I love how during the interviews, all of them told the alliance nothing in completely different ways. Zoe is very private, Wash stays completely irrelevant to the topic, Kaylee bombards them with too much tech talk, Book acts helpful while pretending to know nothing, Jayne stays completely silent, and Mal redirects them to search for something entirely else.
I'm going to spoil the fun but it's interesting where clues can be found: Possibly a strand of hair that doesn't match any of the crew can be found stuck in odd places. Maybe a smudged fingerprint, etc.
One of the best lines dropped so casually a lot of folks don't even think about it: "He looked bigger when I couldn't see 'im." Cracks me up every damn time.
You asked about the bar fight in the previous episode, which suggests you might be missing out on some essential part of the story. This solar system in which our story takes place contains "dozens of planets, hundreds of moons" and was terraformed to support human life when humanity left Earth. (Referred to as "Earth-that-was" - without mentioning specifically why they had to leave.) The "central planets" were settled first and are more developed (technologically, socially, politically, etc) and humanity spread outward from there - border planets, then to the planets on the "rim". The further out you go, the less developed and more rural. The central planets formed an Alliance - the other planets valued their independence (no meddling by a big and far away centralized government). The Alliance decided everyone should be part of the Alliance. The other planets resisted. There was a war. The Independents lost, and now the Alliance is in charge everywhere. Animosity still exists. The bar fight was between former soldiers of the two different factions. The whole idea was inspired by the American Civil War - where after the war the people from the South who had lost everything moved west in search of a new life on the less-developed frontier. It wasn't necessarily a choice (hey, let's go look for opportunity) - often times they just had nowhere else to go, and it was a struggle to survive. Also, you'll notice the use of "foreign" words - it's Mandarin (Chinese). The background story was that when the people left Earth to settle the new solar system, the two dominant cultures sort of merged, as did the language. In reality, it's a way for the characters to get past the censors and use a lot of vulgar words. There are also some endearing terms, too. Mei mei, for instance, means "little sister". I hope this helps.
Thanks so much! Was an interesting watching this and Star Wars seeing the flipped side of things where we follow the “separatists” and the empire/alliance are the bad guys lol Also I must learn all these Chinese swear words lol
@@NiaMakiReacts - thank you for the feedback. The nice thing about their use of Mandarin is that you don't need to know the words verbatum, you can get the idea from the context in which they're used. Looking at any of the millions of web sites that provide Firefly translations for you all contain spoilers, so you might not want to do that. But just so you know, "Da Shiong La Se La Ch'Wohn Tian" translates to "Explosive diarrhea of an elephant" and the exclamation "Liou coe shway duh biao-tze huh hoe-tze duh ur-tze" means "Stupid son of a drooling whore and a monkey."
Jayne had the best lines of this episode "Its impressive what nothing can do to a man" and "He looked bigger when I couldn't see him" ... well that ended abruptly...
mal's folklore is the only direct explanation we ever get for the events of this episode, but i'd like to encourage you to reconsider what happened here after you've seen all the episodes and the movie.
I have to say you really tuned into all the little nuances of this show really well, your picking up those little hints of backstory, the emotional connections of the characters, great reaction, I love seeing new fans getting to experience the amazing show that it is
I loved the show and movie so much!! Loved how different all the characters are and really hoped to see all of their stories if things weren’t cut short
Nice reaction. A little bit of suspense horror this episode. I'm glad you are already on board with observing River's abilities in action along with her cryptic statements.
The guy that Mal kicked into Serenity's engine, was named 'Crow' (he had a crow tattoo on his face). As you watch this, remember what Simon says at 1:33, about River not talking about what they did to her. This will become relevant much later when you watch the episode 'Ariel' and makes no sense when you finally get to the movie.
Please give a spoiler warning before explaining what will or won't happen before a reactor reacts to it. Then drop down many spaces before the spoiler reveals.
@@sirmoonslosthismind there is no spoiler in my comment. I gave nothing away as to what happens, only that in another episode (Ariel) more will be explained, but not what it is.
Nia, wow you are pretty and so intelligent !!! Anyway, as I mentioned in a reply to you elsewhere (in this reaction), I'd suggest you stay away from spoilers of any kind, including TRTS (The River Tam Sessions), the comics and the talking about what else is there until you've seen the rest of the episodes and the movie. All of those extra fluff contain spoilers.
Always wondered how much inspiration Visceral Games took from this particular episode when they made the first Dead Space game. E.g the space suits are very similar to Isaacs.
The group that they got in fight with was pro alliance because this group was probably from an allience/central planet. And our crew are from outer ones.
eh, i doubt any of that crew had ever been to a central planet. they're probably just "culturally" unionists, kinda like how poor white people in america who consistently vote against their own interests because being republican is part of their culture.
