Book was an operative!
POSTED BY: GrayFury
UPDATED: Wednesday, December 28, 2005 18:01
VIEWED: 14087
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I lean towards the operative theory too. In fact I started to think Book may have been an assassin (which is what an operative is more or less) from the first few episodes of the series, long before the film was out. He disables Dobson with very direct purposeful blows, he knows a great deal about the criminality of the 'Verse.
I would have said it was a possibility that book was some sort of crime lord, if it weren't for the scenes in Safe where he receives medical treatment from the Alliance.
I don't hold to the theory that book was an Alliance General for various reasons. Firstly consider Simon's line from Ariel:
"... Important people don't do field work."
Book clearly has done field work, and is competent enough at unarmed combat to say to me that he spent most of his career doing it. Also Generals are often not taken from the fighting stock, i.e. they don't necessarily know how to fight, at least not well. They certainly wouldn't be great marksmen. Generals think strategy, Soldiers and Operatives fight.
Ethan:
You asked a few questions in your post which I think I have some answers for. So if I may offer an alternative point of view.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ethan:
1) In 'Objects in Space,' River's vision of Book saying "I don't give half a hump whether you're innocent or not. So where does that put you?" These are chilling words which may hint at a still possible betrayal at his hands.
They may point to that but some of the crews words weren't directed at River in anyway, it's also a possibility that Book's words were based around a future or past event completly unrelated to River. Not an answer really but a counterbalance.
Quote:
2) In 'Serenity, the pilot' Book tells Mal when he wrongly thinks Simon is the Alliance mole, "I hate to say it, but I think you have the wrong man." Why would he hate to say that at that moment?
Probably because the right man was pointing a gun at him. Mal had a weapon trained on Simon, thinking he had the drop on the man who had sold them out, when in the end it was the other way around, the man who sold them out had the drop on him, I hate to say.
Quote:
Book in 'Serenity, the BDM' suddenly doesn't care what Mal believes, "As long as you believe" something with conviction. It sounds like Book has had a prolonged struggle with his own conflicting beliefs before settling in his life on Haven.
Did Book ever care what the crew believed in? In Serenity the pilot he didn't preach to Inara, he brought her dinner. This line from the BDM doesn't suggest to me he was an Operative on Serenity, it suggests that he was an Operative once (Belief/Faith being important).
I don't recall anything that really suggests that Book was an Operative on board Serenity, and some that suggests he wasn't. Consider that he breaks down at the end of the pilot Serenity, because of the things he did through the episode that were more like his (possible) old lifestyle, than his new one. He goes out from the Abby into the real world and almost immediately starts reliving his old life perhaps?
More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
Remember, the ice caps aren't melting, the water is being liberated.
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Book was a deep-cover operative. He started out working for the resistance (sort of), and went thru Alliance secret-agent school (sort of). Loyal guy! He switched sides. He played alliance guy informant, but secretly fed information to the resistance. Then he was converted. He subverted his trusted allies in the resistance and fought villainous alliance monsters who were powerful people, yet he was equally torn between both sides. His side both won and lost. He remains dutifully bound to the same side he always fought for. Which side that is remains happily buried in the mysterious world of "never answered".
There is no way to know whose side he was on. The story never got told, and it's not gonna get told any further at this point. We can debate it endlessly, but Wash is happily stuck in the mystery department (I'm sorry didn't he get put in the casualty column?).
Ahh we can debate this forever. The fun of it.
XG
Frankly, I'm rooting for the "undecided" side.
No such thing as gravity. The "Earth-that-was" just sucks.
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I also think Book-as-Operative is too simple, and Joss never does "obvious."
Telling detail: in the novelization, after swearing that he had no name, the Operative recognizes Book, and calls him Derrial.
Now, granted, Operatives may well have some form of code-name, or Book may have been a lower-class operative (note that Dr. Matthias, upon first meeting the Operative, expects him to have a name and rank on file), but I hardly think an ex-Operative would use his "real" name after disappearing (the presence of "Derrial Book" on his tombstone proves that Serenity's crew does know that name).
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We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.
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I give you (in a 1000 words or less, and zero syllables) the definition of "Book"...
?
There you have it. You heard it here first. Spread the "?"
XG
No such thing as gravity. The "Earth-that-was" just sucks.
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Well I dont know if any one noticed but book knew about Miranda. In I think it was bushwacked he says the reavers are just men. Everybody automatcly dismissd it because hes a shepard. In fact I didn't relize this until just know when I was reading the posts.
