1/12: Heart of Gold

[TechnoSlut]

Written by: Brett Matthews
Directed by: Thomas J. Wright
Air date: Never Aired

The Serenity crew defends a bordello from a gunslinger who got a prostitute pregnant and now intends to collect the child; Mal falls for the bordello's madam.

[Nickim]

The opening shot of Heart of Gold starts us feeling isolated. Inara says, "There's no authority on that moon, they're totally alone." Kaylee says, "Every one's got somebody." But, Kaylee has Serenity and, later, we see her and Simon sitting together on the sofa. It's Inara that's truly alone in this episode.

Inara has to pretend she's okay with Mal spending the night with Nandee, but we see the truth. Inara has run away from things before. She ran away from being House Priestess. She, unlike Zoe, is so afraid of losing something that she won't try to have it. Was Inara afraid of losing the position of House Priestess to someone else? I don't think so. I think Inara fell in love with someone that she couldn't have or wouldn't let herself have--one of those complications that keep cropping up. Remember when she told Kaylee that dating for a Companion was "complicated?" Now, Inara has found another "complication", her feelings for Mal. True to form, Inara chooses to leave rather than deal with her feelings. Companions learn to hide their true feelings, to put the Client's feelings first. Inara can't hide from Mal, so she leaves.

I have a friend that's so afraid that she'll get married and her husband will leave her--her dad left her mom--that she won't let herself fall in love. Anytime a guy she likes asks her out, she loses interest. How Inara got so afraid of love is something I'd really like to have had the chance to see. @#*@#*Fox executives!!

The story line about Rance (Rancid) makes me ill. Men have dominated women throughout history. The old double-standard. A woman has to be "pure." According to Rance, if a man takes "a clean woman's virtue, you take the woman and that's for life. Being faithful to her isn't important in Rancid's mind. Of course, if Mrs. Burgess took a lover, Rancid would probably kill them both. The man deserved to be shot. The treatment of women as objects sets up Kaylee being threatened with rape in Objects in Space.

Having said that, I do think father's should have some rights to their children. It's another double-standard that only women should have custody of their children.


Some of my favorite lines:
K--Wash, tell me I'm pretty.
W--Were I unwed, I would take you in a manly way.
K--'Cause I'm pretty?
W--'Cause you're pretty.

Z--I ain't so afraid of losing something that I ain't gonna try to have it. I want to meet that child one day. Period.(me too, maybe in a movie!)

Just when River seems normal
R--What do you think is in there?

[Lola m]

Great thoughts about Inara and her isolation, Nicki! And I loved how you compared it with the conversation that Zoe and Wash have. So much is said, without being directly said, in that last scene between Mal and Inara. Both are so . . . reserved, so pulled back into themselves and away from other people. Inara doesn't seem like it on the surface, but as you said, Companions learn to hide their feelings. Mal tries to begin an actual conversation in that final moment between them. His perceived "failure" with Nandi has given him the push to at least try. Inara is the one to pull away.

I love the writing in that speech of hers. It starts out sounding like she also has been moved by Nandi's death to perhaps step forward and take a chance: "I learned something from Nandi . . . The family she made, the strength of her love for them, that's what kept them together." But then we get the real direction she's heading. "When you live with that kind of strength, you get tied to it. You can't break away. And you never want to." Mal's face shows he's still just listening, but I knew the first time I heard her saying those words, she wasn't planning on telling him what he wanted to hear. Because it's the ties, the need, the trap she sees - the fear that she might "never want" to break free once she lets herself really feel for Mal.

And I'm right there with you on the Rance hate. I think it's just perfect that they brought him back so Petaline could shoot him herself. Frontier justice at it's most basic. The kind that I have no doubt he himself had doled out to plenty who crossed him in the past. Rance is the worst kind of bad guy to me. One who doesn't have the spine to just admit he's doing the things he is because he wants to, because he feels justified in getting whatever he thinks he needs in whatever way he can. Who tries to cloak his selfishness and hatred in supposed "morality". It's all speeches to the crowd (that he doesn't give a damn about and will gladly abandon to be killed later) and talk of the "sanctity of fatherhood" and "decency" and "family". The whores are "spitting on our town" and have "my child held hostage to their decadent ways".

