"Jaynestown"

Written by Ben Edlund
Directed by Marita Grabiak


In which the crew of Serenity stops for business on a planet where Jayne has been designated a folk hero, which couldn’t be further from the truth...

Synopsis - Analysis - Memorable Quotes - Observations


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Synopsis

As the episode begins, Kaylee and Simon are in the cargo bay, for some reason discussing whether or not Simon actually swears or not. They notice Inara walking to her shuttle, preparing for an upcoming rendezvous. Kaylee wishes her luck, to Simon’s unease, but they get distracted by noise coming from the direction of the infirmary.

They find Jayne strapping a gun to his belly, having apparently sacked the infirmary in the process of finding the tape. Mal also stops by, and notices what Jayne has in mind. He reminds Jayne that they’re settling down at the factory settlement of Canton on Higgins’ Moon, and that weapons aren’t allowed. Jayne still wants to be armed, having been to Canton before and gotten into some trouble. Mal, however, isn’t in the mood for a debate. The weapons stay on Serenity.

After Inara departs on her shuttle, Serenity lands outside of Canton. Mal, Wash, Simon, and Kaylee depart the ship to find their contact. A man named Kessler has some cargo that needs delivering, outside of lawful jurisdiction. Kaylee suggests that Mal let Simon stick around for the meet. At first Simon objects, worried about River, but Book agrees to look after River in his place. Mal agrees that Simon could be useful, since he presents a very respectable and wealthy appearance. Jayne catches up, covered in a hooded jumpsuit and goggles.

Outside in the Canton mud pits, where the local “mudders” dig up clay for use in ceramic materials, Simon stumbles his way through an introduction to the local foreman. With Mal’s “guidance”, Simon poses as a buyer and suggests that they take a look around. The foreman agrees, which gives them the freedom to get the cargo unnoticed. That is, until they come across a ceramic statue of Jayne, striking a rather heroic pose!

This leaves everyone confused, especially Jayne. When he was last in Canton, he stole a great deal of money from the local magistrate. Things went badly, and he had to run, so there’s no reason for there to be a statue of him in the middle of town. While the others stand in wonder at the sight, Jayne is impatient to get the job finished so they can just leave. Meanwhile, Inara meets with Magistrate Higgins, who has commissioned her services.

Back on Serenity, Book finds River sitting in the mess, rifling through his Bible. She’s marked up a number of the pages, crossing out lines and adding commentary. She think the Bible is broken, full of contradictions and false logic. She wants to “fix” it, to reconcile it with scientific theory. When she starts ripping out pages, Book tries to take the pages back, explaining that the Bible isn’t about making sense, but about faith and letting faith change your life. “You don’t fix faith,” Book says. “Faith fixes you.”

Mal and the others settle around a table in the local tavern. Nearby, a man strums on a guitar as the mudders drink themselves silly on their local drink, alcohol with loads of nutritional additives. Simon observes that it’s probably meant to keep the workers alive yet docile. As a well-dressed man stops to speak with Mal, Jayne notices a boy staring at him. Jayne shoos him off.

The well-dressed man informs Mal that Kessler was recently caught and executed by the foreman and his crew, when he was rumored to be moving contraband through town. Mal’s worried about the timetable, but the well-dressed man assures him that the only difficulty will be getting the cargo through town without being noticed. He advises a low profile.

Just then, the man with the guitar begins singing a very popular song: “The Ballad of Jayne”! To everyone’s shock, the song portrays Jayne as some kind of local Robin Hood. Apparently, as Jayne was racing to escape, his ship was hit, and he had to dump the money…and it fell right into the middle of the mudder settlement. The mudders assumed that Jayne did it for them, and now he’s considered the local folk hero.

Back on Serenity, River stops by Book’s quarters to return the torn-out Bible pages. Book’s washing up for the night, and sticks his head out to ask what River said…with his usually bound white hair sticking out like Einstein on acid. River screams and runs away.

Recognizing the potential for disaster, Jayne suggests that they leave the tavern so Jayne can get out of sight. Unfortunately, the boy that noticed him earlier has gathered a crowd outside. As soon as Jayne appears, they begin chanting his name. Jayne ducks back into the tavern, but it doesn’t help. The well-dressed man is highly agitated by the sudden fame of his clandestine contacts, but Mal assures him it’s all part of the plan.

