I just had a thought
Oct. 2nd, 2005 09:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trinityvixenPart of the problem with getting rid of who they did in Serenity is that it leaves characters unfleshed out. Now, I loved Wash and his exit really bothered me, but it is the road not travelled for Shepherd Book that I lament because of the mystery. Then I had a think about it after the second time through, and I'm thinking something along the lines of this:
Book was an Operative.
Consider the speech that Book gives Mal when they first go to Haven to hide. He says that it's important to believe, that belief is all that will get a man through his darkest times. When Mal goes to Inara, the first thing she tells him back on board Serenity is that the Operative is a believer. It's not out of the way to infer that Book is a believer--as a Shepherd, that belief is now vested in God--but why do I think Book's belief makes him a likely candidate for being an Operative?
From the pilot episode "Serenity," Book demonstrates his uncanny knowledge of many things on the shadier side of human life and experience, which does not go unnoticed by the shady-savvy crewmembers (Mal, Zoe, and Jayne most particularly). But it is in "Serenity" that Book makes one of his most illuminating statements; when Mal shoots the lawman, Dobson, he says to Inara that he's not sure if he thinks Mal did the wrong thing despite the fact that his beliefs say the captain was in the wrong and the fact that Book had sworn to protect Dobson. Book is shaken as he never again is; he later engages in fairly criminal activities to help the crew along, including coming to Mal's rescue in "War Stories," but it is only in the pilot that Book seems unsure if his belief is strong enough. It makes sense that, as either a retired or down-sized Operative, Book, like the Operative, would have been looking for something else to believe in. He found God; when that belief was tested, almost shown to be faulty outright, he was returned to that state of disillusionment that he would have been in at his retirement.
In "Objects in Space," River hears him thinking: "I don't give half a hump if you're innocent or not. So what does that make you?" Clearly, Book's mind is still working on some interesting, un-Christian precepts he picked up from his life before the Abbey. The Operative uses some of the same language. He will do evil, he is a monster, but he will do it because he believes it is right. Somewhere, deep inside, Book is still that monster. Joss Whedon's commentary on the episode further's my argument. He describes how Jubal Early manages to subdue or overpower each crewmember according to the best way to reason/combat them. He tackles Simon with logic and hope, Kaylee with emotional violence, and uses physical violence and restraint against Mal, Zoe (and Wash, as they're together), Jayne, and Book. Book is elevated to a threat the equivalent of a man half his age with twice his temper (aka Mal) by Early. Book is taken out with physical violence because the part of Early that understands each of the crew understands that that is the only way he will win over Book. Early is the only one who really gets it--"That ain't a Shepherd."
Wow. There's like evidence for this. I'm amazed. It was something random I came up with last night...but it's making more sense the more I think about it. It's kinda a buzz kill that Book's been killed off and that the Operative, both the position and the man, are, as far as Serenity is concerned, dealt with, over and done. There probably won't be anything made about Book's past if the movie is picked up for sequels or (Teh Squeeeee!) more Firefly--after all, when Mal says Book is going to have to tell him how come he knows so much about the Alliance, Book says, "No, I don't." I don't think we have to hear it either, really, but now I know we won't.
Next mystery to solve: How Inara keeps her hair looking that fabulous in the middle of a gunfight. Am having visions of Spaceballs and Inara flipping out:
"My hair! They shot my {something long and complicated in Mandarin} hair!" ::cocks gun, blows Alliance away::
Book was an Operative.
Consider the speech that Book gives Mal when they first go to Haven to hide. He says that it's important to believe, that belief is all that will get a man through his darkest times. When Mal goes to Inara, the first thing she tells him back on board Serenity is that the Operative is a believer. It's not out of the way to infer that Book is a believer--as a Shepherd, that belief is now vested in God--but why do I think Book's belief makes him a likely candidate for being an Operative?
From the pilot episode "Serenity," Book demonstrates his uncanny knowledge of many things on the shadier side of human life and experience, which does not go unnoticed by the shady-savvy crewmembers (Mal, Zoe, and Jayne most particularly). But it is in "Serenity" that Book makes one of his most illuminating statements; when Mal shoots the lawman, Dobson, he says to Inara that he's not sure if he thinks Mal did the wrong thing despite the fact that his beliefs say the captain was in the wrong and the fact that Book had sworn to protect Dobson. Book is shaken as he never again is; he later engages in fairly criminal activities to help the crew along, including coming to Mal's rescue in "War Stories," but it is only in the pilot that Book seems unsure if his belief is strong enough. It makes sense that, as either a retired or down-sized Operative, Book, like the Operative, would have been looking for something else to believe in. He found God; when that belief was tested, almost shown to be faulty outright, he was returned to that state of disillusionment that he would have been in at his retirement.
In "Objects in Space," River hears him thinking: "I don't give half a hump if you're innocent or not. So what does that make you?" Clearly, Book's mind is still working on some interesting, un-Christian precepts he picked up from his life before the Abbey. The Operative uses some of the same language. He will do evil, he is a monster, but he will do it because he believes it is right. Somewhere, deep inside, Book is still that monster. Joss Whedon's commentary on the episode further's my argument. He describes how Jubal Early manages to subdue or overpower each crewmember according to the best way to reason/combat them. He tackles Simon with logic and hope, Kaylee with emotional violence, and uses physical violence and restraint against Mal, Zoe (and Wash, as they're together), Jayne, and Book. Book is elevated to a threat the equivalent of a man half his age with twice his temper (aka Mal) by Early. Book is taken out with physical violence because the part of Early that understands each of the crew understands that that is the only way he will win over Book. Early is the only one who really gets it--"That ain't a Shepherd."
Wow. There's like evidence for this. I'm amazed. It was something random I came up with last night...but it's making more sense the more I think about it. It's kinda a buzz kill that Book's been killed off and that the Operative, both the position and the man, are, as far as Serenity is concerned, dealt with, over and done. There probably won't be anything made about Book's past if the movie is picked up for sequels or (Teh Squeeeee!) more Firefly--after all, when Mal says Book is going to have to tell him how come he knows so much about the Alliance, Book says, "No, I don't." I don't think we have to hear it either, really, but now I know we won't.
Next mystery to solve: How Inara keeps her hair looking that fabulous in the middle of a gunfight. Am having visions of Spaceballs and Inara flipping out:
"My hair! They shot my {something long and complicated in Mandarin} hair!" ::cocks gun, blows Alliance away::
