Cult-TV Blogging: Firefly: "The Train Job" (September 27, 2002)

“The Train Job” is Firefly’s second episode, and the installment directly following the events of “Serenity.” Oddly, however, “The Train Job” was actually the first episode aired by Fox back in 2002.   

Regardless of that scheduling hiccup, “The Train Job” is a stand-out segment that continues to build on the post-Civil War-in-space leitmotif of the overall series at the same time that it develops more fully, the mythos, characters, and story-arc.

In “The Train Job,” Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) and his crew -- still desperate for cold, hard cash -- seek work from a local crime lord, Niska (Michael Fairman), a man known for utterly destroying those who cross him or disappoint him.  Niska tasks Mal and his group with stealing a shipment of Alliance cargo on a hover-train bound for the city of Paradiso.

To Zoe’s (Gina Torres’) chagrin, however, that cargo is guarded by a squad of heavily-armed Alliance soldiers.  Nonetheless, thanks to Mal’s ingenuity the cargo is successfully “liberated” by the group of bandits on Serenity. 

A new problem emerges, however, when Mal discovers that the cargo is medicine desperately needed by the miners of Paradiso, who are suffering from a degenerative illness called Bowden’s disease.

Now Mal must make an unenviable choice.  Should he return the medicine and help the town, only to face Niska’s violent wrath? Or should he take the money and run, with poor families suffering as a direct result of his actions?

“The Train Job” opens on the anniversary of Unification Day some six years after the Battle of Serenity ended the war.  Unification Day is thus a celebration of the fact that the Alliance defeated the Independents, and a remembrance of the very day that Mal’s way of life came to an end.  

As “The Train Job” commences, Mal initiates a saloon fight over the topic of Unification Day, and thus re-establishes the series’ overarching context: an examination of post-Civil War mores and situations…transposed to space, and the future. 

In particular, Mal explicitly attributes the Independent defeat to the fact that the Alliance had “superior numbers.” His explanation mirrors historical reality. General Robert E Lee, in his letter to Confederate troops on April 10, 1865 noted the “overwhelming numbers and resources” of the North as a cause for the Confederacy’s defeat. 

Historian Richard Current has likewise noted that “God was on the side of the heaviest battalions,” meaning the North, or the Union.  In Firefly, viewers are meant to conclude the same thing about the Alliance (our Union surrogate) and the Independents (our Confederacy surrogate).  The Alliance used its overwhelming resources to crush the Independents.   

Intriguingly, Mal’s discussion of the defeat -- blaming it on the superior numbers of the Alliance -- could also be parsed as sour grapes; as an acknowledgment of his belief that the Independents had better fighters and a more just cause than the Alliance, but lost only because of overwhelming force.  Similarly, for some folks I’ve met in the South – and I live happily in the South, by the way -- the Civil War never really ended, and is constantly being re-fought in “what if” scenarios.  It’s a lot easier for those folks to blame the Confederacy’s loss on a gargantuan enemy than on their side’s failed strategy, or overwhelming issues of morality. There’s a little bit of that same quality in Mal’s griping, to be certain.  He’s fighting a war that is long-ended and which, in some context, is irrelevant to his present situation.

And as I mentioned last week, “The Train Job” also features Mal making the argument that “I’m thinking we will rise again,” re-parsing the famous “The South will rise again” battle-cry of many post-Civil War southerners.  What makes the comment so much fun, however, is that Mal’s remark coincides with the literal rising of Serenity over a mountain peak to back him up during the brawl. The joke defuses the politics of the moment as Mal’s ship literally hovers behind his position.

The whole Unification Day angle as explored by “The Train Job” is fascinating because it establishes some points worth debating about the Alliance.  First, The Alliance commemorates its defeat of Independents, thus literally, independence. 

And secondly, one must wonder about the Alliance’s use of Orwellian language.  Is “unification” really something that can be forced on someone, or won through war?   Being “united” suggests a shared purpose, and clearly -- at least in terms of Mal -- that “unity” doesn’t yet exist.  It is more apt to say that the Alliance conquered the Independents, and forced submission.  But that doesn’t have the politically-correct ring of “Unification,” does it?

