Episode Guides for Shindig:
Shindig on wikipedia
Shindig on Scifi.com
Luke 6.36-46
Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
‘Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.’
He also told them a parable: ‘Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully qualified will be like the teacher. Why do you see the speck in your neighbour’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbour, “Friend, let me take out the speck in your eye”, when you yourself do not see the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbour’s eye.
‘No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; for each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.
‘Why do you call me “Lord, Lord”, and do not do what I tell you?
Synopsis:
Mal, Jayne and Inara find themselves in yet another bar fight at the beginning of this episode, this time it’s because Mal decided that he’d steal money from some slave traders while they weren’t looking. We start to suspect that bar fights are pretty normal events for the crew.
The ship and crew land on a planet for a while while Mal looks out for some work and the rest of the crew decides to use their time by relaxing a bit, Inara however scans her messages for potential clients while she’s on land. As she is scanning her cliental list Mal walks in and makes a few comments about her clients and profession and she sends him away after pointing out that his moral high ground is pretty dodgy since he’d just participated in another bar fight and petty theft.
While walking through town Kaylee spots a pretty frilly dress that she’d love to wear, imagining that this is the kind of dress that other people, not like her might wear to a dance or party, her interest in the dress draws a rather inappropriate comment from Mal about why she would ever want to wear something like that, the exact words were “What are you going to do in that rig? Waltz around the engine room? It’d be like a sheep walking around on it’s hind legs.” At which time the crew leave him with Jayne wondering what he’d said to make them angry.
Mal gets asked to convince a rich and powerful man to use him and his ship to transport some cargo, to do this he will have to do some pretty sweet talking, and go to the local dance, which Inara and her client will also be attending. As a cover Mal takes Kaylee and has to buy her the pretty dress for the event, which pleases her to no end and seems to mend the friendship a bit. In the process of setting up the deal Mal insults Inara’s client and lures him into insulting Inara which gives him the excuse to punch the man. The punch is considered to be a challenge to a dual, with swords, to the death…
Mal has to fight for his life, for Inara’s honour, and for the smuggling job with a man who seems to know his fighting skills really well, and the crew aren’t going to help out at all due to another smuggler holding them as prisoners until the fight’s over.
Scenes of Note:
a) Mal and Jayne’s fight at the pub at the start of the episode is an amusing situation, it shows off his double moral standards a bit and reminds us again that the people we’re watching are indeed criminals, but then again so seems everyone else…
b) If we were to match the conversation between Mal and Inara before they land while she’s searching through her cliental up with either the conversation during the dance between the two about her profession and life or the conversation Mal has with Inara while preparing for the dual we’d see two (of the) sides (as there are many more sides than just two) of the relationship between them.
On one hand we have Mal insulting Inara and her profession and in the other hear him saying he wanted to protect her honour. “He doesn’t respect you” “I might not show respect to your job, but he didn’t respect you, Inara he doesn’t even see you.”
c) Kaylee is enjoying being “on the other side of the fence” at the party, she feels all pretty and spoils herself with the food and music, during this time a group of women greet her and begin to insult her for not fitting in and not looking pretty enough. As this happens they’re approached by another man who stops the discussion by insulting the ladies and saving Kaylee from the situation, later in the night we find Kaylee with the man and others talking engines and ships while laughing and enjoying themselves with her at the centre of attention.
For Discussion:
The Log In Your Own Eye…
We could be forgiven if we occasionally forgot that Mal is a criminal, the odd “hoorah!” here and there as he punches a slave trader or pokes a bad man with a sword is possibly normal. But the cheer means we’re not on the side of the other guy doesn’t it?
Somehow we’ve developed a scale on which we measure bad and good, Mal is less bad because he’s likeable, because we know him a little, because… why? What about him makes him likeable? What makes us cheer for the smuggler over the slave trader? How do we measure good and bad in our own lives? How many times does the criminal get to be a hero in our world? How does this scale affect the way in which we live, the choices we make as to what is more evil than the other?
