My favorite Firefly relationship

By Natalie Damschroder

When Trish asked me to write a guest blog about Firefly, I was so excited. You have no idea how I am about this show. It’s been almost a year since I saw the movie Serenity and then watched the TV episodes of Firefly for the first time, and I still watch them, and still listen to podcasts about them, and still rail at Fox for being such dimwits.

Short history for those who don’t know: Joss Whedon produced Firefly for the Fox TV network. It was billed as a western in space, and the idea intrigued a lot of people — who never found the show, because Fox screwed everything up. They ditched the initial cohesive, intriguing, hilarious, compelling pilot that introduced all the characters and forced the writers to complete a new pilot in two days. That pilot had tons of exposition and while it was still funny and interesting, it was unclear who we were supposed to care about. The rest of the episodes that were filmed were run out of order, preempted for baseball and other things, aired on Friday nights at varying times, and then were dropped completely by Fox for having bad ratings.

The people who HAD managed to find the show were rabid fans, and Universal contained one of them. Mary Parent greenlighted a feature film based on the TV show. That film caused the DVDs to rise to the top five on Amazon’s sales chart three years after the show was canceled. People are still flooding conventions to meet the actors and Joss, ask questions about the show and movie, and show support (read: beg) for future product in any incarnation.

So why is this? What makes Firefly such an addictive, compelling show?

I could rave about the writing, which is the foundation of any piece of entertainment and is, for the most part, phenomenal. I could gush about the casting of a large ensemble of mostly unknown actors who clicked so perfectly and delivered their lines so evocatively. I could list details that make the world building so rich.

But I won’t. I’ll focus on my favorite relationship on the show, that of Simon Tam and his little sister, River.

Simon was a brilliant doctor on one of the core worlds, part of a prominent family, well on his way to being rich and famous. But his even more brilliant sister was suffering, so he gave up everything to rescue her from the government officials who were experimenting on her and flee to the border worlds, where he hoped she’d be safe.

Some spoilers follow

In the episode “Safe,” Simon’s feelings are summed up in two disparate scenes. In the first, he’s following River through a general store like a parent follows a toddler just learning to walk. The ship’s mechanic, a woman who is geekily in love with him, says how he never has fun. He says:

It’s “fun” being forced to the ass-end of the galaxy, get to live on a piece of [garbage] wreck and eat molded protein while playing nursemaid to my [not entirely sane] sister. “Fun.” (The brackets denote the English translations of Mandarin that he actually says.)

This hurts Kaylee, someone he cares about but feels he cannot have because his only goal is to keep his sister safe. It’s thoughtless and reflects feelings he probably doesn’t usually acknowledge, because they’d be disloyal. He also says it within River’s hearing, which shows how much like a child he believes her to be.

River has been tortured, trained, and experimented on, and carries knowledge of unknown, horrible things. This manifests itself in unpredictable behavior and obvious emotional pain. But as Simon follows her through the town, she comes upon a group of dancers, and joins them. She dances with abandon, engaging with the people around her, smiling in joy, and shows a glimpse of her old self. The look on Simon’s face as he watches her erases the frustration he exhibited only moments before. It’s a subtle scene that tells us so much about these two.

Simon is kidnapped to provide medical care to hill folk, and though he fights and resents what they’ve done, he can’t help but treat them. Then River reveals her psychic ability, rousing the superstition and fear of the hill folk, who decide to burn her at the stake. Simon is no fighter. He wears silk vests and has gentle hands and a meek demeanor. Still, he does what he can, until his limitations cause him to fail.

He looks at the crowd, the futility of his resistance, and his serene sister, tied to a stake atop a pile of wood. He climbs on the platform. They tell him that won’t stop them. He puts his arms around River, looks at the crowd, and says, “Light it.”

How many of us would make such a supreme sacrifice? More, how many want to believe we are loved that much, that someone would do that for us? This is the pull of Firefly. Simon is far from perfect, and not even the perfect brother. He gets impatient and patronizes River at times. But when she laments that he gave up everything to find her, and found her broken, he says, “Everything I have is right here.”

Doesn’t that make your heart sigh?

Just to tempt you further into picking up these DVDs (Netflix has them!), here are a few funny lines from “Safe.”

River: “The body can be completely drained of blood in 8.6 seconds given adequate vacuuming systems.”
Mal (captain of the spaceship) to Simon: “See, morbid and creepifying, I got no problem with. Long as she does it quietlike.”

Jayne (thuggish crew member, pretending to read Simon’s journal): “Dear Diary…today I was pompous and my sister was crazy.” (flips page) “Today, we were kidnapped by hill folk never to be seen again. It was the best day ever.”

Zoe (second in command): “Cap’n will come up with a plan.”
Kaylee (ship’s mechanic): “That’s good, right?”
Zoe: “Possibly you’re not recalling some of his previous plans.”

From a writer’s perspective, this show has true depth, subtle GMC, and full characterization, all done in an organic way that doesn’t slap the viewer in the face. Any writer can benefit from studying the methods of the writers.

From a pure entertainment perspective, you’d be hard-pressed to find another show with the balance of drama and humor and relationships and cleverness this one possesses. I challenge you all to check it out. You won’t be sorry.

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