Yeah, decadent ways you were all too happy to wallow in earlier when you were paying to have Petaline service you, you jerk! Ptuie! And then the creepy thing with the traiter girl from the house. Even she doesn't like him at all, she's just there for the money and because she figures she better be on the winning side.

Mal really met his match in Nandi. She is just as passionate about her people and her house as he is about his crew and his ship. The Heart of Gold is her Serenity. "You're my kind of stupid." LOL! Loved the scenes between them, flirting over the guns, with the fun banter and all.

Loved, loved, loved my boy Jayne in this! He and Kaylee are the most comfortable at the whore house, because he and Kaylee are the most uncomplicated and straightforward (and happy about it) with their sexuality. Once again, he picks the woman who is the most like him - straightforward, no hesitation. She just grabs him and hauls him upstairs. Plus, doing her hair and talking to her about the guns and how to handle herself in the gun fight. Just so . . . cute. And Kaylee - just so fab with her: "They got boy whores! Isn't that thoughtful?" ;D

Interesting contrast between Book ("No one here's gonna die") and Jayne ("There's people here gonna die."). Is it truly a difference in what they believe, how they look at the world (optimist versus pragmatist) or a difference in the roles they feel they hold - how they think they should be interacting with people (keeping spirits up versus providing practical instruction)?


Lola

[Nickim]

I think it's just you and me kid.

Wow, Lola, you got right to the heart of Inara's reasons for leaving. I liked Jayne is this episode, too. A picture of him in that hat I wouldn't mind as an avatar.

I think the difference in Book and Jayne's attitudes has to be that Book is trying to encourage and comfort. He's obviously so much more than a Shepherd and he has to know that people are going to die, but he can't let the girls lose hope.

[Queen E]

Nicki~S'edated said:

I think it's just you and me kid.

Wow, Lola, you got right to the heart of Inara's reasons for leaving. I liked Jayne is this episode, too. A picture of him in that hat I wouldn't mind as an avatar.

I think the difference in Book and Jayne's attitudes has to be that Book is trying to encourage and comfort. He's obviously so much more than a Shepherd and he has to know that people are going to die, but he can't let the girls lose hope.

I promise to have something resembling thoughts on this episode in the next couple of days; just didn't get a chance to watch it last night.

One thing I do recall from first viewing is how much sense the scene between Mal and Inara in "Objects in Space" makes after seeing this episode.

[Linda]

Nicki~S'cubie said:

The opening shot of Heart of Gold starts us feeling isolated. Inara says, "There's no authority on that moon, they're totally alone." Kaylee says, "Every one's got somebody." But, Kaylee has Serenity and, later, we see her and Simon sitting together on the sofa. It's Inara that's truly alone in this episode.

Inara has to pretend she's okay with Mal spending the night with Nandee, but we see the truth. Inara has run away from things before. She ran away from being House Priestess. She, unlike Zoe, is so afraid of losing something that she won't try to have it. Was Inara afraid of losing the position of House Priestess to someone else? I don't think so. I think Inara fell in love with someone that she couldn't have or wouldn't let herself have--one of those complications that keep cropping up. Remember when she told Kaylee that dating for a Companion was "complicated?" Now, Inara has found another "complication", her feelings for Mal. True to form, Inara chooses to leave rather than deal with her feelings. Companions learn to hide their true feelings, to put the Client's feelings first. Inara can't hide from Mal, so she leaves.

I have a friend that's so afraid that she'll get married and her husband will leave her--her dad left her mom--that she won't let herself fall in love. Anytime a guy she likes asks her out, she loses interest. How Inara got so afraid of love is something I'd really like to have had the chance to see. @#*@#*Fox executives!!

