burn the earth and boil the sea

[cyrano]

So I finally saw all the episodes of Firefly, which I hoped might give me insight. But it didn't.
The episode is Objects in Space, with bounty hunter Jubal Early. Opening sequence, River goes around listening to people's heads. And Shepherd Book says/thinks "I don't give half a hump if you're innocent or not."

Who is he referring to? What is he talking about? The others were all pretty clear. Is he self-referencing?

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Is it any clearer if 'innocent' is capitalized? No great deep meaning here, I think. :)

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

So... he's talking about the Pope?
I mean, none of the others had deep or meaningful insights, but they were still pretty easy to grasp. Jayne says "I shouldn't have sold you out on Ariel". Simon actually repeats his line later in the episode. Mal and Inarra are doing the thing they always do, just less subtly.

[lurkingowl.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen the episode, so this is a guess.

I'd guess that it more vague hints that Book is not what he seems, and is up to some ill-defined ominous thing. A la the episode early on where he gets jump to the head of the line VIP medical treatment at a space station that was just about to arrest them all as smugglers. And the other episode where he proves quite the combatant.

I'd further guess that this is supposed to hint that his mission has something to do with River, the he's hostile towards her, and that he knows her powers are real.

Joss hadn't really figured out what was up with Book yet, from what I've heard, but he'd probably turn out to be working for the evil company guys that made River, who actually let them escape and sent Book to observe/nudge them as part of some cacklingly evil super-plot. Possibly with the twist that they're actually not bad guys, and are doing it to protect the solar system galaxy from some larger threat.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Ooookay. That actually makes sense.
If he's not really a Shepherd then he wouldn't care if she was innocent or not.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

I have to say, though, if he were still working for The Alliance/Blue Sun undercover, then a wise agent would have bailed after the 'VIP incident'. Way too cover-blowing.

[lurkingowl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think so too.
But Joss is writing, and none of the other characters reacted much at all. They certainly haven't mentioned it since then in the episodes I've seen.

I'm not too fond of Joss's plot structuring or realism. Ruins my suspension of disbelief to have something like that get glossed over because Joss really wanted to foreshadow that day.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Hrm. I'm not so sure--I think they all took note of it. But at the same time, they're all in a line of work where you respect a man's privacy and don't ask questions unless you need to.
And he's done nothing they can see so far to hurt them, and he lasted through Mal's nasty phase of pushing him and seeing if he pushes back.
That doesn't mean nobody's watching him carefully, and that nobody thinks he has a history. But if it were my ship, yeah, I'd have had words with the man.

[jakejr.livejournal.com]

My own assumption about Book was that (based on that and the reaction to his ID card and his skill with a gun) he was a former high-ranking official of some sort (General? Admiral?) and had committed terrible acts during the war (possibly even during the battle of Serenity) and gone off to be a Shepherd to try to start a new life/as penance. Then we'd get the added bonus of him having been on the opposite side from the Browncoat side of the crew when it finally came out but being a decent man now. But that's just my theory.