On Inara’s shuttle, Higgins introduces her to his son, Fess. Fess is 26 years old, and he’s still a virgin. Higgins wants Inara to correct this little “problem”. Realizing that Higgins is a little controlling, Inara ushers him out of the shuttle so she can conduct her business with Fess properly.

In the tavern, Jayne has become surrounded by mudders, who are doing a very fine job of getting him plastered. Simon and Kaylee aren’t too far behind themselves. Simon bemoans Jayne’s apparent luck, and muses over how Kaylee is pretty, especially when she’s covered in engine grease. (Ed: Can we see this, please? For perspective, of course.) Kaylee rather pleased, and when Mal suggests they return to Serenity, Kaylee nudges him to let her and Simon stick around for awhile. Mal understands completely, and leaves them to “keep an eye on Jayne”.

While Book and Zoe try to get River out of hiding, Mal and Wash return to the ship. When Wash tells Zoe about Jayne’s little fan club, she thinks he’s been drinking too much. Mal confirms it, and what’s more, he thinks they can use it. He’s convinced the mudders to hold a celebration for Jayne come morning, giving them the perfect chance to move the contraband undetected.

Meanwhile, Fess and Inara discuss the motivations behind their anticipated “business”. Fess defers to his father’s wisdom, but Inara points out that being a virgin doesn’t make Fess any less of a man. Also, Inara wouldn’t have come, had she objected to the situation, since Companions select their partners carefully. She chose Fess because he’s not like his father.

Back in the tavern, one of the mudders tells Jayne what happened with the money. The magistrate tried to take the money back, but the mudders resisted, so it was called a “bonus”. When the mudders put up the statue, the magistrate wanted to tear it down, but again the mudders fought back, rioting until they got their way. Jayne is genuinely touched.

At the same time, the foreman informs Higgins that Jayne is back in town. With the foreman’s help, Higgins goes to a confinement cage, where Jayne’s old partner Stitch has been held for four years. The man is missing an eye, and looks like he’s been through hell. Higgins tells Stitch that he’s free to go, and gives him a loaded gun and the knowledge that Jayne is back in town. Apparently, when Jayne dumped the cargo to escape, he also dumped out Stitch. Higgins figures this is a good way to solve the problem.

The next morning, Mal stops in the tavern to retrieve Kaylee and Simon. They appear to have passed out with each other, but nothing more. When Simon realizes where he is, who’s been sleeping on him, and Mal’s presence, he stammers out that nothing happened, and that he wouldn’t do anything like that with Kaylee. Kaylee doesn’t take that very well, as one might expect.

Just at the right time, Mal sees Jayne stumbling down the stairs, and tells him it’s time to get the job done. When Kaylee moves to join Mal and Jayne, Simon starts to follow, but Kaylee tells him to stay. After all, it would be the appropriate thing for a civilized person to do. The comment leaves Simon stunned, so he stays in the tavern as he’s told.

On the shuttle, Inara and Fess are curled up in post-coital conversation. Fess remarks that he doesn’t feel different, and Inara reminds him that what they’ve done is simply a symbol, a social ritual. He’s no more or less a man than he was when he walked in. Before long, Higgins is banging on the door, shouting for Fess to come out.

Oddly, Jayne is uncomfortable with the idea of using his apparent fame with the mudders for deception. After all, he made a real difference in their lives, and that means something. Mal’s not impressed, and sends Jayne off to the celebration when Wash and Zoe arrive. Together with Mal and Kaylee, they ride out to where the contraband is hidden.

Back on the shuttle, Fess explains that his father has ordered him to attend a criminal hearing for a man who stole money and gave it to the poor, becoming a folk hero in the process. Inara thinks Fess is talking about Mal, and begins lamenting how foolishly noble he is, and many other things that reveal her true feelings. But when Fess mentions that it’s Jayne, she’s stunned. She’s even more concerned when she finds out that Serenity has been placed on land-lock until Jayne is captured.

Meanwhile, in the tavern, Simon is preparing to return to Serenity, when Stitch approaches. When Stitch asks Simon where Jayne is, Simon balks at giving an answer. That’s the wrong move, because Stitch starts beating the hell out of him. Simon tries to fight back, but Stitch easily takes control. When he hears the mudders chanting Jayne’s name, he grabs Simon from the floor and drags him out of the tavern.

