Having covered most of the other characters to some degree, the writers finally focus on Jayne Cobb. Coming into this episode, Jayne has been largely characterized in contrast to Mal. Jayne is effectively the kind of man that Mal would be without his inherent sense of decency and the lingering tatters of faith. It’s appropriate, then, that the episode is focused on the issue of faith and Jayne’s complete inability to comprehend it.
This is also an important step in the relationship between Simon and Kaylee. Kaylee has been interested in Simon from the moment he stepped on Serenity, but Simon has remained largely aloof. Considering his previous missteps, Simon is lucky that Kaylee hasn’t tossed him out an airlock. He should be very happy that she’s as sweet and adorable as she is.
Kaylee wants to know, of course, why Simon continues to act as though he were in “civilized” society, and it’s a valid enough point. Simon is in one of the worst possible situations, forced to abandon his entire life to save his sister (who may be beyond saving), and he could easily be forgiven for letting loose with some serious cussin’. But he keeps up that veneer of respectability, which makes him seem arrogant.
The beginning of the episode also continues to foreshadow some serious disagreement between Mal and Jayne. Being completely self-involved, Jayne doesn’t always see things from Mal’s noble perspective. Jayne fights order after order, especially now that Simon’s presence is a reminder that Mal sometimes makes the moral choice over the self-interested choice. As seen in “Ariel”, Jayne is just waiting for the right moment to take action for his own gain.
Each episode continues to delve into the conditions created by the Alliance and their practices. In this case, the workers on Canton are little more than slaves, forced into that role by the complete lack of economy and the polarized balance of power. It’s not hard to recognize that there are a lot more Mudders than there are Alliance-backed politicians, and as usual, the Alliance does everything possible to maintain a cheap workforce through intimidation.
Even before the circumstances are explored, it’s not hard to imagine how such a society would find something noble in Jayne Cobb. This is a population with nothing more than a vague sense of hope, hungry for something or someone to believe in. Through the accident of a botched job, Jayne became the symbol of the kind of universe the Mudders dream of, where the coffers of the corrupt are pillaged for the benefit of the powerless.
That said, the writers have already firmly established the fact that Jayne has few redeeming qualities, and most of those involve shooting things well. Simon and Wash cover the range of audience reaction fairly well, from denial to pure amusement. The fact that Jayne is the most shocked makes it even better. Once that statue of Jayne appears, the tone of the episode is well established.
Placing the Alliance-backed government on Canton into perspective without overdoing it, the writers depict Higgins as a complete blowhard. This is a man that considers his son’s virginity to be a higher priority than just about everything else. Keeping in mind that Companions are supposed to be revered and respected, Higgins is rather dismissive of Inara beyond her function as a prostitute. If even Alliance-approved prostitution isn’t worthy of Higgins’ respect, how badly must he regard his workforce?
As if to introduce the idea of faith, Book discovers River trying to “fix” the Bible. This is remarkable scene for a number of reasons. In one respect, this continues to suggest that River’s seeming improvement is just a smokescreen. For all that she’s communicating a bit more over time, her rationale is still quite impossible to work out. Symbolism is quite beyond her at this point, something associated with the kind of modifications that were done to her brain chemistry. By making her more sensitive to the thoughts and emotions of others, the stark reality of things is the only level at which River can operate.
In terms of Book, of course, his comments on faith are indicative of his own search for redemption. Instead of defending the content of the Bible, Book explains that the content itself is largely immaterial to the larger question of faith. This is important to the theme of the episode. Book doesn’t necessarily believe in the details of the Bible, if one is to take his response to River literally.
Instead, Book explains that having faith in his order’s religion, which the Bible and Christianity of some denomination is a part, is not an end to itself. That belief is part of the larger process of finding something to have faith in, something more than himself. Through the mechanism of that faith, Book hopes to find the means to transform his own life. Once again, this points to some kind of immoral Alliance military intelligence work, something that would have stained his conscience so badly that he sought something substantially life-altering as a means of regaining his own humanity.