One amusing aspect of “The Train Job’s opening fight sequence involves a very clichéd visual composition made fresh by the futuristic setting.  In Western movies since time immemorial, combative cowboys have been violently tossed out of saloon windows by their enemies, only to land hard on the street outside. 

Here, the same thing happens to Mal, but he doesn’t crash through glass…he goes through a hologram or  force-field instead.  This moments seems to be a deliberate announcement by the creative team that not only is Firefly recreating the post-Civil War/beginning of the Frontier-Era context in space (or “The black”), but it is doing so with a sense of fun, and a sense of humor to boot. 

The very set-up of “The Train Job” suggests a kind of familiar caper or heist western, wherein either a train or a stage coach is robbed by merry bandits.  The moral problem for Mal is that he learns he isn’t only stealing from the Alliance. In this case, he’s stealing from poor families who won’t thrive without much-needed medicine.  River explicitly reminds the audience in “The Train Job” that Mal’s name means “bad” in Latin, and so the question becomes: is Mal a bad guy?  Is everything (even his anti-Alliance feelings) a hint of his corrupt, quarrelsome nature?

“The Train Job” answers that question quite definitively, since Mal risks jail-time to deliver the needed medicine to Paradiso.  He may play at being a bandit, or not caring about people, but he clearly possesses a moral compass.

What does go uncommented upon in “The Train Job,” however, is the fact that The Alliance -- the real bad guys of the series -- was actually doing a good thing when Mal interfered with them: they were delivering medicine to the sick.  In fact, they even placed armed guards alongside that medicine to assure that it would get to its destination unmolested.

This fact is a reminder that the universe of Firefly is not a black-and-white one, and that sometimes Mal’s assumptions and biases are not correct, even if his heart is in the right place.  In “The Train Job,” he makes a terrible mistake, and then must risk his crew and ship to set it right.  I love how human and complex a character he is, and that Whedon and the other writers allow him to make -- and address -- mistakes.

There’s always a danger when you hate something so vehemently (like Mal hates the Alliance), that you end up allying yourself with a force much, much worse (like Niska).  In a sentence, that’s the situation Mal faces in “The Train Job.”

In terms of other details, “The Train Job” picks-ups on the plot-threads initiated in “Serenity,” namely Shepherd Book’s familiarity with the milieu of the criminal underworld, and the ongoing debate between Inara and Mal over her (controversial) vocation as a Companion.  Is Inara actually a therapist and healer, or merely a prostitute? 

In “The Train Job” Inara notes that she selects her clients, not vice-versa, and that Companions only choose for lovers those who “share the same kind of energy.”  Again, this appears, at least on the surface, to suggest an empowering profession, and we see in “Shindig” how Inara leverages her power against a noble man…and wins.

“The Train Job” is also the first episode to feature River’s nightmarish flashbacks of her time in Alliance custody. Furthermore, the story introduces the two Alliance agents with blue hands, who we will see more of in future installments. 

In addition to this plot thread, Niska’s story line will also continue.   His hard-core way of doing business comes back to haunt Mal in “War Stories.”  Firefly is often compared to Star Wars (1977), and Mal directly to Han Solo.  This Niska subplot, from a certain perspective, is not unlike Solo’s encounter with Jabba the Hutt.  In both cases, working for a crime boss turns out very, very bad when the smuggler/criminal disappoints his employer.

As “The Train Job” confirms, Firefly is already laying down its outline for the season (or half-season as it were), and assiduously constructing its character/story arc.  “The Train Job” is actually one of my favorite episodes of the series because it moves with such speed, grace, and assurance, and also because it features some dynamic, feature-film quality visual effects (of the hover train in motion, and Serenity nearby…). 

Finally, “The Train Job” successfully illuminates Mal’s moral center.  This doesn’t mean the episode should have aired instead of the pilot episode, but it’s a strong episode nonetheless

Next week: “Bushwacked.”