Big Damn Inara Theory

POSTED BY: raptored
UPDATED: Tuesday, October 17, 2006 23:35
VIEWED: 34764
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KANESKI

Tuesday, January 3, 2006 2:07 PM

Hello...

The VIAL first:

The way the show was shot and aired is a big problem in unraveling this little mystery. The pilot, "Serenity" was made to original Joss Whedon dark world spec, with a few scenes reshot as said in the commentary. Which goes in line with Minear's mention of the drug that kills during sex. If I remember right, Minear's words were to the effect: "Originally, the show was supposed to be much darker, keeping in line with that, we had an idea where Inara survives by having "something" that kills during sex." Reavers rape people to death, so that seems entirely plausible. The actual episodes, from "Train Job" to "Objects in Space" were much lighter, happier, with jollies, after Fox bitched at Whedon.

The reason she didn't take it out during Reaver chase is fairly obvious to me - she had Simon and River in there and the plan was for them to run. There's no need for something so desperate as the sex-killer injection.

So, I'm going for self-defense by sex. It's something that few of us, who love the series and the characters want to consider - Inara getting mass-raped by reavers. That's what would make such a good story. Such an episode wouldn't be so hard to make sensorship/rating-wise. Bushwhacked didn't show the reavers boarding the derelict, but the survivor is enough to convey the effect. Minear does say "I don't know, next question" when asked if that's what's in the vial, but I think he did give it away. Or at the VERY least what it may have originally been. I wouldn't be surprised if the purpose of the vial was changed at some point, but still... the death-by-sex-defense just fits too well within the pilot. It's clear that they have no chance of repelling them by force.

I completely reject time-travel, age-slowing and all that for three very simple reasons: 1) Science fiction, not Science Fantasy. 2) It would me much more widely known if rank-and-file companions had access to it. 3) Technology in Firefly seems to be of the 'better mousetrap' kind: Faster, more powerful, more accurate firearms, but still firearms. Lasers are few and far between and are either ship-sized (like modern battleship-mounted railguns) or short-use and for mostly for show (HoG). Better medicine and methods - but still to solve heart problems. A better and faster way of doing things, but age-slowing still goes into the miraculous category.

Now, leaving Sihnon thing:

Assassin theories first - the look Inara has when the guy in the pilot mentions leaving the Sihnon is regret. If it was an assassin mission, she should be proud/honoured. If it's companions being recruited into assassins during training and Inara leaving because she things it's wrong, well... I SERIOUSLY doubt the Alliance would let it go at that: Invite a person to join an ultra-secret assassin club and let them refuse, keep official records and licences and just hope they won't spill it? Unlikely. Furthermore, it seems a bit reckless to leave a trail of bodies behind companions. And if the target is specified, it would be far too... wrong, even for the Alliance to put the assassin on a randomly-traveling ship. Government control... I'm doubtful. The companion guild struck me as more of a... not independent, but close. I'd say they're part of the Alliance, but not an operational arm of it. Actually being an operative of it would likely mean access codes and cards and such - i.e. "The Operative" in BDM vs the interrogation in Bushwacked - unless companions are higher ranked than an operative of Parliament (not likely), the theory is shaky.

Terminal illness was something I also thought possible, but too much stacks against it. Running from it (flashback in Out of Gas) just makes no sense. And even if Inara meant it when she said she wasn't running from anything, her chances of any sort of cure would be in core systems, not randomly going on the borders. If it's a case of 'see the universe before I die' - look of regret in Serenity pilot smashes it into the ground. The response in Ariel "same as last year" probably indicates everything

KATRIC

Friday, January 6, 2006 1:22 AM

thiefjehat,
Good points.
My first time-be gentle. On the first theory of Inara being terminally ill. In Serenity, when Mal is looking at the capture(picture), Inara is speaking to Kaylee. When Kaylee makes a comment about the captain wanting her(Inara) to stay. Inara says, "that man doesn't know what he wants. I don't have time to waste..." Could be just a simple statement or one with a deeper, sadder meaning. Just a thought.

katric

MISSMADRASSA

Friday, January 6, 2006 6:07 AM

Wow! A terminally ill, Time-travelling replicant assassin Inara... If this show were Farscape maybe.

