The fourth episode of Firefly reveals just how strongly Mal and Inara feel about each other. Although Mal abuses Inara regularly and calls her names, he is quick to defend her honor when she is disrespected by another. As he tells her in the episode, he has no respect for her job, but he has respect for her. He also tries to get her not to accept her client, Atherton’s proposal of a good life if she became his personal companion.
Mal shows that he has true honor. He defends Inara when she is disrespected by her client, Atherton and so ends up in a sword fight. Even when Inara gives him a way out of fighting, he does not take it and chooses to fight anyway. Even at the end of the duel when he is told to finish his opponent off, he chooses to let him live, saying ‘Mercy is the mark of a great man’.
It also seems that in this episode, River is starting to regain her senses. She is able to fully function for a little while, fooling Badger into thinking that she is really just a passenger on board the Serenity and also disgracing him in the process.
The main theme of this episode remains that honor is not inherited or bought. Inara’s client, for all his wealth, had no real honor. But Mal, a captain of a scavenger ship, had true honor. And in the end, he got the girl and the cargo deal.
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