Mal does it too, he will regularly make comments about Inara’s profession, clients and life almost as if he has a higher moral ground. He also steals from and picks fights with slave traders and the like in bars claiming to be better than they are. Mal seems to forget the log in his own eye while making judgements of other people’s lives, his moral compass seems to be guided by his own ethics of right and wrong. How is this true with out own lives? How often do we try and take the moral high ground? How often do we judge our friends or family, or insult them while at other times being offended that others may do the same? How often have you thought “It’s ok for me to insult my sister, but for another to do it is wrong”? Why? What does it mean to judge? Why do you think the bible constantly reminds us not to judge others?
As I type this I want to say also that I love the character of Mal, I too cheer at times, laugh at others and am glad he lives for another day, yes he’s flawed, but so am I, so are we all. And that is pretty normal…
R.E.S.P.E.C.T Found Out What It Means To Me
Kaylee meets some women at the ball that make fun of her dress, and her being there, they also show disrespect for whoever made the dress. I’m sure we’ve all been like Kaylee here at one point of time or other. How often do you feel disrespected by others? How many times have you shared a similar experience, how did you feel, why?
Mal has perpetual foot in mouth disease, especially while he is around Inara, but he also shows his ability to disrespect others like Kaylee in this episode. His ethics seem to think that it’s ok for him to do it as he’s a friend, or family, or in a relationship with the person, but doesn’t like it when others show a similar disrespect to the same people. How often do you disrespect your friends or family while thinking it’s ok because it’s you, because they know you? How many times have you taken offense to someone insulting someone you love because “only you can get away with saying that?”
And back at the party are still some well dressed women who had made fun of Kaylee, and an older man who defended Kaylee’s honour by insulting the insulters… How often do you disrespect others you might not know? How often do you defend others by putting others down?
Feeling Pretty, Feeling Out Of Place
Kaylee seems to peer into Inara’s world and romanticises it, thinking that she gets some rich clients who give her things and make her feel pretty, the rest of the world seems to think this is the case too as her profession has a high status in the planets. Looking in from outside Kaylee wishes that she could have pretty things, be a “normal” girl, wear pretty dresses, dance with men to nice music. Kaylee wants to live in the world beyond her own fence, the grass is always greener over there. How often do you look over the fence at other people’s lives and wish that it were yours? Who do you envy? Who’s lives do you wish you could have?
And when she’s faced with the reality she meets people that want to keep her on the other side of the fence, people who look pretty on the outside but are not too pretty on the inside. These people make her feel unwelcome, unpretty. While she also meets others who seem to find her enchanting for who she really is at the same party. What makes you feel pretty? What makes you feel unpretty? Can you share stories that are similar to Kaylee’s? Have you ever “jumped over to the other side of the fence” only to find that you don’t fit? How, why, when, where?
And at the end, we find that Kaylee’s happy at home with her pretty dress on the wall and music in the background, how often do things like dresses, jeans, shoes, jackets, hoodies make us feel good, make us feel pretty or handsome, or special? How often is it stuff that makes us feel good rather than people? Why might this be the case? When do you feel pretty with the simple things in life?
Mercy Is The Mark Of A Great Man
I have to admit, I do chuckle when I see the final fight scene and hear Mal say “Mercy is the mark of a great man… Guess I’m just a good man… Well, I’m all right. ..”
What does make a person great?
In the story of this series, what makes us think Mal is greater than the other people he associates with? What makes us like Inara more than others? What makes a character in a story great?
Why Is Love So Hard?
It’s obvious there’s something going on with Inara and Mal, how often have you been in similar situations? Why is it so hard to say “I love you?” Have you ever found yourself in a relationship where it’s hard to tell someone how you feel? Have you ever hurt someone you love because it’s easier to do that than it is to tell them?
About djwright
I find that it’s easier to -be- hurt by telling somebody that you love them. Telling them is hard. Finding out that this horrifies them is even harder.