Bushwacked - ever wondered, how Mal knew?
POSTED BY: Esther
UPDATED: Sunday, July 30, 2006 11:20
VIEWED: 5317
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I just watched Bushwhacked again last night. For the first time I actually thought about what had happened to that settler ship. The BDH's mention that there's no sign of a struggle, that they were all in the middle of something (food still on the table, journal log still in progress), that the lifeboat was launched. And I could see it...
They're sailing along to a new home. They get attacked. A bunch of them immediately get into the lifeboat and launch, with no time even to pack up supplies -- maybe it was a few who were able to move faster and who promptly abandoned the others; maybe they bundled all the kids onto the boat, to give them a lottery's chance of surviving a little longer. Everyone remaining on board gathers in the storage area (no blood stains or other evidence of struggle anywhere else). Maybe they try locking the door; it doesn't work. They get raped, eaten, skinned and trussed, and one poor SOB gets to watch it all -- all his friends and family -- unscathed.
Ugh.
I'm also thinking that the Reavers would have tracked and followed the lifeboat as an appetizer, but I really don't want to think about that either.
The other thought I had was that the Reavers are pretty technologically adept. They fly ships, of course, and modify them to have magnetic grapples and run without core containment. They've designed and regularly use a booby-trap that disables rescue ships and allows them to come back for seconds. They probably got through the storage room lock without having to blow it open. Somehow, that makes it all the worse -- they really do rape and eat and skin for pleasure, but are able to contain those urges most of the time as they tinker with devices and engines, and putter around getting other Reaver stuff done. And they take the time to truss up the remains of their victims, maybe as a kind of artistic statement.
Double ugh.
Dang, what a show :)
Indigo S.
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I think the survivor was experienced an exaggerated version of "Stockholm Syndrome" and Mal recognized it.
Or at least, that's what I tell myself. 
***************
"My feelings are changeable but intense" Anya (season 7 Buffy)
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I think this too...I think it is a combination of wartime experience, human intuition and possibly a past experience with reavers...
The cattle quote...reminds me of Mal telling Saffron of his cattle ranch youth...
Maybe it recalled a bad childhood memory?
Quote:
Originally posted by EvilDinosaur:
hmm, interesting theory, I've always taken it to mean that Mal had some close encounter with reavers at some point. It's possible Joss was going for a double meaning there. The more literal being that maybe mal had an encounter and the more figurative being mal comparing this to the serenity valley battle.
"Haha, mine is an evil laugh."
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Quote:
Originally posted by akredhead:
The cattle quote...reminds me of Mal telling Saffron of his cattle ranch youth...
Maybe it recalled a bad childhood memory?
When the Reaver survivor says "cattle", Mal follows his gaze to the infirmary windows where he sees... Inara and Kaylee. "Cattle for slaughter."
It appears that this immediately gets up Mal's protective instincts, as the next thing out of his mouth is "Dope him."
I don't think it's supposed to be more than that.
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