Objects in Space
Encyclopedia
"Objects in Space" is the 14th episode and series finale
of the science fiction television
series
Firefly
created by Joss Whedon
. Serenity
encounters Jubal Early, a ruthless professional bounty hunter who will stop at nothing to retrieve River. But River, feeling unwelcome on the ship, takes a novel approach to escaping from the long arm of the Alliance
.
The inspiration for this episode came from Tim Minear
, who gave Whedon the idea by merely mentioning Boba Fett
. Whedon expanded upon the suggestion and extrapolated it into the villain of this episode, the "preternaturally cool, nearly psychic bounty hunter
" Jubal Early — who shares a name with Jubal Anderson Early
, a Confederate
general
in the American Civil War
.
River's and Early's tactile and spiritual connection with physical objects reflects an existential experience in Whedon's youth and his subsequent study of Jean-Paul Sartre
's existential
novel Nausea
.
flying by a planet, and then zooms into the ship and through its passages to end on River, who lies in bed listening to not-quite-audible voices. She arises and takes a walk through the ship's rooms and corridors, encountering her shipmates in varied conversations with each other. Simon and Kaylee are relaxing in the common room, the doctor telling the mechanic an amusing anecdote about medical school. River suddenly "sees" them looking at her, with Simon telling her that he'd "be there right now", apparently implying she is responsible for taking him away from his successful medical career. Finding Jayne and Shepherd Book
in the kitchen, she "hears" Jayne guiltily repeat his confession to Mal
about selling out the Tams on Ariel, and Book mutters an angry but cryptic statement hinting at a sadistic past. River continues to wander the ship, and is moved by the sound of ocean waves as Zoe and Wash passionately kiss on the nearby bridge. Above the cargo bay, as Mal and Inara discuss her impending departure, River sees their unspoken frustrations over their unrequited relationship. Fleeing the intense emotions, River runs down to the unoccupied cargo bay, where she spots a tree branch. She sees herself on leaf-strewn ground and picks up the branch, telling herself "It's just an object. Doesn't mean what you think." Suddenly, the real world returns, and she finds that she is holding one of Jayne's pistols while the crew surrounds her in a panic, trying to get her to drop the weapon. Mal takes the gun from her and discovers it is loaded and ready to fire. When Mal admonishes her for handling loaded weapons, River runs off, crying.
The image cuts to a small vessel closing with Serenity, aboard which is a man reviewing wanted bulletins for Simon and River. Meanwhile, the crew discuss the dangers of River's presence on the ship. When Zoe muses whether River has ever handled a gun, Kaylee reluctantly tells everyone about her experience during their assault on Adelei Niska's SkyPlex, when she was unable to return fire, and how River easily killed three attackers with single shots with her eyes closed. The crew begin to speculate that River may be a "reader", having psychic powers, and though Simon objects, they begin to question whether she is a danger to them. While talking, the crew are being listened to: above the room, on the hull of Serenity, the mysterious bounty hunter is tapping into the hull, and below the room, in the cargo bay, River is listening through the floor plating.
Mal decides to sleep on the matter, and the crew breaks for the "night". Kaylee follows Simon out as he goes to "check on my assassin", and she apologizes for having to point out the danger River presents. Simon, however, is more sad than angry, believing his sister feels that Serenity is "more home to her than any place she's been". He openly admits his regret at not practicing medicine (using the exact words that River "heard" earlier) and tries not to blame it on River herself, but on her unknown experimenters.
Once the crew goes to sleep, the bounty hunter boards Serenity. He runs across Mal and quickly knocks him unconscious, dropping him into his cabin, and then locks the rest of the sleeping crew in their cabins. He surprises Kaylee in the engine room, and uses psychological terror - specifically threatening to rape
Kaylee - to force the frightened girl to cooperate. Next, the intruder drops in on Book, disabling him instantly with a brutal kick to the head. Simon hears a noise and rises to check on his sister, only to be attacked by the stranger, who addresses him by name. The two men engage in verbal sparring; the bounty hunter, Jubal Early, waxes philosophically on the nature of things while he demands to know where River is. Though Simon refuses to help Early at first, the bounty hunter threatens to kill him and rape Kaylee if he refuses, and the doctor reluctantly agrees.
