firefly
Firefly
Shindig
Original Air Date: Nov 1, 2002
Brittany Frederick – Staff Writer
brittanyfrederick@ thetwocentscorp.com
Maria – TwoCents Reviewer
maria@thetwocentscorp.com
Brittany: The Firefly writers must have a thing for bars, or sports. This is the second episode that starts in a bar, and the second one to start with some of our heroes playing a game (this time it’s pool). There is the classic Inara line, “As with other situations, the key seems to be giving Jayne a heavy stick and standing back.” Amen, sister.
And oh look, it’s another bar fight! Captain Reynolds does know how to pick ‘em, doesn’t he?
Meanwhile (and perhaps the genesis for the title of the episode), Inara gets asked by one of her regular clients to attend a major social event on Persephone. Everyone else seems pretty either impressed or jealous. Unless you’re Badger, and it’s always good to see Mark Sheppard. He’s one of those guest stars that just makes me perk up and go “Hey, it’s that guy!” He wants to talk about what happened in the pilot, but he also has a business proposition: help an acquaintance move some merchandise off-planet to make a bigger profit. And coincidentally, said acquaintance can be found by crashing Inara’s party.
Inara is not impressed. She and Mal argue, and she stuns him with the information that she’s been offered to stay as her client’s personal Companion. Mal, of course, gets annoyed by the guy and then (again) hauls off and hits him. He and Inara argue more over her job, and their relationship. His cavalier behavior is already at this point in the series getting a bit predictable for my taste. This gets him challenged to a duel, so of course now it’s Team Serenity to the rescue (with a little heads-up from Badger, before Jayne clocks him with a shotgun).
This episode also possibly contains one of the funniest bits of dialogue from the series yet:
Jayne: We need a diversion. I say Zoe gets naked.
Wash: Nope.
Jayne: I could get naked.
Simon, Zoe and Wash: (emphatically) No.
As it turns out, they’re not really needed. Between them, Inara and Mal get Mal through one ugly duel, leaving Inara’s now ex-client battered, bleeding and with a black mark on the client registry. The bravado also lands them the job…transporting a cargo bay full of cattle. Yep, you heard me. I have to say, you think you see where this show is going, and it gives you cows on a starship.
Maria: This episode is arguably focused on the Mal/Inara relationship. It provides valuable insight into Mal’s character: Mal doesn’t respect Inara’s profession but when Atherton showed disrespect for Inara, Mal was willing to fight for her honour. It was this fight which solidified a contract, because the man saw Mal’s strength of character and knew his cargo would be safe with Mal guarding it.
I simply love the universe Joss Whedon crafted. The opening scene depicts it well, with another bar setting and our heroes shooting some pool, then the balls flicker due to a fault in the technology. It is an intricate mix of history and future, of East and West and of humanity. Joss Whedon created a Universe, and then he made complex characters for the audience to watch fight to survive in the Universe.
My favourite character moment of this episode has to be little Kaylee. She is a spunky engineer, often with a dirty face since she works so hard on her ship. When Mal takes her to the fancy ball, she wears a hideously frilly dress but she loves it. She is teased by some of the richer women, only to have a nice old man come to her rescue and put down the bullies with one sentence (which I’ll paraphrase) “It may have taken many girls to make your dress, but I hear it takes any man to get you out of it.” Kaylee is grateful and proceeds to charm many men with her knowledge and her passion for space-ships. Then, almost at the very end of the episode, we see Kaylee in her mechanic’s overalls, crawling into her bunk and just watching the dress which she finds pretty. Bless her!
This episode is full of little gems: from Book, Jayne and Simon playing games to determine who will do what chores; to River interacting with Badger; to the fact that cows were the cargo Mal was after. Firefly is about survival and living, it is what every episode boils down to, but what it truly means can be a multitude of things, from love to jobs to chores and they all tend to differ too. This show never could have gotten old and it’s such a shame the show was cancelled so early.
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TheTwoCents 
The moment when Kaylee walks into the shindig wearing that dress is my favorite Kaylee moment from the whole series. She’s such the perfect little model of innocence even though you find out later that she’s not that innocent at all.
This is just another one of Joss Whedon’s brilliant ‘verses that exist in his head. I will watch anything this man puts on the screen, whether it be big or small!!
I actually love this episode for the Zoe/Wash bits.
Wash: I’ll read a nice poem at the funeral, something with imagery.
Zoë: You could lock the door and keep the power-hungry maniac at bay.
Wash: I don’t know. I’m starting to like this poetry idea now. “Here lies my beloved Zoë, my autumn flower, somewhat less attractive now that she’s all corpsified and gross.”