I'm glad I hit on this thread- this is my current fav daydream subject!

I think her story is so much simpler tha y'all think. If you consider the themes of Belief, Freedom, Love and Family that run through Serenity and Firefly. And agree that Inara is essentially a mirror-image of Mal ( you don't need me to allude to parts of the series, Joss has said this). Then the following theory is totally buyable:

1. Inara loves being a companion. She believes hard that what she does, in its purest form, is art. It is also a political statement for her, she is educated and a true feminist. She recognises however,that the verse is changing and society definition of companion is starting to get blurry. Companions can be powerful and have true political clout but she questions if it is for the right reasons. She could have the ear of the King of Londinium, for instance, but she would have to fuck him to get it. Even in Sihnon, she has witnessed enough hypocrisy and abuse of power to want to get away.

2. This is not easy because Inara is paradoxically an indentured slave. In much the same way as priests, nuns and monks have much of their rights withdrawn, so do companions- it's the sacrifice that elevates them. All companions need to buy their way to freedom, if that is what they want. The best way to expedite this process is to work the rim planets- clients there, although scarce, are willing to pay more for the prestige of being with companions. Inara is, shall we say, raking it in out there. Cheap rent, no house rules, no complications.

3. She doesn't want to stay on Serenity because staying is compromise. It limits her development, financially and intellectually. She overlooks the fact that she has become a better person in the short time she has spent there. It's loss of control she fears, she is already a slave to the guild, why does she want to be further attached to this crew? This man?

4. She will only stay on Serenity if there were no compromise. When she asks " Why didn't you ask me not to (go)?", she wants an indication that some truce could be drawn. That Mal would be able to accomodate her as she is, companion and all, into his life.

After all of those points, here is the back story quick-like:

In Sihnon, during the war, Companions were used as collateral by the guild to maintain ties with the Parliament. Young Inara, groomed for great things, becomes a VERY powerful man's concubine. ? high ranking alliance Officer- who she likes (not-so-bad fellow). She sees a lot of alliance shnanigans though. She may also have gotten pregnant- but since companions have no parental rights, when sugardaddy dies (in Serenity valley no less)she loses her kid.

This makes her angry and determined to get her freedom. Cheap rent, no complications was the plan- but we know better. How is she getting this kid back? Did she make a deal with the Guild in order to get her release papers sooner?
Does Mal remind her of sugardaddy somewhat?

Thinking about stuff like this, usually while I'm at the gym, tickles me some.

Props to ScrewtheAlliance- your fan fic clears up a lot of grey.

RHYIANAN

Tuesday, January 31, 2006 4:41 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Cheshire:
*Movie Spoiler Below. Read at your own risk*

Think back to the BDM, and the exploding incense trick. If I remember correctly, Inara lit that up before she realized Mal was there;

No, actually, she lit it after she realized he was there....don't you remember mal asking her "what are you doing" and her replying "praying for you"? When she says that, she lights the fake incense.

Wash: Yeah, but psychic? That sounds like science fiction.
Zoe: You live on a spaceship, dear.

RACOONBOY

Tuesday, January 31, 2006 6:01 AM

Someone said that Joss likes setting up big mysteries with simple answers, or something to that effect. I skipped most of the posts, so this might have been said already, but what if it was just what Simon and River took, to die so they wouldn't kill her, and she was considering using it in the pilot for that very reason.

Probably not though.

UNSARDONIC

Saturday, February 4, 2006 7:30 AM

Quote:
1) Okay, what’s in that vial that she pulls out in the Serenity pilot when the Reavers atttack? Joss has said it isn’t a suicide kit, which is what everyone assumes. I think the only other thing that make sense is that it’s something she can inject herself with to make herself go backward in time or enables her to reverse time on a limited basis.

