Firefly Study Series – Episode 01 – Serenity

Full Episode Guides:

Episode 01 “Serenity” on Wikipedia

Episeode 01 “Serenity” on Scifi.com (part 01)

Episode 01 “Serenity” on Scifi.com (part 02)

Matthew 4

Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the lake, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
‘Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,
on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
the people who sat in darkness
have seen a great light,
and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death
light has dawned.’
From that time Jesus began to proclaim, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’

As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen. And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.’ Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.

Brief Synopsis:

This is a two part pilot (which didn’t make it into the original tv release until the series ended) that introduces each of the characters, the ship and the weird life of the cast and crew of a very different type of ship, (its definitely not the SS. Minnow) as it flies from job to job and avoids the Alliance and other bad characters on a very regular basis…

In this episode we meet each of the characters as the shop takes on new passengers, all of which seem to have their own secrets that they are wanting to be kept from the others, a Doctor with a strange package, a Traveler and a Shepherd (missionary). When the Alliance starts to track the ship down they realise that a traitor is on board and begin to look for them.

Scenes Of Note:

a) We first join Mal and Zoe in the battlefield, (for the Serenity History Buff it’s the battle of Serenity Valley) they are members of the Brown Coats, a rebel army fighting against a group known as The Alliance (wearing Blue Coats). As the battle is fought we see that Mal is wearing a cross on his neck, at one time he kisses it and seems as if he says a prayer. The battle soon becomes one that they cannot win when their troops pull out leaving them cold and dry as the Alliance ships land in the valley.

b) There’s a deleted scene which was replaced by the final intro scene where a tired and angry Mal, standing amongst the dead and dying waiting for medical ships to come and look after the wounded asks whose side God is on.

c) Kaylee is asked to find passengers who would like to book the ship for transport from one place to another, she does this by sitting outside the ship with an umbrella paying attention to those who walk on by and engaging a few in conversation. She enters into dialogue with Book, the Shepherd by noting that he wasn’t looking at the destinations of the ships around them, instead he was looking at the ships, book responds that he’s more interested in the journey than the destination and Kaylee convinces him to join their crew for his journey.

d) Book has a doubt about his place on the ship and expresses his concern to Inara, in an interesting scene the prostitute tells the preacher that he might be exactly what the ship needs.

For Discussion:

A Weird Community Doing Weird Stuff

One of the things I love about this series is how a weird mob of people, from the prostitute to the preacher, the smuggler to the doctor can all be gathered together in a small place and still form community and friendships.

Firefly has no illusions, smugglers are criminals, but sometimes it’s when we burst out of our own box that we become something different, perhaps even heroic, and in the end our question is always who is the (most) bad, the criminal who does good to the person in power that pretends to do good and does the opposite?

How did Jesus choose the people who followed him? Would we be hard pressed to not find people like the characters in Firefly in Jesus’s followers? The prostitute, the criminal, the priest, the lover, the husband, the mechanic, the doctor, the sick, the abused…

When God Disappoints Us

The scene where Mal meets with Shepherd Book and tells him that he has no place for God is an interesting scene, especially where we remember back to the beginning of the show where he kisses his cross during battle. Mal’s abandoned faith, as hope in something that jut won’t come… It makes me ask the questions of: How do we cope with disappointment? What are the ways we use to get over great disappointment? Have you ever felt abandoned by God? Perhaps we can explore some of the Laments within the Hebrew Scriptures and hear voices of many others before us who, like Mal, like us find it hard to believe sometimes.

Truly Paying Attention

The scene where Kaylee sits outside and has a conversation with Book leads me to questions of mission and ministry. How often do we just sit back and pay attention to those around us? How had do we need to really pay to people if we’re to notice things like they’re not really looking at the destination, but they’re looking for something different?

How open are we to people who are on a journey to a non-specified destination? In Kaylee we see a person who is really interested in others, who’s eye seems to be in tune with what we need to be in mission.

Doubting Is Common Ground

There’s a certain beauty in the sharing of one’s doubts to those around us, imagine sharing ourselves with the young people in which we are in ministry with, to really humble ourselves and say things like “I really don’t get it sometimes” or “i sometimes want to give it in.” This is what we see in the scene between Book and Inara, the preacher sharing his doubts with the prostitute… and in doing so finding wisdom in her words and support, the role reversal is not unnoticed here, our perceptions are turned upside down.

At The Table

The table is a space where the entire crew gathers, Joss speaks of his characters building family, something that he aims to do in every story he writes, at its basic form this show is about becoming a part of a family. How important is the table in building community? What happens when the television takes the place of the table? What is behind our gathering at the table? This will be a conversation that we’ll have again as the characters constantly return to the table and table fellowship.

Story Telling

I’m reminded of how we start stories, of how we introduce characters, of how we get to know people in stories. In particular I’m interested in how we introduce the characters in scripture, are we as eloquent as Joss? Do we give each character the space to grow and speak to us? Do we overlook the Books, the Rivers, the Kaylees in preference to concentrate on who we see to be the main character? Do we listen to the other voices in scripture, or do we focus on Jesus and only hear a part of the story?

Snap Judgments

And, if you were doing this as an extended study and watching the entire series I’d have the participants write down the names of each of the characters and to put alongside them their snap judgments abut their character. I’d possibly do this after each episode until we gather after watching the film and ask them to compare their judgments throughout the series to where they are at the end of the film.

Why do we judge? How do we judge? What do we judge? How do our judgments change (if at all)?

I’ll post the second episode “The Train Job” tomorrow…