Ariel

Written by: Jose Molina
Directed by: Allan Kroeker

Original Airdate: 11.15.02
The crew visit the planet Ariel because Inara needs to receive an annual Companion physical. The crew is offered a surprising job by Simon: in return for stolen medicine he wants them to get him into a hospital to use a high-end scanner to diagnosis River. Simon devises a plan - Kaylee and Wash browse through the local dump and find parts to make an imitation emergency vehicle so the crew can get into the hospital posing as EMTs. Simon and River pose as corpses with the aid of a drug Simon has. While Mal and Zoe round up some medicine, Jayne stays with River and Simon, who are unaware he has ratted them out to the Alliance in return for money.

Jayne rushes Simon through the examination and on the way out Jayne, Simon, and River are caught by the Alliance. Jayne is betrayed by the Alliance and becomes a prisoner himself. They manage to escape as the Men With Blue Hands arrive and ruthlessly execute anyone who had contact with the Tams. Mal and Zoe end up saving their friends and Simon makes a big deal about Jayne fighting, thinking he was trying to save River and himself. Mal realizes that Jayne leaked the information about Simon and River to the alliance and tosses Jayne in the airlock. Jayne admits to doing so and Mal decides to let Jayne off the hook. In the end, Inara returns, and Simon begins “healing” River.

Review

Warning: If reading SPOILERS for the latest episode of Firefly, “Ariel” will make feel like a betrayal to you, then I strongly suggest you turn back now. There are major SPOILERS for the latest episode just ahead…

In short: Phenomenal work, highlighted by a superlative coda.

OK, I admit it. I never liked Dark Angel. I know there are a lot of people out there who just out and out loved it, but I was never really one of them. So, to be honest, when I heard that “Ariel” was penned by a former writer for Dark Angel, I wasn’t honestly that excited about the whole thing.

