Our Mrs. Reynolds: River insight

POSTED BY: Bytemite
UPDATED: Saturday, March 7, 2009 23:42
VIEWED: 7907
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ANOTHERSKY

Friday, March 6, 2009 9:32 AM

Simon and River "now you have to marry me"--->YES YES YES!!!

I said this when I first saw the cut scenes--my other Browncoat friends tolerate my theories, but they tried to shoot this one down instantly. They just thought it was a joke gone bad, but...

it's OBVIOUS that River's "random" behavior isn't so random...at least in this case, especially given scene juxtaposition.

Anybody else notice that she's the only one Saffron doesn't manage to chat up because she flees after the discovery scene in the cargo hold? Normally River is all over strangers and new situations (in her watching-from-the-ceiling, wall, or trapdoor way), and that's what gave me the clue the first time through the episode. Well, that and the fact that Mal started mooning over his childhood with a complete stranger...(to his credit, he notices...)

Going for a ride.

another sky

ANOTHERSKY

Friday, March 6, 2009 9:58 AM

what I mean to say is that all of River's insistance that they marry (besides any complexes her confused mind might have--I don't think this is an instance, though) is intended to highlight the utter wrongness of the entire situation (ie the OTHER marriage situation that's a huge deal--Mal and YoSaffBridge. Preacher Book is involved in two insane conversations dealing with theoretical and spoofy "special hell" joinings of 'alike' people. There's them 'petty thieves' about, I tell ya!) I think it's by implication.

Here's the language she uses (besides calling Simon back with a very lucid 'that's not important'):

"Two by two"--WISH I could remember if this is chronologically before or after the episode with her huddled in the corner whimpering this. Two by two is not a happy thing for River.

Simon refuses and explains why they can't marry, citing planet customs notably.
Is this sounding familiar yet? River then takes EXACT Saffron tact--pouty "you don't love me."

She then cements this with offers of servile love--echoing our nubile little domestic con-artist.

For some reason "a match,a mate, a dopple" really struck me and got me thinking originally--she's made a grouped mental jump from "partner" to a word that means "friend and/or foe" to "eerie premonitory death-ghost that is also an impostor of the soon-to-die"

Cue Mal. and his "dopple". Later on in Trash they double-cross each other to their hearts' content.

And Saffron is left on a very bad planet. :) Hopefully permanently.

going for a ride

another sky

BYTEMITE

Friday, March 6, 2009 10:20 AM

Good to know I'm not completely crazy.

It just seems weird to have that River scene out of nowhere when the entire episode is in so many ways about Mal and Inara's relationship, brought to front and center by Saffron the thief.

River's comments to Saffron too, calling her that... The protein she steals, the attempt to hotwire Serenity, and maybe Mal from Inara?

For a while I'd examined the possibility that maybe she was encouraging Simon to make a move on Kaylee. Her words to Simon are "Tell him (Book), we want you to marry us." My feeling is that there could be quotation marks in there, that she's suggesting something for Simon to say.

But I still think, considering the context of the episode, that Inara's feelings overwhelming poor River and confusing her is more likely, and fit with the multiple interpretations of River's reaction to Saffron.

ANOTHERSKY

Friday, March 6, 2009 10:23 AM

Okay, can't leave this alone.

But I finished the scene.

River outright calls her a thief, is "refuted" and Saffron thinks quickly--food packet. River says it wasn't that but all the ones in the room without "strange notions" talk over their heads.

Then, for comedy and just to push "silly boob" Simon(ok, poor, confused, horrified Simon) over the edge,(her whole attitude the entire time is 'don't you get what I'm saying?') River pulls the "family way" gag.

That said. I love Simon, and his great facial expressions. I think the crew baffle him almost as much as his sister. the merc names his guns, the pilot plays with toddler toys, and the mech has a K64-class hunk of junk "baby"---though I don't think he has any other problems with the mech, though.
Got sidetracked. hee.

going for a ride

another sky

PHOENIXROSE

Saturday, March 7, 2009 5:44 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by AnotherSky:
"Two by two"--WISH I could remember if this is chronologically before or after the episode with her huddled in the corner whimpering this. Two by two is not a happy thing for River.

Your theory has merit, but River's rocking back and forth saying "Two by two, hands of blue" is not related to coupledom. That scene is from The Train Job, by the way.

River echoing Saffron and the wrongness of the pairing is something I never considered. It's a very interesting thought. I don't think it was cut over the uncomfortableness of incest, at least that's not the claim, but I never was quite sure what Joss was trying to do there. To me, the main focus of the scene was Mal's lecture to Saffron about the meek having not inherited a one of the more than 70 Earths spinning.

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RALLEM

Saturday, March 7, 2009 9:55 PM

I was watching "Our Mrs. Reynolds" on hulu this morning and then went to my parent's house with my sister at lunch time to play cards with my mother and on the way there I was thinking about the show. My questions may have absolutely no significance, but I am going to ask them anyway. Near the end of the episode Mal tells Jayne to shoot one of the nodes, but when asked if Jayne should shoot a window he says no because it could kill folks. We see then that Jayne does successfully shoot a node and afterwards shoots the window killing the two occupants, so here are my questions; why did Mal not want to kill the people in the carrion house when if his crew got trapped they would have certainly died, and do you think Mal was upset at Jayne for disobeying his order?

http://www.swyzzlestyx.com/index.html

CUDA77

Saturday, March 7, 2009 10:36 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by rallem:
I was watching "Our Mrs. Reynolds" on hulu this morning and then went to my parent's house with my sister at lunch time to play cards with my mother and on the way there I was thinking about the show. My questions may have absolutely no significance, but I am going to ask them anyway. Near the end of the episode Mal tells Jayne to shoot one of the nodes, but when asked if Jayne should shoot a window he says no because it could kill folks. We see then that Jayne does successfully shoot a node and afterwards shoots the window killing the two occupants, so here are my questions; why did Mal not want to kill the people in the carrion house when if his crew got trapped they would have certainly died, and do you think Mal was upset at Jayne for disobeying his order?

Simple. If Jayne would have merely shot out the windows, the guys would have died but the net would still be on and still would have taken out Serenity. Mal didn't say anything about taking them out after Jayne shut the net down.

ASARIAN

Saturday, March 7, 2009 11:42 PM

This deleted scene from "Our Mrs. Reynolds" has been the subject of much musing between me and my mind. Still haven't figured it out, though, but I've always felt there's perhapa more 'wrong' with that scene than just the glaringly obvious incest stuff at the surface. For one, River says:

"Two by two. Everyone has a match, a mate, a doppler. I love you."

Using her 'two by two' line in an entirely different context than the hands of blue thingy, it's something I could do, for instance, in fanart (in fact, I believe I even have, LOL). Point being, though, taking a line like that, and use it to express something entirely else, is okay for folks outside the Firefly reality. But is it really not breaking things a bit when River herself does it?

I mean, don't get me wrong, I thought it was a frakkin' hilarious scene. :) Still, in a way, I'm glad Joss didn't canonize it.

As for River spot-on marking Saffron as a thief, I firmly believe the purpose of that whole bit was not to show that "the girl knows things, things she couldn't, shouldn't," or some such, but to show how incredibly clever Saffron is. Knowing, or 'intuiting' perhaps, that River is 'bout the only person on that boat who can 'make' her, she basically sets River up for a fall with that protein bar she stole: yes, big secret is out, she's a thief, but she only stole a harmless protein bar, and all.

--
"Mei-mei, everything I have is right here." -- Simon Tam

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