You have a Pro-Unification bar where the locals served in the Alliance military, and Mal and Zoe served in the Independents, on the anniversary of the surrender of the Battle of Serenity Valley.
I like your comment that the "survivor" was becoming Reaver-ish. It kinda clears up a mild inconsistency that hasn't been addressed much. But that's a long way from now.
I always find it interesting to see which episodes are people's favorites/least favorites. My least favorite is actually near the end of the show. I know I'm not alone in not liking it so much, but I also know there are people for whom it's their favorite. I think there's pretty general agreement that the best episodes come around 6-10, but lots of difference of opinion on which of those is the very best. This one isn't in my favorites list, but it ranks well above least favorite for me. The interrogations scenes are pure gold.
@@hkpew -- Yep, the more I think about it the more I realize I can't say WHY this is my least favorite. It's just a feeling. I think if I had to delete one episode from existence, this is the one that could be lost and nobody would miss out on any significant revelations. It's the one I would skip if I didn't have time to watch them all. You're right about those interrogation scenes, though - pure gold. I've added "pirate chaplain" to my list of career options.
Just like Mal's joke in the pilot, (which the audience never saw initially), Simon was made the butt of the joke in this replacement pilot by Jayne. If he had not pulled the stunt of getting Simon suited up to enter the derelict, Kaylee would not have been able to show him the right way to wear it. It would have been a disaster in the making when the Tams "wait on the porch" while the rest of the crew were forced onto the cruiser.
BTW, if you have an option to view the versions that do not have that spoken intro, do it. Those intros do contain some very big spoilers that will really ruin the show for you and us.
Oh come on fellow Brown Coats!!!! Nia gives us some really enjoyable reactions to Firefly and she hasn't even got to the really good stuff yet. This reaction has been up for 6 hours now, had 924 views, and only 164 thumbs up. We can do better than this! Show some appreciation here.
It's important to remember that in this show, there are no aliens, and there's no supernatural. Even the question of whether River is psychic or not is left ambiguous. So the Reavers are not supernatural, they don't have any powers or super strength or anything. They're just people... crazy, violent people, but just people. How they got to be so crazy and violent, well... spoilers 😉
Mal kicked the big guy. He was not trying it off the guy. If you look at his reaction, he didn't think of that happening. So, his rep actually grew, just as was discussed earlier in the episode, people gossip. Immediately, the next guy was much more agreeable. Mal is now considered a stone cold killer.
What? Why else would Mal have kicked Crow like that, if not to push him back enough to get sucked into the engine? He'd just have made him _really_ mad without doing any actual damage without that plan.
@@Wolf-ln1ml My thing is he cringed after it happened. I took it to mean he kicked him and the unintended consequence was he fell back far enough and got sucked in. Then the second guy was more than happy to agree since he'd seen what happened. Its been a while since I've listened to the commentaries, but there was no discussion of this cold dark Mal when that scene played. It went something more like, "Oops." I dunno. Doesn't really matter.
The fact that Wash just loves to talk about his wife, even to the point of oversharing with his interrogator, is so wonderful.
...or maybe some of us just likes...the legs...aaand her&"%¤♀s&☠sry'2023+it....ITS whole body?
And apparently some of the lines were just Alan Tudyk improving
I love how during the interviews, all of them told the alliance nothing in completely different ways.
Zoe is very private, Wash stays completely irrelevant to the topic, Kaylee bombards them with too much tech talk, Book acts helpful while pretending to know nothing, Jayne stays completely silent, and Mal redirects them to search for something entirely else.
I always chuckle at the Alliance soldier who looks for the fugitives under the placemats.
🤣 🤣
I'm going to spoil the fun but it's interesting where clues can be found: Possibly a strand of hair that doesn't match any of the crew can be found stuck in odd places. Maybe a smudged fingerprint, etc.
@@dunringill1747 Don’t overlook the possibility of a very small, skinny person as well…😏
Have you ever seen people in an Escape Room scenario? They will turn everything over hunting for clues, passcodes, anything.
Well this is a futuristic world where they have some refined tech. Like grenades you can slip into apples?
One of the best lines dropped so casually a lot of folks don't even think about it: "He looked bigger when I couldn't see 'im." Cracks me up every damn time.
He’s funny, especially cause he doesn’t intend to be lol
I'm glad you got back to Firefly. I like that you recognize that River is a genius.
