Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Firefly catchup discussion with 1×6, Our Mrs. Reynolds. This was another great showing and I just find myself loving the show and the characters more and more each time I watch. The whole space western thing is just such a great concept that I’m surprised hasn’t been done much elsewhere (to my knowledge). We kicked off a great ruse which greatly demonstrated how likeable the core group all are and “I swear by my pretty flower bonnet I will end you” was a line delivered expertly. The random things like Jayne being in ore of his rainmaker gift was fun, but it became less fun for Jayne when he saw that Mal had seemingly been gifted a wife and he wanted to trade.

The restraint they showed with Mal’s character this episode was very well done, and his eventual seduction was acceptable rather than it feeling like a cop out or the easy option. The wife really had to work for it and Mal still came out of the whole thing looking pretty good. If the kiss hadn’t knocked him out, I still don’t think he would have gone through with sleeping with her. He didn’t like or take advantage of how subservient she was but that may have been because of Book’s threat of a special kind of hell looming over him. It also allowed us to get an insight into Wash and Zoe’s relationship which led to even more brilliant little moments such as Wash immediately saying he isn’t hungry after Saffron suggests that Zoe should be cooking for him. Wash showed just the right amount of fear in his delivery.

Saffron started to show signs of being a little obsessive but I thought that they were going to go down the crazy and deluded route rather than the whole thing being an act. It subverted the expectation well for a much more interesting pay off. Than if it was just “ooh look how crazy this lady is!” Before the reveal I did quite like her, but when she started coming on to Walsh I actually found myself getting very angry! It was more amusing when she did it with Inara and they still kept on teasing that romantic tension between her and Mal. That better pay off before the show ends.

The ending did feel a tad rushed, with her working with some sort of scrap pirates not being wholly explained. That would be my only criticism as it could have maybe have done with being a two-parter. Her associates kind of just appeared only to be quickly defeated and you were a bit like “oh, is that it?” Apart from that I really enjoyed it and can’t wait to watch the next episode.

DD Rating: 7.5/10