Why Wash is 100% alive and mostly well.
POSTED BY: pastorbadger
UPDATED: Thursday, November 22, 2007 09:57
VIEWED: 83595
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A post about Alan’s three-picture contract finally drew me off my lurk. I know Wash is alive, and only Joss, River and I know how. I finally decided to share:
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This is a show incredibly rich in subtext and full of detail. It's in these details where you'll find the answer to Wash's demise. Short answer: he's alive, and we'll see him in the next movie.
Let me recount the events that led to this inescapable conclusion.
Detail #1: Wash's final moments.
We all remember Mal dragging the reavers on his tail right into the lap of the fuzzy little surprise party the alliance had waiting for him. We all remember the furball which ensued.
But do you remember, precisely, who was hot on Serenity's tail as she broke for the planet? Sure, our favorite Alliance true-believer followed later in an escape pod. But what ships chased her down? Answers? Anybody? Yes, River: "EVERYONE!"
That's right. An Alliance gunboat tagged them with an EMP weapon, but both flavors of Hell chased them right to ground.
Detail #2: Wash's injury.
That's right. Injury. We all know the contemporary stories of medical miracles. A guy gets a pipe thrust through his skull, and the only consequence is he starts acting a little...well...a little more like Wash. Medical history is rife with accounts of the mighty being brought down by a nick, and the spindly surviving all manner of brutal harm. (The latter being the case I’m trying to highlight right here. Sorry Wash.)
Heck, Wash just catches a pike through the sternum. Not even through the heart. Under normal circumstances, and given the advances in medical technology, my bet is that they don't even make Simon hurry for that one.
Of course, these aren't normal circumstances. With two groups in hot pursuit (the friendlier of the two only wanting to kill you) there's a paucity of time for caring for the wounded, band-aid or no.
Detail #3: The arrival of the good guys, and then the bad guys, and then the worse guys.
This is the defining moment. Let’s examine the guest book at Mr. Universe’s little B&B, shall we?
The Alliance bad guys have been and gone already. We’ll pick up the story as our stalwart band checks in, minus one, soon to be minus two. Skip forward to give our heroes time to entrench themselves and read some typically heroic dialog. Seems like they have quite a bit of time to do this but then, Wash didn’t land so much like a leaf on the wind as he did like a maple seed in a cyclone. It’s going to take our bad guys a moment to catch up.
Who arrives first? Why, it’s the bogeymen. In fact, even though it was an Alliance ship which drove Serenity to ground, and which was in closest pursuit, and who was the most specifically motivated to chase Serenity in particular, (Alliance “to do” list for today: #1 Get the Tams. #2 Don’t get ‘et by reavers. #3 Kill reavers. #4 Did I leave the stove on at home?) , even given all that, the reavers spend a good half-hour getting killed by our little chocolate River before the noble Alliance shows it’s face. Yes? A hand in the back? Jubile: “That seem right to you?” Why no, it doesn’t. The Feds were busy during that half-hour. But wait, we’re not there yet.
Detail #4: Wash’s most recent party.
At the funeral, we’re all respectful. Wash would have been touched (in fact, he will be): Zoe wore something slinky. And in white, the traditional funereal color in most Asian cultures. We light rockets, carrying our messages to Heaven. Sure, closed-casket. Cairns, in fact. Wait? Cairns? Those are typically markers, sans corpus! That’s not how we’ve seen folk buried in the Firefly ‘verse previously! Why? Did they not have a body? Hmmm. More about that in the summation.
The Summation:
We watch a play, and we’re supposed to ignore what we see going on in the wings. We just know that when the curtain goes down, the dead get up and walk off. When we see someone get killed in the movies, we presume that a coroner or EMT will be along to collect the carcass.
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I would love to believe that. :)
____________________________________________________
They could not take the sky from them -
Our Big Damn Heroes made a film!
I'm gonna see Serenity then
go back the next morning and see it again.
Cuz no one at Fox knew this show had no equal
C'mon Universal, and greenlight the sequel!
Click on my profile for my Annoyingly Long List of Firefly Links.
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Yea...I don't think so. I would think if the crew got back to Serenity and Wash's body was gone, it would've made the go "hmm" and they maybe would've held off on the funeral.
And from what I've seen from the series and the movie, medicine has not come to the point of bringing people back from the dead, and even if Wash didn't die instantly, everyone was far too distracted to get him the first aid neccessary to stop him from dying.
I want to believe he's alive, but I just don't see it happening. The only way he's coming back is flashbacks.
"Haha, mine is an evil laugh."
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Quote:
Originally posted by pastorbadger:
There it is folks. Wash is 100% alive and mostly well. He’s waking up right now in the security wing of a core planet hospital. By now the Fed’s have figured out who he is, and they’re not happy.
Someone needs to rescue him. Now, who could ever take that job on? Hmmm. How about: “Serenity II: The search for the goose juggler.”
