Themes in the Firefly Episode Safe
Aug. 20th, 2005 06:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatWatched the Firefly episode, Safe, the other night on my Firefly DVDS (the Xmas present I got from my parents last year). Considered skipping it, since it was my least favorite episode and the only one that made me really cringe and want to change channels when it first aired. The ignorant villagers who decide to burn the telepathic girl at the stake motif is a TV pet peeve of mine - this comes from seeing one too many Westerns do it, everything from Little House on the Prarie to Dr. Quinn to well, Gunsmoke. Firefly reminds me more of Gunsmoke meets the adventures of Han Solo and Chewie before they met Luke, which explains why I like it. At any rate - when I re-watched the episode, I noticed something I hadn't before, which allowed me to forgive the writers for using that old Western cliche. The sequence was necessary to address a central theme in the episode as well as emphasize why Simon and River stay with Serenity and why they gave up everything.
The episode is called Safe - and safe is like most words in the English vernacular - it can mean more than one thing. Depends on the context. Here it stands for people - not things. People who you can feel "safe" with or can "trust" to protect you even at great cost to themselves.
A summary of the episode may be in order, but since I find summarizing things deadly dull, I'll just summarize and analyze at the same time - to entertain myself. (This in a nutshell is why I do not have a professional career as a movie or television critic - I don't follow the established rules.)
Serenity - a space ship carting cattle has touched down on a back-water planet with no technology to speak of and no education. The people are dirt poor and struggling to get by. The ship's Captain, Malcolm Reynolds, has grown tired of two of his passengers - River and Simon, fugitives running from the Alliance who have come on board his ship. River - it turns out was being experiemented on by the Alliance with her parents cooperation - they were enhancing certain areas of her brain, and torturing her in the process. In effect she was their guinea pig. What the Alliance was doing to River in some respects reminds me of Dark Angel - the James Cameron sci-fi series. A genetically bred super-teen escapes a government held facility where they are in effect turning her into a super-solider. Here, in the interests of science and corporate productivity, River is in effect being turned against her will into a super-solider or weapon. She was born a genius and the Academy/Alliance is treating her like a product that her parents sold to them, something they can take and change, forgeting this is living human being, like themselves. In their pristine world of glass and mirrors, blacks and whites, they have dehumanized her - turned her into little more than a gun with a name and expiration date. The parents, which we see in a series of flashbacks, are well to do memebers of society, with money and prestige. They are more interested in image than ideals. More interested in financial success and personal achievement than love. Safety to them is keeping their image intact. Having their dinner parties. They are the sort of people who have kids because you want to show them off to your friends, look at my children, aren't they pretty? Aren't they smart? I remember reading recently in a psychology book how some parents will look at the accomplishments of their children as a comment on them. If my kid is the star baseball player - then that shows I created that. Almost as if they are the star, not the child. They see the kid as their product not as a living human being separate from them, with heart, soul, mind that is not part of them. Not something they can control.
My father has a saying - "you don't own children. They are a gift. You love them, but you cannot control them or live their lives for them and you have to let them go and be who they will be." My little niece is certainly evidence of that - not doing any of the things babies are supposed to do, such as sleep, suck on a pacifier,
or sleep in a crib. River is somewhat the same - she did not follow the rule-book. Super-bright, she corrected her older brother's spelling when she was three. Her parents, like those parents who send their kids to advanced kindergarten to show off, sent their little girl to the Academy. This in of itself is not a bad thing. Yet, when her brother brings to their attention that something is wrong that River is being hurt and must be rescued from the place. They balk. No, no, no, they state, we want to remain SAFE in OUR WORLD. If we rescue River, Simon, you will lose your career, your medical standing, everything you hold dear. We can't risk that. Simon furious, wonders what could be more important than his sister? His sister in his mind = Safe. In his parents minds = land, home, society, their societal standing, and his accomplishments = Safe. The next flashback we see is
his father bailing him out of jail, because he went into a forbidden zone to bargain for information to get River out. His father again attempts to convince him not to do this. Finally stating if you do it again, I'll give you up for lost. Simon realizes in that moment that to his father, he and his sister are little more than tradable commodities - something to be bartered or sold for an illusion of safety.
As this story is being told in flashbacks, the present story is about Simon trying to protect River from assorted dangers on the planet. To keep her Safe. He's irritable and annoyed with the Captain for not allowing him to stay with the ship, with the Cattle, thinking in his head that would have been safer. As it turns out, not true, since the Captain and Crew are attacked by Cattles Rustlers and the preacher, Shepard Book is shot.
The Captain, unable to locate River or Simon (their doctor) is forced to take off without them to find another doctor who can save Shepard. He goes to the Alliance - whose doctors only agree to help once they see Shepard's id. No one but Shepard feels safe in the Alliance hands. Yet, Shepard states when he gets back to the ship, it's good to be home - indicating perhaps even he did not feel safe in the sterile dehumanized environment with its technology. The more downbeaten scruffy Serenity and her mismatched crew are more to his liking.