The story line about Rance (Rancid) makes me ill. Men have dominated women throughout history. The old double-standard. A woman has to be "pure." According to Rance, if a man takes "a clean woman's virtue, you take the woman and that's for life. Being faithful to her isn't important in Rancid's mind. Of course, if Mrs. Burgess took a lover, Rancid would probably kill them both. The man deserved to be shot. The treatment of women as objects sets up Kaylee being threatened with rape in Objects in Space.

Having said that, I do think father's should have some rights to their children. It's another double-standard that only women should have custody of their children.


Some of my favorite lines:
K--Wash, tell me I'm pretty.
W--Were I unwed, I would take you in a manly way.
K--'Cause I'm pretty?
W--'Cause you're pretty.

Z--I ain't so afraid of losing something that I ain't gonna try to have it. I want to meet that child one day. Period.(me too, maybe in a movie!)

Just when River seems normal
R--What do you think is in there?

Hi Nicki!

Ooh thanks for the name Rancid! I like it!

Eetah with everything you posted. Except I think River says "who" as opposed to "what" when she made the remark you quoted. That's what my DVD subtitles say, anyway. I admit that the subtitles aren't always correct, though.

And eetah especially with Lola about your Inara isolation thoughts.

Regarding the reason for Inara's running from love and her old life ... well, I've got a theory posted below.




Linda, only one episode left?

[Linda]

Lola said:

Great thoughts about Inara and her isolation, Nicki! And I loved how you compared it with the conversation that Zoe and Wash have. So much is said, without being directly said, in that last scene between Mal and Inara. Both are so . . . reserved, so pulled back into themselves and away from other people. Inara doesn't seem like it on the surface, but as you said, Companions learn to hide their feelings. Mal tries to begin an actual conversation in that final moment between them. His perceived "failure" with Nandi has given him the push to at least try. Inara is the one to pull away.

I love the writing in that speech of hers. It starts out sounding like she also has been moved by Nandi's death to perhaps step forward and take a chance: "I learned something from Nandi . . . The family she made, the strength of her love for them, that's what kept them together." But then we get the real direction she's heading. "When you live with that kind of strength, you get tied to it. You can't break away. And you never want to." Mal's face shows he's still just listening, but I knew the first time I heard her saying those words, she wasn't planning on telling him what he wanted to hear. Because it's the ties, the need, the trap she sees - the fear that she might "never want" to break free once she lets herself really feel for Mal.

And I'm right there with you on the Rance hate. I think it's just perfect that they brought him back so Petaline could shoot him herself. Frontier justice at it's most basic. The kind that I have no doubt he himself had doled out to plenty who crossed him in the past. Rance is the worst kind of bad guy to me. One who doesn't have the spine to just admit he's doing the things he is because he wants to, because he feels justified in getting whatever he thinks he needs in whatever way he can. Who tries to cloak his selfishness and hatred in supposed "morality". It's all speeches to the crowd (that he doesn't give a damn about and will gladly abandon to be killed later) and talk of the "sanctity of fatherhood" and "decency" and "family". The whores are "spitting on our town" and have "my child held hostage to their decadent ways".

Yeah, decadent ways you were all too happy to wallow in earlier when you were paying to have Petaline service you, you jerk! Ptuie! And then the creepy thing with the traiter girl from the house. Even she doesn't like him at all, she's just there for the money and because she figures she better be on the winning side.

Mal really met his match in Nandi. She is just as passionate about her people and her house as he is about his crew and his ship. The Heart of Gold is her Serenity. "You're my kind of stupid." LOL! Loved the scenes between them, flirting over the guns, with the fun banter and all.

