Just You Try To Take The Sky From Me

The below has spoilers for the movie Serenity.

A good movie sticks to you like flypaper: no matter how much you pull and peel away at the sticky stuff, it stays with you until you can wash it away. For me, Silence of the Lambs and Apocalypse Now are two that took a couple of days to wash away. Serenity may not belong on their Olympian lofts, but it's sticking to me, too.

When an entertainment franchise has a wide appeal, earns a big box office, and achieves great success, sequels are born. Critics bemoan them because subsequent efforts are often inferior to the original product, but human nature is such in that we want to see beyond the "happily ever after." It is our nature to identify with or simply enjoy a character or a cast of characters, and they become part of our collective consciousness. When they die for whatever purpose, it is a shock to the brain, and no matter what the writer does from that point forward, a void is created that somehow must be filled.

Serenity was born on television and has now transitioned to the big screen because we simply want to see what happens next. Here are the players:

- The Captain and leader of the wretched band of misanthropes.
- The First Mate, the Amazon warrior who doesn't hesitate to question the Captain's motivations or morals.
- The Engineer who can make the most stubborn engine purr while being as cute as a button.
- The Pilot, sharp in wit and quick in tongue.
- The Muscle who has a hair-trigger finger and temper.
- The Companion, the highly-trained and -paid courtesan and the class act of the crew.
- The Preacher, the father figure.
- The Doctor. He gave up everything to save his sister from the Establishment's iron-fisted grasp.
- The Mystery. She's the sister who was changed into an assassin by the Establishment and doesn't even know it, yet.
- The Good Spaceship Serenity. Take care of her and she'll last you a lifetime.

Joss Whedon, the movie's writer and director, shockingly kills the Pilot and the Preacher.

The Pilot represented the comedy relief of the group but he was more than that. The Captain and the Companion want a relationship but neither will forsake their pride or arrogance for the chance at happiness. The Engineer and the Doctor stumble around each other, but in the end find something worth developing. But transcending all this is the relationship between the First Mate and the Pilot: they were already the happily married couple when the series debuted, and their relationship and love was a rock when things were literally being blown apart around them. That is now gone.

The Preacher served as the Captain's moral sounding board. When he is killed, the Captain unleashes whatever restraints he had left (admittedly, very few) and becomes a part of the dark void he's been staring into for many years past. He murders, he desecrates dead bodies, he nearly destroys the Good Spaceship, and practically sacrifices those he holds dear to conquer the Establishment. But like a furnace that burns away the impurities in metal, he is strong enough to conquer the Evil inside him and finds that, without further losing his soul, there is a Higher Good to be held and He can be part of that Good. The Preacher probably knew all along the Captain was capable that and more.

The two characters that died best represented the Light and Good. The rest of the crew will have to find some of this within themselves, but I suspect they do not have far to go. The movie has a throwaway line about the Seven Deadly Sins and, perhaps not so coincidentally, the Captain's last speech refers to one of the Seven Virtues. I suspect he and the others already possess the strength to combat the Seven Sins:

- Humility instead of Pride: The Doctor, who gave up everything to stand by his sister and became a better person for it.

- Generosity instead of Greed: The Companion, who experiences the sin of Avarice in her everyday profession. Perhaps now she can give something of herself to her Captain.

- Kindness instead of Anger: The First Mate, but expect more of the Anger as she grieves and tries to move past the unjust murder of her husband.

- Self Control instead of Lust: The Mystery. She is still dangerous, but is now armed with the self-awareness and maturity she needs to focus her skills and use them only when needed.

- Zeal instead of Sloth: The Muscle. While he may not have understood all the reasons for it, he was ready to die because his Captain needed him. And he'll be there when (not if) circumstances call on him, again.

- Faith instead of Gluttony: The Engineer. She now knows all of the working engines and toys in the universe cannot replace the feelings she has for the Doctor.

- Love instead of Hate: The Captain, who finally understands that it acceptable to be human and to give a damn about a Higher Cause.

Hollywood and movie audience are fickle, so I can only hope and pray that the Good Spaceship Serenity and her crew travel on for many, many years. It will be a journey worth watching.