Blog 1 "The Train Job"

Q1: In the beginning of the episode Captain Malcolm Reynolds is drinking with members of his crew in an Alliance-friendly bar, and later proceeds to get into a bar fight with an Alliance supporter.  His crew later speaks about this and mentions that this is not the first time an occurrence like this has happened.  How does knowing that this is an occurring incident speak of Mal's character?

A1: Seeing Captain Mal get in the bar fight in the beginning of the episode shows that he is passionate and willing to stand up for his beliefs, which in this case would be the Independents.  However, after finding out that this was not the first time that he has done something like this makes it appear as though he is seeking out dangerous and sticky situations. This dangerous side of Mal then becomes more clear later in the episode when he accepts a job to steal an unknown package for Adelai Niska, who is well-known to be a demonic person.  Seeking out these sticky situations for his own personal thrill puts both Mal's and his crew's lives at stake, and speaks very badly of his character.

Q2: In the episode, Captain Mal steals cargo that turns out to be medicine that will help cure the people of Paradiso of a disease.  Mal, seeing the immorality in keeping the cargo, then returns the goods to the people of Paradiso, however, he gets caught while returning the stolen goods.  The sheriff of Paradiso decides to let Mal off the hook.  Why does the sheriff make this decision?

A2: Although Mal lied to the sheriff about who he was and why he was in Paradiso, the sheriff states that Mal wasn't lying about everything.  The sheriff agrees with what Mal said earlier that "these are tough times" and then goes on to say that a man needs to make a living somehow.  This is the sheriff sharing sympathy with Mal because he knows that people need to find work, but in some cases (like Mal's.) that living might not be so glamorous.  On top of that, Mal was doing the right thing by returning the medicine to Paradiso and the sheriff was acknowledging that Mal knew that what he had done wasn't right and was trying to make up for it, thus resulting in his decision to let Mal go.