As the series ages, The Train Job becomes more and more of a strange outlier in the
original 14 episodes.
As the SECOND episode in the series, The Train Job feels a little incremental.
It almost beat for beat revists all of Serenity’s moments (without feeling as though it’s
rehashing them,) has a couple fun action set pieces, and maybe moves the yardstick for
a character or two a bit.
And...that’s pretty much it.
Don’t get me wrong.
I like ‘The Train Job’ a lot.
It’s entertaining.
A few of its repeated beats from Serenity are actually more fun, the opening bar room
brawl is great, and there’s a lot of terrific humor here.
But compared to the innovative places the series goes in almost every other episode,
The Train Job feels a little...static?
But of course, that’s not the whole story, The Train Job wasn’t originally the second
episode in the series.
Whedon and company produced the artful and elegant 90 minute episode ‘Serenity’ to
be the pilot for the series and Fox didn’t care for it.
They supplied a list of changes and gave Joss and Tim Minear a weekend to write essentially
a replacement pilot.
So they needed to setup the same very complicated universe, introduce a large and complex cast
of characters, provide a fun and captivating one-off story, avoid duplicating the same
scenes from Serenity, and do all of that with 30 minutes less time?
Ok.
The Train Job is actually a bit of a miracle.
It’s Unification day: the day the Alliance claimed victory over the independence and
Mal happens to be enjoying a game in an Alliance-friendly bar with his chief sources of muscle while
also wearing his Brown Coat.
“Given some thought to moving off the edge.
Maybe somewhere in the middle.”
Talking about this episode poses a bit of an interesting challenge, given it’s dual
role as first episode aired and the life it lives now as second in the series.
I think in order to understand why The Train Job feels a little different than the rest
it’s important to not treat it COMPLETELY as the second episode in the series.
But, rather than re-explaining everything we covered in the Serenity video (which would
feel redundant and yet is the unenviable task this episode had) I’m just going to connect
the major beats to the ones we talked about in the previous video with a quick visual
indicator.
And Mal’s line here about the gameboard and wanting to move off the edge has the same
dual function as Badger’s did in Serenity, being about the actual ‘verse itself.
Inevitably some Alliance dumbass does the inevitable…
“A toast!
On this most ass-picious day” There are a couple of fun layers going on
here if we do a bit of over reading which...I mean...you’re WATCHING this video so you
being down for that kind of thing is assumed.
First of all he’s trying to use the word auspicious which is actually kind of wrong
for the context.
Generally, auspicious refers to signs today of coming good fortune in the future.
The word is Roman in origin and the auspexes were soothsayers who interpreted omens.
Drunky here, probably means “historic” or “momentous.”
The day is actually auspicious for Mal, because he’s going to get to punch some Alliance
Zhùchóng (chu-chong) in the face.
And his misuse of the words as “ass-spicious” rather than “auspicious,” reenforced by
Jayne’s mishearing...
“Suspicious?” ...is just more fuel for the fire.
Funnily enough, the parallels to Odysseus here would be an anniversary for the end of
the Trojan War, in which Odysseus played a major part… but also caused the 20 year
delay getting home for him.
Odysseus, like many of the Greek fighters, admired Troy and the Trojans and considered
it a tragedy when their city fell.
Even a crude joke towards the end of a 1000 year era would be a slight to Odysseus, and
Mal takes it as such.
Mal parks himself in a spicy position.
“Now what are you going to do about it?”
- “Nothing.
I just wanted you to face me so she could get behind ya.”
The hero on the hero's journey often has that guardian (fate, usually) but here it's his
metaphorical life.
Things get testy and Wash saves the day with a bluff.
River is still having nightmares.
Simon reminds her she isn’t at the Academy anymore.
“Were you dreaming about the academy?”
In Roman terms, The Academy was where they sent their youth after primary school to learn
speech and rhetoric, for the purpose of oration and speaking fluently.
And for River, it's where she loses the ability to communicate.
After Mal stops in for a quick visit, River makes the double meaning of his name concrete:
3 "Mal.
Bad.
In Latin."
So, again while the name Malcolm is a heroic one Mal is short for malus.
And Mal doesn’t go by his hero name.
Does he go by Mal because he thinks he’s bad?
If every character on the ship represents some aspect of Mal himself, then when Shepard
Book probes Mal for his motivations in keeping the two fugitives onboard - asking why a thieving
man of thievery would want to keep two lambs on the ship and put his career at risk - when
Mal responds: "HE'S MY HERO"
Books retort with ways Simon IS a hero, are ways that resonate with Mal’s character.
“There’s not many that would take him in either.”
In the commentary for the episode Whedon and Minear talk about having to hide train loads
of exposition (pun intended) in this episode and I think you can feel the weight of that
a bit in these first couple scenes.
There was a civil war.
Mal was on the losing side.
