Firefly...episode Jaynestown

I don't know how many Whedon/Buffy/Angel/Firefly fans there are over here but just in case there are some, I thought I would re-post my review of the episode "Jaynestown". They have it up at Fireflyfans.net:


http://fireflyfans.net/reviews.asp?r=330

JAYNESTOWN BABBLINGS
a review of JAYNESTOWN (1AGE06)

Written By MADSPIRIT
Tuesday, January 30, 2007 21:50

EPISODE RATING: 10
TIMES READ: 5912


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I don't deal with the Funny of Jaynestown in this review though the episode is brimming with Funny. I try to grasp the underlying philosophy....the Meaning of Jaynestown. I don't know if I even come close but these are the ways it makes me feel and these are the things it makes me think about.

I love that Joss Whedon is an atheist yet still deals with issues of Faith. I'm an atheist and I deal with issues of Faith all the time.

Jaynestown is one of my favorite Firefly episodes. It's an episode about Faith. ...not Faith in God or not just Faith in God but about how or whether it's important for man to have something to believe in.

There are three main stories: River and Book and The Bible/Jayne, the Mudders and his stature as a Hero/Fess losing his virginity, becoming a man and standing up to and acting directly against his father.

Each little story affirms, in a different way, that we NEED Faith in something and sometimes it lets us down but without it we could not continue as an evolved species. Without it we are just barbarians.

River is fixing Book's Bible. ....way too many animals for one damn boat, etc. Book explains to River:

Book:
Give me that. River, you don't...fix the Bible.

River:
It's broken. Doesn't make sense.

Book:
It's not about making sense. It's about believing in something and letting that belief be real enough to change your life. It's about Faith. You don't fix Faith, River. It fixes you. (tries to take Bible pages from River; fails) You hang on to those, now.


This leaves us with the impression that whether or not there is a God, believing in a God, having Faith, can make you whole and happy and can change your life. ...and the change is real, whether God is or not, whether the Bible is accurate or not, the change has substance.

The Mudders built a myth and a statue and a Hero out of something false. Jayne didn't drop that money to help those Folks; he dropped the money so he could escape and he even sacrificed his fellow Outlaw to many years in a tiny box and the loss of an eye just so his vehicle could take off. When he dropped the money box, he dropped it on The Mudders and around that a whole myth was born and with it a Hero. ...but none of it was true.

Jayne, previous to his Hero status basically had disdain for these simple-minded and indentured Folk. He had a change inside, close to a defining moment, when he saw what having something to believe in did for these people. ...and it blew up in his face. The former friend he sacrificed wanted blood and vengeance but when he shot at Jayne one of the young Mudders jumped between Jayne and the bullet and was killed. This totally freaks Jayne. He knocks down the statue, tells the Mudders that they are fools for believing in some Pollyanna Hero coming along dumping money on their heads. He says there are no people like that. There are only people like him.

That may be true but that is the most insight we've ever heard come from Jayne. So it accomplished something. At the end he is lamenting about how those stupid simple people have probably already stuck the statue of him back up.
Mal explains to Jayne...it isn't about him:

Jayne:
Don't make no sense. What...Why the hell did that Mudder have to go and do that for, Mal? Jumping in front of that shotgun blast. Hell, there weren't a one of them understood what happened out there. They're probably sticking that statue right back up.

Mal:
Most like.

Jayne:
I don't know why that eats at me so.

Mal:
It's my estimation that...every man ever got a statue made of him, was one kind of sumbitch or another. Ain't about you, Jayne. About what they need.

Jayne:
Don't make no sense.


These people's lives are horrible. They are indentured slaves. They wallow and work and live and play, in filth. They never escape it. They are paid next to nothing and one has to wonder what the suicide rate is. I guess this story shows us that you have to believe there is something to aspire for; something has to show you that you matter and that you count and that your life is worth living and that even if everything sucks, things can be better. That's what having a Hero did for them. It showed them that life can change. I think this one is about Faith as Hope. Those Mudders don't have much else. It could be the spark that starts their Revolution.

Fess looses his virginity at the behest of his overbearing and tyrannical father. His father is the same Magistrate who sentenced Jayne's abandoned partner to many years in a tiny box.

His father has also hired Inara to take care of Fess's virginity. Luckily for all, Fess is a good guy and evidently did, just need to get laid. Today he is a man. Fess's father puts some kind of lock on Serenity because he wants to catch Jayne. Inara persuades Fess to remove the lock and going behind his father's back he does just that, freeing Serenity and infuriating his dad:

Magistrate Higgins:
You did what?!?

Fess:
I sent an override to Port Control. Lifted the land-lock on Serenity.

Magistrate Higgins:
I ought to wipe that smile off your head. How dare you defy me?

Fess:
You wanted to make a man out of me, Dad. I guess it worked.


I think the Faith we learn about here, is Faith in Oneself.

We also get a little of the two frames of thought about civility under the kinds of conditions our crew live under. They live on the outskirts of humanity, removed from polite society and manners and fancy dress and clean clothes. They are marginalized. One theory goes...what the hell do manners matter when you are reduced to living like that. What the hell do manners matter when those with manners disdain you. What the hell do manners matter when you barely have food to eat.

Simon contends that these are the times we must MOST hang onto our civility. Without that...we're just barbarians...Reavers. We must have some Faith...in Some Thing and that without it, without Hope, we cannot live as civilized beings. We have to think things can be better. The Reavers have given up. One way to remind us of our Humanness, is to hang onto some of the trappings of civilization. We have to continue to care and to be decent to each other and to show respect for one another, regardless of the grit and grime of our circumstances.

I love this episode. I think it's one of the best, right up there with Objects in Space, War Stories and Out of Gas. It's an episode where you get to glimpse inside of people...without being a Reaver.

Lee Hillhouse
Madspirit

I wish someone would comment. <g> Makes me feel strange.
Lee

We LOVE Joss Whedon. He's a genius and so underrated. Those fuckers at whatever movie studio is doing Wonder Woman totally fired him. What jerks.
Fox totally screwed him over with Firefly. Why the hell did they give it the go ahead if they were just going to kill it by changing it's schedule all the time and not showing them in order? Fuckers.
Duckie

other than that -- river and book is interesting to me because we live in a literal age.

i.e. the problem with fundies is that they ARE literal.

so book's comments are interesting in that he says them during another kind of illiteracy.

metaphor, allegory, and the like make us better people -- and we are editing it out of our lives -- and book finds himself in the same situation.

there's more than one episode where this comes up -- and for television -- the very enemy these days of what you're talking about -- makes it more intriguing.