Sorry about the late upload!! I’ll be dropping 5 tomorrow to catch up and next Friday we should resume with regular uploads
You asked about the bar fight in the previous episode, which suggests you might be missing out on some essential part of the story. This solar system in which our story takes place contains "dozens of planets, hundreds of moons" and was terraformed to support human life when humanity left Earth. (Referred to as "Earth-that-was" - without mentioning specifically why they had to leave.) The "central planets" were settled first and are more developed (technologically, socially, politically, etc) and humanity spread outward from there - border planets, then to the planets on the "rim". The further out you go, the less developed and more rural. The central planets formed an Alliance - the other planets valued their independence (no meddling by a big and far away centralized government). The Alliance decided everyone should be part of the Alliance. The other planets resisted. There was a war. The Independents lost, and now the Alliance is in charge everywhere. Animosity still exists. The bar fight was between former soldiers of the two different factions.
The whole idea was inspired by the American Civil War - where after the war the people from the South who had lost everything moved west in search of a new life on the less-developed frontier. It wasn't necessarily a choice (hey, let's go look for opportunity) - often times they just had nowhere else to go, and it was a struggle to survive.
Also, you'll notice the use of "foreign" words - it's Mandarin (Chinese). The background story was that when the people left Earth to settle the new solar system, the two dominant cultures sort of merged, as did the language. In reality, it's a way for the characters to get past the censors and use a lot of vulgar words. There are also some endearing terms, too. Mei mei, for instance, means "little sister".
I hope this helps.
Thanks so much! Was an interesting watching this and Star Wars seeing the flipped side of things where we follow the “separatists” and the empire/alliance are the bad guys lol
Also I must learn all these Chinese swear words lol
@@NiaMakiReacts - thank you for the feedback. The nice thing about their use of Mandarin is that you don't need to know the words verbatum, you can get the idea from the context in which they're used. Looking at any of the millions of web sites that provide Firefly translations for you all contain spoilers, so you might not want to do that. But just so you know, "Da Shiong La Se La Ch'Wohn Tian" translates to "Explosive diarrhea of an elephant" and the exclamation "Liou coe shway duh biao-tze huh hoe-tze duh ur-tze" means "Stupid son of a drooling whore and a monkey."
I think a better comparison would be the Revolutionary War, if the British had won.
@@goldenageofdinosaurs7192 - Hmmm, interesting - I'll have to give that some thought.
@@goldenageofdinosaurs7192 Mayhap- but Joss Whedon explicitly stated the concept for Firefly came out of the American Civil War.
Jayne had the best lines of this episode "Its impressive what nothing can do to a man" and "He looked bigger when I couldn't see him" ... well that ended abruptly...
He’s a hot mess 😂 a funny one though
Enjoyed the reaction. I love the interrogation of the crew. Josh said the show is 9 people staring out to space and seeing 9 different things.
That’s very true, they are all so very different!
Joss... no h.
It's interesting how often genius is mistaken for insanity, and also that the misunderstanding is a one-way issue.
mal's folklore is the only direct explanation we ever get for the events of this episode, but i'd like to encourage you to reconsider what happened here after you've seen all the episodes and the movie.
the interrogation!one of my favorite moments in the entire series!
I have to say you really tuned into all the little nuances of this show really well, your picking up those little hints of backstory, the emotional connections of the characters, great reaction, I love seeing new fans getting to experience the amazing show that it is
I loved the show and movie so much!! Loved how different all the characters are and really hoped to see all of their stories if things weren’t cut short
Nice reaction. A little bit of suspense horror this episode. I'm glad you are already on board with observing River's abilities in action along with her cryptic statements.
Yes, I realize now it was out of order, but this was totally a different vibe than some of the fun ones! I loved the mystery added!
Good one, Nia! I'm enjoying rewatching these with you! 🙂
Shiny!
Yaaaaaaaaas Firefly Friday! You've saved me
Yesssssssss firefly Fridays is back!!!!
This is one of my favorite early episodes.
The guy that Mal kicked into Serenity's engine, was named 'Crow' (he had a crow tattoo on his face). As you watch this, remember what Simon says at 1:33, about River not talking about what they did to her. This will become relevant much later when you watch the episode 'Ariel' and makes no sense when you finally get to the movie.
what is it you think makes no sense? please start your response with the word SPOILERS followed by a bunch of empty lines so as to hide it from nia.
Ariel is a great episode
Makes total sense. 😅
Please give a spoiler warning before explaining what will or won't happen before a reactor reacts to it. Then drop down many spaces before the spoiler reveals.
@@sirmoonslosthismind there is no spoiler in my comment. I gave nothing away as to what happens, only that in another episode (Ariel) more will be explained, but not what it is.