With Simon "helping" in the search, Early checks out the cargo bay and shuttles, commenting on the nature of "objects in space" while doing so. When Inara tries to appeal to Early's emotional side, he smacks her across the face, and then locks her in her shuttle. The two men finally arrive on the bridge, where Early settles on a direct threat, announcing loudly to the ship that he will kill Simon if River doesn't reveal herself. River then responds over the ship's intercom, telling Early about how she was unwanted on the ship but could not bring herself to leave, so she simply "melted away," becoming part of Serenity.
In the engine room, River's voice comes over the intercom, reassuring the bound Kaylee and asking for her help in a task. Meanwhile on the bridge, Early is openly skeptical about River's claim, but her voice returns to reveal uncanny knowledge of the bounty hunter's own weaknesses. River's verbal probing, aided by Simon's wry humor, gradually convince Early and the others that she has joined with the vessel. She sends Kaylee, who has managed to free herself, off on a mission to unlock the cabins. Zoe prepares an assault, but River insists that they do not use guns, and instead tells Mal of an alternate plan.
On the bridge, River continues her talk with Jubal, relentlessly implying his own insanity. Finally, Early realizes that River is not part of Serenity, but has managed to sneak onto his ship. However, River reassures the frantic bounty hunter that she will go with him. She compares her own dangerousness and instability with his, and she burdens the hearts of her shipmates by saying she does not belong with them, and that her departure will allow them to get on with their lives. Simon refuses to let Early escape with River, and tries to stop him, but in the process is shot in the leg. Hearing the noise, Jayne wakes up and pulls the curtain off from his gun cabinet in a seemingly resolute and heroic way, revealing numerous weapons, before turning over and covering himself with the curtain. Leaving Simon in the cockpit, the bounty hunter starts his EVA back to his ship, but finds Mal outside, waiting in ambush, and the captain shoves Early off into space, before welcoming River back aboard Serenity.
Later, in the infirmary, Simon instructs Zoe as she removes the bullet from his leg. Just outside, Mal tries to express his unspoken love to Inara but is stopped when she abruptly informs him that she is permanently leaving the ship. In the cargo bay, Jayne mocks Book's failure to defeat Early, despite "all them years of priest trainin'", and Book implies that he fought Early and only succumbed after a prolonged fight. Kaylee and River play jacks
while Kaylee relates a racy anecdote from her past. River picks up and examines the bouncing ball, with its swirling, multicolored surface, which recalls the multicolored planet Serenity flies by in the opening shot. The camera pans down through and out of the ship to show Serenity sailing off into space.
The show ends on Jubal Early, tumbling helplessly through space: "Well... Here I am."
. In his essay We're All Just Floating in Space, Lyle Zynda analyzes this episode's interpretation of existential
meaninglessness, arguing that both River and Early perceive physical objects as divorced from the meanings with which others imbue them. For example, when River picks up the gun, she sees it as a harmless branch - an object, as she says, that "doesn't mean what you think" - transformed by her perspective into a benign thing of beauty. Early also describes his gun as "pretty" with a pleasing weight (both features separate from its function) yet acknowledges that its design aids its intended use, which Whedon describes as "grotesque." While moving through the ship, both River and Early seem to be acutely aware of and derive sensual pleasure from their environment, stroking the walls, conscious of the physicality of their surroundings. Whedon notes in the DVD commentary that one of the ways he illustrated this quality was to keep camera focused on River's bare feet as she walked. Early, admiring specifics of the ship's design, significantly echoes the episode's title when he says, "People don't appreciate the substance of things. Objects in space." It is the "physical implication" of a world without morals, the moral implication of which was verbalized by another of Whedon's creations, Angel: "If nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do."
Zynda claims that ultimately, River and Early's ability to experience objects divorced from their common meanings allows them to imbue those objects with a value of their choosing. However, River chooses a perspective that brings joyful wonder, and Early chooses to contemplate those same objects - such as the gun - with despair.
Early also enacts one of Sartre's central ideas, the concept of "bad faith
", when he denies his responsibility for his actions by claiming he is not free to do otherwise. When River accuses him of hurting people, he counters, "Only when the job requires it." She calls him a liar: "It's why you took the job."
