After his suggestion about selling their haul from the Ariel job gets shot down, Wash becomes increasingly jealous of Zoe's war buddy relationship with Mal. In a bid to prove himself, he coerces Mal into taking him to an exchange. Unfortunately, they're both kidnapped by Adelei Niska, who wants to get even with Mal after the events of "The Train Job". Zoe initially tries to buy them back, but is only able to secure Wash's release. The pair then decide to mount a rescue mission, with the rest of the crew joining in.
Meanwhile, River seems to be on the mend, with Kaylee playfully chasing her around the ship to recover an apple (from a crate which Jayne bought with his cut from the Ariel job). Any moment where River is actually enjoying herself is actually fun to watch, and it spawns some hilarious lines from Mal. This does come into play during the main story in a grim way, but I'm not going to discuss that here.
Another subplot involves Inara wanting to bring one of her clients on board Serenity, and being concerned about the privacy. It's then revealed that her client is female (to Jayne's delight). We know at this point that Companions choose their own clients, so we can say that this subplot allows for some LGBT+ representation. However, it doesn't seem to add much to the story other than a repeating line (albeit not until the end).
However, the main focus is on the relationship between Mal, Zoe, and Wash. This provides a darkly hilarious moment in which Mal and Wash are getting tortured by Niska, but they're too busy arguing with each other to notice. Or rather, Mal taunts Wash about wanting to sleep with Zoe to get him angry, because he realises that's keeping him from breaking. There's an equally funny moment when Zoe arrives to negotiate their release. Niska claims she doesn't have enough money for both of them, wanting to play the sadistic choice game. Zoe cuts him off and immediately chooses Wash.
The rescue mission has some great action, with most of the crew taking up arms to save Mal. Even Shepherd Book joins in. He doesn't kill anybody, but he demonstrates some marksmanship skill by shooting a thug in the knee while firing one-handed from the hip. And it ends with an equally hilarious moment when they encounter Mal fighting Niska's bodyguard.
All in all, this one's pretty good. I'll put it in the top five if there's room for it.
No comments:
Post a Comment