Dobson... really a Fed? by liz

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

Dobson... really a Fed?

POSTED BY: LIZ
UPDATED: Friday, July 9, 2004 16:09
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Friday, July 9, 2004 3:02 AM

This morning i woke up and the first thing in my head was "i'm not a complete back birth." in my first few groggy moments i tried to sort out who that quote was from (i knew it was a Firefly quote immediately) and i of course realized it was Dobson... which got me thinking about Dobson as a character...

I don't think he's really an officer. Maybe he flunked out of the academy or something but he seems untrained (shooting Kaylee when he got nervous, not being able to tell a lie, etc.). Also, if they had a tip that Simon Tam and River Tam were in Persephone and were trying to escape, would they really send one Federal Officer to infiltrate? Or would they stop ships from leaving until they had been searched? Or would the Blue Hands be there?

Maybe he was off-duty trying to get home to Boros and happened to recognize Simon from a wanted poster... but how did he know about River?

I may be completely off... i just wondered what the rest of you thought.

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Friday, July 9, 2004 3:22 AM

CHRONICTHEHEDGEHOG

Maybe he didn't know about River, from what I remember the conversation went:

Dobson: You don't know what's going on here, the package he's carrying...

Jayne: It's a girl, I know. Don't think she's all there though.

It could be said Jayne told him who River was, and he didn't know himself.

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Friday, July 9, 2004 5:05 AM

CYBERSNARK

People have speculated before that Dobson & Book are connected. Maybe Dobson was supposed to have backup --backup that Book (perhaps working with the same resistance that helped Simon free River) pre-emptively took out.

Dobson would know he's being hunted, but not who his enemy is --and who'd suspect the preacher who just happened to sign on for a ride. . .

-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

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Friday, July 9, 2004 6:16 AM

PURPLEBELLY

Select to view spoiler:

Purplebelly's Denouement.
'K, not denouement exactly, but from the same striken mind.

Dobson is a Fed, who has failed his last staff assessment.
Book is a re-activated Alliance operative, who was good but burned-out.
The Alliance has a Blue Sun subverted faction and a True Alliance faction. The True Alliance faction has sprung River from an illegal Blue Sun research programme and need to get her to a witness proctection programme before the Blue Sun faction tidy up the loose ends.
Dobson is overtly sent after River, in the certainty of his failure, to cover the covert deployment of Book. Book manages to save Dobson once, tries a second time only to fall foul of Dobson himself. The irony about Dobson is that he nearly ruins the plan by being more successful than his (True Alliance) directors expect him to be; the cruiser he has contacted will contain Blue Sun directed agents wishing harm to River and Dobson.
OT Book's solicitude towards Inara, and the later 'confession' are attempts at intimacy to find out who she is, as his cell of the True Alliance aren't in contact with Inara's cell.
OT Book knows that the War of Unification is over.

Only Purplebelly believes any of this

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Friday, July 9, 2004 11:13 AM

LIZ

thanks for the theories everybody. i'm going to watch Serenity again (oh darn

) and see if i can catch any other clues.

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Friday, July 9, 2004 11:17 AM

PURPLEBELLY

The great thing about rewatching Serenity is that you get to review both versions. But you don't really need an excuse, it's an addiction. Just say yes.

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Friday, July 9, 2004 12:46 PM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

Dobson isn't , but Kaylee is

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

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Friday, July 9, 2004 3:24 PM

VETERAN

Don't squat with your spurs on.

I think Dobson is more on the level of County Sheriff.

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Friday, July 9, 2004 3:44 PM

GUNRUNNER

Dobson has to be a Fed since he had the authority to call in a Cruiser to intercept Serenity. I say hes like a County Sheriff or State Trooper since he probably had the authority to pursue and bound Simon on Persephone or any place around it that’s in his jurisdiction. He just spotted Simon and followed him to the spaceport and booked passage on the same ship.

As for shooting Kaylee, hes just a bad cop. Not every lawman is Robocop hes just a average man who can make mistakes, that seems to be the theme of Firefly.

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http://s8.invisionfree.com/FFCCG/
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Friday, July 9, 2004 4:09 PM

SHINYSEVEN

Book says something about having harmed the man "he was sworn to protect," which leads me to believe that there was a connection between them--probably rather forcibly severed.

If there really are three movies, I'm expecting by the third to hear, "My name is Lawrence Dobson Junior. You killed my father. Prepare to die."

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