Firefly: Ariel

May 21, 2015 5:25 AM - Season 1, Episode 9

Hard up for cash, Serenity takes on a job from Simon: break into an Alliance hospital on central world Ariel so that he can get a thorough diagnostic of River and the crew can loot the valuable stores of medicine. But River's pursuers are hot on their trail, and they receive some unexpected inside help. (wiki)

REVIEW
"The episode is built around double-crosses. When Serenity lands on the core Alliance planet Ariel to drop off Inara for her annual examination and recertification, Jayne sees a chance to make some money by handing Simon and River over to the authorities. River has been dangerously unstable—at the start of the episode, she slashes Jayne in the galley, saying he “looks better in red”—and Simon has proposed an elaborate break-in/heist at an Ariel hospital, where the Serenity crew can steal expensive medicine and Simon can sneak River into a high-tech diagnostic wing. Jayne is assigned to be their muscle, in case anything goes wrong, but unbeknownst to all, he’s already called ahead to tell an Alliance goon that he’ll be bringing the Tams right to him."

"Unbeknownst to Jayne, the goon has no plans to honor his end of the arrangement. He has Jayne arrested. And Simon, unaware of Jayne’s betrayal, sees only Jayne fighting alongside him as they work towards an escape. Later, back on the ship, Jayne is prepared to pretend that everything’s as it was—only with a modicum of new mutual respect between himself and Simon, who fought bravely—but Mal figures out what must’ve happened, and he stows Jayne in an ajar airlock as Serenity soars out of the atmosphere, getting Jayne to admit what he did and to understand that betraying anyone on Serenity is the same as betraying Mal, adding, “The next time you decide to stab me in the back, have the guts to do it to my face.”" (Noel Murray at avclub)

SAMPLE QUOTES
[The crew talks about their upcoming visit to core planet Ariel while they eat.]
Simon: River you have to eat. It's good. It tastes like—
[Takes bite of food.]
Simon: It's good.
Jayne: It smells like crotch.
Kaylee: Jayne!
Jayne: Well, it does.

Mal: No one is setting foot on that fancy rock. I don't want anyone leaving the ship. Come to think of it, I don't want anyone looking out the windows or talking aloud.
Jayne: What's the point of coming to the core if I can't even step off the boat?
Mal: You could have got off with Shepherd Book at the Bathgate Abbey. Could've been meditating on the wonders of your rock garden by now.
Jayne: Well, it beats just sittin'.
Wash: It is just sitting.

[A doctor is hassling "EMT" Mal for his insubordination.]
Doctor: You must be new. Don't get comfortable. Your type doesn't last long here. When your supervisor hears about the rude and disresp— AGHHH!
[He collapses. Behind him, Zoe lowers defibrillator paddles.]
Zoe: Clear.

[Resigned to his fate, Jayne calls Mal on the comm-link one last time.]
Jayne: What're you gonna tell the others?
Mal: About what?
Jayne: 'Bout why I'm dead.
Mal: I hadn't thought about it.
Jayne: Make something up. Don't tell 'em what I did.
[Mal relents and closes the door.]
Mal: The next time you decide to stab me in the back, have the guts to do it to my face.
[Mal walks away.]
Jayne: Can I come in? (more at wikiquote)

TRIVIA
• The two blue-gloved men and River's litany of "Two by two... hands of blue... two by two... hands of blue..." first appeared in "The Train Job".

• Jayne is tempted by money and betrays Mal. In the pilot episode "Serenity" Jayne commented that it would be an "interesting day" when the money is good enough to betray Mal.

• While captured in the airlock, Jayne pleads with Mal to "be reasonable." This is a callback to Mal and Zoe's first meeting with Jayne and his former crew, where Mal asks the crew to be reasonable while Jayne points a gun at him, as shown in the "Out of Gas" flashback sequences.

• The medical shuttle that appears in the episode and is used to ferry the main characters back and forth from St. Lucy's is built from a 2/3 scale model of a Soviet Mil Mi-24 Hind D helicopter. A group of fans have bought the scrapped medical shuttle (from a scrapyard in Mojave, California), and are in the process of restoring it, hoping to show it on the Firefly convention circuit.

• When the crew returns to Serenity after their successful raid of the Alliance hospital, Malcolm grabs Kaylee from behind and pulls her into a friendly hug. This was improvised by Nathan Fillion, and was left in the shot because Joss Whedon felt it was such a natural movement for Malcolm to make. (wiki)

posted by valkane (9 comments total)

Jayne's betrayal had to happen because that's how Mal recruited him. I like that the characters behave realistically based on their, well, character. So many shows fail to meet that very low bar (looking at you, The Strain).
posted by Ik ben afgesneden at 6:20 AM on May 21, 2015

So, Mal lets Jayne live after he asks him to make something up to the crew about how he died. This shows that he cares what the crew think about him. Because he cares about the crew, in his own way. That's good enough for Mal to let him live another day.
posted by leotrotsky at 6:37 AM on May 21, 2015 [3 favorites]

Another caper episode, and it's awesome. The scene with the crew being coached by Simon about how they treated the patients is hilarious.

Mal: Pupils were fixed and dilapidated—
Simon: Dilated.
Mal: Dilated. Dilated! Ching-wah tsao duh liou mahng! [frog-humping son of a bitch!] Shiny.

And Jayne just can't get any of his lines straight. But then, when they finally arrive... .

Nurse: What you got?
Mal: Got a couple DOAs. By the time we got there—
Nurse: Take 'em down to the morgue.
[long pause]
Jayne: We applied the cortical electrodes, but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient!
posted by zarq at 11:16 AM on May 21, 2015 [2 favorites]

I could never decide whether the prepping scenes were scripted or impromptu. Like, did they only give Sean Maher the lines and tell him to teach them to everyone else?

Because, if not - well done.
posted by chainsofreedom at 1:17 PM on May 21, 2015

I like the little hint we get of how proud River is of Simon's skills when he helps save the other patient.
posted by dry white toast at 4:45 PM on May 21, 2015 [4 favorites]

Between this episode, Trash, and the movie, I'm a huge fan of "socially awkward except when performing surgery or planning heists" Simon.
posted by bettafish at 2:16 PM on May 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

I liked the difference between how Mal chooses to kill Jayne (ambush with a weapon while Jayne is unarmed in order to put him in an airlock to die) versus how he describes he'd kill with Simon ("If I ever kill you, you'll be awake, you'll be facing me, and you'll be armed"). It's a nice highlight of Mal's ultimately pragmatic philosophy; indulge in honour when you can afford it, but do what it takes to win when you can't e.g. he's confident he could best Simon mano a mano, but he's not so sure he could best Jayne.
posted by kithrater at 2:23 PM on May 22, 2015 [5 favorites]

See also Jubal Early (Objects in Space) as the dark counterpart to Mal, who has a similarly pragmatic approach to degrees of violence.
posted by Sebmojo at 5:54 PM on May 27, 2015

valkane: "The medical shuttle that appears in the episode and is used to ferry the main characters back and forth from St. Lucy's is built from a 2/3 scale model of a Soviet Mil Mi-24 Hind D helicopter. A group of fans have bought the scrapped medical shuttle (from a scrapyard in Mojave, California), and are in the process of restoring it, hoping to show it on the Firefly convention circuit."

"So, my neighbor bought the air ambulance from Firefly..."
posted by Rhaomi at 10:13 PM on May 30, 2015 [1 favorite]