Mal murdered his army buddy? by pbgaines

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

Mal murdered his army buddy?

POSTED BY: PBGAINES
UPDATED: Monday, December 29, 2003 16:52
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Monday, December 29, 2003 11:54 AM

I have missed any discussion of Mal/Zoe's killing of Tracey. It seems obvious to me that they let him die.

I recognize that Malcolm is not one to offer explanations up front, and I also recognize that it is standard storytelling procedure to fail to inform key people about the big plan in order to up tension; however, I tend to be of the opinion that Malcolm was intentionally negligent in his failure to simply blurt out the basics of his plan to Tracey. When Tracey pulled a gun on everybody and during the following sequences, Mal (and Zoe) had quite the opportunity to say something like, "you've got it all wrong. We're gonna tell these cops to take a hike."

I see plenty of reason for Zoe and Mal to feel contempt for this extraordinarily difficult (and more importantly) insubordinate man. Zoe and Mal are repeatedly giving this idiot the librarian's stare and many harsh words. They simply got fed up, and Zoe just sat there and watched him die, as she promised.

BTA,

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Monday, December 29, 2003 12:05 PM

SARAHETC

Have we discussed this? I don't recall looking at it from this particular perspective--the killin' your army buddy one-- if we have.

I got the idea that, yeah, mum's for the dramatic tension. After that, when Mal might have told him to play along cos the plan was solid, Tracey holding a gun on Kaylee was too much. Of course, that may be romanticizing things-- that Kaylee could trump the war bond. But maybe if Tracey's willing to kill Kaylee, Mal could decide he was willing to kill Tracey.

And as for somebody letting Tracey in on it, Kaylee tried. But by the time they get to the catwalk, both Mal and Zoe have plenty of reason to not much care if he lives or dies. Probably the best way to make them not care about you, short of all-hail-the-great-alliance type stuff is to hurt Wash or Kaylee. And he done/was doing both.

I'm a dying breed who still believes, haunted by American dreams. ---Neko Case

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Monday, December 29, 2003 12:06 PM

KAYTHRYN

Select to view spoiler:

When Tracey came in with a gun, they may not have had the plan all figured out. It seems to be Books idea and from what I saw, he hadn’t gotten a chance to explain it to Mal yet. Mal was just kinda trusting Book. When Tracey came in Book did try to explain but was being held at gun point and told to shut it. By the time Tracey had Kaylee at gun point there‘s the little problem of him to trusting Mal and Zoë. For all he knows they would just be making up their risky “plan” so he would let Kaylee free. For every second that he had that gun in his hand he was the bad guy.

And this title is a little spoilery for those who haven’t seen the message. Can we edit thread titles?

-------------------------------------
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
Aristotle

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Monday, December 29, 2003 12:14 PM

PBGAINES

Yup, too spolierish. My mistake.

Anyway, I'm quite pleased that Firefly writers trust viewers to have the intelligence to fill in the blanks with plot complications such as these.

BTA,

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Monday, December 29, 2003 12:15 PM

SHINY

The whole not-letting-others-in-on-the-plan happens a lot on the show. For example, in Bushwhacked, Mal tells Simon to go get River and doesn't explain why so Simon (and Jayne) assume he's going to turn them over to the Feds. Interestingly, it's Book again that understands Mal has a plan. Adds suspense, especially because the viewer also doesn't know what's going on. As for Tracey, he was an idiot who asked Mal and Zoe for help and then wouldn't trust them. I don't blame Mal for not trying to explain things to him when he pulls a gun. As for 'letting him die', the way I took it was he had two shots in his heart, and no matter how advanced his innards were, they knew he was a goner so didn't bother with trying to patch him up.

RIVER
Purple elephants are flying.
MAL
Good. Thanks for the update.

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Monday, December 29, 2003 12:27 PM

GINOBIFFARONI

I think Tracey was done right after he took a shot at Wash, if Mal didn't I think Zoe would have.
There was no time to stop and explain the plan right then as the ship may have been seconds away from being disabled and then Wash gets shot in the hand after trying to follow Mals orders.
Mal is simply not the guy to negotiate with while the heat is on ( Dobson comes to mind )

Lead, Follow, or get put out of the way.

" Thats not fair !!!!
I didn't even have a soul when I did that!"

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Monday, December 29, 2003 3:58 PM

THOREAU

One of the many personality quirks Mal has that makes me identify with him so strongly is the way he never really considers explaining his plan. He's the captain, if he says to do something, shut up and do it. That is often a good thing, his decisiveness and confidence in his decisions was certainly a big part of his "success" as a military leader. Sometimes it can be a bad thing, in situations where explaining his plan would have prevented some unpleasantness. It is Mal's nature to act and command, explaining himself probably never enters his mind.

btw, howdy everybody. I've been lurking here pretty much all year, but never got around to creating an account.

t

"Remember, good and evil aren't always."
"Aren't always what?"
"Good and evil."

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Monday, December 29, 2003 4:52 PM

FREMDFIRMA

Consider this - given the state of technology, effort and money required to keep his original organs, you really think they bothered when it would be simpler to just lie to him and make sure he never wakes up from when they collect the ones he's carrying ?

Given what we saw of the guys, they didn't seem the nice n fluffy type to begin with.

So, unlikely they even still had his original equipment, *especially* after he blew them off for a better offer, and no way was he gonna survive for any real length of time (as hinted by Simon) with the one's he was carrying.

In short - he was a dead man walkin from the moment he got into this idiotic idea, all shooting him did was hasten the process.

-frem
diefuxdie

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