Series finale
A series finale refers to the last installment of a series with a narrative presented through mediums such as television, film and literature. In many Commonwealth countries, the term final episode is commonly used in regards to a television series...
of the science fiction television
Science fiction on television
Science fiction first appeared on a television program during the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Special effects and other production techniques allow creators to present a living visual image of an imaginary world not limited by the constraints of reality; this makes television an excellent medium...
series
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
Firefly
Firefly (TV series)
Firefly is an American space western television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon, under his Mutant Enemy Productions label. Whedon served as executive producer, along with Tim Minear....
created by Joss Whedon
Joss Whedon
Joseph Hill "Joss" Whedon is an American screenwriter, executive producer, director, comic book writer, occasional composer and actor, founder of Mutant Enemy Productions and co-creator of Bellwether Pictures...
. Serenity
Serenity (Firefly vessel)
Serenity is a fictional Firefly class spaceship appearing in Joss Whedon's Firefly television series and related works. Set in the 26th century, the series revolves around nine characters, which form the crew of the small transport ship, as they try to make a living through various legal and...
encounters Jubal Early, a ruthless professional bounty hunter who will stop at nothing to retrieve River. But River, feeling unwelcome on the ship, takes a novel approach to escaping from the long arm of the Alliance
Alliance (Firefly)
The Alliance is a fictional supra-governmental entity in the Serenity franchise, a powerful authoritarian government and law-enforcement organization that controls the majority of territory within the known universe...
.
The inspiration for this episode came from Tim Minear
Tim Minear
Tim Minear is an American screenwriter and director. He was born in New York, grew up in Whittier, California, and studied film at California State University, Long Beach....
, who gave Whedon the idea by merely mentioning Boba Fett
Boba Fett
Boba Fett is a character in Star Wars. A bounty hunter hired by Darth Vader to find the Millennium Falcon, he is a minor villain in both Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi....
. Whedon expanded upon the suggestion and extrapolated it into the villain of this episode, the "preternaturally cool, nearly psychic bounty hunter
Bounty hunter
A bounty hunter captures fugitives for a monetary reward . Other names, mainly used in the United States, include bail enforcement agent and fugitive recovery agent.-Laws in the U.S.:...
" Jubal Early — who shares a name with Jubal Anderson Early
Jubal Anderson Early
Jubal Anderson Early was a lawyer and Confederate general in the American Civil War. He served under Stonewall Jackson and then Robert E. Lee for almost the entire war, rising from regimental command to lieutenant general and the command of an infantry corps in the Army of Northern Virginia...
, a Confederate
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
general
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
in the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
.
River's and Early's tactile and spiritual connection with physical objects reflects an existential experience in Whedon's youth and his subsequent study of Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy, particularly Marxism, and was one of the key figures in literary...
's existential
Existentialism
Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...
novel Nausea
Nausea (book)
Nausea is an epistolary novel by the existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, which was published in 1938 and written while he was teaching at the lycée of Le Havre...
.
Synopsis
The show opens with a shot of SerenitySerenity (Firefly vessel)
Serenity is a fictional Firefly class spaceship appearing in Joss Whedon's Firefly television series and related works. Set in the 26th century, the series revolves around nine characters, which form the crew of the small transport ship, as they try to make a living through various legal and...
flying by a planet, and then zooms into the ship and through its passages to end on River, who lies in bed listening to not-quite-audible voices. She arises and takes a walk through the ship's rooms and corridors, encountering her shipmates in varied conversations with each other. Simon and Kaylee are relaxing in the common room, the doctor telling the mechanic an amusing anecdote about medical school. River suddenly "sees" them looking at her, with Simon telling her that he'd "be there right now", apparently implying she is responsible for taking him away from his successful medical career. Finding Jayne and Shepherd Book
Derrial Book
Derrial Book is a fictional character played by Ron Glass in the science-fiction/Western television series Firefly and its sequel movie, Serenity...
in the kitchen, she "hears" Jayne guiltily repeat his confession to Mal
Malcolm Reynolds
Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds is a fictional character and main protagonist in the Firefly franchise. Reynolds is played by actor Nathan Fillion in the 2002 TV series Firefly and the 2005 film Serenity. In the series, Reynolds is the captain of the Firefly-class spaceship Serenity...