The scene is not about pointing out the fact that the Bible is filled with contradictions and flawed logic. It’s about the reason why none of those contradictions should matter. Arguing over the “truth” is quite beside the point; the truth is subjective when it comes to religion. It’s really about making the choice to believe in something regardless of the flaws, to accept those flaws as reflective of the human experience as a whole and gaining a mechanism to overcome them.
Discussions on faith are interesting enough, but there is the small matter of plot to consider. The writers don’t overburden the episode with anything too complicated. Mal is there to pick up some merchandise, and that’s about it. Intrigue is not the order of the day. What does happen, of course, is complication, largely due to Jayne’s very unexpected (and hi-larious) celebrity. Once again, as the rest of the gang suffers from shock, Jayne is the worst off.
While Jayne (and the gang) adjusts to the idea that he is going to stick out like a sore thumb, Kaylee makes her move on Simon. Once drunk and somewhat unable to maintain the illusion of decorum, Simon speaks plainly about his attraction to Kaylee. And really, who wouldn’t be attracted to Kaylee? What’s nice about the corrected episode order on the DVD set is the evolution of this relationship; during first run, the episodes were so out of order that the relationship was getting better or worse without explanation.
Similarly, River’s behavior in this episode makes far more sense from the perspective of her steady apparent progress since “Serenity”. Without that initial introduction, River’s behavior seems wildly inconsistent. The proper episode order shows her becoming more and more aware of how she should be acting, thereby getting better at hiding the depth of her pain and confusion. That perspective was almost completely absent during first run, since there was no pattern to her activities.
Mal rolls with the punches in this episode, more or less reacting to Jayne’s popularity with quick thinking. Using Jayne as a distraction while locating and taking possession of the contraband is a smart move. The inevitable complication is nicely confined to a personal dispute between Jayne and his former partner Stitch. Stitch represents the truth in this case, coming back to haunt Jayne when he begins to buy into his own legend.
Simon’s old-fashioned respect for Kaylee rears its ugly head again come morning, when he reacts to Mal’s presence as though Mal were Kaylee’s guardian. This reinforces the idea that Mal considers Kaylee to be a little sister; it’s obvious enough to the rest of the crew that Simon naturally assumes Mal will protect Kaylee’s honor. Since Mal knows Kaylee well enough to know she’ll grab hold of life as she sees fit, especially in terms of her sexuality, that leaves Simon holding the decorum bag very much alone.
Very quietly, Inara teaches Fess Higgins something about maturity, and how his father’s definition of it is skewed by foolish notions and expectations. This is an aspect of the Companions that hasn’t been fully explored, but it evolves naturally out of the concept as shown in “Serenity”. This is very similar to the historical function of the courtesan, which is clearly the basis for the Companion culture as a whole. It also provides a way for the episode to end, which is always helpful.
Fess’ admiration for Jayne speaks to the idea of faith, if only because Jayne becomes a legend with little similarity to the actual man. This scene provides a way for Inara to speak to her feelings for Mal without a specific situation developing to insert that into the story directly. Of course, there are layers to the conversation that place Inara’s comments in perspective. Fess talks about Jayne as he wants to see the man; Inara, in turn, could very well be describing Mal in terms of her own desires.
Jayne is ready to buy into his own myth, somehow managing to tell the Mudders what they want to hear. Stitch comes along in typically violent fashion to deliver the hard truth. With the confrontation taking place right in front of the Mudders, the episode very quickly becomes a commentary on the role of faith and myth within society.
Jayne, being a man without faith in anything or anyone, immediately assumes that the Mudders will let him be killed. Stitch, of course, assumes the same. Neither of them recognize that the Mudders need to believe in Jayne for reasons that transcend the reality of Jayne’s past actions. Jayne represents something greater, a source of hope for those without reason to hope. In short, faith rules over reason, because in the end, hope is born of faith.
