Reviews & Ratings for
"Firefly" Objects in Space (2002)

48 out of 52 people found the following review useful:
The last episode, but by far the best, 15 June 2006

Author: FilmSchoolWriter from the World

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

"Objects in Space" was the last Firefly episode to be filmed and to be aired. And it is by far the best. We finally find out about River being psychic (which isn't a spoiler if you've seen Serenity). Plus, Simon and Kaylee almost kiss, which is a big advancement in their relationship. :D Although I'm heartbroken that Firefly was canceled, "Objects in Space" was the best episode to end with. It wraps things up better than other episodes, such as "Jaynestown" or "Ariel", which end with a great deal of uncertainty. "Objects in Space" is totally my favorite episode of them all. Masterfully created, it relies more on the mental action (River totally freaking Jubal out) than the gun waving crazed action that is favored by Jayne and Mal. 10/10

16 out of 16 people found the following review useful:
Serenity, choices and existential Angst, 7 September 2009

Author: KuroWashi from United Kingdom

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

The visceral quality of Jubal Early's interactions with Firefly remind us with force how important is this ship. It is the tenth actor often neglected and unspoken; firefly makes this crew come together, live together and work together; is the glue that holds them. No wonder that in the last shot as we go from one to the other member of the firefly crew, in the end we have travelled most of the ship's inner world...

It is a story of existential angst. Jubal Early goes from knowing who he is in the beginning of the episode into losing his control. River, often lost and confused, by the end of the episode is clearer about herself, who she is and where is her place among the firefly crew.

It is also a story of choices. In the beginning River has insights to the choices the others have made or have to make in their lifes. Then she chooses to see Nature and beauty where there is death. Jubal Early chooses to be a bounty hunter. In the end Malcolm chooses to accept River as one of the crew for better or for worse.

Brilliantly done, peppered with doses of dry humour from Richard Brooks it remains one of my favourite Firefly episodes.

4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
A great episode – pity it was the last, 27 January 2012

Author: Tweekums from United Kingdom

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

It is sad that this brilliant series was killed off prematurely but at least it meant it never got stale and even the weaker episodes are better than the better episodes of most series. This however is one of the better episodes! The story begins with River walking around the ship overhearing conversations that she thinks are about her. Then on the main deck she bends over and picks up a stick... only it isn't; it is a loaded gun. Understandably the crew are more than a little disturbed about this. That is the least of their trouble though; a bounty hunter by the name of Jubal Early has boarded the ship while most of them are asleep; he seals them in their rooms and either knocks out or ties up those out of their rooms... with the exception of Simon; he needs him to find his bounty: River. Jubal is not the most rational man; much of what he says is stranger than what River says. As the search goes on he gets frustrated with his progress until River's voice comes out of the intercom saying some very strange things!

This was a great episode and unusually much of that is down to the guest star; Richard Brooks was great in the role of Jubal Early; making the character interestingly flawed yet very dangerous; in one particularly sinister moment he asked Kaylee if she had ever been raped and it was clearly a threat about what would happen if she didn't cooperate. The other standout performance came from Summer Glau who brings an otherworldliness to River's character. While the story had its dark moments it also had some laughs; as usual they were frequently at Jayne's expense. Over all this was a great episode and even though it is the last episode of Firefly fans of the series can enjoy seeing the crew again in the film 'Serenity' which is a slight consolation.

3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Nice to see the series go out on a high, 8 January 2012

Author: Joxerlives from United Kingdom

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

The good; All of it, very, very good, especially love the opening of Summer as she prowls around the ship listening to everyone's thoughts, the character of Jubal Early, the crew's meeting to discuss River and her plan is inspired.

The bad; River's reluctance to use firearms to dispose of Early seems a little strange, she's never seemed to have any reservations before. Plus shooting him would be a lot more humane than leaving him to suffocate?

Kinky dinky; Early threatens to rape Kaylee to get her co-operation. We take it that when he talks of giving Kaylee and 'present' and ridding her off a 'problem' he means River but maybe he takes her as a virgin and is telling her they're going to have sex? River observes he's all about "Power, control, pain' River voyeuristically 'mindrops' on Wash and Zoe getting kissy on the bridge (aside from Homer and Marge they seem to be the most sexually active married couple ever). Topless Simon for the straight girls and sly boys (Joss admits he doesn't mind giving his audience some cheesecake) plus him playing footsie with Kaylee. He also relates the story of some youthful streaking to celebrate his graduation as a surgeon. Book is celibate but avoids the question of masturbation.

