My theory on Shepherd Book's 'secret' past

POSTED BY: Algus
UPDATED: Sunday, March 12, 2006 16:11
VIEWED: 9785
PAGE 3 of 4

PREV PAGE 1 2 3 4 NEXT PAGE

RABBIT2

Friday, March 10, 2006 8:04 PM

I wonder if Book was possibly the Operative/Alliance Commander responsible for the destruction of the Shadow colony?
That has a lot of neat possibilities as far as Mal`s backstory is concerned.

WHOME

Friday, March 10, 2006 9:51 PM

I thought at first that he may have been a judge, or a legislator of a sort that punishes criminals, and that he had been especially harsh and unfair on people. (A "hanging judge".) Later, I figured that he must have been some sort of Alliance war hero.
As a decorated veteran, he would have access to treatment at military medical facilities. This would also explain why the bounty hunter and Saffron both knew he was someone other than a Shepherd, but didn't call him out on it.
A military connection would help explain why he is so drawn to the crew of Firefly- he is as tortured by his wartime experiences as Mal is, but is trying to forget and atone for them, rather than living in the past as Mal is. He may feel that by helping Mal with his issues he can somehow gain forgiveness for atrocities committed in the name of the Alliance during the war.
I know the reaction to this theory will be, "So why doesn't anyone else know who he is?" but (this is aimed at Americans) can you name the last recipient of the Medal of Honor? Or even the last soldier whose picture was published in your local paper? They're celebrated as heroes, and then quickly forgotten, unless someone makes a movie about them. So, Saffron (if she really was a companion) and others might remember him because they attended a ceremony honoring him, or were introduced to him when he was the hero of the month, but everyone else would have forgotten his face.

I can kill you with my brain!

WHOME

Friday, March 10, 2006 9:56 PM

"Both Simon and Jayne, who have had cause to be around death a'pleanty in their lives, are wearing those surgeon's masks for the stink of corpses. Book is not. How much death do you have to smell to be more accustomed to it than both a trauma surgeon and a cold blooded merc?"

There was an episode of ER where a janitor said that he wasn't squeamish about cleaning up vomit and blood and such because he believed that god made all of us, so anything that came out of our bodies must be all right. Following the same logic, maybe Book just felt that the smell, while unpleasant, was just part of god's creation.

I can kill you with my brain!

ANNA

Friday, March 10, 2006 10:37 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by WhoMe:
Following the same logic, maybe Book just felt that the smell, while unpleasant, was just part of god's creation.

But on the other hand, whatever the Reavers did to them, god knows it would NOT have been natural.

I think now would be an appropriate time to use this hideous and pointless emoticon:

TH1RT3EN

Friday, March 10, 2006 11:13 PM

There are some great theories here.
My 2 cents:
I liken Book to a retired high ranking military commander for the Alliance who perhaps during the war committed what the Independents would consider war crimes. Perhaps he was the Alliance Commander during the battle of Serenity and made the decision to leave those who had survived to die. Maybe he did worse things in the name of unification. Being on the winning side of a war, his war time decisions/atrocities might be generally recognized by the Alliance as heroic decisions for the cause. As a man, maybe he saw them for what they were and could no longer be part of this. Thus resigning from his position and path of life; and in seeking a way to forgive himself, or make ammends he sought the path of a Shepherd.
anyway, maybe one day it will be revealed...

A little suffering is good for the soul...

LEEBO

Saturday, March 11, 2006 8:46 PM

So he's important enough to get fixed up by the Alliance amid their enemies but not to call off a strike on Haven?

BROWNCOATSANDINISTA

Sunday, March 12, 2006 4:58 AM

I don't think that Shepherd Book ever left the Alliance. That isn't to say that he was High Military, or something to that end, but he is so importan that the Alliance can't kill him, but he can't be entirely free. He has leverage, but only to a point, as shown that only when the only way to slow River's escape was to kill him that they did. Also, Joss said in the Commentary that Shepherd Book's story hasn't been told, and it may not be until Ron Glass is literally dying.

If anyone gets nosy...Shoot em.
Shoot em sir?
Politely.

JOHNBOY

Sunday, March 12, 2006 5:41 AM

A minor point, but one that I don't think anyone has considered - everyone knows that Book's ident card gave him instant access to the medical facilities aboard that Alliance cruiser, but how do we know that this is a genuine ID? After all, if Book does have a sinister past then it's not beyond belief that he carries any number of fake ID's with him.

Or, perhaps, it carries a built-in bribe - insert it into an Alliance ident-reader and it might say: "the bearer of this card promises to grease your palm to the tune of 20,000 shineys, no question's asked".

Why not? It's as likely a theory as any other.

And his real name? The Dread Pirate Roberts, of course.

Cheers,
Johnboy

KWICKO

Sunday, March 12, 2006 6:54 AM

Quote:
So he's important enough to get fixed up by the Alliance amid their enemies but not to call off a strike on Haven?

Short answer? Yup.

Long answer? I posted a while back that I thought Book was probably NOT an Operative of the Alliance, but more likely a high-ranking military official, quite possibly the one in charge of Alliance forces at the Battle of Serenity Valley. As such, he's seen and done things that no human would ever want to recall - yet in the eyes of the Alliance, he's a hero! As such, he'd be allowed to retire and go on his way, with full Alliance benefits, and of course having been sworn to secrecy. Think of someone like Norman Schwarzkopf; highly-decorated war hero, yet no one tried to disappear him when he decided to retire.

