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Date Posted: 08:04:40 10/07/05 Fri
Author: lunasea
Subject: How Safe is Serenity (spoilers Safe and movie)

This is one of the few essays I've written since Serenity was released.

I’ve written this essay several times. None of them flowed or sounded right. There was something missing. This essay includes that, lots of I’s and my’s with a few me’s thrown in for good measure. It isn’t just about the conclusion, but how I arrived at it.

Our story starts with me sitting in the big forest green easy chair that is conveniently positioned just close enough to the TV. A quick trip to the “Everything Joss” shelf gained me my treasured Firefly DVDs. Pop all four into the five-disk DVD player so I don’t have to get up. Let the marathon commence.



I saw Serenity twice before it was released. That was months ago, but it is a movie that really sticks with you. As I watched, I saw many things that carried over to Serenity. I’m sure my readers can list many of these. What struck me most was a simple line that caused me to rewind it enough times to annoy my children.

I get confused. I remember everything. I remember too much, and some of it’s made up, and some of it can’t be quantified. There’s secrets...
~~River in “Safe”

It isn’t mine. The memory. I didn’t bring it and I shouldn’t have to carry it. It isn’t mine.
~~River in Serenity

We see what River means by both these statements through the visions of River as a young child in class on Osirus. Her vision is a composite of her past and the secrets she gleaned from “key members of Parliment.”

Joss and the cast members have said that Serenity was supposed to be a two year arc on Firefly

But the fact is, my first draft was two hundred pages long. It was basically like I wrote Season Two. And then I was like, “Okay, that’s great, now turn it into a movie."
``Joss Whedon in Serenity, the Official Visual Companion

In Season Three of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Joss in the season finale “Graduation Day” foreshadowed the appearance of Dawn in “Buffy v Dracula” in Season Five. Joss has sprinkled foreshadowing throughout his series. Firefly is no exception.

“Safe” shows us River’s ability as a reader when she reads Ruby and the Town Elder. It also shows how her abilities get her into trouble when the town wants to burn her as a witch. This River centric episode shows her as a girl, one that can dance and take joy in life. She is no longer confined and remembers who she is (like the cows). Hidden in there is Joss’ plans for her abilities.

This is what dawned on me as I watched “Safe” and heard that one line. Firefly showed River to be a reader. It showed how the brain operation sent her to paranoid schizophrenia. Serenity went one more and showed how her fractured psyche handled what she picked up as a psychic. That was foreshadowed by a simple line in “Safe.”

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