Safe

Written by: Drew Z. Greenberg Directed by: Michael Grossman

Original Airdate: 11.08.02 The Serenity delivers their cattle (from “Shindig”). Kaylee and Inara are shopping on the planet, and Kaylee’s crush on Simon is again brought up. Later, Book is shot as a bystander during the crew’s cattle deal. Unfortunately Simon and River have been captured by hillfolk who need a doctor for their community. Book eventually receives medical attention when Mal takes a chance and takes him to an Alliance base. When they see Book’s ident card they immediately give him treatment.

Meanwhile, Simon and River receive an initially warm welcome from the community which has many afflicted people who are in need of serious help. When River is able to telepathically find out things about a little girl named Ruth who has not spoken since her mother went insane and tried to kill her, she is accused of being of witch. The townfolk try to burn her at the stake, but Simon is able to stall, just enough for Mal and the crew to come back and save them.

Meanwhile, we see flashbacks to how River was taken to The Academy and Simon’s early attempts to get her free.

Review

Warning: If you’re a little bit psychic, you may not want to read much further. If you read between the lines, you’ll pick up major SPOILERS for the latest episode of Firefly, “Safe.” Oh, what am I saying?!? It’s pretty much certain that if you read further, you’ll find SPOILERS…;-)

In short: A nice entry with some weak points.

: So maybe this whole “airing the first 13 episodes in any order we choose” thing isn’t really the greatest idea FOX has ever come up with. (At this point, I think if it weren’t for the fact that 24 unfolds one hour at a time and there are on-screen indicators to tell the audience this, they’d run that out of order as well!) Certainly, we’ve seen in the past that FOX has not been kind to shows that do silly little things like reward the long-term audience with little things like some character development and internal continuity. : I suppose I should be grateful that they at least aired the episode where Mal and company picked up the cattle BEFORE they showed us “Safe” so at least that plot point would make some sense. : If only they’d paid attention to the internal and smaller character development issues that Firefly is trying to set up, I’d be a happier camper. : Please don’t get me wrong here–I love Firefly and I’m happy to see it in any order they want to give it to us. It just gets frustrating when character things seem to contradict themselves week in and week out because we’ve seen where the journey will take us. : And don’t even get me started on the whole idea of showing clips from previous episodes that FOX hasn’t even bothered to air just yet. : All that said, I have to say that, for the most part, I really liked most of what we got here in “Safe.” I understand that the reason we got a lot of the clips from the as-of-yet unaired pilot was to get some set-up for Simon and River storyline. And I have to admit that after a couple of weeks ago with “Out of Gas” when my only complaint (and it was a really minor one at that) was that we didn’t get any of Simon, River or Book’s background, it was nice to see at least two of the three get some development time and the third we get some hints that may or may not payoff in the future (all depending on whether or not FOX keeps Firefly around for a full season run or kills it off after the initial 13 episodes). : I have to admit that one of my favorite parts of this story was the flashbacks to Simon and River in their time before they came aboard Serenity. Seeing them as children and the bond between them was a nicely done touch and all of those scenes worked extremely well. Seeing the early Simon and how devoted he is to his sister was intriguing and seeing the bond between them build up was nicely done. And seeing the background of Simon and the relationship with his father explains a lot of why he’s on board Serenity. Apparently by rescuing River from the Alliance, Simon has crossed his father one too many times and is now, basically, disowned. I liked that, esp. since we see what Simon gave up to make what was, in his mind, the right choice–a choice that no one else would make. River was in peril and he had to save her, even if no one else would believe that she was in danger. I like that and it certainly explains why Simon is so protective of River and why he watches her like a hawk everywhere she goes. Indeed, the only time we really saw Simon loosen up and enjoy himself was in the scenes at the dance with River clearly enjoying herself. Of course, his then being kidnapped from the scene was an abrupt return to reality–and it goes a long way to explaining why in Jaynestown (an episode that was supposed to air later) he is so hesitant to be part of the landing party with the rest of the crew. : Honestly, I’m hoping that we see more of the father from Simon and River’s past–whether it be through flashbacks or if he crops up in a future episode. There is some real great potential there. : The other part of the story I liked was Mal, once again, faced with making a choice. Mal and company deliver the cows they agreed to transport in Shindig and deliver them. Seeing Mal haggle over the cattle and the general opinion of the crew on the cows and their droppings was hysterical (as was the comment about next time they should transport beagles since they are smaller as are their droppings). But this plotline soon took a turn for the serious when Book is shot and, without the services of Simon, Mal is forced to make an uneasy choice–look for Simon and thus, further endanger Book’s life or seek medical help by other means. : Mal makes the hard choice to leave Simon and River to their fate and not lose another crew member by having Book die in what could prove to be a vain search. I loved seeing the conflict on Mal’s face as he did this–as well as his feelings that he had to mark the hard choice. But the stakes don’t just end there. Mal is suddenly forced to go to the people he hates most, the Alliance, in order to get Book the help he needs. That provided for some nice scenes in the second half of the story as Mal is forced to not only ask for help from those he can’t stand and fought against, but also to see that Book has some secret connection that he can use to get medical treatment. : And I have to admit that in the second half, the plotline of Mal making a hard choice and having to live with it certainly came across better than the storyline involving Simon’s kidnapping. : Honestly, I found that a tad too predictable. : Simon is taken by a group of primitive settlers in desperate need of a doctor. That’s fine. Simon is reluctant to help at first, but then does because of his medical training and his oath as a doctor. Fine, I can go along with that. But the final few minutes seemed to suddenly lose focus as we saw River read people and be declared a witch. That plotline seemed to come way out of left field and it seemed to only be put there in order to get the Serenity crew to ride in in the nick of time for a dramatic rescue. And for as well as everything had been working for the first three quarters of the episode, the final few minutes were felt hastily written and tacked on in an attempt to add some drama, when, quite honestly, the drama was doing pretty well on it’s own for the first three-quarters of the story. : Indeed, beyond the coda in which Mal states that Simon is part of his crew and, therefore, shouldn’t be abandoned was a nice touch, but it didn’t fully redeem the final few minutes of the story much. In a lot of ways, it felt like the original Star Trek episode “This Side of Paradise” in which Kirk is left behind after losing his memory and goes native with the tribe. In that case, it worked a lot better because we got the feeling that some time was actually passing in the storyline and we got to see bits and pieces of Kirk’s becoming part of the tribe. I’m not saying it’s a perfect episode of TOS mind you, but it’s a similar theme–one member of the crew is left behind while the crew is forced to leave and try and stop another that. : So, overall, while I loved a lot of what “Safe” did, the final few minutes felt too rushed and unfocused to really make it rise above a good episode in my final estimation. : So, I guess that’s about it for now, except a few small things… : –Jayne’s reaction to Simon’s kidnapping was priceless. His reading of Simon’s diary and then his stealing all of Simon’s belongings was hysterical. He gets more Rygel like each week. : –I loved the isolated scene with Kaylee thinking of buying Simon something nice to show how she felt–only to see Simon belittle it not more than three minutes later. : –The final scene with everyone at dinner had echoes of “Out of Gas” written all over it. : –So, anyone else wonder what Book’s secret is? And the bigger question is–will FOX keep Firefly around long enough for us to find out? : So, that’s about it for now. “Safe” had a lot going for it, but in the end, it couldn’t deliver in a rather predictable final act. After the past few weeks have been so good, it was the first (though minor) stumble this show has had.