Having retrieved the contraband, Mal and the others drop it off on Serenity, leaving Wash to start up the engines and Zoe to pack up the cargo. Taking Kaylee with him, Mal sets off to grab Jayne and Simon after the celebration. They arrive in time to hear Jayne give a somewhat coherent speech to the mudders. But after the speech, Stitch lets off a shot from his gun, getting everyone’s attention and tossing Simon to the ground. Kaylee can’t help but go take care of him as Jayne faces down Stitch.

Mal tries to sneak up on Stitch before he can tell the mudders the truth, but Stitch warns him off. Stitch tells the whole sordid story, and then aims his gun at Jayne. When he fires, one of the mudders jumps in front of Jayne, falling to the ground dead. Jayne uses the moment to hurl his knife into Stitch and charge him. It doesn’t take long for Jayne to take Stitch out of action.

Jayne runs to check on the mudder who died for him, wondering why the man would die for him. He rails at the crowd, making it clear that no one would intentionally drop money into their laps. But still, the boy who noticed him earlier retrieves his knife and presents it to him reverently. Jayne rips it out of the boy’s hand, and on his way out, topples the statue.

They return to Serenity, and Mal orders Wash to take off. At first, Wash panics as the land-lock prevents them from leaving, but as Inara steps onto the bridge, the land-lock disengages. Back at Higgins’ house, Fess calmly explains to his father that he sent an override on the land-lock. His father, it appears, got the man he was looking for.

As Serenity leaves the moon, Kaylee helps patch up Simon. She wonders if Simon thought fighting back would be “appropriate”. Simon asks if she’s ever going to let his errant comment go, and she counters that he always seems to go stiff when they get too close. (No comment on the choice of words!) Simon explains that his civility is all he has left, and when he treats her in that way, he’s trying to show her the respect she deserves.

Back in the cargo bay, Mal finds Jayne contemplating what happened in Canton. He doesn’t understand why the mudder would have given his life. He doesn’t even think the mudders understood what Stitch was telling them. More to the point, he doesn’t know why it bothers him so much. Mal figures that it’s not about Jayne, but what the mudders need to believe about him.


Analysis

Sometimes there’s a premise that sounds so absurd, so bizarre, that it just makes you want to love it. By and large, such reactions are not experienced by the general public. This is unfortunate, because a great deal of wonderful satire and true comedy is lost in the process of spoon-feeding bread and circuses to the unwashed masses. This episode takes an already inspired premise of a true “space western” and melds it with the absurdity of the mercenary being worshipped as a humanitarian folk hero. To say that this flies against just about every convention of network television is one hell of an understatement.

That’s too bad, because this episode pulls it off rather well. Sure, there are the moments that don’t quite work, but they’re forgivable. We get more character growth in this episode than we’ve had up to this point, and finally a look into what makes Jayne tick. Which, actually, isn’t much of anything…beyond the usual desire to make money however one can.

Jayne has always come across as the classic thug for hire, scared of any real threat to his own skin. Thankfully, even though this episode starts that way, it doesn’t leave him there. Jayne learns a little lesson in the power of faith, and how even an unintentional act of charity or kindness can change lives for the better. Unlike a lot of other series, there’s the distinct feeling that this will continue to haunt Jayne into the future.

The message of faith is a little heavy-handed. There was little need to have the scene between Book and River, other than the humor, which is subjective in the end. Book neatly spells out the idea that believing in something doesn’t require that the object of faith be perfect or rational. Rather, it’s the very act of having faith in something that ultimately has meaning.

It takes the already hilarious idea of Jayne as object of worship, and plasters its importance to the audience. Yes, that’s fine, but the situation was able to reflect those concepts well enough on its own. The conversation at the end of the episode was more than sufficient to underscore the moral of the story. Still, the main plot was very funny, and there were some great lines throughout.

The character moments are the most enjoyable, which is typical for a Joss Whedon series. The interaction between Kaylee and Simon was perfect, for instance, allowing the relationship to steadily grow while giving us insight into what makes them tick. The characters still feel a bit simple, but we’re getting some chances to see the layers underneath the surface. It’s good to finally see something of Inara in action. We see that there’s more to being a Companion than simply providing a service. The comparisons to the courtesans of old are becoming more valid.

