Blog 10: In Class Blog: Dakota's PSA Draft

Firefly is an American Western space television series written and directed by Joss Whedon, and originally aired on FOX in September 2002.  The show is set in the year 2517 and follows the lives of Captain Malcolm ‘Mal’ Reynolds and his crew aboard their ship Serenity.  Mal and his crew are remains of the losing side of a civil war and now make a living on the outskirts of their society. Now they fly along the fringes of the solar system making a living any way they can.  In this particular episode “The Train Job”, Mal and his crew have agreed to steal cargo off of a train without being told the specifics about what the cargo contains.  After successfully stealing the cargo, Mal and his crew discover that it was medicine for the town of Paradiso, where a disease was ravaging the populace.

One of the main issues the show Firefly investigates are the stereotypes that our society has on criminals and their morality.

For example, in one of the final scenes of the episode Mal and Zoe, one of his shipmates who helped him steal the cargo, are riding an ATV with cargo attached to the back along a dirt road at night.   The two stop and get off the ATV and Mal says that they should drag the cargo from where they stopped, and leave it just off of the street.  Mal then says that they can call and notify the sheriff where the cargo is once they’re safely away in space, at which point the sheriff comes out of hiding and says, “Why not tell him in person?”  The sheriff and his deputies then all come out and inform Mal that they had received word of a ship just outside of town.  One of the deputies then begins inspecting the cargo they had brought back while the sheriff talks directly to Mal and says, “Didn’t expect to see you comin’ back.”  Mal then says that he didn’t expect to be coming.  At this point the deputy has finished checking the cargo and informs the sheriff that nothing is missing from the medicine supply.  The sheriff then ponders for a second and says (referring back to an earlier scene) that Mal told the truth back in town and that these are hard times.  The sheriff then says, “A man can get a job.  He might not look too close at what that job is.  But a man learns all the details to a situation like ours (referring to the town of Paradiso and the disease that plagues it)…well…then he has a choice.”  To this Mal responds by saying that he doesn’t believe that man does have a choice.  At this point the sheriff simply says to his deputies that they should move the crates back to town and Mal and Zoe return to their ship.

When the sheriff said that once you learn the details of a situation like Paradiso’s, like Mal had earlier when he saw how bad the disease in the town was, then that person then has a choice.  Mal then says, “I don’t believe he does.” referring to his moral opinion that after seeing how the disease was effecting the town, the right choice in his mind would be to return the medicine.  Mal felt that it was his moral obligation to make up for the wrong that he had done when he stole the medicine by returning it to the people of Paradiso.

Another example was actually earlier in the episode when Mal has just decided that he wants to return the medicine to the people of paradise.  One of the crew members asks Mal what they should tell Niska, the person who hired them to steal the cargo.  Mal says that they can tell Niska that the job went badly when they go to give Niska the half of the money he paid them before they set off to do the job.  At this point, Wash tells Mal that if he wants to tell that story then now would be good time.  Mal turns to find a group of Niska’s men walking into their cargo bay.  One of them points out that they didn’t make the rendezvous, then accuses Mal of trying to steal Niska’s cargo and his money.  Mal quickly dismisses that claim by saying, “Interestingly, neither.” To this Niska’s man says he doesn’t understand.  From here things go south for Mal and the crew fights with Niska’s men, eventually prevailing.  The previously described scene happens, then it jumps to one of the last scenes where Mal is talking to Niska’s main man who is bound tightly.  Mal holds up a wad of all the money Niska gave them in advance and tells Niska’s man to return it to Niska.  Niska’s man spits in disgust at this request at which point mal says, “We’re not thieves.  Well, we are thieves. Point is, we’re not taking what’s his.”  Niska’s man continues to refuse so Mal pushes him in front of their ship’s engine and he gets sucked in and is killed.

Mal’s actions in this scene speak very clearly on his moral character.  Mal could have easily kept the money and ran away after defeating Niska’s men, but since they didn’t actually complete the mission by delivering the stolen cargo to Niska, he didn’t want to take his money.  Mal again shows his morality when he says, “We’re not thieves. Well, we are thieves.  Point is, we’re not taking what’s his.”  What Mal means by this is that they steal when they are hired to do so, because they need to make money to stay alive.  They don’t steal things just to steal things, only when there is money involved. 

Through these two scenes, the writer’s of Firefly undermined our societies concept that all criminals are cold-hearted people.  When Mal steals the cargo from the train he is doing something wrong, however, once he realizes that the people of Paradiso need that medicine he redeems himself but doing the right thing and returning it.  Sure he might be a criminal for stealing, but at least he attempted to make up for what he had done.  And again he shows that he has morals when he wants to return Niska’s money.  Mal knows that since they didn’t go through with the mission, they don’t deserve their pay.  He even says that they don’t steal just to be synical, they only do it so that they can make a living.  This shows that even though some people might be criminals, doesn’t mean they can’t have some good in them.

Works Cited

"Firefly." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 11 Sept. 2012.

            <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0303461/>.

"Firefly." TV.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Sept. 2012.

            <http://www.tv.com/shows/firefly/>.

“The Train Job.” Firefly: Season 1.Writ. Joss Whedon, Vern Gillum & Tim Minear. Dir.

            Joss Whedon. FOX Broadcasting Corporating. 20 September 2002. Online.

            Netflix. 22 August 2012.