"OBJECTS IN SPACE." Firefly Episode.
Objects
in Space is the final episode of the Firefly
series. The writing is superb –
perhaps a personal best for Joss Whedon. It
is poignant, philosophical, haunting, brilliant, and funny.
In Jubal Early, it serves up one of the most delicious and intriguing TV
villains ever. It launches like all
of the episodes, with the compelling Whedon composed theme song: “burn
the land and boil the sea, you can’t take the sky from me.”
We reel from the rapid, dizzying span shots of the space ship enhanced
alternately through haunting music and refrains of silence.
Our first image is that of River behind a steel chain-link partition, which punctuates the claustrophobic feel of life in a capsule.
She
later complains, “it gets very, very crowded.”
Through various artistic techniques, Whedon constantly reminds us of the
ironic juxtaposition of wide open space against the tight, dense, and locked
containment of the inhabitants. Initial dialogue rolls in with River’s psychic
mystery and muffled intrigue, in what we later identify as the voice of Early,
the bright, transcendental, and chillingly cheerful bounty hunter:
“We’re all just floating.”
Cut to River meandering through a labyrinth of evocative music, with her image reflecting somber shades of blue. She imposes a series of abrupt intrusions into the connections of the other characters, who bask in warm oranges, golds, and yellows. The flirting and hilarity of Simon and Kaylee, in which we are invited to picture the former naked, the locker room banter of Jayne and Book about celibacy and masturbation, the throbbing tensions and cerebral intercourse between Mal and Inara, and the raw, physical kissing and gropings of Wash and Zoe. River drifts alone on an island, as she sees, hears, and smells graphic sensations of sex along the shore line. The camera reveals and magnifies her intense and distorted emotions: she is excited, yearning, awkward, self-conscious, and mostly she is lonely. Her sexual hunger and her sense of alienation are palpable. As she perches on the peripheries these steamy tableaus, the dialogues snap into her dark, and paranoid, but prescient hallucinations. Simon lashes her with guilt about how she has thwarted his career at the hospital. He glares at her: “I would be there right now.” We recognize her powers of clairvoyance later, as Simon speaks these words verbatim in her absence. And a gloomy Mal laments: “none of it means a damn thing.”
River steps on what the viewer sees as a small tree branch, but which turns out to be a gun.
This
seems in context, to be a cry for help – a desperate, albeit subconscious ploy
for attention. To her it is “just
an object.” As she tells the
others, “it doesn’t mean what you think.”
As they rail and rumble about her and the perils she poses, she refers to
herself in the third person: “She
understands, she doesn’t
comprehend.” Mal reminds them all
that they are “deep in space – at the corner of no
and where. “We’re very much
alone out here.”
Cut to Early on his own spacecraft rifling through photos and Alliance pamphlets about River, the fugitive. This 3-4 second observation, cuts the reader to the imminent chase. He intends to apprehend her for the reward.
Cut
back to the other characters in their own form of town
hall meeting, discussing and debating what is to be done about River as a
dangerous threat to their welfare. In
more sexually suggestive humor, Mal quips to Jayne about the gun incident:
“She got her hands on your hardware.”
We then see Early floating through space on his way to terrorize Serenity. He treads gingerly and purposefully across the hull of the ship, and then drops down to a crawl. He peers in and begins to eavesdrop, as the camera pulls back to portray River, also listening to the crew’s conversations. Mal notes that River “has an oddness to her,” and Simon defends that she is “deeply intuitive.” He pleads that “she loves this ship.”
As lights are extinguished, Early descends into the cabin clutching his gun.
Music darkens to accommodate mood. Early knocks Mal out and enters Kaylee’s room to advise her in a calm and clinical manner, that he intends to rape her. In a graphic probe of the depth and diabolical evil of the character, Whedon has him steal directly to the ship’s bastion of goodness –
the sweet, dimpled darling of the eclectic ensemble. The scene is horrific and disturbing. Early compares himself to Santa, who has dropped down the chimney, and plans to “give her a present.”
Other characters tune their ears and puzzled eyes toward the direction of the noise, but most ignore it as the usual disturbances that go bump in the night. Shepherd Book does emerge to also be beaten and subdued by the violent intruder.