Meanwhile - Simon and River are taken by a group of ignorant planet dwellers - this is the part of the story that made me cringe. They need a doctor to heal their sick and Simon is a gift sent by God. His sister is weird, but they don't make much of it, at first. Until River helps a mute girl communicate. She tells a teacher/nurse what the mute girl wants. The nurse congratulates River for getting the girl to speak. River says - no, she can't speak, I heard her thoughts...or implies as much. The nurse recoils in superstitous horror and declares that River must be a witch. She must be cursed and notifies the townsfolk to come arruning. They gather and the town leader appears to be understanding until River relates how he became town leader - his societal position threatened - he declares she should be burned at the stake. When Simon states if they burn River, they must burn him too - the town leader more or less shrugs and says so be it.
At the final moment, Mal, Zoe, and Jayne show up with guns, a space-ship in the air and get the town to release their two captives. Simon and River return safely to the ship.
When I first saw this episode, I missed the metaphor which on second viewing, two years later, jumps out at me.
There's actually two - and they are both valid reasons for the witch burning scene. The first, more obvious one, which I've discussed above is about Safety. The villagers of the town, specifically the town leader and the nurse representing Simon and River's parents and seeking to destroy Simon and River, when they prove to no longer be useful or the threat they pose to the nurse's religious beliefs and the town leader's social standing outweighs the doctor's ability to save lives. Their put the safety of their society, their position, their belief system over human life. Just as Simon and River's parents, the Tams, put societial standing, image, the safety of their creature comforts above the lives and welfare of their children. This theme could have been done without the witch burning - they could have found another thing. The second theme, however, could not and it is this theme that caught my eye upon second-viewing.
What the writer is doing is juxtaposing the civilized cultured sciencetific/educated society against the ignorant/uncultured/ uncivilized one and basically showing that when it comes to human nature - does not matter how much education we have, how much technology - we will still be faced with the same choices. There lie monsters amongst both. They just accomplish their goals in different ways. River and Simon can choose - do they want death at the hands of the villagers, burnt at the stake, because they threaten them or do they want to be turned into monsters, tortured, have their minds taken away, dissected, because they could be used to maintain a certain way of life? What the Alliance and Villagers have in common - is a lack of respect for the sancticity of life. Both believe more in their rituals, their things, then they do in people.
This afternoon I watched a portion of an old Jimmy Stewart movie, circa 1930's, called "You Can't Take it With You" - a character in the movie tells a blustering old banker - that you can't take the money and the material goods and the prestige with you - all you can take is the love of your friends and your family. That's all that matters in the end. This is what both groups are missing. One advanced, one backwards. Both doing the cliche evil - scientific experiments vs. witch burning. Opposites on the surface, but in truth? Just two sides of the same 25 cent coin. The picture may be different, but what lies beneath, is the same. I think that's the reason the writer had to do that segment I despised, to clearly emphasize and build that theme. Science won't save nor will religion - what will save you in the end is your love for your family and your friends. Your love and respect for life. A theme, I'll add is re-visited in Our Mrs Reynolds in a different way.
The episode is called Safe - and safe is like most words in the English vernacular - it can mean more than one thing. Depends on the context. Here it stands for people - not things. People who you can feel "safe" with or can "trust" to protect you even at great cost to themselves.
A summary of the episode may be in order, but since I find summarizing things deadly dull, I'll just summarize and analyze at the same time - to entertain myself. (This in a nutshell is why I do not have a professional career as a movie or television critic - I don't follow the established rules.)
Serenity - a space ship carting cattle has touched down on a back-water planet with no technology to speak of and no education. The people are dirt poor and struggling to get by. The ship's Captain, Malcolm Reynolds, has grown tired of two of his passengers - River and Simon, fugitives running from the Alliance who have come on board his ship. River - it turns out was being experiemented on by the Alliance with her parents cooperation - they were enhancing certain areas of her brain, and torturing her in the process. In effect she was their guinea pig. What the Alliance was doing to River in some respects reminds me of Dark Angel - the James Cameron sci-fi series. A genetically bred super-teen escapes a government held facility where they are in effect turning her into a super-solider. Here, in the interests of science and corporate productivity, River is in effect being turned against her will into a super-solider or weapon. She was born a genius and the Academy/Alliance is treating her like a product that her parents sold to them, something they can take and change, forgeting this is living human being, like themselves. In their pristine world of glass and mirrors, blacks and whites, they have dehumanized her - turned her into little more than a gun with a name and expiration date. The parents, which we see in a series of flashbacks, are well to do memebers of society, with money and prestige. They are more interested in image than ideals. More interested in financial success and personal achievement than love. Safety to them is keeping their image intact. Having their dinner parties. They are the sort of people who have kids because you want to show them off to your friends, look at my children, aren't they pretty? Aren't they smart? I remember reading recently in a psychology book how some parents will look at the accomplishments of their children as a comment on them. If my kid is the star baseball player - then that shows I created that. Almost as if they are the star, not the child. They see the kid as their product not as a living human being separate from them, with heart, soul, mind that is not part of them. Not something they can control.
