467 – Firefly – Heart of Gold

It’s the Magnificent Seven with whores, in space.  What studio executive wouldn’t jump at that elevator pitch? Simon and Eugene discuss the Firefly episode, Heart of Gold. Episode Synopsis: On a charming planet, moon or planetoid stands the brothel Heart of Gold, and to this brothel comes a man named Rance, who terrorizes a pregnant whore named Petaline.  “If that baby is mine, it’s coming with me!” [expand title=”More…” swaptitle=”Less” tag=”strong”] Nandi, the madame, calls her old friend Inara for help.  Inara brings the crew of the Serenity.  After sizing up the enemy, Mal decides to run, taking the whores with them, but they refuse to leave.  As they are Mal’s kind of stupid, he decides to stay and help them fend off the attack that is coming from Rance. Nandi – a defrocked , bona-fide Companion who left the Order and learned to say, “ain’t” – takes a bit of shine to Mal and gives him one on the house.  She realized – because of her Ninja-like Companion training, no doubt – that Mal has a thing for Inara, but after Inara finds out “what they done” and is brought to tears by it, Nandi again uses her ninja-like Companion skills and realizes that Inara has feelings for Mal, too. Wait, what?  There’s been simmering sexual tension aboard the Serenity and we never noticed?  How did that happen? The fight begins and the baby decides now is the time to be born because of course it does!  With the help of an insider, Rance gets inside and attempts to kidnap the baby, but is thwarted by Inara.  He escapes, but not before killing Nandi. Mal goes for revenge and captures Rance instead of killing him.  He brings him back to the whorehouse where he is promptly killed. Back in space, wallowing in their sorrow, Mal and Inara start to confront their feelings for one another.  Inara knows what she should have done a long time ago.  She informs Mal she’s leaving. [/expand]