Now, since he wasn't a full-fledged Operative, his secrets will tend to be more military than political. I get the distinct impression that Operatives of the Alliance don't retire. Ever. They get killed in action, or they die by "accident". They know too much, they're too unstable (being self-confessed "monsters" and all). I don't think an Operative was going to be allowed to just walk out, become a Shepherd, and still have the juice to get the best trauma care the military can provide, no questions asked. If it were that easy to leave such a nepharious, underground job, they wouldn't have been after River in the first place. As Stalin said, "Two can keep a secret, if one of them is dead." :)

As for why Book wouldn't have gotten a heads-up about the hit on Haven: Why would he? If he's a retired military officer, it's not like he'd be under constant surveillance. It's entirely possible that the Alliance didn't know he was there, OR that they deemed the Operative's mission as having priority over Book's life. In other words, for the Alliance, it's a case of "it sucks to be Book, but it's out of our hands."

When you're talking about someone like the Operative, and things like Black Ops, you're dealing with a VERRRRRYYY shadowy world, where rules and ethics are deemed expendable under the right circumstances. The CIA definitely DID try to assassinate Castro, at least once... but if he'd shown up in Washington DC with an illness that we had the cure for, he'd have been welcomed with open arms. Just because you'll save a person in one set of circumstances doesn't mean you wouldn't kill them just as quickly in another. It's all about situational ethics and putting on a good diplomatic face - as long as anyone might be looking! When they're not looking and the situation is more... "fluid", then you can slip the knife in. :)

Mike

A baby seal walks into a club...

PIRATENEWS

Sunday, March 12, 2006 8:58 AM

Quote:
ALGUS wrote:

My theory on Shepherd Book's "secret" past

Roger that. Joss loves turning monsters into allies you want to pal around with.

Ron's secret past was that he really was a shepherd:

Quote:
Ron Glass is one of the famous alumni of Saint Francis Seminary. Ron says his most memorable experience at the seminary is the time he had to sing his solo for the clerics at St. Leonard College.
www.franciscan-alumni.org/stories/glass.html

Now that's downright creepifyin.

But Book ENJOYED his death, bragging to Mal: "I shot down the ship that killed us!" Firing that AA gun like a career soldier, just like Mal.

That must have been tough, killing his old asshole-buddies, in self-defense. So Book did have a 2nd paradigm shift, thanks to Serenity. First, restitution as a shephard - for his crimes against humanity. Then redemption with Operation Miranda - saving River (CIA MK-ULTRA Manufacturing Killers Utilizing Lethal Tradecraft Requiring Assassination), and whistleblowing re Alliance crimes against humanity. So Mal, who turned his back on God, ironically gave Book the redemption Book sought from God. But Nathan did play a priest on BTVS, tho an evil one.

If Book wanted to die a comfortable death, surrounded by a wife and kids, then he woulda been a Granpa.

Quote:
MATTCOZ wrote:

I wonder if River knows his secret, maybe we'll find out about him through her.

BROWNCOATGHOST wrote:

Could be it's just my very tired brain reading too much into things, but Book saying that he and River had developed a special bond (only to find his bible in shreds later) sticks out in my mind right now. Had to wonder what he meant by that since I didn't recall him spending any significant length of time with her.

Perhaps Book is NOT retired Alliance, but active duty for a rival Alliance Intel agency, spying on whatever covert group is running River's mind-kontrol project. That would explain why he picked Serenity, not its destination. Was he tailing Dr Tam? Not to arrest him and River, but to spy on River once she woke up? Jesuit priests are notorious spies, skilled in the art of torture since the Inquisition. Confessional was a great scam to gather Intel for the Papal State.

Quote:
BROWNCOATGHOST wrote:

He was also very, very upset about the death of the fed Dobson in the 'Serenity' episode: I noticed he placed particular emphasis on 'the man I swore to protect' when he was weeping to Inara. Now, that could mean he just casually followed Dobson onto Serenity while looking like a simple passenger himself. This leads me to speculate that they were a team sent to retrieve River, but differed on the subject of how to go about it. When Dobson shot Kaylee in his agitation, Book put him down hard and without hesitation -- yet refused to let Jayne touch him. I figure he stayed with Serenity after Dobson's death if only to keep tabs on River and collect more info, since the crew travels a lot and it would have looked almighty suspicious if he'd asked to be let off immediately after the incident. Perhaps, after that, the crew kind of grew on him and he developed another reason to stay. Or not.

Spooks are always spying on their own spooks. River was certainly a primo target. So maybe Book was spying on Dobson, not working with him.

Quote:
Lawman, it's Shepherd Book.

He opens the door --

BOOK (cont'd)
I believe you're in more danger
than --

That sounds like they were probably not working together, or he would have just called him Dobson. They did swap punches, and Book nearly got his head caved in with a fire extinguisher, with extra malice.

Quote:
I don't give half a hump if you're innocent or not! So where does that put you?
-Book

When River read his mind, it sounds like he's tailing River on purpose. Maybe. Or perhaps River was just being psychotic, not psychic.

Interesting character. And Joss even picked a funny actor to play him.

FYI - Affidavit of CIA director Bill Casey, attorney at law, the month of his "stroke" to pr

PREV PAGE 1 2 3 4 NEXT PAGE