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Originally posted by Cheshire:
*Movie Spoiler Below. Read at your own risk*

Think back to the BDM, and the exploding incense trick. If I remember correctly, Inara lit that up before she realized Mal was there;

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1) Okay, what’s in that vial that she pulls out in the Serenity pilot when the Reavers atttack? Joss has said it isn’t a suicide kit, which is what everyone assumes. I think the only other thing that make sense is that it’s something she can inject herself with to make herself go backward in time or enables her to reverse time on a limited basis.

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Ganked off www.summerglau.co.uk, from the Transcript of Group Talk from The White Room Convention:
(Ed’s Note: At a writer’s conference last autumn Tim Minear apparently revealed the purpose of the syringe. It was filled with a toxin which when injected into a person has no harmful effects on them but would kill anyone who had sex with that person. The plan apparently had been to have a very dark episode late in the first season of Firefly in which Inara would have been attacked and raped by Reavers and would have survived through her use of the syringe).

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Originally posted by nuclearday
Just got done watching "Objects in Space," and there's a couple thoughts I ended up with. River's snippets of the crew's inner thoughts are what I keep coming back to when I'm trying to figure some of these mysteries and as usual, I'm coming up with blanks by going in that direction. (Still wonder if it's significant that Kaylee is the only one who doesn't have one of those 'psychic moments' with River, but that's neither here nor there.)

What got me thinking, though, is Jubal's comment to Inara as he's locking her in the shuttle. The whole thing about men being the stronger gender but only women can bear children... I keep coming back to that comment, it's got to mean something, right?

I saw some other posts about maybe Inara having a child, or possibly something related to that. Can't remember the episode, but I remember Kaylee asking Inara about the Companion's stance on dating. Inara says it's very complicated. Maybe she fell in love with someone before coming on board and had a kid with him? Is that what she's running from?

Also, IIRC, there's the scene with Simon and Inara during the 'Out of Gas' episode. Simon talks about it being his birthday and Inara gives him a sympathetic look... Watching the commentary, I believe it's Tim Minear mentioning that that's one of the clues. Is she thinking of her child's birthday at that point?

The wall I run into with this train of thought would be the vial in the Serenity pilot. Going on a child-bearing track at least. It's rather evil-looking for a contraceptive, and some sort of abortion injection wouldn't help with reavers.

While I'm at it, here's a totally off-the-wall and likely untrue theory: This being sci-fi and considering we've seen in the Message that they can replace most of your insides, maybe Inara is already 'with child', and she keeps it with science-type stuff in a state of suspended animation at a very early stage of development. (Like I said, off-the-wall...) Part of her Companion examination during 'Ariel' could be to check on the state of the fetus. The only thing that helps with this theory, is that it could help explain the vial in Serenity. It's either something to abort the pregnancy, or more likely, an injection to resume it's growth. (ie, she's not looking at the vial and thinking of using it, she's looking at it with regret at what cannot be?) Probably not, but worth a shot.

Still, think so far from what I've seen the most compelling theory is the idea of her being a type of assassin. She's certainly had enough combat training... and remember that Jo/Saph/Bridge had the same sort of training, and used the "goodnight kiss" technique...

Kinda fits. Explains the vial at least... Would Jubal's comment then mean that part of the terms of her being a companion would mean that she can't have children? Fits with the clue from the "dating" conversation, as that could certainly complicate a relationship... But what about the "birthday" clue. Is it that she physically can't have children or did she have one at some point and it was taken from her (or worse)?

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Originally posted by ncbrowncoat:
The last few posts have had me thinking. The syringe is in a padded box and is obviously precious to Inara. Could it be her unfertilized eggs or even her reproductive organs themselves?...

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Originally posted by ncbrowncoat:
The last few posts have had me thinking. The syringe is in a padded box and is obviously precious to Inara. Could it be her unfertilized eggs or even her reproductive organs themselves?

Of course pregnancy would destroy the career of a Companion and they could have been preserved for after she retires as a Companion.

All of us are familiar with freezing invitro fertilized human eggs for implatation later but the technology for preserving a woman's unfertilized eggs for future use is now in it's infancy.

Women in their 40's or over that have fertility problems have the option to use donor eggs but they now have to be harvested and fresh from the donor for invitro fertilization to a receipient that has been prepared with hormone injections. What if you could preserve your own eggs... and what if you could preserve the reproductive system (mainly ovaries)to be "cloned" for later use.

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At a writer’s conference last autumn Tim Minear apparently revealed the purpose of the syringe. It was filled with a toxin which when injected into a person has no harmful effects on them but would kill anyone who had sex with that person. The plan apparently had been to have a very dark episode late in the first season of Firefly in which Inara would have been attacked and raped by Reavers and would have survived through her use of the syringe).

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Originally posted by slayerchick:
No I believe that Morena specified that Inara would be raped to DEATH, as many of the characters in the Verse have mentioned. A killer sex-drug would be a safe guard to make sure that Inara took the Reavers down with her as she died.

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