This is a space western.
River was tortured.
Her brother saved her.
They’re both fugitives.
Mal has made them part of the crew.
9 minutes in and we’ve revisited a lot of the necessary info from Serenity.
But, River’s calling out the possible meaning of Mal’s name and his conversation with
Book also sets up a structure to this episode that I really enjoy.
When pressed as to why he’s keeping the Tam’s onboard he responds sarcastically:
“Because it’s the right thing to do.”
Inara is spending some time making Kaylee feel pretty and pampered, to which Mal takes
issue.
You’re servicing crew now?
- In your lonely pathetic dreams.
Whedon mentions in the episode commentary one of Mal and Inara’s obvious inspirations
I had overlooked, Beatrice and Benedick:
The scene restates Mal respect for her but not her work..
“Respectable clients that sounds like...a contradiction in terms.”
...and the paradox inherent therein.
Mal confines Inara to ship believing he’s doing the honorable thing by trying to shield/protect
her, but as we find out later in the episode, Inara doesn’t need his protection.
For the second time in two episodes Kaylee brings up their crappy compression coil.
I’m sure it’ll be fine though.
Mal and muscle go to meet Nisca for the first time and the door opens to Nisca’s muscle
bound henchman Crow.
Nisca, a rich intimidating man who wants Mal to steal some cargo from the alliance for
him, was one of the requested additions from Fox - a Big Bad, essentially.
4 “You want to ask what’s in it?”
- “As a rule, no.”
Niska reveals a hanging freshly corpsified former associate and Mal makes an important
statement, given the episodes wordplay: “You do not like I kill this man?
“I’m sure he was a very bad person.”
“Mal.
Latin for bad.
Book and Inara discuss their place on the ship.
Inara has no clients and Book says.
“I feel sort of useless.”
As the crew preps for the robbery Jayne tells Kaylee the Captain is probably going to turn
in the Tams for profit, but just hasn’t figured out how to do it yet.
“Why would the Captain protect those kids if there ain’t no profit in it?”
The robbery goes off without a hitch...mostly - but at the destination Mal and Zoe discover
what they just stole was medicine for a town in desperate need of it.
“Son of a bitch.”
The crew heatedly debates whether to run with the goods or wait for Mal and Zoe.
I love the way River is often shot in these early scenes.
Not with a cut to her but by revealing her through a camera motion, as though she was
there the whole time.
Almost like she’s a part of the ship.
River babbles a bit of a foreboding line as she is bathed in blue light..
“Two by two.
Hands of blue.”
After Simon knocks out Jayne for trying to take over, Book comes up with a plan to have
Inara get Mal and Zoe out by pretending he is her escaped man servant.
It’s a great reversal of the scene from earlier and pays off Book and Inara feeling
somewhat useless for the past two episodes.
Inara goes to rescue Mal and Zoe in a dress so stunning my words don’t good much normal
as they do as.
Notice too, the particular version of Mal’s name she uses:
34:44 “Malcolm is my indentured man.”
And Inara’s job and career station, which Mal constantly shuns her for, bails everyone
out.
“Her files were all in order?”
- “I ran them twice.”
There’s a nice juxtaposition in the following scene that actually codifies Inara and Mal
as a love relationship albeit one expressed through knee kicks and pig tail pulling.
When Zoe and Wash embrace: How did it go?
She hit me.
Niska’s men show up.
A fight ensues.
When Mal takes a hit the first person to fire back and keep him alive is his Zoe.
Mal returns the goods and, in a scene bookending the opening in which the shepard was probing
Mal for why he would keep the Tam’s on board...
“Man’s got a choice.”
- “I don’t believe he does.”
Back to that in a minute.
Mal tries to give Niska his money back.
“Keep it.
Use it to buy a funeral.”
KICK “Now this is all the money Niska gave us
in advance.”
Crow was setup with a big scary opening shot when they met Niska, creating our expectations
of what role he’ll play, which makes the engine kick utterly shocking and hilarious.
This kind of beat is an INCREDIBLY Whedon’y suberversion and I love it.
“I am a GOD you dull creature.
And I will not be bullied.”
Hulk Wham Wham “Puny God.”
And the episode ends with another requested Fox addition, two dudes and their two blue
hands er...4...two sets of...
Being the outlier episode in Firefly is a bit like being the last picked Avenger.
You’re still one of Earth’s mightiest heroes and, true to form, The Train Job is
hilarious with unexpected moments, lots of adventure, and some great character character
details.
I also think the whole Fox fiasco raises an interesting question: Are there ways in which
The Train Job works more successfully as a first episode?
(To be clear, I like Serenity more.
I just think the question is interesting.)
And not more successful in a Fox executive, “We’re never going to get people to sit
through 90 minutes of people eating strawberries and taking sponge baths give us more sparkly
boomy things,” kind of way.
