Blog 12 - Firefly ep 9

In the beginning of the ninth episode, the crew comes to  Ariel, a core Alliance planet to drop off Inara for her annual checkup. While they are waiting in board, an incident occurs between Jayne and River. After Jayne behaves badly towards Simon, River picks up a knife and slashes his chest. Jayne becomes even more wary of River, telling Mal that they should be left behind on Ariel.

The plot gets more interesting as Simon proposes a plan for the crew to get money and help River at the same time. What follows is an ingenious and daring plan which would have worked perfectly had Jayne not gotten greedy. Jayne tries to turn in Simon and River, but his plan backfires. Because of this, they almost get killed by the ominous ‘blue hands’.

Once again this episode shows how attached the members of the crew are. For once, Simon begins to trust Jayne, not knowing that Jayne betrayed him. Jayne, on his part, feels very ashamed of himself for what he has done. When Mal locks him out of the ship and threatens to kill him, he tells Mal not to tell the rest of the crew the truth. He cares enough to care what the crew thinks of him, alive or dead.

Mal once again stands up for Simon and River. As he tells Jayne,’ You turn on any of my crew, you turn on me.’ He protects his crew no matter what. The episode once again shows that the members of the crew still have problems with each other, even though they are closer. They can be likened to a family, and like any family, they have their bad days.