Loved, loved, loved my boy Jayne in this! He and Kaylee are the most comfortable at the whore house, because he and Kaylee are the most uncomplicated and straightforward (and happy about it) with their sexuality. Once again, he picks the woman who is the most like him - straightforward, no hesitation. She just grabs him and hauls him upstairs. Plus, doing her hair and talking to her about the guns and how to handle herself in the gun fight. Just so . . . cute. And Kaylee - just so fab with her: "They got boy whores! Isn't that thoughtful?" ;D

Interesting contrast between Book ("No one here's gonna die") and Jayne ("There's people here gonna die."). Is it truly a difference in what they believe, how they look at the world (optimist versus pragmatist) or a difference in the roles they feel they hold - how they think they should be interacting with people (keeping spirits up versus providing practical instruction)?


Lola

Hi Lola!

Eetah! Neat! And eetah with Nicki regarding your Inara thoughts.

I really like your thought about Nandi being Mal's match. It's probably significant that she is an "Independent" version of Inara. The fact that she has no Guild resources makes her vulnerable. But her Independence also makes her family stronger. Just like Mal. So Inara's leaving would seem like another loss to the Alliance for him in a sense.


Linda, and love your boy Jayne, too! (But I'll leave him to you and Philomena to fight over...)

;D

[Linda]

Hi all!

‘Kay, not one of my favorites, so I didn’t watch it over and over and over (who, me? Obsessed?)

Still: Very, very nice Mal & Inara stuff. Intimacy issues, indeed.

Heart of Gold double meaning: Good heart / Mercenary heart. So many of Mal and Inara’s issues seem to involve the conflict between doing things because it helps others versus doing things to get paid. And because they both dislike complications, they both try to keep things strictly business. In this episode, it is Mal who is trying to move beyond business and Inara is the one retreating. In the end, she decides to retreat all the way off the ship. Sigh. (I wonder where she'll be when we rejoin them on April 22, 2005?)

So what’s up with the guns & sex and sex & guns? Mal to Inara in the teaser scene: Not altogether wise, sneakin’ up on a man when he’s handling his weapon. Nandi to Mal: I’ve been waiting for you to kiss me since I showed you my guns. And Jayne, well, he’s Jayne. He actually pulls a gun out from between him and his lady when they are sleepily cuddling. Also Rancid (thanks again Nicki!) is way too much in love with his fancy gun, even mistakenly thinking Mal’s "She's a beauty" remark refers to it as opposed to his wife. (Check battery, heh.) Say what you will about Jayne's obsession with weapons, he showed in this episode that he'd much rather be with a woman than his guns. Sometimes "it" is about power and sometimes it's about seduction, I guess. (Oh, and thanks to Jayne, I also get the message that sometimes it's the "gun" that's important and sometimes it's the cuddle afterwards.) ;D



Regarding Companions: So much of the important communication between Inara and Nandi was wordless. Affection, amusement, hurt, apology, the fact that Inara loves Mal, etc. Mal, not so much with the wordless. He needs both Nandi & Inara to tell him things verbally (If I’m overstepping my bounds, you let me know.) Exception: those few moments between Mal and Inara when they gazed at each other over Nandi’s body -- grief, love, regret, Rance-hatred -- all this and more passed between them. Complete, intimate communication. And as Lola pointed out in her post, some of the wordless communication carried over into their final conversation, but Inara ended up pulling away. (Have I mentioned "sigh"?)


Other things I liked that haven’t already been mentioned:

Book’s uncomfortableness at being in the Heart of Gold: Emma: Shepherd? Book (too quickly): No thank you. (Hmmm...What made him think she was offering anything?) ;D

Mal (about Simon): The boy would need to relax for thirty seconds to get his play. It'll be a miracle.

Mal’s a focused, take charge guy -- except when it comes to love, sex and babies.


Linda, have I mentioned that I'm looking forward to April 22, 2005?

[Linda]

Hi again!


