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Originally posted by mskvforester:
The conversation between the Captain and Inarra at the end of Mrs. Reynolds. Does the Captain know that she kissed him, and is playing dumb, just because he like to be smug like that, and because his true feeling for Inara scare the hell out of him; or does he not know, and he really think that Inara let Saffron kiss her. The best part about this is that I still dont know!

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JAYNE: For psychology, that ain't half dumb. My kind of life don't last, preacher. So I expect I'm invested in making good sport of it whilst I can.

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Originally posted by shameless:
By the by... I should probably watch the commentary, since Joss might provide the answer there, but... I've never understood the line, "She understands. She doesn't comprehend." What's the difference, both generally and as it applies to River? Any thoughts?

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Originally posted by TheRealMe:
A moment, not necessarily my favorite, of Zoe:

Immediately after Wash dies, Zoe is emotionally torn up, crying, doing irrational things like trying to coax an obviously dead man to get up and come with her.

Soon afterward, she is the hard-as-nails military person, checking her weapon and responding in monosyllables like Joe Friday. Clearly, she has retreated to the warrior woman persona because (I think) that was all she had before Wash changed her with their love together. Without Wash, perhaps, that is all that Zoe is!

Not that I believe that, but as a short-term coping mechanism, I think that works. Good insight into the character by Joss, though.

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Originally posted by DonCoat:

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Originally posted by shameless:
By the by... I should probably watch the commentary, since Joss might provide the answer there, but... I've never understood the line, "She understands. She doesn't comprehend." What's the difference, both generally and as it applies to River? Any thoughts?

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Yes, you should watch the commentary -- that episode's is the best of all of them, in my opinion, both in terms of interesting details and as a window into Joss' thinking process.

However, I don't recall any specific comments on that line. So I'll offer a couple of my own thoughts, for whatever they're worth.

1. Possibly the 'she' in each half of the line is referring to a "different River". "She" (meaning the innocent 16-year-old girl) understands that guns are dangerous, but "she" (meaning the weapon produced by the Alliance tampering) doesn't see any reason for concern. I kind of like this idea, but the way the line is delivered doesn't really give it much support.

2. Maybe the two words have different meanings to River, even though they mean much the same to the rest of us. Their definitions are very similar; my dictionary even uses the word "comprehend" in the first definition of "understand". But there are some distinctions. "Comprehend" means to grasp something mentally; to "undestand" may mean something closer to "know".

So maybe River is saying that she knows guns are dangerous in the abstract, but doesn't really "get it". Think about a little kid who sticks her finger in a candle flame, then runs crying to Mommy when she gets burned. When Mommy asks, "Didn't you know the flame was hot, that it would hurt you?" the child will probably say yes. She understood she wasn't supposed to play with fire, but until she actually burned her finger she didn't really "get it" -- it was just an abstract concept.

Of course, another possibility is that it was a way for Joss to show us that River was crazy. After all, only a crazy person could understand something but not comprehend it... right?

By the way, the English language is unique in the extent to which it has multiple words to express the same idea. It's the only language that requires a thesaurus. It has adopted words from many different languages, which means there are synonyms galore that can take on slightly different connotations and shades of meaning. It would be very difficult to write a line like this in any other language (without using a word from a second language).

For those interested, "understand" comes from old English words that literally meant "to stand under". "Comprehend" is from Latin words meaning "to grasp together".

Edit to add: Oops, I just thought of possibility number...

3. Maybe River is saying she understands that guns are dangerous, but she doesn't really comprehend what's going on -- i.e. why's everybody making a fuss? After all, she knows how to handle guns. Which is true... as we know but the crew doesn't.


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I'm pointin' right at it!

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Interesting thoughts on this. Here's anothers thing to look at. Later in that eps River tells Mal that she's very close to him (Early). He doesn't even see it. This has me thinking that maybe River and Early could be on the same wave/link. Something where emotions, feelings and thoughts are simmilar to one anothers. I remember the scene where Simon asks Early if he's a bounty hunter. Jubal replies " No that aint it at all. I'm a bounty hunter." Almost like when River says she understands, but she doesn't comprehend.

Z

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Originally posted by twitch:
The post Wash character of Zoe has huge potential in my mind. Some months ago in another thread, someone pointed out that the welding job Zoe was doing at the end of BDM was to replace the viewport that was smashed by the harpoon that killed Wash. Holy cow, that's beyond retreating into the warrior woman persona and doing something to get closure. Cripes, she was welding shut the hole in Serenity, in herself. After reading that thread and re-watching the movie, I nearly burst into tears during that sequence.

Egads writing about all this makes me wish harder than ever for a sequel.

-- Twitch

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