Though, when it comes to the business of getting eyes on a show maybe that shouldn’t be ruled
out completely?
As much I love the melancholy and time spanning cold open to ‘Serenity,’ ‘The Train
Job’s’ opening bar fight is so much fun.
Whedon called the single shot of the man flying through a barroom window, western style, and
the window being a hologram, “The show in a nutshell.”
The ships introduction is a stunner, almost like she’s the 10th member of the cast (and
she is.)
The whole scene delivers an incredible amount of information to the audience, (arguably
more) while having an engrossing pace and humor.
Where ‘Serenity’s’ opening is more of a beautiful cinematic slow burn, ‘The Train
Job’ feels to me more like the opening of a television show.
And that filters down.
‘Serenity’s’ 90 minutes feel like an unfolding stage play.
Episodes like that in a show are often some of my favorites and the most memorable.
Think Data’s Day in Star Trek Next Generation or The Fly in Breaking Bad.
But, perhaps, a PILOT should be a little tighter and more energetic to get eyes on your show?
Serenity is also Mandarin heavy.
And just like any universe-specific affectation it can take a little frakkin time for the
audience to warm up to how things work.
The Train Job is pretty mandarin light.
All right so...enough of that.
I feel dirty devil’s advocating when the devil is Fox and I wouldn’t trade Serenity’s
slow beautiful burn for anything.
Especially that dinner scene.
“Walk away from this table.”
Setting ‘The Train Job’s’, pilot 2.0 elements aside, the episode has a really cool
structure to it.
Philosophically, Mal’s final line to the sheriff about a man not having choice always
bugged me.
Whedon has spoken before about his own personal philosophy, existentialism is riddled throughout
Buffy and Angel and there’s an episode of Firefly that reads like Whedon’s take on
Sartre’s Nausea.
And fundamental to the idea of existential philosophy is choice.
Yes, the universe is meaningless and indifferent to us but, by making choices and pursuing
meaning regardless, meaning can ensue through our journey.
I did my best to cover existentialism and choice in my video for the Buffy episode,
Lie to Me, linked in the top right.
Mal’s line initially confused me but I think maybe I was misreading what he was referring
to.
Let's unpack.
The opening brawl over Unification Day serves to show us that Mal is still fighting the
war people keep telling him he lost 6 years earlier.
And the duality of Mal’s name that River and Book bring up introduce the question of
episode.
What kind of “bad” is he?
The city of Paradiso, where most of the episode takes place, is on the planet Regina, part
of the Georgia system which is one of the two systems that make up the border planets.
And ‘Paradiso; is also Part 3 of the Divine Comedy, in which Dante was guided through
the spheres of heaven.
Only, in Firefly’s Paradiso we see a vision of the paradise the Alliance was fighting
for when they sought to unify the systems.
The citizens are living a hard life, stricken with a disease their planet’s unique atmosphere
enables.
Sure, the Alliance brings in medicine with a regiment but, when the medicine is taken,
they are nowhere to be found, leaving the people to fend for themselves through the
worst of it.
30:45 “Well that sounds like the alliance.
Unite all the planets under one rule so everyone can be interfered with or ignored equally.”
Mal made the mistake of not asking Niska what he was stealing but, upon seeing the suffering
of the people in Paradiso, immediately decides to give the shipment back, and I love the
way that Zoe knows his why without him needing to say anything.
“There's other that need this more.”
Because really, the episode is not about choosing between the alliance or the brown coats.
In any war between two parties there is always a third that makes out, no matter what.
The vulture [Niska.]
The carrion feeders.
The crows [Crowe.]
Scavengers with no loyalty or moral compass.
They don’t care who wins but feast upon the dead equally.
Man, too, is an organism born with a default self-interest [Jayne] that is functionally
defined by the absence of choice.
“Why would the captain take them on if there ain’t no profit in it?”
Nothing but impulse.
Eat, sleep, survive.
Existentially speaking, if the universe is intrinsically meaningless, so too is our default
state of self-interest.
Niska and Crow then represent the pull of that meaningless universe on Mal.
So the choice isn’t really picking between two ideologies.
The choice is not what he believes in, but whether to believe in anything at all.
And that’s one Mal already made, a long time ago.
[Serenity Valley]
Mal’s sincerity almost always emerges from his actions and not the things he says.
(Verbalosity is really just another opportunity for cunning) and his two acts of shocking
violence in Serenity and The Train Job both make the same conclusive statement, if in
the face of two different enemies.
Mal has decided what kind of ‘Bad’ he’s going to be.
He’s going to be the bad that rebels.
Rebels against Niska because Mal has a guiding ethos [Book.]
Who rebels against the Alliance, because laws don’t define what’s right, [The Tams]
and an unjust law is still wrong.
He’s Mal AND he’s Malcolm.
He’s on his own journey.