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War Stories
Written by Cheryl CainDirected by James Contner
Synopsis | Perri's Review | SunSpeak
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Synopsis | Perri's Review | SunSpeak
Inara explains to Mal that a high-ranking client will be coming on-board, and wants total privacy and peace. But Mal is dead-set on meeting anyone who comes aboard ship, and the peace is currently being disturbed by a ship-wide game of keep-away between Kaylee and River. Kaylee regains possession of her apple (courtesy of Jayne, who bought a crate with his cut of the medical haul) in the common room; after some chit-chat and a war story, Mal appears to tell everyone they're about to make their last drop; at the same time, he tells Wash that going straight to the local MDs wasn't a bad idea, but it's not workable. That leads to a major marital spat as Serenity lands, Wash accusing Zoe of not standing up for him with the captain, then lying to Wash about not being able to bring the idea up at all. Comments regarding Zoe's inability to do anything the Captain doesn't tell her to make things worse, as Zoe says she disagreed with the plan too, and Wash tells her to tell him next time instead of letting the Captain do her dirty work. Wash storms out. Simon finds River sick in their quarters, a side-effect of the drug. Short-term improvement only, and River's not having an easy time of it. The entire crew turns out to eavesdrop as Inara's client arrives; their jaws drop collectively with the Councilor is a gorgeous woman whom Inara leads into her shuttle. As Mal and Zoe head out for the drop-off, they can't fly the shuttle -- Wash has decided he wants to go on this run instead of his wife, and isn't taking no for an answer. He gets his way when Zoe gives in, but Mal ain't happy. He's even less happy when the drop-off turns into a professional ambush; the buyers are killed, and Mal and Wash taken prisoner.
Following a fairly pointless interlude [which proves how much Joss and Company miss Tara and Willow], the Councilor leaves again; Zoe appears to grab Jayne since the Captain and Wash are an hour overdue; Book tags along. They quickly find the ambush point, and the signs of a rocket shuttle; all evidence points to the space station, and Zoe knows what that means. Mal and Wash are shoved into a room, blindfolded and tied, and pass the time by kicking the Zoe-fight into high gear -- until Niska decides to come collect his toys. Aboard Serenity, Zoe collects what's left of everyone's cuts, ready to go offer it in exchange for the guys, and heads off to the rescue, but Niska has already started with the torture potion of the evening. Mal keeps the Zoe fight going even in the middle of electro-shock anti-therapy, trying to keep Wash mad enough not to break (including a long interlude over whether Mal has slept with Zoe, and how he's going to the second they get back to Serenity). He succeeds; Zoe arrives with money in hand, but Niska's bastard enough to only give her one guy for that price. She chooses Wash without hesitation.
Zoe gets Wash back to Serenity, leaving Mal behind for new and more inventive forms of torture -- including Niska cutting his ear off as a 'rebate' for Zoe's cash. Zoe hands it over to Simon for later reattachment, and she and Wash get down to some serious planning; Wash knows what Mal did for him, and is determined to go back. As Niska tries out a horrid new machine on Mal (in Mal), the rest of the crew register their belief that Zoe and Wash are crazy -- then the entire bunch (sans Inara, trying to get political help planetside) arms themselves to go along to help. But they may be too late, as Niska's henchman pronounced Mal dead.
Turns out he's only mostly dead, and Niska resuscitates him for more fun. He has a reputation to uphold, after all. Serenity coasts in dead under Wash's expert hands; it buys them the element of surprise when they dock, break through the airlock doors, and come out shooting. Alarms blare, things start exploding, and people start dying -- fortunately, all of them are on the other side. Simon, Book and Kaylee are left to hold the ship as the other three invade. Distracted by the noises outside, neither niska nor his henchman see Mal breaking free, until he puts the nasty little machine on the henchman's back. He falls, and Niska faces a truly pissed-off Malcolm Reynolds. Jayne takes a hit in the corridors, and Zoe goes Matrix and clears the way. Book and Simon get called forward to offer cover, leaving a terrified Kaylee to guard the ship. When three men converge, she runs back into the ship, unable to fight. It's River who comes up beside her, assesses the situation, and fires three shots with her eyes closed, dropping all three men in a second. Mal beats the crap out of Niska, but his henchman recovers; the ensuing brawl takes them over a long, wide transport/air shaft. As they wrestle, the cavalry charges in -- at a word from Mal, they empty their weapons into the henchman, who falls over the edge, extremely dead.