: Again, the few times I tuned into Dark Angel, it was just never really anything for me to write home about. : “Ariel” re-inforced the biggest rule I should have taken away from my high school geometry classes–“never assume.” : “Ariel” continues a good string of great Firefly episodes. Yes, not all of them have been quite the slam dunk that “Out of Gas” was, but, on the whole, I think we can see Firefly beginning to find its voice and really inhabiting the new universe that Joss and company have created. It’s beginning to all click into place and it’s been a lot of fun to watch and each week, I find myself more and more delighted that I signed up for the ride. : “Ariel” is certainly no exception. : In fact, it’s pretty close to “Out of Gas” in the running for my favorite episode so far. : The idea is a pretty simple one–Simon hires the crew to pull a job, one that he has elaborately planned out. There are multiple rewards– for Simon, he can find out exactly what happened to River during her time with the Alliance and for the crew, there is the usually monetary reward of stealing a supply of drugs and then selling them on the black market. What we get is a caper story–a heist from the inside out, that should be simple, but all comes down to the little details. : It’s a lot like “Ocean’s 11” in space, though we have a bit more of an emotional investment in the characters since we’ve known them for so long. It also reminded me a lot of some episodes of Farscape that involve a detailed plan that always goes awry for some reason– whether it be bad luck or some other factor. In this case, the plan goes totally awry thanks to Jayne’s selling Simon and River up the river for the reward money. Now, I have to admit that when I heard that one of the crew would betray the others, I immediately figured that it would have to be Jayne. So, that wasn’t too big a shock in the script. : But I did like the motivation that we were given for Jayne wanting to rid the Serenity crew of Simon and River. We got hints of it last week with “Safe” and now we see him have even more reason to get rid of them when River attacks him and slices open a bit chunk of his chest. In Jayne’s mind, it’s no longer worth the risk to himself to allow Simon and River to travel on board Serenity, despite what Mal believes. So, Jayne takes it on himself to turn them in–oh, and he is going to collect a big reward too, which is always a good thing for Jayne. : So, it was interesting to see Jayne’s initial betrayal, but then to also see the plan backfire on him big time. His contact turns him in as well for harboring the fugitives and intends to collect the reward for himself. This leaves Jayne in a bad place–he can’t call Mal for help since the plan has gone awry and it leaves Jayne trying to bail things out. So, Jayne becomes a reluctant hero, all of which is played to superb delight by Adam Baldwin. I think I said a few weeks ago that Jayne is rapidly becoming my favorite character–and Baldwin certain takes more strides toward cementing that. Seeing Jayne play the hero to save his own fat, but having Simon and River believe he is really motivated to help him, made for a fine second half of the episode. : Of course, things go really kicked up a notch with the arrival of the blue handed gentlemen, who will do whatever it takes to find Simon and River. The final few minutes as Simon, River and Jayne are pursued across the ship were absolutely riveting. And we also go some really awful examples of how far the Alliance will go to protect the secret of what they did to River. I see bad things coming to the Serenity crew because of Mal’s willingness to hide them and protect them. Indeed, the killing of the entire crew who came into contact with them was chilling. : Mal and company may have won the day by escaping and getting what they wanted, but it may have some long-term dire consequences as the series continues to unfold. : Speaking of Mal, I loved how we saw a continuation of the character trait of Mal caring about his crew so much. For a man who was disenchanted with the Alliance and what it stands for, it’s interesting to see him build his own Alliance. Based on hints of what Mal was up to during the war, it’s interesting to see him so protective of his family unit–no matter how dysfunctional it might be. We saw Mal early on step in to confine River to quarters and we see him later take Jayne to task over the betrayal. : The coda to this episode reminded me a lot of Buffy’s “Lie to Me” where a decent episode is kicked up a notch by a great coda. While I knew that Mal didn’t buy Jayne’s statements of Simon and River being his crewmates and that’s why he rescued him, I didn’t expect him to go as far as he did to put the fear and respect back into Jayne. The final scene with Jayne in the airlock and Mal threatening to kill him over his betrayal was just superb. And the thing that got me most–I felt for a bit that Mal would actually let Jayne did. This wasn’t just a scare tactic. Mal was serious and considering letting Jayne’s betrayal be his undoing. I love that about the character–he is unpredictable in some ways, but predictable in others–the biggest being his loyalty to his crew. : And it should be interesting to see if and how the rest of the crew react to this, if they ever learn of what happened. : As for the rest, it was all well and good. We got some hints from Inara and Book, but we’ve had an episode or two that focused on Inara, so I wasn’t too upset not to get more. And beyond Book’s non- appearance, the only crew member who got short changed was Kaylee, but we got some good stuff from her the past two weeks, so I can’t complain too much. : So, overall, “Ariel” is yet another sold episode of Firefly. This show just gets better and better. I can’t believe we have to wait two weeks for a new episode. Or any episode for that matter. : So, that’s about it for now, except a few small things… : –So River pretty much feels everythingg that comes to her. That’s interesting. I can’t wait to see more of what the Alliance did to her. : –I wonder who had those feelings of haatred toward Jayne that River picked up on and acted on. That’s an intriguing question. : –Zoe and Wash’s kissing and Mal’s reacction was great. : So, all in all another solid episode. Firefly continues to gain strength and amaze me. I can only hope we see this trend continue.

My rating: 10.0 (out of 10.0)

Quotes

Simon: What about cortical electrodes?
Jayne: We, uh, used them electro…magnetic…Hell, I don’t know. If I wanted schooling, I’d have gone to school.

Simon: Try it. It…tastes like pud.
Jayne: It smells like crotch.
Kaylee: Jayne!
Jayne: Well, it does.

(Jayne spits)
Simon: Will you not do that while we…ever!

Simon: If I didn’t know better I’d say we were ready to save some lives.

Mal: Now all we need are some patients.
Simon: Corpses. For this to work River and I will have to be dead.
Jayne: I’m starting to like this plan.

River: Is it time to go to sleep again?
Simon: No, mei-mei, it’s time to wake up.

River: Hands…of blue. Two…by two. Hands of blue, two by two. Hands of blue, two by two!

Simon: Thank you.
Jayne: Well…hey, you’re part of the crew.
Mal: I think I might cry.

Mal: The next time you decide to stab me in the back, do it to my face.

Inara: So, what’s happening?
Kaylee: We killed Simon and River, stole a bunch of medicine, and now the Cap and Zoe are off springing the others who got captured by the Feds.
Inara: Oh.

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