Okay, so I didn't participate in the w&p, but I do have some thoughts on "The Message".

Warning: Here be heresy.

I hate this episode.

I think it's the most poorly written of all the episodes. Nothing is really thought through and the McGuffin doesn't even make sense.

I mean...Tracey's smuggling superduperorgans, right? Where are his originals? Is he gonna pick them up later? How are they getting transported? Why couldn't they transport the superduperorgans the same way and leave dumb ol' Tracey out of it?

But my main beef is the idiotic ways the characters act near the end. Book comes up with a plan that amounts to little more than "call their bluff". Tracey overhears just enough of the contrived dialog to freak out and take Kaylee hostage. It's painfully obvious he has no idea what's really going on and is horribly mistaken. And nobody, nobody takes fifteen seconds to say "Tracey, you dumb fuck, LISTEN! We are NOT selling you up the river. Trust us, we'll get you out of this. Go hide somewheres while we clean up your mess." No, instead they make vague threatening "Don't do it, son, or I'ma mess you up" noises until Zoe (my prime candidate for the person to say "Tracey, you dumb fuck..." etc.) shoots him.

It's clumsy and torturedly contrived. And Tracey bugs the fuck out of me. I think this was a bad episode all around.

Thus ends the heresy.

Otherwise, of course, the show as a whole is fucking brilliant!

It this be heresy, light me up.

I completely agree, especially about the soap-opera...duh, duh DUH duh...we won't take a nano second to tell you the truth because keeping simple secrets has always worked so well in the past.

And this:

I mean...Tracey's smuggling superduperorgans, right? Where are his originals? Is he gonna pick them up later? How are they getting transported? Why couldn't they transport the superduperorgans the same way and leave dumb ol' Tracey out of it?

Tracey says that the only way the organs can be transported is in a body...but they are going to put HIS organs back when he gets to the drop point.

Um. How are they transporting his regular ol' organs and how come they survive better than the super variety? Makes them not so super, eh?

And if Tracey trusted the crew so much as to fake death and consign his 'remains' for safe passage, how can that trust evaporate so instantly? Lordy, they coulda just refused delivery, or tossed him out with the rest of the trash. But NOOOO.

"Know why I chose you and Zoe? Because you are saps." Yeah, but saps who would get the job done and BY THE WAY, saved your ass before...so...have a happy afterlife you git.

Yep. My least favorite episode and, while I would give a whole lot to have Firefly back on either my teevee or the big screen, the fact that the cancellation notice came during the filming of this episode...well...I don't know what that means.

It means the ratings were bloody awful - I don't think it's a reflection on the episode as the network would keep cow shit on the air 24/7 if it got bums on seats.

I do think this is a weak episode, and yeah - soap opera madness going on here.

I just assumed that

1. Human organs can be kept in stasis and transported from world to world, synthetics were forbidden for any sorts of laws and customs issues. He was smuggling.

and

2. Tracy was probably conned into believing they gave a rats ass about his original organs, and he would not likely have survived the end of the job.

Special issue of Slayage - all about Firefly.

2. Tracy was probably conned into believing they gave a rats ass about his original organs, and he would not likely have survived the end of the job.

This was always my thinking. In fact, until anyone said it in here, I don't think I assumed that even Tracey thought he was going to make it out alive. He was doing it for his family, not for his own profit.

I have to miss this week, gorram it. Can I get a volunteer Chinese translator?

I can always sit in. Sorry I dishappeared halfway through the WnP. I'll be here tonight with bells on. Especially if I still feel like my body is fighting this virus a little bit better.

thanks BigDuluth. I hate to miss this episode (oh look they got boy whores too!) but I'm being dragged to the gaming table after too long an absence. I'll be here for Objects in Space for sure.

I'm dropping in to see if anyone is considering doing the WnP tonight?