MONDO EXTRAS

In the Serenity lounge, Inara explains how scary the Operative actually is, even though Jayne maintains that beating up Mal "ain't so hard" (to which of course Mal takes terrible umbrage) -- "Because he's a believer. He's intelligent, methodical, and devout in his belief that killing River is the right thing to do." There's not even hope of a reward. Simon asks if he mentioned "Miranda," and Inara asks what that is. "Don't know who or what, but it's on River's mind," puns Zoe. "Conjure it might be the reason they're after her." While Inara wonders if this directly poses a threat to the Alliance, and Wash wonders whether they even care about that. Jayne still has a problem with the River part: "You dumb-ass hogs, the only people she's a threat to is us on this boat." Mal mentions that they're going back to Haven and will be there shortly, and Jayne complains more: "Oh, yeah. Hiding under the Shepherd's skirts. That's a manful scheme." Mal fronts: "You wanna run this ship?" Of course he does. "Well...you can't." Which nicely bookends the "don't give me orders" stuff with Simon. Simon challenges Mal's command in a way that Jayne doesn't, because Simon and Mal both have a stake in River. Jayne continues: "Do a damn sight better job than you. Getting us lashed over a couple of strays -- no offense, Doc, I think it's noble as a grape the way you look to River. But she ain't my sister." He turns back to Mal: "And she ain't your crew. Oh, and neither is she exactly helpless, so, where's it writ that we got to lay down our lives for her? Which is what you've steered us toward." Mal gets angrier. "I didn't start this."