Firefly Episode Discussions

The Flashbacks in OoG

POSTED BY: ShinyGeeket
UPDATED: Wednesday, January 4, 2006 21:13
VIEWED: 8233
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Friday, December 2, 2005 12:49 AM

I've been wondering about this for a while, but are the flashbacks in this ep in chronological order? I ask because I somehow got the impression that Jayne had been on Serenity longer than Inarya, but if you go by Mal's flashbacks, it's the other way around. Please excuse me if this has been brought up before, I'm feeling a might lazy today, and didn't bother to check if this was discussed in a pre-existing thread.

"We will rule over all this land, and we will call it... 'This Land'."

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Friday, December 2, 2005 12:56 AM

I always thought the flashbacks were in order of who he said goodbye to, or had a poinant moment with.

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Friday, December 2, 2005 10:10 AM

I think they are in chronological order.

Inara's been with the crew for about 8 months, which would leave plenty of time for Jayne to come onboard after her.

I think it also fits with Jayne's shifty loyalty. If he's been on board a whole year, Mal would probably be a little more certain about him.

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Monday, December 5, 2005 1:25 AM

I don't know, I never thought they were in order. I thought they were sort of triggered by something that was happening to Mal at the moment. Like the doors opening and what not. I always sort of assumed Jayne was there before Inara too. I think Jayne had to have been on the ship for at least a year because in the begining of 'Our Mrs. Reynolds' Mal says something along the lines of "Your not the man I met a year ago" to Jayne.

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CBY
Monday, December 5, 2005 11:29 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by MalsGirl:
I don't know, I never thought they were in order. I thought they were sort of triggered by something that was happening to Mal at the moment.



That's my guess as well. Especially since you see Mal buying the Serenity at the very end. So much for chronological order ;-)

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Wednesday, December 7, 2005 8:17 AM

Okay, with the exception of Mal's last flashback, I always thought that they were in order. But the flashback's triggered by character interaction is making more sense to me now.

"We will rule over all this land, and we will call it... 'This Land'."

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Wednesday, December 7, 2005 2:10 PM

Here's my take on the order of events:

Mal goes shopping, buys the old firefly, and picks out the name "Serenity".

Mal shows off the ship to Zoe.

Mal hires the "genius mechanic".

Mal and Zoe interview Wash.

Mal fires the hot shot and hires Kaylee, and Serenity is flying.

Inara rents the shuttle.

Jayne joins up.

It's not obvious how much time elapsed between these events, though. My gut feel is that Jayne signed on relatively recently -- perhaps closer (in time) to the events of the pilot episode than to when Inara came aboard. But I don't think there's any real evidence for that.

All we really know is that Serenity was already on the job when Jayne joined; that may or may not have been true for Inara. In fact, it's even possible that Inara signed on before Kaylee, or after Jayne.

At least we know when Book, Simon, and River joined the happy family!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ain't about you, Jayne. It's about what they need.

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Wednesday, December 7, 2005 2:57 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by DonCoat:
All we really know is that Serenity was already on the job when Jayne joined; that may or may not have been true for Inara. In fact, it's even possible that Inara signed on before Kaylee, or after Jayne.



In The Train Job, didn't Inara say that she's been on the ship for 8 months when she was talking to Book? If that were the case, there's no way she's been onboard longer than Kaylee. It's also hard for me to imagine Jayne coming onboard less recently, but I guess it's possible.

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Wednesday, December 7, 2005 3:55 PM

If you listen to the commentary on OOG, the gentlemen indicate that the events trigger the flashbacks - such as Mal needing an adrenaline shot comes from Zoe's, and the hands-up goes to Jayne's hands-up.

Totally off question, I love this episode. I have lent out my DVD set and I am experiencing withdrawal symptoms!

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Thursday, December 8, 2005 2:46 PM

I have 2 points on this.... In Our Mrs. Reynolds, Mal says to Jayne "You are not the man I met a year ago!" And when Hes interviewing Inara, he says that the shuttle is space worthy like serenity. so I take the order as....



Mal fights in war with Zoe

Mal Buys Serenity

Mal hires Bester(was he an Homage to Babylon 5's Psi-cop Alfred Bester?)

Mal hires Wash

Mal hires Kaylee

Mal fires Bester

Mal Turns Jayne (they are standing on the ramp of what appears to be a fully funcioning Serenity when this happens)

Mal rents shuttle to Inara

Kaylee Barks on Book

Kaylee Barks on Simon, River in tow (I like to think that Simon saw Kaylees face when Book showed her the box of strawberries and was intrigued, More by Kaylee than curiosity about the box)

Kaylee Barks on Dobson (which was probably pretty simple since he was following Simon)

"Dear God In Heaven!" - Plastic Dinosaur

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