As Nicki pointed out, the mystery behind Inara’s leaving her old life is brought up again. I've got a theory... I think it has something to do with a baby. Though I dunno whether it’s hers or someone else’s or an inability to have one (relating to the no-doubt strict Guild policy about them). Here are a few things that I’ve noticed:

1. In this episode, when Mal and Nandi are discussing Inara and her dislike of complications, there is an immediate cut to Petaline having her baby. Ain't nothing more complicating than a baby.

2. Inara seems to me to be lying (or at least being evasive) when she tells Simon that this was the first time she’s ever attended a birth. And she seems to know exactly what to say to Petaline to get her through it.

3. From Our Mrs. Reynolds: when Mal is trying to hide from Saffron in Inara’s shuttle, she completely loses it and kicks Mal out when he starts to imagine what it would be like to have a passle of young ones underfoot.

4. From the DVD commentary on Serenity: Joss mentioned that the syringe that Inara has in hand during the Reaver scare was *not* a lethal injection. Perhaps it was a Guild-regulation contraceptive.

5. From the DVD commentary on Out of Gas: Tim Minear mentioned that in the short scene between Simon and Inara outside of the infirmary, there was a hint about Inara’s past somewhere in their conversation. I wonder if he means Inara’s remark “I don’t want to die at all.” I could interpret it to refer to the kind of immortality that comes from having children. (OK, that one’s a stretch.)

6. Also, there was a remark in Objects in Space -- but then we haven’t gotten that far yet, so I’ll leave it out ... (I *had* to watch the episode early! Err... It’s all Erin’s fault! Yeah, that’s right, Erin’s fault... )



Linda, I wonder if we'll find out for sure in April 2005? Or maybe Joss is planning the next movie as he's working on post-production for the current one. (Erinland is a wonderful place to be.) ;D

[Lola m]

Linda said:

Hi again!


As Nicki pointed out, the mystery behind Inara’s leaving her old life is brought up again. I've got a theory... I think it has something to do with a baby. Though I dunno whether it’s hers or someone else’s or an inability to have one (relating to the no-doubt strict Guild policy about them). Here are a few things that I’ve noticed:

1. In this episode, when Mal and Nandi are discussing Inara and her dislike of complications, there is an immediate cut to Petaline having her baby. Ain't nothing more complicating than a baby.

2. Inara seems to me to be lying (or at least being evasive) when she tells Simon that this was the first time she’s ever attended a birth. And she seems to know exactly what to say to Petaline to get her through it.

3. From Our Mrs. Reynolds: when Mal is trying to hide from Saffron in Inara’s shuttle, she completely loses it and kicks Mal out when he starts to imagine what it would be like to have a passle of young ones underfoot.

4. From the DVD commentary on Serenity: Joss mentioned that the syringe that Inara has in hand during the Reaver scare was *not* a lethal injection. Perhaps it was a Guild-regulation contraceptive.

5. From the DVD commentary on Out of Gas: Tim Minear mentioned that in the short scene between Simon and Inara outside of the infirmary, there was a hint about Inara’s past somewhere in their conversation. I wonder if he means Inara’s remark “I don’t want to die at all.” I could interpret it to refer to the kind of immortality that comes from having children. (OK, that one’s a stretch.)

6. Also, there was a remark in Objects in Space -- but then we haven’t gotten that far yet, so I’ll leave it out ... (I *had* to watch the episode early! Err... It’s all Erin’s fault! Yeah, that’s right, Erin’s fault... )



Linda, I wonder if we'll find out for sure in April 2005? Or maybe Joss is planning the next movie as he's working on post-production for the current one. (Erinland is a wonderful place to be.) ;D

Very very very intriguing theory, Linda. Hmmmmm. Much better than a dancing demon or bunnies.

A baby. That would be a complication all right. Huh. And you have assembled a rather impressive list of possible hints. (I hadn't noticed that part in the commentary where they said the injection was not a lethal dosage. I'm gonna have to go back over the commentary again, I see. What a sacrifice. ;D )

Great comments on this ep. And you say this is not one of your favorites, huh? Coulda fooled me.

Lola