Okay... I apologize in advance.. I mean, this is a HUGE thread, going back to November but, the facts of life is that... I just can't keep up with you guys due to my Gigantic Overwork situation... all-y'all oughtta be working 16 hours a day, 7 days a week for 3 years straight... ..if only so I can get some vicarious sympathy... sniff-sniff

So... at the risk that someone has already mentioned this itty-bitty point... when Inara gives the kit to Dr. Simon, she explains that "It's a standard companion immunization kit"... ...something the good doctor may find of use... what was that someone in this thread said about Joss liking big-mysteries-with-simple-answers??? just... thought I'd mention...

okay, rag on me for SOMEthing-or-other "or your friends will think your a stupid, inbred stack of meat."

LITTLEMOUSE

Saturday, February 4, 2006 8:16 AM

Ganked off www.summerglau.co.uk, from the Transcript of Group Talk from The White Room Convention:
(Ed’s Note: At a writer’s conference last autumn Tim Minear apparently revealed the purpose of the syringe. It was filled with a toxin which when injected into a person has no harmful effects on them but would kill anyone who had sex with that person. The plan apparently had been to have a very dark episode late in the first season of Firefly in which Inara would have been attacked and raped by Reavers and would have survived through her use of the syringe).

------------
"People tell you things all the time without talking. The way they move; the way they aren't talking." -River Tam, R. Tam Sessions: Session 1 Excerpt

UNSARDONIC

Saturday, February 4, 2006 11:38 PM

whoa...

...now that's the first time I've heard that explanation but ummm... that's a particularly dark and morbid one... and it does seem to kinda fit the various rules of The 'Verse.

...especially in light of, if Inara HAD been raped by reavers, well... YOU know... they kinda like to ...ummm... ...GNAW... on ya, a bit... she might've been transformed into, I dunno... Jayne? ...or some other less delectable creature than the one she is...

mumble, mumble, something,something "or your friends will think you're a stupid, inbred stack of meat."

NUCLEARDAY

Sunday, February 5, 2006 3:28 PM

Pardon if I'm stepping on stuff that's been said before. Tried to scan through most of the posts here, but it's entirely conceivable I missed someone posting the same theory already.

Just got done watching "Objects in Space," and there's a couple thoughts I ended up with. River's snippets of the crew's inner thoughts are what I keep coming back to when I'm trying to figure some of these mysteries and as usual, I'm coming up with blanks by going in that direction. (Still wonder if it's significant that Kaylee is the only one who doesn't have one of those 'psychic moments' with River, but that's neither here nor there.)

What got me thinking, though, is Jubal's comment to Inara as he's locking her in the shuttle. The whole thing about men being the stronger gender but only women can bear children... I keep coming back to that comment, it's got to mean something, right?

I saw some other posts about maybe Inara having a child, or possibly something related to that. Can't remember the episode, but I remember Kaylee asking Inara about the Companion's stance on dating. Inara says it's very complicated. Maybe she fell in love with someone before coming on board and had a kid with him? Is that what she's running from?

Also, IIRC, there's the scene with Simon and Inara during the 'Out of Gas' episode. Simon talks about it being his birthday and Inara gives him a sympathetic look... Watching the commentary, I believe it's Tim Minear mentioning that that's one of the clues. Is she thinking of her child's birthday at that point?

The wall I run into with this train of thought would be the vial in the Serenity pilot. Going on a child-bearing track at least. It's rather evil-looking for a contraceptive, and some sort of abortion injection wouldn't help with reavers.

While I'm at it, here's a totally off-the-wall and likely untrue theory: This being sci-fi and considering we've seen in the Message that they can replace most of your insides, maybe Inara is already 'with child', and she keeps it with science-type stuff in a state of suspended animation at a very early stage of development. (Like I said, off-the-wall...) Part of her Companion examination during 'Ariel' could be to check on the state of the fetus. The only thing that helps with this theory, is that it could help explain the vial in Serenity. It's either something to abort the pregnancy, or more likely, an injection to resume it's growth. (ie, she's not looking at the vial and thinking of using it, she's looking at it with regret at what cannot be?) Probably not, but worth a shot.

Still, think so far from what I've seen the most compelling theory is the idea of her being a type of assassin. She's certainly had enough combat training... and remember that Jo/Saph/Bridge had the same sort of training, and used the "goodnight kiss" technique...

