Bushwhacked

Written by: Tim Minear Directed by: Tim Minear

Original Airdate: 9.27.02 On a salvage mission aboard a drifting colony ship, the Serentiy crew find signs that the crew were killed by the cannabalistic Reavers. They find one survivor, but things take a turn for the worse when an Alliance ship looking for an unspecified Firefly-class ship with brother-and-sister stowaways shows up and takes them in. They hide Simon and River and deflect the Alliance commander’s questions but the survivor has been rendered insane by his exposure to the Reavers and goes on a bloody rampage. Mel saves the Alliance commander and he eventually lets them go.

Review

Warning: If you don’t want to be “Bushwhacked” by SPOILERS for the second episode of Firefly, I strongly suggest you turn back now. There are major SPOILERS just ahead…

In short: Not what they advertised, but still interesting.

: If nothing else, my nine years of watching “The X-Files” on FOX should have taught me one thing–never trust the FOX promo department. : It seems that I still haven’t learned my lesson. : I say this because in all the advertising for this week’s installment, “Bushwhacked” it appeared that the story would be yet another telling of the standard “crew member gets possessed by strange alien force that has killed and may just do so again” that we’ve soon on a lot of the standard genre shows. It’s nothing really new, but it can be done quite well–for example, the first-season episode “Ice” from aforementioned “The X-Files.” : But for some reason, I forgot that while “Firefly” is “futuristic” sf show, it really is about re-telling the myths of the old west in new ways. So while I went into “Bushwhacked” expecting some type of mysterious possession and lots of mistrust among the regular crew, what we got instead was a tale about just how dangerous frontier life can be and a story that was, in a lot of ways, an homage to the classic Westerns of John Ford or Howard Hawks. : Indeed, I found myself thinking a lot about one of my favorite movies, “The Searchers” while watching this episode. In “The Searchers” we follow the five-year obsessive quest by two men to rescue a woman kidnapped by a tribe of Comanche Indians. The lead is played by John Wayne, who at first is pursuing his niece to rescue her, but due to his prejudice and hatred of Indians, the quest soon devolves into an obsessive need to find her and save her by killing her since “she’s not white anymore.” Wayne’s character, Ethan Edwards, has seen the brutality the Comanche can offer to their captives and feels death is the only way to save his niece whom he loves. : Of course, there’s more to it than that, and if you’ve not seen the movie, I can’t recommend it enough. It’s dark, brutal and probably the best performance John Wayne ever gave. It’s a stunningly well done movie that resonates to this day and is one I return to time and again on DVD. : And as I watched “Bushwhacked” I found myself coming back to that film time and again. In some ways, Mal reminded me of the Ethan Edwards. Not that he was prejudiced and hated his enemy as Edwards does, but that he had a grim view of the reality of the situation and how it had to be resolved. Mal had a lot of foreknowledge of who had done this to the ship and why. Indeed, one interesting aspect was that the Reavers killed the entire ship’s compliment but didn’t take anything of value–leaving behind goods, food, supplies, etc. (The very things that Serenity’s crew goes to the ship looking for). : Also of interest was the Reavers leaving a survivor–but one who Mal views as better off dead than alive. Mal realizes that after what the man has seen and experienced, he can never come to being a regular member of society. Indeed, Mal’s advice is to sedate the man and to kill him to put him out of his misery. In a lot of ways, this reflects the attitude Ethan takes in “The Searchers” toward his niece–better for her to be dead than under the control of the Comanche. It was very powerful and an intriguing dilemma for Mal and it made for some good drama. I liked seeing his thoughtful exploration and it was quite a contrast from last week where Mal was willing to give up the money based on his internal moral code but here was willing to kill in order to save another human being from a life of brutal savagery (and on the gross-out scale, the idea of cutting your tongue in order to be part of the Reavers was one of those shudder inducing moments) : Of course, I’m intrigued now to see this other part of the Firefly universe–what exactly created the Reavers. We got a few hints here, but I think there’s more to the story than that. It also sets up some interesting things because we now see that Mal is caught in the middle between the overly civilized and totalitarian Alliance and the savagery of the Reavers. How Serenity will survive walking the balance between these two should prove to be interesting as the series continues to unfold. : Now, for all this praise I’ve heaped on so far, you’d probably assume I think “Bushwhacked” was a home run for Firefly. : Honestly, while it did bring up echoes of one of my favorite films, I have to admit that for a lot of the story, it lacked the focus that I was hoping for. If anything, Tim Minear’s plot seemed to be all over the place, changing focus several times over the course of the story and in a rather hurried progression. We went from the abandoned ship to the booby trap to being caught by the Alliance to what the survivor meant to a way to escape. Overall, it was a pretty packed hour and while we got some interesting insight into Mal, I don’t think we got much of any of the rest of the crew. : I asked myself after the story, what more do we know this week about the crew that we didn’t know last week. : The answer is–not much. : I think we saw a lot of stereotypical character stuff–one-dimensional work at best. We saw Jayne’s mean streak, we saw Simon’s naive streak, we saw Kaylee pulls a “Scotty”, etc. But we never really got much in depth beyond Mal and a few hints about River. : And while the hints about River were interesting, there was just enough left unexplained that I found myself getting impatient. I found it interesting that River felt more at home being outside the ship where she could see the stars than inside and I found her connection to the events going on on-board the abandoned ship to be interesting. But we never got any exploration beyond that. Or even any really good hints. I guess I just expect more from Joss Whedon and company. Indeed, we know the River has been experimented on, but why? I am quick to throw out there that River might be some type of project that connects her in some way to the Reavers. But if so, why? : I also felt the ending felt a bit rushed. : Indeed, the first bit was quite good in that it build up the tension and was visually rather well done. (If anything Tim Minear’s direction seemed to come right out of the X-Files school of directing with lots of shadows and lighting affects based on the sets and scenery). But the final ten or so minutes felt a bit off. The final scenes of the Reaver survivor escaping, being hunted down and then the Alliance captain felt a bit rushed. Indeed, the ending itself seemed rather anticlimactic after everything that had happened. I was fully ready for ten more minutes or so of wrapping things up after we’d spent so long putting things in motion. : So, overall, while I liked a lot of what “Bushwhacked” did, there was a lot of it that I didn’t like. I think it lacked the usual focus that I’ve come to expect from the Mutant Enemy crew. : So, I guess that’s about it for now, except for a few small things… : –The best scene of the episode was between Mal and the Shepard debating the responsibilities they have to the dead crew and how they should treat the survivor. That one really resonated and I think I see some really good potential conflict coming down the line. : –The basketball-like game to start the story worked pretty well. : –So, will we see more to Jayne than his just being the bully of the ship? : Overall, there was a lot to like in “Bushwhacked” but still some niggling details that kept it from being great.

My rating: 7.0 (out of 10.0)

Next up: A mysterious, alluring woman appears on the ship and she sets her sights on, well, pretty much the entire crew.

“Well, if I mess up, I won’t be around for you to yell at me.” : –Kaylee

Quotes

Inara: Who’s winning? Simon: I can’t really tell. They don’t seem to be playing by any civilized rules that I know.

Jayne: (to Simon) That’s what space trash does, you know. Kind of latches onto the first big something that stops long enough. Hey, that’d be a bit like you and your sister, wouldn’t it?

Simon: It’s a wonder you’re still alive. Jayne: He looked bigger when I couldn’t see him. Please credit Hellmouth Central with these quotes when using them for any publication.