Notches on the Serenity bedpost; we don't know what happens between Kaylee and Early after he ties her up but I don't think so. She also relates a possible story about bedding a 14 year old 'genetic experiment' but again, unconfirmed.

Capt subtext; Mal says that he's perfectly fine with Kaylee never having killed anyone, he wants to keep her the one sweet and innocent thing in his life. Early's fate, left hanging in space with an uncertain future is a metaphor for the series itself. When Jayne threatens that he and Wash will 'Go somewhere' over his teasing Wash says he hopes it's somewhere with candlelight.

How'd they get away with that? Early threatening Kaylee is hard to watch as is his pistol whipping Inara across the face. Early licks the ship? Is he descended from Benton Fraser RCMP?

Fanfic; Plenty about the future adventures of Jubal Early. Amongst the means for his survival are; 1) Venting air from his spacesuit to propel him back to his own ship 2) Boosting the power of his magnetic shoes in order to attract him back to it 3) Remote control of his own ship once Serenity is out of sensor range (it does seem to fly off under some form of direction) 4) Firing his gun to use the recoil to direct himself 5) Picked up by the blue gloves who are also trailing Serenity. Unfortunately some include him making good on his threats to Kaylee.

Missing scenes; or deleted scenes in this case 1. Scene where we see Zoe and Mal being picked up by the rescue ships after the battle of Serenity. Very graphic with the ground littered with corpses and Zoe in particular looking as though she's on her last legs. It's a powerful scene but if they had left it in it would have detracted from Mal's 'loss of faith' moment in the pilot. 2. Zoe tells Simon about the battle of Serenity in all it's gory detail, 500,000 killed in less than 2 months. What makes this more interesting is that she states that the Browncoats leaders left them to rot on the battlefield for a week, they resent the Independents High Command as well as the Alliance.

Well I guess I owe Alan Tudyk an apology, there IS an incestuous subtext between Simon and River (at least on River's part) he didn't just make it up out of the blue in his commentary for War Stories. It's all actually quite innocent, like a little girl playing at weddings and casting her father or brother as the groom. She accuses Saffron of being a thief, the crew think she means snaffling the food but she actually means more than that. Mal's speech to Saffron about standing up for herself shows his attitude towards women and gives her the idea of how to hoodwink him. This scene also explains why Summer Glau had no lines in the whole of Our Mrs Reynolds.

Inara announces she's leaving, excised because of the crazy order in which the show was shown so as to make more sense. Also reputedly Zoe and Wash asking Simon about starting a family

Questions and observations; I had thought it was stupid that Serenity had controls allowing someone to seal the crew into their cabins from the outside but it was pointed out if the ship was depressurised they would need to be able to seal off each compartment. Note Kayleigh is the only one not to have any hidden thoughts for River to read, she's totally open. Book's thoughts make you wonder if he was previously a cop or judge? As early observes, "That's not a Shepherd" Jayne appears to cook pancakes. Note when River has the gun it's Kaylee who backs away most having seen what she's capable off. The crew still don't know about Jayne's betrayal on Ariel. Mal sure does love his double negatives when talking. Wash seems to delight in teasing Jayne although you'd wonder if he'd be quite so brave without Zoe to back him up? He also thinks telepathy is science fiction even when he's on a spaceship, very postmodern. It appears people eat horses in the future. Early is the kind of interesting recurring villain the series sorely needs. Unfortunately this is the final ep. Marks out of 10; 9/10, nice to see the series go out on a high

3 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
Wow Wow Wow... Again, 31 July 2010

Author: WakenPayne from Valhalla

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Who Is The Greatest writer of our time? Joss Whedon. THAT'S WHO He's a great writer and Wayt ahead of his time he is such a great writer now I don't have favorite parts in some TV Shows or episodes but My favorite part in this was how for half the episode they wanted River off the Ship and the other half River gets off the ship and onto his while The villain is trying to look for her then the best part where Mal welcomes River back onto Serenity that's my favorite part. Joss Whedon, David S Goyer and Kevin Smith are the best writers of today I've seen some of the movies that are written by "The greats" but they do not even compare to these 3 masters of writing some of the others are clasmically overrated eg. Chris Nolan, James Cameron (but only in the later times), Matt Groening, Seth MacFarlene, Trey Parker (am I going to do this all review)

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