Nia, wow you are pretty and so intelligent !!! Anyway, as I mentioned in a reply to you elsewhere (in this reaction), I'd suggest you stay away from spoilers of any kind, including TRTS (The River Tam Sessions), the comics and the talking about what else is there until you've seen the rest of the episodes and the movie. All of those extra fluff contain spoilers.
Always wondered how much inspiration Visceral Games took from this particular episode when they made the first Dead Space game. E.g the space suits are very similar to Isaacs.
The group that they got in fight with was pro alliance because this group was probably from an allience/central planet.
And our crew are from outer ones.
eh, i doubt any of that crew had ever been to a central planet. they're probably just "culturally" unionists, kinda like how poor white people in america who consistently vote against their own interests because being republican is part of their culture.
You have a Pro-Unification bar where the locals served in the Alliance military, and Mal and Zoe served in the Independents, on the anniversary of the surrender of the Battle of Serenity Valley.
From what I’ve seen so far, I doubt River ever says anything crazy, even though it may seem like it.
I like your comment that the "survivor" was becoming Reaver-ish. It kinda clears up a mild inconsistency that hasn't been addressed much. But that's a long way from now.
🤔 hmmm wait a minute
For how small episode it has it was good I wish fox didn't release it in the wrong order. However I would recommend "The expanse"
This is my least-favorite episode, which DOESN'T mean it isn't good, it only means that every episode from here on will be much much better.
I always find it interesting to see which episodes are people's favorites/least favorites. My least favorite is actually near the end of the show. I know I'm not alone in not liking it so much, but I also know there are people for whom it's their favorite. I think there's pretty general agreement that the best episodes come around 6-10, but lots of difference of opinion on which of those is the very best. This one isn't in my favorites list, but it ranks well above least favorite for me. The interrogations scenes are pure gold.
@@hkpew -- Yep, the more I think about it the more I realize I can't say WHY this is my least favorite. It's just a feeling. I think if I had to delete one episode from existence, this is the one that could be lost and nobody would miss out on any significant revelations. It's the one I would skip if I didn't have time to watch them all. You're right about those interrogation scenes, though - pure gold. I've added "pirate chaplain" to my list of career options.
For me it's a draw between this and "The Message".
Which is impressive, because in any other show, they would both be rated average or better.
Just like Mal's joke in the pilot, (which the audience never saw initially), Simon was made the butt of the joke in this replacement pilot by Jayne.
If he had not pulled the stunt of getting Simon suited up to enter the derelict, Kaylee would not have been able to show him the right way to wear it. It would have been a disaster in the making when the Tams "wait on the porch" while the rest of the crew were forced onto the cruiser.
BTW, if you have an option to view the versions that do not have that spoken intro, do it. Those intros do contain some very big spoilers that will really ruin the show for you and us.
Oh come on fellow Brown Coats!!!! Nia gives us some really enjoyable reactions to Firefly and she hasn't even got to the really good stuff yet. This reaction has been up for 6 hours now, had 924 views, and only 164 thumbs up. We can do better than this! Show some appreciation here.
I agree!!!
Aww!! Thank you Jim!!!
Jayne, in retrospect is prob right. Just slide on by.....
LOL
It's important to remember that in this show, there are no aliens, and there's no supernatural. Even the question of whether River is psychic or not is left ambiguous. So the Reavers are not supernatural, they don't have any powers or super strength or anything. They're just people... crazy, violent people, but just people.
How they got to be so crazy and violent, well... spoilers 😉
great genuine reactions. u r an absolute pleasure to see. that group is pro alliance probably were foot soldiers for them.
...i do NOT get why NO reactors(?) show the full 'Jayne vs doc spacesuit' joke? ..is it 'cause this is 2023 and not 2002?
Mal kicked the big guy. He was not trying it off the guy. If you look at his reaction, he didn't think of that happening. So, his rep actually grew, just as was discussed earlier in the episode, people gossip. Immediately, the next guy was much more agreeable. Mal is now considered a stone cold killer.
What? Why else would Mal have kicked Crow like that, if not to push him back enough to get sucked into the engine? He'd just have made him _really_ mad without doing any actual damage without that plan.
@@Wolf-ln1ml My thing is he cringed after it happened. I took it to mean he kicked him and the unintended consequence was he fell back far enough and got sucked in. Then the second guy was more than happy to agree since he'd seen what happened. Its been a while since I've listened to the commentaries, but there was no discussion of this cold dark Mal when that scene played. It went something more like, "Oops." I dunno. Doesn't really matter.
You're watching them out of order. FOX aired them out of order before cancelling the show.
Do not confuse her.
Thanks!
Shiny!!! Thank you!!!