about selling out the Tams on Ariel, and Book mutters an angry but cryptic statement hinting at a sadistic past. River continues to wander the ship, and is moved by the sound of ocean waves as Zoe and Wash passionately kiss on the nearby bridge. Above the cargo bay, as Mal and Inara discuss her impending departure, River sees their unspoken frustrations over their unrequited relationship. Fleeing the intense emotions, River runs down to the unoccupied cargo bay, where she spots a tree branch. She sees herself on leaf-strewn ground and picks up the branch, telling herself "It's just an object. Doesn't mean what you think." Suddenly, the real world returns, and she finds that she is holding one of Jayne's pistols while the crew surrounds her in a panic, trying to get her to drop the weapon. Mal takes the gun from her and discovers it is loaded and ready to fire. When Mal admonishes her for handling loaded weapons, River runs off, crying.
The image cuts to a small vessel closing with Serenity, aboard which is a man reviewing wanted bulletins for Simon and River. Meanwhile, the crew discuss the dangers of River's presence on the ship. When Zoe muses whether River has ever handled a gun, Kaylee reluctantly tells everyone about her experience during their assault on Adelei Niska's SkyPlex, when she was unable to return fire, and how River easily killed three attackers with single shots with her eyes closed. The crew begin to speculate that River may be a "reader", having psychic powers, and though Simon objects, they begin to question whether she is a danger to them. While talking, the crew are being listened to: above the room, on the hull of Serenity, the mysterious bounty hunter is tapping into the hull, and below the room, in the cargo bay, River is listening through the floor plating.
Mal decides to sleep on the matter, and the crew breaks for the "night". Kaylee follows Simon out as he goes to "check on my assassin", and she apologizes for having to point out the danger River presents. Simon, however, is more sad than angry, believing his sister feels that Serenity is "more home to her than any place she's been". He openly admits his regret at not practicing medicine (using the exact words that River "heard" earlier) and tries not to blame it on River herself, but on her unknown experimenters.
Once the crew goes to sleep, the bounty hunter boards Serenity. He runs across Mal and quickly knocks him unconscious, dropping him into his cabin, and then locks the rest of the sleeping crew in their cabins. He surprises Kaylee in the engine room, and uses psychological terror - specifically threatening to rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
Kaylee - to force the frightened girl to cooperate. Next, the intruder drops in on Book, disabling him instantly with a brutal kick to the head. Simon hears a noise and rises to check on his sister, only to be attacked by the stranger, who addresses him by name. The two men engage in verbal sparring; the bounty hunter, Jubal Early, waxes philosophically on the nature of things while he demands to know where River is. Though Simon refuses to help Early at first, the bounty hunter threatens to kill him and rape Kaylee if he refuses, and the doctor reluctantly agrees.
With Simon "helping" in the search, Early checks out the cargo bay and shuttles, commenting on the nature of "objects in space" while doing so. When Inara tries to appeal to Early's emotional side, he smacks her across the face, and then locks her in her shuttle. The two men finally arrive on the bridge, where Early settles on a direct threat, announcing loudly to the ship that he will kill Simon if River doesn't reveal herself. River then responds over the ship's intercom, telling Early about how she was unwanted on the ship but could not bring herself to leave, so she simply "melted away," becoming part of Serenity.
In the engine room, River's voice comes over the intercom, reassuring the bound Kaylee and asking for her help in a task. Meanwhile on the bridge, Early is openly skeptical about River's claim, but her voice returns to reveal uncanny knowledge of the bounty hunter's own weaknesses. River's verbal probing, aided by Simon's wry humor, gradually convince Early and the others that she has joined with the vessel. She sends Kaylee, who has managed to free herself, off on a mission to unlock the cabins. Zoe prepares an assault, but River insists that they do not use guns, and instead tells Mal of an alternate plan.
On the bridge, River continues her talk with Jubal, relentlessly implying his own insanity. Finally, Early realizes that River is not part of Serenity, but has managed to sneak onto his ship. However, River reassures the frantic bounty hunter that she will go with him. She compares her own dangerousness and instability with his, and she burdens the hearts of her shipmates by saying she does not belong with them, and that her departure will allow them to get on with their lives. Simon refuses to let Early escape with River, and tries to stop him, but in the process is shot in the leg. Hearing the noise, Jayne wakes up and pulls the curtain off from his gun cabinet in a seemingly resolute and heroic way, revealing numerous weapons, before turning over and covering himself with the curtain. Leaving Simon in the cockpit, the bounty hunter starts his EVA back to his ship, but finds Mal outside, waiting in ambush, and the captain shoves Early off into space, before welcoming River back aboard Serenity.