Simon then emerges to grapple unsuccessfully with Early. In a provocative and amusing exchange, Simon asks if Early is Alliance. Early misunderstands the question as “Are you a lion?” He warns his captor that he has “a mighty roar.” Early then launches into some of his profound and existential queries and posits: “Is it still a gun when it’s empty?” He ponders the weight, the design, and the function of the object. He tries to force Simon to find River for him, but her brother informs that “my last act in this verse,” will not be to hand over his sister. Early kneads the moment like a game of chance and encourages Simon in that “maybe you’ll find your moment,” “maybe I’ll slip.” When Simon accuses Early of being “out of his mind,” Early dismisses his charge: “That’s between me and my mind.”
An interesting aside from Early involves the identity of Book, the Shepherd. Whedon has teased the viewers from the series’ debut with regards to the background and personae of this holy man. In one episode, we infer from events that he was formerly somehow involved with The Alliance. Early declares to Simon with casual certainly: “That ain’t a shepherd.” The series ends with no clear understanding or clarification to the viewer. He is just another mysterious and tortured renegade - a refugee whom The Captain takes under his humane space wing as an esoteric fancy.
Early pursues dreamy musings about the features of Serenity. He admires “how the walls go out,” and remarks that “people don’t appreciate the substance of things.” He coins the title as he akins himself and the others as “objects in space.” The camera drops to a protracted close-up of Early’s boots as symbols of machismo force and terror. The viewer registers a mental contrast of the graceful, sweet feet of River. When Simon attempts to overtake him, he points out that “it’s not your moment.” In another bizarre impulse, Early pauses to lick the wall of the chamber. He is like River without the heart – childlike in his wonder and curiosity. He mentions the prospect of his retirement, but then shuns the notion: “What’s life without work?” His capriciousness is disturbing. When we begin to warm up to his wit and his intellect, he lashes out, as when he abruptly slaps Inara. He warns her to “not go visiting my intentions.”
Another fascinating feature of Early is that for someone so married to wickedness, he hosts an inordinate concern with his own pretzel morality. When he tells Inara that only a woman can make a child, he queries, “Does that sound right to you?”
It is interesting that the amoral, primitive, and obtuse Jayne sleeps through the entire ordeal, although several times he clearly discerns the clamor. Whedon seems to be striking a stark contrast of Jayne’s mind which is lazy and devoid of curiosity, and that of the quizzical energies of River and Early.
Early’s voice of malice is first muffled, and finally drowned by the omnipotent and omnipresent resonance of River. She convinces Early, the other characters, and the viewers that she has fused with Serenity as the God Ship, and that she not only hears, sees, and feels everything in their atmosphere – she also controls it. “I’m in the ship, I am the ship.” “You’re talking to Serenity, and Early, Serenity is very unhappy.” Her voice is actually being transmitted from Early’s spacecraft, which he has anchored nearby. When Early realizes this, he is more alarmed than he was by the idea of her as a supreme spirit. The seizure and rein of his home bodes more real and more threatening. When she announces unsettling biographical information about him, his family, and his inherent evil, his disintegration ignites. As he attempts to exalt himself by his claim that “he lives by a code” and does “only what the job requires,” River refuses to let him off the hook: “You like to hurt folk.” She tells him that she sees the “darkness” in him and that he is “not well.” His cool demeanor melts and he becomes unhinged.
River as God, commandeers the others into action, by requesting strategic “favors” from the crew. At what is perhaps, an atheistic Whedonesqe swipe at the grand plan, the scheme goes awry, and Simon is shot and nearly killed. She professes that she “Can’t be controlled,” and “can’t be trusted.” To underline the surreal ambiance of existence, Mal asks “Am I dreaming?” to which River (or God) replies, “we all are.”
When Early finally leaves, Mal follows him out and pushes him off of Serenity. Exotic music accompanies as River floats down to Mal’s safe and welcoming arms. Zoe operates on Simon, and Mal remarks to Inara: “and we live to fight another day.”
River flows into a new embrace with the group, as we see her and Kaylee play at ball and jacks. Kaylee teases her warmly and they talk of sex. River holds up the ball and turns it around as a crystal ball to her vision as “a reader.”
The
final shot opens up to an external view looking through space.
But in the netherworld of Whedon, there are no wholly safe and happy
endings. Our final sight and sound
is that of the resilient and malevolent Early:
“Well, here I am.”
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Objects in Space Photo Gallery