Firefly Spoilers
Discussion of all Firefly episodes, including "Trash", "The Message", "Heart of Gold", and any movie news.
He's got to have known there was a warrant out. Getting his sister out of a government facility isn't going to happen without someone branding him an outlaw for it. Otherwise it'd be a matter of signing for her and thank you, good day. I'd say he uses his real name and credentials in "Serenity" the episode because he's on a mid-bulk transport ship on his way to the outer rings, with no reason to believe he has to deceive anyone directly right this moment.
As for the deception, I see it as being entirely in keeping with his character, even in regard to "Serenity" the episode. As long as you appear to be in a station whose particulars would not be known to the people around you and as long as you maintain that bearing, people won't ask questions. Basically, people will obey anyone who appears uppity enough. It's proven true in real life, so I have no problem with Simon using it to his advantage. If you act like what you are, you don't have to do any further acting.
But if she's awake and active when he breaks her out, why bother putting her into Cryo in the first place? Wouldn't it be easier and less conspicuous to not have to cart a humongous box around?
According to the novelization, since he was posing as an inspector he had to fly an inspector's ship. And an inspector's ship has room for one person. And it has a cryo chamber. This was "the only place for River" on the ship. Also, it made it easy for him to wander about Persephone looking for a boat, because doctor with big box is less sketchy than doctor with crazy girl, apparently.
It's not a perfect explanation, but it eases my mind some. My fanwank for the deception (since we saw Simon being so bad at it in Jaynestown but so good at it in Ariel) is that a) the people he funded coached him on how to behave and b) Simon is much more comfortable in an academic or medical facility than in mudpits.
I can believe that Simon, being rather inexperienced in successful attempts to break people out, would believe and obey anything the people from the organization helping him get River out told him, but might not consider it farther than that and thus not do things they thought obvious - like, for example, use a fake name on Persephone.
It's not a perfect explanation, but it eases my mind some.
Thanks for posting this, Kiba. It's not a perfect explantion, true. But since the show said what show said, and then movie said what the movie said, having some way to reconcile them together is nice.
My fanwank for the deception (since we saw Simon being so bad at it in Jaynestown but so good at it in Ariel) is that a) the people he funded coached him on how to behave and b) Simon is much more comfortable in an academic or medical facility than in mudpits.
Plus, the deception in Jaynestown was sprung on him, and was not his idea whatsoever.
Am I wrong, or is it understood that
Simon does not know
what is in the box until it is opened? That was always my impression.
If he is only crossing his fingers that Big Scary Box contains his sister, then he cannot have seen her into it in the first place. If he is the one who put her into it, then his only point of dreadful uncertainty should be whether or not she is still alive in it. (Or, I suppose, in a Marx Brothers world, whether his Big Scary Box was switched with that of someone smuggling crawdads in bulk.)
I never had that impression, Nutty. While I have issues with him putting on the ruse and effecting River's escape himself, I can't see him giving people money to rescue his sister and then leaving it on faith that they big box they gave him had her inside. Plus, nothing in his demeanor suggests to me he has any doubts about the box's content.
It was pretty clear to me that Simon knew River was in the box.
And, to be fair to Serenity's version of the rescue, his unwillingness to defrost her could be read as him knowing how badly she'd been messed with, which it's hard to think he'd believe if he hadn't seen it in person.
Plus, there may be medical reasons not to refreeze someone for a certain period of time after they thaw out, or that the box was a one time use thing. And, of course, it's easier to travel with a big box than a crazy, psychic, ninja-groove trained assasin. Which, yes, could have been explained with a throwaway line, but, hey, what's the fun of that?
Leave it to Buffistas to show that there is no paucity of ways to explain the use of the box after the escape without it appearing forced into the story. God bless us, ev'ry one. To add mine to the pile: in addition to keeping the amount of attention-getting craziness to a minimum during the escape, she certainly needed time during which her mind was not getting very much stimulation. A good way to staunch the wound, as it were.
I got the sense from the episode Serenity that he knew it was her, he was anxious about the effect defrosting her too early would have, and he was terrified he'd be turned in.
The thing I'm wondering about is - when he was gonna go down to "check" on his "personal effects" - what was the deal there? Did the box have a vital signs readout or something? Because he obviously wasn't going to unfreeze her and take her to his room (cuz, um, they'd probably notice the new passenger).