My rating: 7.5 (out of 10.0)

Next up: The crew tries to find out more on what was done to River…

“Dear Diary. Today I was pompous and my sister was crazy. Then I got kidnapped by natives. It was the best day ever.” : –Jayne

Quotes

Mal: Morbid and creepifying, I’ve got no problem with, as long as (River) keeps her voice down.

Mal: You know, they move just as fast if you lead ’em. Jayne: I like smacking them.

Simon: I’m very sorry (River) tipped off anyone about your cunningly concealed herd of cows. Mal: I’m starting to think you have a little too much time on your hands, doctor.

Mal: (talking about cows) Milk and hay, three times a day, fed to them by beautiful women. Jayne: That was something to see.

Jayne: Here we go. Mal: It never goes smooth. How come it never goes smooth?

Book: I might be needing a preacher. Mal: That’s good, you just lay there and be ironic.

Jayne: (‘reading’ from Simon’s journal) ‘Dear Diary. Today I was pompous and my sister was crazy. Today we were kidnapped by hillfolk, never to be seen again. It was the best day ever!’

Zoe: The captain’ll come up with a plan. Kaylee: That’s good, right? Zoe: Apparently you’re not recalling some of his previous plans.

Patron: The girl’s a witch. Mal: Yeah, but she’s our witch. So cut her the hell down.

Simon: So finally a decent wound on this ship and I missed out.

Simon: Captain, why did you come back for us? Mal: You’re on my crew. Simon: Yeah, but you don’t even like me. Why’d you come back? Mal: You’re on my crew. Why are we still talking about this?

Mal: It looks like we arrived just in the nick of time. What does that make us? Zoe: Big damn heroes, sir. Mal: Ain’t we just.

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