Girl coming in for a landing: River in crisis

River is an Existential crisis who grows into a woman. Without having seen all the episodes in between, feel free to call me out on this, anyone who has, but I would like to assert that River, having been this anomaly all along finds herself in the end of the series Firefly by asserting her will, ability, and maturity.

As Hannah said in her post, by the end of the series she has changed herself from the “object” we first saw, and the end shows her as a woman marked by maturity. This was most aptly personified in her ability to give herself up to Early for the sake of her brother and the rest of the crew (though we do see she has a less personally damaging plan).

It was such a grown up moment when River said that she was the ship, she said good-bye to her brother in such a touching way, no anger about the thoughts she had heard from him, no anger at the crew for debating whether they should keep her. It was incredible to me, and most importantly far from the idea of her being a person “lost in space.”

This idea helps to ease the actual end, the one I just complained about in my other post, where we have Early as the final player in the universe of Firefly, and gives the somewhat less depressing idea that for every person who heaves themselves out of the ‘normal’ existential crises of life another person is still ‘floating,’ fully immersed I them.

Not to go all ‘circle of life’ on you guys, but it does make sense given analysis of River (thanks Hannah!) and the existential debates we had in class.