Firefly Friday: Ep 9 Ariel

One thing about the earlier episodes was that Firefly didn’t really have a default plot style to fall back on. That’s not a bad thing in itself and TV shows that have one (e.g. monster of the week style shows like The X-Files or Buffy) move away from the default. The second episode (or first depending on when you saw it) The Train Job suggested a heist/crime caper plot as the most natural style of story for the crew of the Serenity.

There’s a lot more to the episode Ariel than the crime caper style plot that frames the story. In particular, the story advances the story arc with River but also puts Jayne into direct conflict with the rest of the crew.

Early in the episode River stabs Jayne and while the wound isn’t serious, it creates a crisis among the crew. The ship is already headed to one of the central worlds so that Inara can have her companion licence renewed. Simon, knowing that he needs better medical information about River, hires the crew to break into an Alliance hospital with the added incentive of stealing medicine to sell to the outer worlds. Cue an elaborate scheme including a visit to a spaceship junkyard and fake ID to rob a hospital for drugs.

The plot is secretly sabotaged by Jayne, who contacts the authorities in the hope of getting a reward for Simon and River. From there the story takes increasingly sinister turns with the arrival of the unnerving blue-handed men, who slaughter the Alliance troops who had captured River. Luckily, everybody we care about escapes.

It’s not unusual for lots of things to happen in a Firefly episode but earlier episodes can have a feeling of just a bunch of stuff going on without really tying together. Here, a lot of the earlier groundwork makes for a tighter but complex story. The mystery behind River advances and Jayne’s limited grasp of morality has genuine negative consequences for the crew. Jayne appears to get away with his actions partly because he is double-crossed by the Alliance but the impact of his choice has longer repercussions both for him and the crew.

The change of setting is also refreshing. Instead of some chunk of dusty American wilderness, we are in a modern city and a hi-tech hospital. The disparity in wealth and facilities available between the inner-worlds and the outer isn’t really hammered home except as a rationalisation for the ethics of stealing the drugs. The impact on the hospital will be small (because supplies are plentiful) but the impact on the outer worlds will be much greater — making the whole plan both more ethical and more profitable.

It’s actually the third episode in which access to medical care as a major issue in the Firefly setting helps drive the plot. The Train Job also featured the theft of medical supplies and Safe featured a world lacking in doctors. Aside from a Robin Hood reference, these disparities are not really underlined, which is an interesting choice. I don’t know intentional this is — the quasi-libertarian tone of the series presents the outer worlds as being freer and more authentic but the gap between the inner and the outer is presented as more than just political and cultural.

I suspect that these elements aren’t wholly intentional or accidental. The outer worlds have food and the people have shelter, so aside from luxury goods or recreational drugs, it makes sense for medical supplies to be a high value good that can be transported in small quantities. Simon’s role as a doctor also makes sense just from a pragmatic way of filling up roles for each of the crew members, but it adds to medical themes in the episodes. Having said that, medical care as a marker of socio-economic disparity is an obvious issue in US politics. I’m not sure it balances out the way Mal’s perspective (or the show’s theme song) frames the setting but it does imply (intentionally or not) a more complex background.

We don’t get any real answers about River this episode. The blue-handed men are happy to murder regular Alliance troops to preserve whatever secret River represents, which again suggests a more complex situation than we’ve seen so far.

1. Episode 3: Bushwacked
2. Episode 7: Jaynestown
3. Episode 8: Out of Gas
4. Episode 9: Ariel
5. Episode 2: the Train Job
6. Episode 6: Our Mrs Reynolds
7. Episode 5: Safe
8. Episode 1: Serenity
9. Episode 4: Shindig