Our Mrs. Reynolds

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“Our Mrs. Reynolds”
Firefly episode
Episode no. Season 1
Episode 6
Written by Joss Whedon
Directed by Vondie Curtis-Hall
Guest stars Christina Hendricks
Production no. 1AGE05
Original airdate 4 October 2002 (Fox)
Episode chronology
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"Safe" "Jaynestown"

"Our Mrs. Reynolds" is the sixth episode of science-fiction television series Firefly created by Joss Whedon.

As an unexpected reward for an unpaid job, Mal finds himself married to a naïve, subservient young woman named Saffron. Saffron is all too willing to play the role of housewife, which leads to argument between Wash and Zoe and lectures from Shepherd Book. But the young woman is not what she appears to be.

Contents

[edit] Plot

A Conestoga wagon makes its way through a shallow river. When a band of men on horseback stops it to demand its cargo, the driver Jayne and his "wife" Mal pull their weapons on the bandits and quickly defeat them with the help of Zoe. At a celebration party that night, Mal dances with a beautiful young woman, who gives him a wreath and wine.

After Serenity is underway again, Mal encounters the young woman in the cargo bay. She informs him that she is now his wife, and Zoe calls the entire crew down to enjoy the show. Shepherd Book reads up on the local customs and informs Mal that he had taken part in a marriage ritual by dancing with the woman and taking her gifts.

Mal has a heart-to-heart talk with the woman, who identifies herself as Saffron. Despite Mal's encouragement to be her own woman, Saffron cooks him a meal as Zoe looks on in mocking disbelief. After eating, Mal escapes an offer to have his feet washed and visits Inara, who also shows contempt for Mal's treatment of the situation. Jayne attempts to trade his favorite gun for Saffron but Mal turns him down.

Zoe and Wash continue to argue about Saffron. When Mal enters his quarters later, he is seduced by Saffron, whose lipstick contains a narcotic. As Mal succumbs to unconsciousness, Saffron takes control of the ship, welds the bridge door shut behind her and escapes in a shuttle. Inara rushes to Mal and kisses him, collapsing nearby after calling for help.

After breaking into the bridge, Kaylee and Wash find that the ship is headed straight for an electronic net. Book explains, with a mysterious knowledge of criminal activity, that the net will retain the craft but kill everyone inside. Jayne shorts the structure with his gun and Serenity passes through the net unharmed.

Later, on a snowy world, Mal bursts into Saffron's cabin and, after an unsuccessful attempt to get some answers, knocks her unconscious. Back on Serenity, Mal presses Inara for an explanation of her supposed dizziness, but responds to her attempt to express her true feelings with a joke and walks away.

[edit] Deleted Scene

River confounds the crew with one of her seeming whimsies, this time demanding that Book marry her and Simon. When Simon tries to explain that they can't get married because they are siblings, River gets very upset and questions his love for her. Mal and Saffron then come in and River accuses Saffron of being a thief, though River says she never saw Saffron stealing food. This indicates River's knowledge of Saffron's true nature, though at this point Saffron is still playing the subservient wife. After they leave, River takes a pillow from nearby and puts it in her dress at the stomach, stating that she and Simon have to get married now: "I'm in the family way."

Joss Whedon said on the DVD commentary that this was one of his, the cast's and the crew's favorite scenes, but they had to edit it out due to time constraints. Because this scene was cut, River has no lines in this episode.

[edit] Production

According to Jayne, "Vera" needs oxygen around her to fire; however, gunpowder incorporates both fuel and oxidizer and will combust regardless of the presence or absence of atmosphere. According to the DVD commentary, the episode's producers checked this with a gun expert, but were incorrectly informed.

Vera herself is a rather extensively modified Saiga-12 semi-automatic shotgun.

http://www.tv.com/firefly/our-mrs.-reynolds/episode/188905/summary.html

The episode's title, "Our Mrs. Reynolds" is a play on the 1952 radio show, Our Miss Brooks.

[edit] External links

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