Firefly Flashback: Safe

Safe is a bit of a mixed bag episode of Firefly in my book. Of course, this is Firefly, which means it's still a very enjoyable hour of television. Still, some parts of it really work for me, and others don't.

Many episodes of the show did a great job of blending the Western and Science Fiction sensibilities of the show in a satisfying and smooth way. Here, they feel a bit too oil-and-water to me. It just doesn't mesh with the way I perceive the conceit of the show.

The idea is that future technology has allowed dozens of planets and moons to be terraformed -- more than could be effectively colonized so much as "settled." The Western part of the show is the frontier planets and moons, on the borders of the 'verse, where lack of high technology required the settlers to sometimes resort to low tech solutions. But they will have some laser pistols, some rare advanced comforts. The main thing is that no matter how rough an existence they're carving out, they still are aware of the "civilized" worlds and their technologies.

And that's where this episode breaks down for me a bit. In Safe, a group of backwater settlers brand River as a witch. Literally, Salem-style. They want to burn her at the stake. And this makes absolutely no sense to me. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find many places on Earth today where people would want to burn somebody as a witch. (Sure, they'd kill you for all sorts of other stupid reasons, but because you're a techno-pagan in congress with demons? Not so much.) So I just don't buy that 500 years in our future, there could be a group that somehow regressed 500 years into our past. Even if it does set up the admittedly awesome rescue at the end of the episode. ("Yeah, but she's our witch. So cut her the hell down.")

But aside from that, it's a good episode, full of tantalizing character material. It's a particularly great episode for Simon. His joyously aggravating "why can't they just get together" romance with Kaylee is in top form. And we get a greater understanding -- both in the present and in flashbacks -- why he cares so deeply for his sister River. (And yes, that is Zac Efron playing "Young Simon" at the start of the episode.) We also see a tougher Simon for the first time, neither dandy nor pushover, as he stands up to his abductors.

Much is also revealed of Malcolm Reynolds' character, though in a more "read between the lines" kind of way. You get a taste of the kind of military leader he was in the way he reacts to Book being shot. He acts quickly, willing to potentially sacrifice some of "soldiers" to save others, and doesn't care how his decisions may be perceived by his crew. He also does something he personally doesn't want to do (going to the Alliance for help) in order to get the job done.

Speaking of Book, among the many episodes that hint at his secretive background, this is the one that makes a full-blown mystery of it. Whoever he is, whatever his past, he's important enough to receive top-notch medical care from Alliance military just at the flash of his ID card. It's a mystery that was never explained in the series, but was later addressed years later in the comic, "The Shepherd's Tale." (Personally, as is often the case with a mysterious backstory, I found the actual story to be less compelling than what I had imagined -- that Book was once an Operative like the one who chases River in the movie.)

So, once you buy into (or agree to ignore) a somewhat shaky premise, you get the usual, pleasant Firefly cocktail of humor, character, heart, and adventure. I rate this episode a B+.