Blog #6 - Episode 5 of Firefly

This episode of Firefly pretty much set the scene for a bunch of new mysteries, as well as some developments in character relationships. Mostly (and thankfully), this episode focused on one of my favorite characters, River Tam. River is the character with the most mysterious and quirks in the Firefly series. Played by the adorable Summer Glau, she is schizophrenic, telepathic, morbid, intelligent beyond belief, and remarkably good at dancing. River was sent to a school when she was younger that did some terrible things to her; it apparently traumatized her to her current state. This episode showed a younger version of River, a cheerful girl who still displayed an odd tendency to say creepy things. The modern River isn't much like her younger self; she often falls into frightened fits where she screams and throws things violently. She barely ever talks coherently, and when she does, it is either a disturbing fact, an airy philosophical statement, or a detailed history of someone's past. The latter seems to indicate that she can read minds. When the townspeople in this episode discovered this talent, they immediately deemed her a witch and starting the ever-classic burning ritual. Interestingly, some townspeople seemed to be okay with River until she started revealing information that compromised the integrity of some of them. Once she did this, the situation went from the townspeople being calm and collected to screaming that God wanted her dead. Whether or not they legitimately thought God wanted her dead, or infusing religion with their own fears and intentions isn't something I particularly want to discuss in my blog, I just wanted to point it out.