Back on Serenity Simon has reattached Mal's ear using equipment on loan from the councilor. Simon's recovering from battle, but Kaylee's still freaked by what River did, though she doesn't seem to have told anyone. Zoe cooks a meal for Wash, but as he's enjoying it, Mal comes in to claim what he told Wash he was going to do -- sleep with Zoe as soon as they got back on ship. Zoe plays along with a ridiculous lack of chemistry until Wash has enough, and drags her off to their bunk, all issues settled, or about to be.
Continuity:
Relationships:
Characters:
Zoe, for her part, has to walk a fairly fine line some days -- she's her husband's superior, which can put any guy's hackles up, and she has to be tough chick to do her job. And reading the captain's mind is definitely part of her duties as XO, which is also not designed to endear her to her husband. So she has to balance her duties as XO with being an equal partner in a marriage, and occasionally, she's going to screw up. It takes someone was laid-back and unthreatened as Wash is (usually) to deal with the whole situation, and I think his good nature is something she started taking for granted, or she never would have done something as dumb as shooting him down through Mal. Lesson learned. And, for the record, she made exactly the right choice taking Wash out. Mal survived -- Wash probably wouldn't have. Niska sucks, but Zoe rocks.
And Mal continues to demonstrate why he's the captain. He tolerates rampaging girls and marital disputes with surprising patience (for Mal), keeps Wash going throughout the torture, and agrees with Zoe's choice to get Wash out without, it seems, even one little second thought. And then turns around and gleefully tortures Wash once it's all over. The scene with him and Zoe is utterly classic, as much from the silliness as from the almost total lack of chemistry between them. (Which took some acting on Nathan Fillion's part, since Gina Torres, I am convinced, would have chemistry with a rock.) If you weren't in love with Mal before this episode, you have no excuse for not being so after it.
I'm not surprised and actually a bit pleased that Kaylee's nerve failed in the firefight. Not pleased for Kaylee's character, since I like my chicks of the tough variety, but she's a mechanic, and damned young. It's a hell of a lot more convincing that she would freak than that she'd be able to race out guns a-blazing, which is good for the believability of the show all around. It was, actually, quite cool. Less cool is that she's also, apparently, freaked by River now; again, it's hard to blame her, since watching a younger girl kill three people in a second is nothing to blow off. And she's maybe also a little ashamed that River could do what she couldn't... But the two of them playing was so much fun.
My current theory about Book is that he's ex-Special Forces or the Alliance equivalent (my dad's theory is current Special Forces undercover; we'll see who's right). A spritual crisis of some kind sends him into retirement, and off looking for God...? It would explain a lot about his knowledge of weapons and his aim, wouldn't it? Book just keeps getting cooler and cooler, when I'd early on pegged him as one of the more potentially boring characters. Just goes to show how much you can't tell from publicity materials and pilots.
Cool -- Inara does have female clients. The group reaction was funny as hell (particularly Jayne), even if the sex was gratuitous, and I note that Inara was the one freaking out most about Mal's absence when Zoe and Wash came back. Color me so surprised. Simon maintains his usual coolness throughout -- caught between the Hippocratic oath and an actual life of someone he owes, he sucked it up and fought. Although I wonder how much of his horrific aim was subconsciously trying to avoid breaking the oath.... Anyway. He and River continue to be adorable together. And Jayne was cool, going with them after Mal and, apparently, trying to expiate some guilt through apple bribery. There may be hope for him yet.