You know, as many "Wash is alive" threads as I've read, this is the first one that I've found even remotely plausible. But better than that, this is actually pretty compelling! I like the idea quiet a bit actually. It is maybe just a touch cliched ("What? He's back from the dead??"), but that's a small matter to get our pilot back. Only one addendum: they're probably not questioning him about where the Tams went so much as they are to figure out if River spilled the beans.
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I wish I had a magical wish-granting plank.
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Ok guys,
2 reavers walk into a restaurant,(owned by a reaver) "What's on the menu?"
Chef replies "Wash"
cut to Serenity: reaver takes a bite out of Wash, pinned to the pilot seat, looks up and replies " Tastes like chicken "....drum roll
sorry guys couldn't resist
Pastorbadger, glad that you quit your lurking and jumped in. Really cool post btw. I'm sure someone is looking through the storage ben for a brown jacket for you. Welcome and enjoy the forum.
Z
PS: National Enquirer, Wash is spotted talking to Elvis,Hey it could happen!!
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For some odd reason I am now imagining a really bad, late night "B" movie entitled "They Saved Wash's Brain"
MRS
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THANK YOU SO GORRAM MUCH! this is what i was thinking. all of it, but you put it into words. it's logical, makes sense, and everything.
and those "graves"? they're memorials, i'm almost sure. They didn't bring Book's body with them to Mr. Universe's planet did they? i'm pretty sure they didn'tand wouldn't. and he has a "grave marker" too. The crew didn't find a body so therefore they thought the reavers that had been running rampant ate him and everything. They would probably look some, but if they didn't find him they would assume. and zoe would want wash to have at least a memorial service, even if they couldn't find a body. this is all great and true.
evildinosaur, they probably would have held off on the funeral, like you said. they probably did and looked for the body, like i said, but eventually they would just have to accept the fact, or what they thought was the fact at least.
Quote:
written by evildinosaur
And from what I've seen from the series and the movie, medicine has not come to the point of bringing people back from the dead, and even if Wash didn't die instantly, everyone was far too distracted to get him the first aid neccessary to stop him from dying.
The feds would have had time to get someone who could give them further info on the tams. And i'm sure they would have had doctors on call on the ship that were apart from the soldiers, because after all, it was a dangerous mission they were on. see, they did have the time, because there were so many of them that they had some people to spare.
and Wash's injury, apart from it going all the way through him, wasn't very serious, it didn't go through the heart and wasn't really really big, he could have and was saved. i know it!
keep flyin'
EngineAngel
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I have a question about something. I thought that the ship chasing Serenity on Mr. Universe's planet was a Reaver ship. I figured since it had an EMP that it would be Reavers, wanting to disable to ship so they can dock and eat everyone instead of blowing the ship appart.
I do like the theory that Wash could be alive though. I have a feeling that either Book or Wash many be brought back but we won't know until we see more. Joss is hard to predict but he usually doesn't keep likeable characters dead for long. But who knows, maybe another one of the movies will be a prequel, or part prequel and part sequel. Only one man knows.
IS
The Bible's a bit fuzzy on the subject of kneecaps.
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Quote:
Originally posted by EvilDinosaur:
Yea...I don't think so. I would think if the crew got back to Serenity and Wash's body was gone, it would've made the go "hmm" and they maybe would've held off on the funeral.
And from what I've seen from the series and the movie, medicine has not come to the point of bringing people back from the dead, and even if Wash didn't die instantly, everyone was far too distracted to get him the first aid neccessary to stop him from dying.
I want to believe he's alive, but I just don't see it happening. The only way he's coming back is flashbacks.
"Haha, mine is an evil laugh."
Oh, there was certainly no end of frustration when there wasn't enough to bury, but you know what reavers do with leftovers: they figure he's staked out on the stern of the more fashionable of your reaver ships.
They even check with the Alliance, just in case. But he's a John Doe. The pair that rescued him haven't filed their report, or weren't thorough enough to mention that six live bodies went onto Serenity’s wreckage, and three live bodies and eight dead ones (countin’ reavers) came off. Fed’s aren’t big on the math, you know.
And you have a hard time believing Wash survived that scratch? You want to talk to any state trooper who culled our highway’s harvest in the sixties. Before auto makers decided to stop installing spears pointed at the driver’s chest, a.k.a. non-collapsible steering columns, plenty of folks spent hours alive in just that position.
I ain’t sayin’ it twern’t a miracle. I ain’t sayin’ Wash enjoyed the ride. I’m just sayin’ that given the details, it getting powerful close to likely, let alone possible.
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Quote:
Originally posted by IsaacShepherd:
I have a question about something. I thought that the ship chasing Serenity on Mr. Universe's planet was a Reaver ship. I figured since it had an EMP that it would be Reavers, wanting to disable to ship so they can dock and eat everyone instead of blowing the ship appart.
Go back and still frame on it. Still has blue chalk on the tires. All nice and shiny like they just took it out of the wrapper.
'Sides, reavers seem to prefer harpoons. Don't have to be sane to maintain 'em, no delicate electronics and all.
EMP reminds me more of the sonic stun guns the Alliance carried. Overthought, but effective.
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