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Since this is a thread I was reading before I joined just now, and the thing that's been occupying my mind the most since the movie, figured it'd make a fine inaugural post.
I think that Book may've been the fellow who *trained* the first Operatives. He's old enough that he lived through the Unification War and the formation of the Alliance, so the odds are good that he was involved in the formation of that government, given his higher connections.
Perhaps he was always convinced that he was on the right side, but not that he'd be on the winning one, in contrast to Mal, and so he always tried to give the Alliance the covert upper hand. When he discovered that Operatives were being given pretty much free reign, he left to contemplate whether what he had done was really right; hence all of the doubting that he ends up doing throughout the series. Eventually he learns that he was wrong all along and comes to grips with this; he moves to one of the few planets almost completely out of Alliance control; Haven, which has been owned and governed by a private group of miners/settlers for years.
As to the "I don't give half a hump" line in "Objects," I've often wondered if this was thought at River or at Jayne. The rest of the crew are still doubting Jayne, because they don't know for sure if he did anything on Ariel. Book, being the perceptive sort, might have put two and two together despite his not being there, and assumed that Jayne's generosity after the Ariel heist was to convince others of his innocence and good nature for some offence. Since River seems to pick out negative emotions better than positive ones, she picked up on Book's contempt for someone who allows himself to be so controlled by his desires; in this case, Jayne.
I don't think that Book was an undercover plant to take out River and Simon because he has too many things that take too long to prepare; the strawberries that take weeks to grow, the long hair that takes months. He was definitely prepared for his role as shepherd, leading me to believe that he had been purely a shepherd for some time when the series began.
Just what I've come up with on this topic.
"See, morbid and creepifying, I got no problem with, long as she does it quiet-like."
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A lot of people are making the assumption that Book became a Shepherd to atone for something he did wrong. However Joss has a habit of creating unconventional characters so I think that it is entirely possible that Book is actually atoning for something he did that was right or maybe even righteous.
"I swallowed a bug." -River Tam
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I just had a thought last night.... He might be tied into Serenity valley somehow... He was just ambling the streets of Persephone when Kaylee started barking him. I think it swayed him when she said "...Well I'm Kaylle and this heres Serenity!" ....But again, just my hairbrained grasping for answers I'll probably never get.
"Dear God In Heaven!" - Plastic Dinosaur
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As far as Book saying they are "just men," that requires no big leap. They ARE just men (and women). Any bodies recovered would prove that they are not aliens.
It has been discussed in other threads that perhaps the Inner Thoughts that River read represented each person's deepest regrets, or character-defining moments. For Book, it is my belief that those comments came from a much younger Book (or whatever name he used then).
The reason that I think Book turned to religion to atone for some deed is that it fits the archtype. Throughout Firefly, each character represents some Western archetype (and there is a thread for this, too).
Mal is the Sheriff tryting to do the right thing in a lawless place.
Zoe is the loyal deputy.
Simon is the moneyed individual from back east who is used to the easy life.
Inara is the whore with the heart of gold.
Kaylee is the sweet school marm.
Jayne is the thug.
River is the innocent that needs to be protected.
Wash is the town drunk (okay, not a precise match, but both provide comic relief).
Reavers are the "savage injuns".
And Book is the retired gunslinger who has seen and caused too much death and doesn't want to fight anymore, but keeps getting called out.
TheRealMe, First Officer of the Sereni-Tree
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FreeRadical42:
Your post is the 1st (and hopefully NEVER the last) I agree with.
You're continuing my line of reasoning (whether you know it or not). Never mind my duplicitous contradictory post a couple posts back. Just bouncing conundrum-ical bits of mixed logic out into the ethers. I knew some super genius-type would pick up where I left off and smash through the writer's block invisible wall that tortured and tormented my supergenius diabolical mastermind interpretations of the plot.
Alas. We have you.
I'm totally loving your rationales (in a very intellectual non-gay sort of way).
I give you a complimentary baby-bottle sized emperor-worthy manheap of "Grey Poupon" mustard. A meager reward for your brilliant insights (and NO I'm not being facetious! I find your thinking deliciously clever and you are analyzing the plot at a level I could not attain) (DAMN YOU!).
Smear that Grey Poupon on that skullish bastille trying to limit your explosively expanding brain (yet save some for sandwiches). It's brain cell liberation day!
Seriously dude. You're post is right on the money. You took it to new levels! I'm suddenly rethinking my take on Wash. Good job!
XG
No such thing as gravity. The "Earth-that-was" just sucks.
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