Niska is mean, bad and evil. I wish Mal had killed him, too. But I also like the concept of him in some nice, clean, sterile Alliance cell for the rest of his scrawny little life. Yeah. I can live with that.
Best Moments:
Wash trying to make the apple story happier and cheerier. Way to protect the kids, babe.
Wash and Zoe's fight. Painful, mostly because of how real it felt.
The Councilor's entrance. I watch The West Wing, I knew Sunglasses Guy was Secret Service. < snicker > And all of the dropped jaws were too funny.
"I threw up on your bed." < g > I am just never going to get tired of River and Simon.
Jayne's fascination with the two women. He is such a guy. A strong guy -- he hefted that weight one-handed, Geez.
Wash and Zoe loading up for war. Very cute married couple stuff interspersed with the dead-serious invasion stuff.
"It is, however, somewhat fuzzier on the subject of kneecaps." Book. Just. Rocks.
The entire invasion sequence. A very cool firefight, with great bits for everyone.
River Oakley. Very cool, adding yet another layer of wierdness to the girl that someone really should be commenting on by now...
"This is something the captain has to do for himself." Only, not. < snicker > Way to turn those cliches on their ears, oh yeah.
Mal checking on everyone as he wanders through at the end. Making sure Simon's okay, the handclasp with Kaylee, then off to torture Wash....
The entire 'seduction scene'. < giggling >
Questions and Comments:
The Councilor storyline was largely pointless, except for the help with the medical equipment at the end, but, according to Joss, a pointy scene was cut:
Odd act breaking in the episode -- act two went on forever, while act three was 5 minutes long. It didn't hurt the pacing much, it was just weird. And maybe only noticeable if you're synopsizing.
Rating:
Perri's Review
Now that was a solid hour of action, although I could have done without the torture scenes. < shudder > But any episode with Wash and Zoe at the center can't be anything but cool.
Bad-guy Niska from The Train Job returned to wreak revenge, but seems to be in the custody of the authorities now.
Wash and Zoe had that knock-down, drag-out fight some of us have been expecting, and seem to be the better for it.
Finally, Wash and Zoe get their turn in the spotlight -- and for Wash, it's by displaying his heretofore nearly ignored testosterone. < snicker > Seriously, I have been expecting an explosion re: Mal and Zoe for quite some time -- the two of them act like an old married couple, which tends to be unavoidable in soldiers who've worked together for that long -- which doesn't make it any less grating to the other half of the actual married couple. So, Wash finally got pushed over the edge and became obnoxious about it. I'll give him points -- Zoe did screw up by using Mal to shoot down Wash's idea; that was completely not fair. But the whole sabotaging the shuttle to go on the run thing? Childish. I can see why he did it, wanting to prove the "anything she can do, I can do, too" thing -- except that he can't. He's good at entirely different things than Mal and Zoe, and hopefully getting them aboard the space station will be enough to remind him of that periodically. In addition to his new knowledge of how much firefights actually do suck.
Kaylee and River chasing each other around the ship. They're cute in and of themselves, and made moreso by Mal's "irritated big brother" yelling.
Nice parallels of WWI and WWII in the trench seige story, although I'm glad they didn't have minigrenades then. < shudder >
Hey guys. The lesbian scene does come off as gratuitious to some, I get that. The fact is, there was another scene with the councillor where Inara visited her, asking for help and we discovered she had a devoted husband and son. Inara had a chance to use her knowledge of the coucillor's secret against her and didn't use it, prompting the councillor to follow her out, wanting to help, and mistaking Mal for Inara's lover. The scene didn't quite work and the show was quite long, so out it came. So there was further character development intended. Plus, I did want to establish the idea that Inara took clients not based on sexuality, and Jayne's refrain cracks me up to the ends of the earth. So there you have it. Also, I'm pandering.
Although I still think Joss just misses Tara and Willow... [Thanks to Celli for passing the post on]
4 stars out of 5. Tight, action-packed, and with some attention finally given to two badly neglected characters. Very cool stuff.