Top Twelve Episodes of Firefly-Number 9

Number 9-Heart of Gold

How can you complain about an episode that tells us a lot about most of the characters and really pushes the limits of Mal and Inara's relationship? The answer is simple, you can't. To make things even more interesting check out the setting of this episode. (Let me step back and make a different approach to this.)

So Inara gets a distress call from a former companion and friend who has an emergency situation. She has a house of unlicensed companions and they are about to be attacked by a man that is convinced that one of the woman is pregnant with his child. Mal and company agree to help the women out and all sorts of interesting stuff happens.

Here are a few major elements to the story that develop character arcs:

• Preacher doesn't judge the women for what they do, continuing the character development of him as being nonjudgmental of sinners.
• Jayne joins the party because of the sexual favors offered.
• Jayne also shows off his love affair with guns.
• We get to see deeper into the relationship between Mal and Inara when Mal sleeps with the former companion and we see that Inara is not OK with that. 

Even as good as this episode is, there are better ones that happen on either side of this story. Be on the lookout for them down the road. 

Top Twelve Episodes of Firefly-Number 10

Number 10-Message

I had to give the whole list another look when I saw this was next. The main reason is because the rest of the episodes are really good, and I'm not sure how I managed to rank all of them. Of the 10 remaining episodes, this is the least, and that's still an amazing place to be.

In this episode, we learn a lot about Mal and Zoe and their experiences in the war against the Alliance.

While checking on their mail, Mal and Zoe discover that they have received a dead body of a former war buddy. He plays the sympathy card and the two decide to take him home to his family.

Unfortunately, he isn't all that dead, and he's just trying to use Mal and the crew of Serenity to steal a genetically engineered heart. There is a group of government agents after him and the crew, and they aren't afraid to do some unsavory things to get what they want.

I won't give too much more away in case you haven't seen this episode. (If that is the case then what are you even looking at the list for? Go watch Firefly now.)

Here are some important moments:

• Jayne gets a hat from his mother. The hat explains a lot.
• Kaylee gets shot-again. Seriously, why does she get shot so much?
• We get to see more of Preacher and his strange mix of characteristics. How does he manage to almost save the day?
• "When you can't run, you crawl, and when you can't do that, you get someone to carry you."

New Year's Resolutions

I know that your resolutions should be specific. I know they should detail the exact changes you want to make, but that's not my style. I don't need all the pressure of trying to reach a specific goal. I don't want to feel like a failure just because I lost 9 pounds instead of 10.

I do have some things I want to accomplish, but aside from a list of writing goals, none of them are specific enough to lead to failure if they don'e happen exactly. Just in case you're curious about my goals, here they are:

• Lose some weight. (No amounts or measurements, just get a little thinner by the end of the year.)
• Figure out the next year (whether that means an actual teaching job or another year of AmeriCorps)
• Win NaNoWriMo 2012
• Get a car

I'm sure there are other things I should/could put on this list, but I'm just working off the top of my head and 6 days late.