lot of talk about agrarian states outer moons vs industrial states inner planets in place of the North and the South. A lot of talk from Mal and Zoe about freedoms and the outer colonies rights to self determination. And how their lost cause was a righteous one. I know that it’s not supposed to perfectly map but it really does sound like Whedon really has a rose colored glasses view of the confederacy and the civil war. I mean we don’t see a stars and bars painted on the top of Serenity like it was the General Lee but I really wished they had fleshed out the politics of the war a bit more rather then gloss over it, because I start to cringe when Mal’s getting heated up about outer colonies rights. I know that in our would somebody going off about states rights like that are complaining about the states right to own slaves, and it really makes me uncomfortable. Maybe they were really seduced by the Western theme and I shouldn’t put too much thought in to it, but really I’d like to hear some more positive messages from them.

The costume department never throws anything away.

All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again.

Oh fuck, oh fuck a reply from the famous LadyButterfly … look cool … look cool … oh too late for that.

Just because I’m silly doesn’t mean I’m harmless.

And a really good movie.

Or ya know convergent amour evolution? There only so many ways to make goofy amour after all 😂

I’ve been carving flutes for the last six weeks.

Well you see the Reasonablists book the park for today because the Ice Cream social was yesterday. So Zorp the Surveyor will come at dawn to eat our faces.

All Hail Zorp!

healthcare, education and prisons - You mean Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness? Where have I heard that before?

But still “The chicken lives!”

Yeah it doesn’t make a heap of sense. Unless you go with the theory that on the trip to the ‘verse system the original colonists ate a lot of vat grown mushroom and artificial foods. My head cannon is that fake strawberries are everywhere and real ones are a delicacy