Serenity (Warning: Spoilers)

I never watched Firefly. Maybe I watched one episode, but I knew that Firefly would not stay on the air for long. Joss Whedon already had two successful shows. Three would be pushing it. Besides, I was thoroughly enchanted by Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. I did not need another obsession.

Without Whedon's name, Firefly did not stand a chance. A Western set in space. I was shocked when audiences embraced a genre-defying hour focused on a former cheerleader teenage vampire slayer. I initially thought that Whedon was trying too hard and maybe needed to take a break. Rethink things.

I was both right and wrong. Firefly only lasted for eleven episodes. Apparently there are fourteen episodes on the DVD, which I have yet to see, but when I saw the previews for Serenity, I was captivated. It looked better than any thing FOX used to initially promote the show. The lines were funny, and anytime there is a woman kicking butt, I'm there, but surely it was only the usual preview promises. The best scenes were probably in the promos, but still I had a good feeling about this movie.

That feeling alone was worth the price of admission. It turns out that the price of admission was a bargain for what I received. Serenity is a smart and beautiful sci-fi movie that struggles with themes that Whedon has always explored.

Whedon knows that the key to success is a good story. I was struck by the flow and beauty of the language. If I simply quoted the lines, it would hardly sound poetic, but while listening to the characters, I was struck by how naturally they uttered lines that initially sounded as foreign as Shakespeare. As I got used to the flow of the dialogue, simple phrases sounded poignant as if I was listening to soldiers' letters during the Civil War.

I am sure that Whedon intentionally evokes the nineteenth century to further Serenity's central theme: what it means to be your brother's keeper and who your brother is. Why do you have to care about others especially since you have your own struggles and "family" to worry about? Shouldn't you protect those you love first?

In Serenity, the only traditionally defined family is River and Simon Tam, a sister and brother who are running away from the Alliance, and Zoe and Wash, a married couple who are part of the crew of Serenity, but family means more than the ties of blood and vows. From the beginning of the movie, it is clear that Mal and the crew of Serenity are more than a team of war-weary veterans, but a family that is struggling to survive. As Mal tries to push away River and Simon and rationalize that they are not family in order to protect the rest of his crew from the Alliance, he increasingly realizes two things.

First, family is made by love, and love will defy any logical impulse. Despite the central characters efforts to be "bad guys," they can't stop their impulse to love and protect nearly everyone they come into contact with. As the Alliance begins to murder each person they have simply associated or worked with, their emotions betray their mercenary facade.

Second, any effort to limit who should be valued will only conclude in no one being cared for. The Alliance, as embodied by the cruelly efficient Operative, seeks to eliminate any imperfections in their goal to a perfect society, which seems to include everyone who has ever made the Alliance possible: proud scientists, settlers with any human impulse, even the Operative himself. The Alliance's motto is the opposite of "If anyone of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone..." (John 8:7) In the end, to the Alliance, a perfect society is one with no one in it.

Unlike the Alliance, Mal acknowledges, "I'm risking my crew on the theory that you're a real person." Real people are our family, filled with sin and all sorts of improper impulses. Family is supposed to be difficult and inconvenient, but family nevertheless.

The crew of Serenity comes to the natural conclusion: love requires that you do the right thing: "Y'all got on this boat for different reasons, but y'all comin' to the same place. So now I'm asking more of you, than I have before. Sure as I know anything, I know this. I aim to misbehave. " In a society that sanitizes and excludes everyone from the definition of family, one must love generously. In a society where the alleged good guys, the Alliance, allow millions to perish, only the bad guys can show mercy and constantly sacrifice themselves for each other. The only rational and human response is to misbehave.

In that simple decision to embrace love, the crew ultimately wins the war and exposes the truth about the Alliance. "Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." (1 Corinthians 13:6-8)

Once again, Whedon has reminded me to not flee society while bemoaning that the church is full of hypocrites, the government full of politicians and the corporations full of thieves. There are a few things that you cannot do alone: be married, a Christian or an American. Each one requires that you act in fellowship with the unlovable in an effort to do the right thing even if you do not have the inclination or ability to do so.

To act in fellowship, I must remember something crucial about myself. I'm full of sin too. I'm unlovable. So I need to get off my high horse and start doing something. Only then can I protect what I love.