My father has a saying - "you don't own children. They are a gift. You love them, but you cannot control them or live their lives for them and you have to let them go and be who they will be." My little niece is certainly evidence of that - not doing any of the things babies are supposed to do, such as sleep, suck on a pacifier,
or sleep in a crib. River is somewhat the same - she did not follow the rule-book. Super-bright, she corrected her older brother's spelling when she was three. Her parents, like those parents who send their kids to advanced kindergarten to show off, sent their little girl to the Academy. This in of itself is not a bad thing. Yet, when her brother brings to their attention that something is wrong that River is being hurt and must be rescued from the place. They balk. No, no, no, they state, we want to remain SAFE in OUR WORLD. If we rescue River, Simon, you will lose your career, your medical standing, everything you hold dear. We can't risk that. Simon furious, wonders what could be more important than his sister? His sister in his mind = Safe. In his parents minds = land, home, society, their societal standing, and his accomplishments = Safe. The next flashback we see is
his father bailing him out of jail, because he went into a forbidden zone to bargain for information to get River out. His father again attempts to convince him not to do this. Finally stating if you do it again, I'll give you up for lost. Simon realizes in that moment that to his father, he and his sister are little more than tradable commodities - something to be bartered or sold for an illusion of safety.
As this story is being told in flashbacks, the present story is about Simon trying to protect River from assorted dangers on the planet. To keep her Safe. He's irritable and annoyed with the Captain for not allowing him to stay with the ship, with the Cattle, thinking in his head that would have been safer. As it turns out, not true, since the Captain and Crew are attacked by Cattles Rustlers and the preacher, Shepard Book is shot.
The Captain, unable to locate River or Simon (their doctor) is forced to take off without them to find another doctor who can save Shepard. He goes to the Alliance - whose doctors only agree to help once they see Shepard's id. No one but Shepard feels safe in the Alliance hands. Yet, Shepard states when he gets back to the ship, it's good to be home - indicating perhaps even he did not feel safe in the sterile dehumanized environment with its technology. The more downbeaten scruffy Serenity and her mismatched crew are more to his liking.
Meanwhile - Simon and River are taken by a group of ignorant planet dwellers - this is the part of the story that made me cringe. They need a doctor to heal their sick and Simon is a gift sent by God. His sister is weird, but they don't make much of it, at first. Until River helps a mute girl communicate. She tells a teacher/nurse what the mute girl wants. The nurse congratulates River for getting the girl to speak. River says - no, she can't speak, I heard her thoughts...or implies as much. The nurse recoils in superstitous horror and declares that River must be a witch. She must be cursed and notifies the townsfolk to come arruning. They gather and the town leader appears to be understanding until River relates how he became town leader - his societal position threatened - he declares she should be burned at the stake. When Simon states if they burn River, they must burn him too - the town leader more or less shrugs and says so be it.
At the final moment, Mal, Zoe, and Jayne show up with guns, a space-ship in the air and get the town to release their two captives. Simon and River return safely to the ship.
When I first saw this episode, I missed the metaphor which on second viewing, two years later, jumps out at me.
There's actually two - and they are both valid reasons for the witch burning scene. The first, more obvious one, which I've discussed above is about Safety. The villagers of the town, specifically the town leader and the nurse representing Simon and River's parents and seeking to destroy Simon and River, when they prove to no longer be useful or the threat they pose to the nurse's religious beliefs and the town leader's social standing outweighs the doctor's ability to save lives. Their put the safety of their society, their position, their belief system over human life. Just as Simon and River's parents, the Tams, put societial standing, image, the safety of their creature comforts above the lives and welfare of their children. This theme could have been done without the witch burning - they could have found another thing. The second theme, however, could not and it is this theme that caught my eye upon second-viewing.
What the writer is doing is juxtaposing the civilized cultured sciencetific/educated society against the ignorant/uncultured/ uncivilized one and basically showing that when it comes to human nature - does not matter how much education we have, how much technology - we will still be faced with the same choices. There lie monsters amongst both. They just accomplish their goals in different ways. River and Simon can choose - do they want death at the hands of the villagers, burnt at the stake, because they threaten them or do they want to be turned into monsters, tortured, have their minds taken away, dissected, because they could be used to maintain a certain way of life? What the Alliance and Villagers have in common - is a lack of respect for the sancticity of life. Both believe more in their rituals, their things, then they do in people.
This afternoon I watched a portion of an old Jimmy Stewart movie, circa 1930's, called "You Can't Take it With You" - a character in the movie tells a blustering old banker - that you can't take the money and the material goods and the prestige with you - all you can take is the love of your friends and your family. That's all that matters in the end. This is what both groups are missing. One advanced, one backwards. Both doing the cliche evil - scientific experiments vs. witch burning. Opposites on the surface, but in truth? Just two sides of the same 25 cent coin. The picture may be different, but what lies beneath, is the same. I think that's the reason the writer had to do that segment I despised, to clearly emphasize and build that theme. Science won't save nor will religion - what will save you in the end is your love for your family and your friends. Your love and respect for life. A theme, I'll add is re-visited in Our Mrs Reynolds in a different way.