The hell of it is, Jayne doesn’t understand it. Mal does, but he has his own issues regarding faith in humanity. If he tries to explain it to Jayne without believing it, it’s not going to do the man any good. So Mal lets it be, since it’s for Jayne to work out on his own anyway. Had the series progressed, in the wake of “Ariel”, Jayne might have slowly but surely gained some sense of personal integrity. It’s unlikely, granted, but certainly possible.
Simon also finally explains why he acts so “stiff” around Kaylee. It’s not because he doesn’t know how to open up around her; it’s because he has no idea who he would be without that air of sophistication. Kaylee puts forward her true face all the time, but that’s because she takes life for what it is. Simon hasn’t figured out how to do that, so even though his “proper” attitude doesn’t account for much on the frontier, he maintains that level of respect with Kaylee because it’s all he knows.
This is Ben Edlund’s first script for Mutant Enemy, and it’s an episode that gets stronger with every viewing. Initially there is the sense of absurdity that Edlund is best known for, thanks to his work on “The Tick”, which he created. Upon the betrayal of “Firefly”, Edlund joined the writing team for “Angel”, and continued to deliver the goods. For some, “Jaynestown” will always be remembered for the wonderful song devoted to the “Hero of Canton”. Whatever the case, important questions were raised about the characters and their motivations, making this a critical episode.
Memorable Quotes
SIMON: “I swear when it’s appropriate.”
KAYLEE: “Simon, the whole point of swearing is that it ain’t appropriate!”
KAYLEE: “Good bye, now. Have good sex!”
SIMON: “My God…you’re like a trained ape. Without the training.”
SIMON: “Enemies? You? No, how can it be?”
SIMON: “All right, fine, I’ll go…just stop describing me!”
WASH: “What happened to Simon? Who is this diabolical master of disguise?”
MAL: “Jayne?”
JAYNE: “Yeah?”
MAL: “You want to tell me how come there’s a statue of you here looking at me like I owe him something?”
JAYNE: “Wishing I could, Captain.”
MAL: “No, seriously, Jayne, you want to tell me?”
SIMON: “This must be what going mad feels like.”
WASH: “I think they captured him, though…you know…captured his essence.”
KAYLEE: “Looks sort of angry, don’t he?”
WASH: “That’s kinda what I meant…”
BOOK: “River…you don’t fix the Bible.”
RIVER: “It’s broken. Doesn’t make sense.”
BOOK: “It’s not about making sense. It’s about believing in something and letting that belief be real enough to change your life. It’s about faith. You don’t fix faith, River. It fixes you.”
CONTACT: “Last week, the factory foreman and his prod crew heard he was moving contraband through town. Gave him a peck of trouble for it.”
MAL: “What kind of peck was that?”
CONTACT: “The kind where they hacked off his hands and feet with a machete, rolled him into the bog.”
WASH: “They peck pretty hard around here…”
MAL: “Um…Jayne?”
JAYNE: “Yeah, Mal?”
MAL: “You got any light you’d like to shed on this development?”
JAYNE: “No, Mal.”
SIMON: “No…this must be what going man feels like…”
WASH: “We gotta go to the crappy town where I’m the hero!”
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: “You think we should be using my fame to hoodwink folks?”
MAL: “You better laugh when you say that.”
JAYNE: “I think I really made a difference in their lives. You know…me, Jayne Cobb!”
MAL: “I know your name, jackass…”
KAYLEE: “Wow…that didn’t sound half-bad.”
MAL: “I’m shocked my own self…”
RIVER: “Just keep walking, preacher man…”
KAYLEE: “So, when we made love last night…”
SIMON: “When we what??”
KAYLEE: “You really are such an easy mark!”
Final Analysis
Overall, this episode starts out as an absurd comedy and quickly develops into an exploration on the meaning of faith. As usual, character is king for this series, and just about every scene is predicated on the nature of the people involved. With the abrupt end of the series, it’s hard to know how important these events would have become, but as it stands, it’s still a strong episode.
Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4
Original Rating: 7/10
Final DVD Rating: 8/10
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