Why Firefly Got Shot Down
“That ain’t a shepherd.”
If you’re one of the few who has never seen the TV series Firefly or the associated movie Serenity, I urge you to watch both before you read this. That said, even if you do read this first, I think that you will enjoy them afterward. They are that good.
A few weeks ago, Glenn offered this link: Every Episode of Firefly Ranked Worst to Best, which, of course, spurred a spirited discussion of the short and very much-lamented series and its cap-off, the feature film, Serenity. While there is some quibble with the ranking, most agreed that each episode is top-notch entertainment: great stories, great characters, and laden with eternally quotable one-liners and dialogue.
The plot:
Captain Malcolm 'Mal' Reynolds is a former galactic war veteran who is the captain of the transport ship "Serenity". Mal and his crew, ensign Zoe Alleyne Washburne; Zoe's husband, pilot Hoban 'Wash' Washburne; muscular mercenary Jayne Cobb; young mechanic Kaylee Frye; former Alliance medical officer Simon Tam; his disturbed teenage sister River (both on the run from the interplanetary government "The Alliance"); the beautiful courtesan Inara Serra; and preacher Shepherd Book do any jobs, legal or illegal, they can find as the Serenity crew travels across the outskirts of outer space.
I had never heard of either until way back in 2005 while reading gushing reviews of the movie over at Ace’s, whose denizens assured me that the movie could be enjoyed without having seen the series, and that turned out to be true. But afterward I became curious about the latter and watched it all the way through. Nearly 20 years later, I’ve watched both at least four times.
And that brings me to something I noticed around my second viewing of the series: the operatives were all black men.
Operatives? Yes, there were three. I will present them in the reverse order of their appearance.
First, we have the Operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor) in Serenity. (Violence warning.)
Dr. Mathias: Apologies. An Operative of the Parliament will, of course, have full cooperation. I’m not sure what … I see no listing of rank or name.
Operative: I have neither. Like this facility, I don’t exist.
Secondly, in the series finale, “Objects in Space,” we have Jubal Early (Richard Brooks, who entirely steals this episode), a bounty hunter who breaks into the ship in an attempt to kidnap River (Summer Glau) and deliver her – presumably - to the Alliance, though he may not be aware of who is offering the bounty, as the conversation below indicates.
Psychopath doesn’t even begin to describe Early. But there are several clues as to who he is.
During his hunt for River, he has a strange conversation with Simon (Sean Mayer).
Early: Where’s your sister?
Simon: Are you Alliance?
Early: Am I a lion?
Simon: What?
Early: I don’t think of myself as a lion. You might as well, though. I have a mighty roar.
Simon: I said, ‘Alliance.’
Early: Oh, I thought … that’s weird.
Simon: No. I was …
Early: Where’s your sister?
The conversation seems to reset to the point where Early first asks about River, blocking out any reference to the word “Alliance.” It's as if the word cannot enter his consciousness.
Lastly, there is the main character Shepherd Book (the late Ron Glass). In episode 5, “Safe,” Book is a critically injured bystander in a gunfight.
Simon and River have been kidnapped on the planet of the episode. With Book near death, Malcolm (Nathan Fillion) is forced to leave them and seek medical assistance. When Serenity happens upon an Alliance vessel, Malcolm tells them the situation. The Alliance personnel refuse to help until Book beckons his crew mates to give the Alliance his identification document. Upon scanning the document, the Alliance immediately transfers Book to the ship’s medical bay, where his life is saved. They knew.
Throughout the rest of the fourteen episodes of the series, we get broad hints that Book has a hidden past.
Then there’s this dialogue from Serenity:
Mal: But the Alliance will be coming. And they’re after this girl with a powerful will. ‘Bout to hear the tromp of their boots any moment.
Book: You won’t. This isn’t a palms-up military run, Mal. No reports broad-waved. No warrants. Much as they want her, they want her hid. That means closed file. Means an operative – what is trouble you have not known.
[Later in the conversation.]
Book: They’ll come at you sideways. It’s how they think; how they move. Sidle up and smile. Hit you where you’re weak.
The sort of men they like to send believes hard. Kills and never asks why.
Mal: It’s of interest to me how much you seem to know about that world.
Book: I wasn’t born a shepherd, Mal.
Mal: You have to tell me about that sometime.
Book: No, I don’t.
And we never find out for sure. But the path was laid, and the pattern is in plain sight - at least to me it is.
Here’s what I think: Joss Whedon and the other creators of the Firefly world told a story - possibly a secret - that some someones above them didn’t want told: about a cadre of government mind-controlled assassins who are black men and who are specifically selected for their race.
Book, Early and the Operative were three versions of a type. Both Book and Early became operatives as teenagers or young men and, because of their past lives as free men, they couldn’t be fully controlled. Book abandoned his role as an Operative and turned to God. He mentions having resided in a monastery for a span of time.
And Early was probably too psychotic to be an Operative. River - who is a mind-reader - mentions that Early was a torturer of animals. So, the Alliance wiped his mind of everything associated with being an Operative and set him lose. But he does remember Book (see the subtitle).
Having learned its lessons with Book, Early and others like them, the Alliance decided to produce operatives without baggage. The Operative in Serenity had no name, with the implication being that he never had one. Possibly he was abducted as a baby or was cloned and indoctrinated specifically for the Alliance’s purposes. But that proved to be an imperfect solution as well, since, in the end, the Operative showed some semblance of a conscience.
Does anyone paying attention doubt that the powers that be would like to be able to take a group of people and shape their psyches in a manner of the powers’ choosing? Some argue that this has already happened.
Anyway, the higher-ups at Fox TV could not have predicted what a cult favorite Firefly would become. Twenty years after its lone season, people are still discovering it and loving it.
The story I’m speculating about would have been awesome, but political correctness was well on the rise in 2003 and nuance was damn near dead. So, no government mind-controlled black bad guys. Too bad. It would have been glorious.
Kudos you you, I had never noted that particular (and peculiar) detail. One might point to the "blue handed" men, but it's clear that they are contractors with Blue Sun, not officially Alliance.
Of course, the relationship between Blue Sun and the Alliance is never made clear either, the former could exercise much more control over that latter than anybody knows. They do appear to be the ones responsible for what happened to River.
One cavil with your inclusion of Book as a former Operative - he obviously still has some official standing, as evidenced by his identity documents. I like to think that Book was not an Operative, or not wholly... I like to think that he was actually at a level above them, one of the official Alliance personnel to whom the Operatives reported. Hence he wasn't wiped and tossed away like Early. And of course I have always found it an amusing detail that the black bounty hunter is named Jubal Early.
I loved both movie and series, but contrary to your advice, I'd advise to NOT watch the movie first. That's how I got first intro'd, and that ending did kind of affect how I felt watching the series.
Separately, I gifted my dad the DVD of the series and he watched it and was hooked. When he found out there wasn't a second season he was so upset; this would be a topic of our phone calls for months on end.
What I like about the series/movie is the world building. The writers really had me sold that the 'verse of Firefly was a possible future: a lovely mix of wild west and the future.