Kinda fits. Explains the vial at least... Would Jubal's comment then mean that part of the terms of her being a companion would mean that she can't have children? Fits with the clue from the "dating" conversation, as that could certainly complicate a relationship... But what about the "birthday" clue. Is it that she physically can't have children or did she have one at some point and it was taken from her (or worse)?

Sorry the long post, I got carried away again. (Believe it or not, I cut this down a bit before posting.)

PIRATENEWS

Sunday, February 5, 2006 6:24 PM

"They'll rape us to death, eat our flesh, and sew our skins into their clothing. And if very lucky, they'll do it in that order."
-Zoe, Serenity pilot

Many Reaver rapes are "shown" in FireFly and Serenity, fortunately off-camera. BTW, what do Reavers do with all their children, eat them? Which is what Americans, Europeans and Chinese (The Evil Alliance) routinely do, by cannibalizing fetus tissue for cosmetic products and mad-doc research, and cannibalizing transplants from living children (don't sign your Organ Donor Card unless you want to be Reaverized at $500,000 per LIVING "corpse"). A US abortion doctor was recently arrested for microwaving fetuses for lunch (is that even a crime?), which is popular in Commie China.

When you run out of bullets and grenades, the only choice is suicide. Either by saving one bullet for each person, or somehow detonating the entire ship (Mutually Assured Destruction).

Morphine suicide kit sounds most likely, but since when does Joss take the easy way out in a script?

Coma date-rape drug does you no good when you wake up sewn into somebody's clothing.

Terminator STD is realistic, since HIV/AIDS is a bioweapon, but too slow acting for Inara's situation.

Quote:
Ganked off www.summerglau.co.uk, from the Transcript of Group Talk from The White Room Convention:
(Ed’s Note: At a writer’s conference last autumn Tim Minear apparently revealed the purpose of the syringe. It was filled with a toxin which when injected into a person has no harmful effects on them but would kill anyone who had sex with that person. The plan apparently had been to have a very dark episode late in the first season of Firefly in which Inara would have been attacked and raped by Reavers and would have survived through her use of the syringe).

That's solves the problem, presuming the other Reavers don't just kill you. Inara the assassin? Many prostitutes become serial killers. Spies and assassins do work together.... Was VP Nelson Rockefeller assassinated that way, or was it just a normal heart attack while screwing his hooker Megan Marshak, as his official coroner's report alleges?
www.samsloan.com/marshak.htm

Companion Guild is most likely an extortion racket, like Nixon White House counsel John Dean's Watergate wife, like Congressman Barney Franks "suicided" common-law husband, like George Bush Sr's "Jeff Gannon" (aka kidnapped Johnny Gosch). Companions are also Buddist priestesses (no god, just spies for the Alliance and/or mafias). Local police agencies routinely "license" (extort) prostitution rings for reasons of "intelligence gathering" (blackmail of wealthy and influential customers). As Joss points out, the Alliance uses video cameras to spy on every citizen whenever possible, especially on the Central Planets, so it's likely the Companion Guild does the same, if only to keep Alliance politicians from outlawing its career field.

Inara was "chasing" Mal, and wants him to take her (away from all that boring loveless yet "minimally profitable" sex). Serenity pilot makes that clear, which redeems her character somewhat. She's not an evil backstabbing ho that many guys can relate to, er, but not me. Mal is waiting for Inara to quit "whoring" before he drops his guard against her "feminine wiles". Cathy O'Brien is a good example of a redeemed whore, in her case, a "presidential model", a composite of River and Inara, a Hell-on-Earth lifestyle, but with a relatively happy ending so far ( www.trance-formation.com ). Being raped and electrocuted by Reagan, Bush Sr, Cheney, Clinton-Blythe, Hillary, et al was not fun for her, nor was it fun watching girls suffocated to death by holding their breath for 5-minutes during oral rape, as proven by this photo of "Dick" Cheney's "big secret" in the Milwaukee newspaper, showing his obvious attraction for little girls:
www.vnnforum.com/showthread.php?t=13455&goto=nextnewest
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2005/10/326950.shtml
http://rigorousintuition.blogspot.com/2004/11/dick-cheneys-other-big-s
ecret.html
www.total411.info/2004

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