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Originally posted by Jongsstraw:
1) When did the Operative come to the facility where River was being held...right after Simon broke her out? Right? That's how it appeared to me since the "doctor" seemed to have the exact same clothes and haircut.....So why did it take the Operative 8 months to find River through the subliminal signal? What was he doing for all those 8 months?...and if the answer is that he first showed up there 8 months after the breakout, how come so long to come-a-knockin'?

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2) The Operative had no name and no rank...he "didn't exist"...and as Book predicted he did come at Mal & Serenity "sideways"....But after that we see him commanding an armada of Alliance warships....with sub-commanders et al taking orders from him. How could military ships' personnel take commands from him? He obviously had little battle experience in space and his poor leadership led to massive destruction of Alliance property and many soldier's deaths.

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Originally posted by GWEK:
Although it's never actually seen, Matthias's reaction would indicate that the Operative's electronic ID was tagged with a letter or some other indication of his Parliamentary authority. My history is a little rusty these days, but I believe the SS has similar authority in Nazi Germany: they were technically outside the SA (Army) chain of command, but had automatic authority if they commanded it.

So, basically, folks just see The Op's ID and know that they need to give him whatever he asks for, because he's backed by the full authority of Parliament.

Sounds familiar... Where have we seen that before? Hmmm. Maybe "Safe"?

www.stillflying.net: "Here's how it might have been..."

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Originally posted by Jongsstraw:
OK...you're saying that the Operative was not called in until 8 months after River's escape. I have watched the series...a lot...I don't recall anybody else going after River other than the hands of blue gents and the bounty hunter. I guess there's much more to this in the novel which I have not yet read. Thanks Daveshayne.

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Originally posted by Jongsstraw:
OK...you're saying that the Operative was not called in until 8 months after River's escape. I have watched the series...a lot...I don't recall anybody else going after River other than the hands of blue gents and the bounty hunter. I guess there's much more to this in the novel which I have not yet read. Thanks Daveshayne.

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Originally posted by bluesuncompanyman:

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Originally posted by Jongsstraw:
OK...you're saying that the Operative was not called in until 8 months after River's escape. I have watched the series...a lot...I don't recall anybody else going after River other than the hands of blue gents and the bounty hunter. I guess there's much more to this in the novel which I have not yet read. Thanks Daveshayne.

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The order to pursue River and Simon was initally given to the Hands of Blue, who are refered to as "Independent Subcontractors" in the graphic story Those Left Behind. I detail in length the nature of the hands of blue in my Blog entries regarding the nature of the Blue Sun Corporation if you are interested to know more about them. The cliffnotes verson is that the HoB are not affiliated with the government, they are with the Blue Sun Corp who had a contract with the Alliance to produce a psychic assassin. Again, refer to my blog if you want to know more. Basically, Parliment gave Blue Sun the chance to clean up their own mess before involving themselves.

River knew who the HoB were, which indicates that they had some involvement directly with her tortures. In the events between when River and Simon flee until the Episode Ariel, there is no indication that anyone other than the HoB are searching for the Tams. After Ariel things change. Early was tipped off that the Tams had been in the Hospital and started his own independent pursuit. This ended in a failure to capture as we know, but it still hadn't stopped the HoB. Had Early been successful, he would have most likely turned the Tams over to Blue Sun, recieved his reward (which was large enough to retire on) and gone his way. Early was simply a Bounty Hunter with no care for politics.

The events of Those Left Behind occur after Objects in Space and detail how the HoB also fail in their attempt to capture the Tams. Once their failure is known, the Parliment decides it's time for the Blue Sun Corp to step aside from trying to clean up their own mess and they send in the Operative. At the end of the graphic is a panel showing the Operative recieving his orders. It's implied that his next action was to travel to the academy where River was being tortured to view the archive records as we see in the opening of the film.



Do not fear me. Our's is a peaceful race and we must live in harmony.

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graphic novel Serenity: Those Left Behind

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Originally posted by pachelbel:

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graphic novel Serenity: Those Left Behind

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Ok. When you say graphic novel, is that the comic book?

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Originally posted by nbz:
We have to also realise that River was mostly kept on the ship.

The only reason she was at the bar was because... Erm why was she there?

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Originally posted by nbz:
(A nitpick - Simon also chose to leave. Mal reinforcing is not really that important IMO. It's like saying "You can't fire me, I quit!")

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