Later, in the infirmary, Simon instructs Zoe as she removes the bullet from his leg. Just outside, Mal tries to express his unspoken love to Inara but is stopped when she abruptly informs him that she is permanently leaving the ship. In the cargo bay, Jayne mocks Book's failure to defeat Early, despite "all them years of priest trainin'", and Book implies that he fought Early and only succumbed after a prolonged fight. Kaylee and River play jacks
Jacks
Jacks is a playground game for children....
while Kaylee relates a racy anecdote from her past. River picks up and examines the bouncing ball, with its swirling, multicolored surface, which recalls the multicolored planet Serenity flies by in the opening shot. The camera pans down through and out of the ship to show Serenity sailing off into space.
The show ends on Jubal Early, tumbling helplessly through space: "Well... Here I am."
Deleted scene
An alternate version of Mal and Inara's conversation about Inara's impending departure. In this version, Inara complains about not being able to find decent clientele and threatens to leave the ship. Mal says "no one's forcing you to stay". The "true version" of the scene has entirely different dialogue and makes reference to the fact that Inara had already made the decision to leave in "Heart of Gold". This alternate version was aired as part of the episode in the original broadcast because "Heart of Gold" had not been aired yet, so the reference would not have made sense to viewers.Themes
In the DVD commentary Joss Whedon explains that this episode is intended to resolve the crew's tension regarding River, ending with their acceptance of her as a valuable member of the crew. Whedon struggled with various ideas of how to approach the script until Tim Minear gave him the idea of using a bounty hunter.Existentialism
As Whedon discloses in the DVD commentary, much of the dialogue and imagery was inspired by Jean-Paul SartreJean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy, particularly Marxism, and was one of the key figures in literary...
. In his essay We're All Just Floating in Space, Lyle Zynda analyzes this episode's interpretation of existential
Existentialism
Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...
meaninglessness, arguing that both River and Early perceive physical objects as divorced from the meanings with which others imbue them. For example, when River picks up the gun, she sees it as a harmless branch - an object, as she says, that "doesn't mean what you think" - transformed by her perspective into a benign thing of beauty. Early also describes his gun as "pretty" with a pleasing weight (both features separate from its function) yet acknowledges that its design aids its intended use, which Whedon describes as "grotesque." While moving through the ship, both River and Early seem to be acutely aware of and derive sensual pleasure from their environment, stroking the walls, conscious of the physicality of their surroundings. Whedon notes in the DVD commentary that one of the ways he illustrated this quality was to keep camera focused on River's bare feet as she walked. Early, admiring specifics of the ship's design, significantly echoes the episode's title when he says, "People don't appreciate the substance of things. Objects in space." It is the "physical implication" of a world without morals, the moral implication of which was verbalized by another of Whedon's creations, Angel: "If nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do."
Zynda claims that ultimately, River and Early's ability to experience objects divorced from their common meanings allows them to imbue those objects with a value of their choosing. However, River chooses a perspective that brings joyful wonder, and Early chooses to contemplate those same objects - such as the gun - with despair.
Early also enacts one of Sartre's central ideas, the concept of "bad faith
Bad faith (existentialism)
Bad faith is a philosophical concept used by existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre to describe the phenomenon where a human being under pressure from societal forces adopts false values and disowns their innate freedom to act authentically...
", when he denies his responsibility for his actions by claiming he is not free to do otherwise. When River accuses him of hurting people, he counters, "Only when the job requires it." She calls him a liar: "It's why you took the job."
Continuity
- Kaylee tells Mal and the crew about River's talent for gunplay demonstrated in "War Stories."
- As Whedon points out on the episode's DVD commentary, Early, having secretly assessed the crew from their conversations, takes down Shepherd Book the same way he handles ex-soldier Mal — quickly and brutally — providing another hint of the preacher's hidden nature. Early confirms this later when Simon challenges him about "beating up a Shepherd", to which Early replies "That ain't a Shepherd."
External links
- "Objects in Space" at Firefly Wiki