"Our Mrs. Reynolds" is the seemingly naive "Saffron", who fiendishly performs a marriage ceremony with the unknowing Mal while the Serenity crew is visiting a nearby planet. She thus finds an excuse to stow away on the ship, building a very innocent cover to trick the crew, steal a shuttle, and lead them into a web set to catch the ship.
This episode seems to further the character development of the show, but I believe that attempt only served to stall it. After "Saffron" poisons Mal with a kiss and fails an attempt to similarly poison Inara, the companion rushes to Mal's unconscious side and passionately delivers a kiss to his poisoned lips. At the end of the episode, Mal challenged Inara, saying that he knew she wasn't truly unconscious because she had fallen or been knocked out. Inara agrees, and Mal chuckles that he knew Inara had kissed "Saffron". This side storyline made a guise at furthering the tension between Mal and Inara, but it really only served to further stall the development of their relationship. That being said, Inara's true feelings are now more clear, and thus an infinitesimal step was made.
Mal's ethics again seem to leave the viewer baffled. When he first recognized "Saffron" as a stowaway and heard her explanation of their "marriage", he reacted as if the whole thing were ridiculous, thus seeming to deeply wound her. After an admonition from Shepherd Book, however, Mal began to treat his "wife" with the utmost kindness, seeking to accept her offers in order to avoid offense. He also put a great deal of effort into avoiding her seduction attempts, even staring down her naked body and delivering an emphatic "no!" However, his young "wife" weakened him, and when she kissed him at last, he kissed back, allowing his own poisoning.
So is Mal good or bad? Like all other people, I believe that he is innately bad, but that he possesses certain degrees of kindness and morality that at times cause him to act rightly. The creators of the show may speak differently about mankind's innate goodness or evil, but I believe that ultimately the message comes across: he is neither good nor bad, yet he is both at once.
This was a good episode, though certainly not my favorite. I feel that the character development fell short, and watching "Saffron" play the naive and rejected "wife" was naturally uncomfortable. The most enjoyable moments were those displaying Jayne's love for one specific gun. His character is a humorous and caricatured space cowboy, and I believe that although he is not the most central of persons on the show, he certainly sums up the genre.
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