Revealing scene in BDM
POSTED BY: jewelstaitefan
UPDATED: Wednesday, May 28, 2008 04:54
VIEWED: 8330
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Here's my take on the Bar fight scene: River is triggered and is not fully in control of her actions. Let's go back a ways to the War stories episode. She shot 3 of Niska's goons, she made a decision to help Kaylie and protect Serenity (her new home - OIS ep.) From that episode to the OIS episode it is clear that she was begining to become better and have some level of control over her actions. The Alliance knew the trigger would flush her out but I think there was some level of recognition when she downed Jayne and then when she pointed the gun at the captain. She hesitated, as did the captain. I believe, as someone mentioned before, that she was winning the battle of over her programming. In the split second that it took Simon to utter the safe word she could have taken the shot. The other thing that I concluded from the OIS episode and the BDM is that Mal has already made up his mind to have River and Simon stay as crew members. River has obviously picked up on this. In OIS she and the captain came to an understanding. She showed everyone how clearly she could outthink Jubal, where the rest of them failed miserably. I also believe her ability comes and goes, as her brain slowly overcomes the programming. In the BDM she knocks her brother out with a kick. Later she apologizes to him stating that she wasn't sure he was going to make her sleep. She was either not able to read her brother's mind or her ability has been affected by the programming. By the end of the BDM when she says "my turn" she is responding to the emotion of watching her brother suffer and takes control of her military training and destroys the Reavers. Throughout the series she was struggling against her treatment and by the end she demonstrated more and more control.
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This may have been mentioned, couldn't cope with assimilating that much at once:
Quote:
Originally posted by jewelstaitefan:
Also, reading minds would allow her to know that Simon was putting her to sleep, right?
Wrong, because after River breaks out of the cupboard, and everyone EXCEPT Simon go round the other way, she sees him there, opens the door. They look at each other, and he says "It's gonna be" before she whacks him in the throat. Later on, after everyone's made it onto the bridge safely, she says to him, while everyone else is talking about Miranda, "I had to show them. I didn't know if you were gonna make me sleep."
Now you may say that she would have known when she was triggered, but I doubt it because there's plent of evidence that she's more than capable of mind reading while not triggered. Three straight off the top of my head:
1) Safe - She knows what happened to Ruby, the little girl who doesn't speak
2) OiS - Mal actually says that she knows more than she ought to.
3) BDM - Just after the fight, when they've been talking about what happens, Jayne says "She goes wooly again we're gonna have to put a bullet to her", to which Mal Replies "It's crossed my mind". Joss's big thing about this scene was that River who is handcuffed and lying down behind a sealed door mouths the same words at the same time, demonstrating her mind-reading.
She can mind read at any time, but there's obviously some kind of guidelines to this. It seems entirely possible that in the fight scene, she's using her mind-reading to give her an extra-sensory view of the room around her, which is how she is able to subdue people without looking more than a glance.
And on the whole subject of recognition of people, here's another one for you to suggest it (also kinda kicks out the whole knows what someone's actually doing thing):
When Jayne gets up, River somersaults down the stairs using someone's back, and proceeds to kick someone once, who then stumbles backwards straight into Jayne. River could have easily used much more force to knock Jayne over or something. However she just watches as Jayne catches this someone, and kicks someone behind her. He then runs around her to which she doesn't really care, and then grabs her before she starts to take any kind of real action against him. Now if that's not recognition and fighting of programming you tell me what is.
Anybody who disagrees with any of this violently can do so. But no matter what you do, "You can't take the sky from me".
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Watching Ariel again yesterday, River keeps sending them to the door which is currently inpenetrable, but in a few seconds in the future, will be opened byu Mal/Zoe. She continues leading them to this future access for several minutes, suggesting precog, or premonition.
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