Trash is our second appearance of the man manipulating amoral con-artist Saffron from Our Mrs Reynolds and gets off to the best start possible with Mal stranded nude in the wastelands, the rest of the story explains how things got to that point.
The most obvious problem with a second Saffron story, is how can she possibly be effective now the crew all know her trick? The answer is to make the driving motivation of the episode, Mal responding to Inara hurting his pride. It not only solves a problem but it builds relationships and instantly gives a new crew dynamic. Mal becomes unusually skittish and short tempered even less able to accept challenges to authority
I think this is the first time we've seen Inara really sting Mal. Mal has made Inara embarrassed, off-balanced and angry and it's clear the whore comments sometimes get to Inara and frustrate her, but whilst Inara has often cut Mal down with wit and he's been lovesick and insecure, this is the first time we see that he can get cut by Inara's insults too and cares what she thinks about him. Inara obviously seems a little jealous that he turns to Saffron in defence and it's seeming them both made weak and foible by each other that makes the coming together at the end a worthwhile payoff, even though what actually passes between them is rather innocuous.
We also get some necessary development from Saffron. Her introduction was good but her ruthlessness would have been alienating if she continued unchanged and we would have quickly got to the point where it felt like Mal should just deal with her somehow. It's surprising just how quickly they decided to let us into her head a little bit. We get to see her real husband, someone who actually cares about her, and despite leaving him, cheating on him and now finally robbing him, she cares too and those feelings turn into anger because his love for her is so unjustified and out of her control.
And we get to see Simon and Jayne's showdown from Ariel, there's an almost malevolent brilliance in the way Simon promises always to help Jayne and somehow thats clearly much worse to him than Simon having a punchout.
Naturally the episode is also funny 'Also, I can kill you with my brain' and I would like to appreciate the fact that you can see on camera exactly how Saffron gets the pistol. Too many shows would have settled for editing magic
Trash - 6th best
Trash is our second appearance of the man manipulating amoral con-artist Saffron from Our Mrs Reynolds and gets off to the best start possible with Mal stranded nude in the wastelands, the rest of the story explains how things got to that point.
The most obvious problem with a second Saffron story, is how can she possibly be effective now the crew all know her trick? The answer is to make the driving motivation of the episode, Mal responding to Inara hurting his pride. It not only solves a problem but it builds relationships and instantly gives a new crew dynamic. Mal becomes unusually skittish and short tempered even less able to accept challenges to authority
I think this is the first time we've seen Inara really sting Mal. Mal has made Inara embarrassed, off-balanced and angry and it's clear the whore comments sometimes get to Inara and frustrate her, but whilst Inara has often cut Mal down with wit and he's been lovesick and insecure, this is the first time we see that he can get cut by Inara's insults too and cares what she thinks about him. Inara obviously seems a little jealous that he turns to Saffron in defence and it's seeming them both made weak and foible by each other that makes the coming together at the end a worthwhile payoff, even though what actually passes between them is rather innocuous.
We also get some necessary development from Saffron. Her introduction was good but her ruthlessness would have been alienating if she continued unchanged and we would have quickly got to the point where it felt like Mal should just deal with her somehow. It's surprising just how quickly they decided to let us into her head a little bit. We get to see her real husband, someone who actually cares about her, and despite leaving him, cheating on him and now finally robbing him, she cares too and those feelings turn into anger because his love for her is so unjustified and out of her control.
And we get to see Simon and Jayne's showdown from Ariel, there's an almost malevolent brilliance in the way Simon promises always to help Jayne and somehow thats clearly much worse to him than Simon having a punchout.
Naturally the episode is also funny 'Also, I can kill you with my brain' and I would like to appreciate the fact that you can see on camera exactly how Saffron gets the pistol. Too many shows would have settled for editing magic