Still, some of the characters need to be given more of a spotlight. It’s obvious that River will eventually get more focus, but characters like Book and Wash are complete mysteries right now. Zoe falls into that category as well, though perhaps not as much, since we know something of her history. Future episodes may cover this territory, but for now, it’s not clear what they bring to the series, beyond serving their obvious functions.

Even with the over-emphasized message about faith, there’s enough to this episode to make it work. In the end, it comes down to character. That’s what the situation is based on, since there would be no absurdity if Jayne’s nature weren’t so apparent. Also, the smaller moments only happen because of the personalities of the characters involved. Some things have evolved more naturally than others, thanks to the short-sighted episode airing order determined by FOX, but overall it has worked well.

It’s simply too bad that more of that general public hasn’t found the will to take interest in something that’s so entertainingly challenging.


Memorable Quotes

KAYLEE: “Bye, now. Have good sex!”

JAYNE: “Needed to find some tape.”
SIMON: “So you had to tear my infirmary apart?”
JAYNE: “Apparently.”
SIMON: “My God…you’re like a trained ape. Without the training!”

MAL: “There ain’t’a one of us looks the part more than the good doctor. I mean, the pretty fits, soft hands, definitely a moneyed individual. All rich and lily-white, pasty all over…”
SIMON: “All right! Fine! I’ll go! Just stop describing me…”
MAL: “You’re the boss, boss.”
JAYNE: “He’s the boss now? Day keeps getting better and better.”

SIMON: “This must be what going mad feels like.”

JAYNE: “Oh, hey, I got an idea. Instead of us hanging around playing art critic ‘til I get pinched by the Man, how’s about we move away from this eerie-ass piece of work and get on with our increasingly eerie-ass day, how’s that?”

MAN: “Gave him a peck of trouble for it.”
MAL: “What kind of peck is that?”
MAN: “The kind where they hacked off his hands and feet with a machete, rolled him into the bog.”
WASH: “The peck pretty hard around here…”

SIMON: “No. *This* must be what going mad feels like…”

WASH: “We gotta go to the crappy town where I’m the hero!”

SIMON: “You know, I’ve saved lives. Dozens. Maybe hundreds. I reattached a girl’s leg. Her whole leg. She named her hamster after me. He drops a box of money, he gets a town!”

ZOE: “River…honey? He’s putting the hair away now.”
RIVER: “It’ll still be there…waiting…”

JAYNE: “You guys had a riot? On account of me? A real riot?”
MUDDER: “I can’t believe you’re back.”
JAYNE: “How could I stay away?”

JAYNE: “I think I really made a difference in their lives. You know…me, Jayne Cobb.”
MAL: “I know your name, jackass!”
JAYNE: “You know they threw a riot on my account? A riot…”

KAYLEE: “So when we made love last night…”
SIMON: “When we what???”
KAYLEE: “You really are such an easy mark…”


Observations

- Ben Edlund, of course, is the creator of the incredibly funny “The Tick” comics. Needless to say, ideas like this come to him all too naturally…

- Is it just me, or is the “down yonder” speech pattern just a little overdone in this episode? I don’t remember them talking like this before. Well, maybe Jayne…

- I know Inara is supposed to be the babe here, and she definitely has that certain something…but Kaylee really shines in this episode.

- Perfect Jayne moment: whimpering when he ripped the surgical tape from his belly!

- If FOX would simply air the episodes as intended, maybe Book’s comment about establishing a rapport with River would make some damned sense…

- You see, here’s a bar that could do well with those nasty, supposedly “flavorful” protein drinks that are all over the place!

- If the well-dressed man is worried about keeping a low profile, why is he dressed like he’s the magistrate?

- Leave it to Jayne to be the member of the crew with his own theme song. I wonder if we’ll ever get a scene with someone teasing him by singing it!

- How was Stitch able to walk and move so easily after being in that storage locker for four years?

Overall, this episode was hilarious, especially when “The Ballad of Jayne” reared its ugly head! The underlying message was a little overdone, but it’s good to see them taking on such concepts head on. Some characters are still a bit ill-defined, but what has been done shows promise.

I give it a 7/10.


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