Firefly, Episode 1.07, Cold Tea Blues

[theclevermonkey]

Since I've not written anything about this game in the past, Previously, on Firefly…

• Cap'n Tes is the captain of a small firefly-class vessel. She is a member of The Family, a group of spacers with strong family ties, who meet, on occasion, to mourn or celebrate events. Her crew is also her family, and she cares deeply for them. Tes has been investigating the death of her cousin, which had been thought to have been done by Reavers, but seems to have been an Alliance job.


• Lina (athenalindia)is a woman of strong moral principals, strong enough that her duty to help others has drawn her away from her husband and children to work for the Underground Railroad, a group that moves those who labour under indentured servitude to new homes. She is a pacifist (and not in the "fuzzy on kneecaps" sort of way), but is extremely capable of talking her opponents down. She's also an accomplished doctor, cook, and seems to have contacts everywhere.


• Carmen Han (theclevermonkey) is a ex-Alliance military commander who committed atrocities against the Browncoat forces during the war. She's since come to recognize her mistakes, and faces up against the impossible task of trying to redeem herself. She's from an important family in the core, married, but is pregnant in the aftermath of a romance with a now-dead lover. Carmen struggles with reclaiming her family's honour, something she has played no small part in losing, while also struggling with the difficulties of her impending motherhood, and how it complicates her traditionally violent approach to problem-solving.


• Support Cast: Jimmy Woo is totally an adult, and not a teenager at all. He's learning how to fly the ship, but is a bit of a risk taker. He's also popular with the ladies.


• Support Cast: Old Joe is an old man who is occasionally reliable, and is Tes' uncle. He's a cantankerous fellow, but is extremely good to have around in a pinch. Old Joe is dying, and we've seen him getting weaker over the course of the show.
• Support Cast: The Fandango, our beloved firefly-class vessel, recently scavenged and repaired. She's full of surprises, she is.

At the end of last week's episode, Carmen was in her quarters, and saw some kind of waking dream, where she heard a girl laughing, and left the ship to find herself in a desert. There was a far-off structure in the desert, but she was unable to reach it. People in hazmat suits were there, and went into some kind of shelter. We then saw that there was an intruder in Carmen's quarters, who drew a blade and…

1. The episode opened with Carmen laying face-down on the floor of her cabin, in a pool of her own blood, and the intruder climbing the ladder out of the room.


2. Jimmy Woo and Tes are on the bridge, discussing the land-lock on the ship, and noticing that there were members of the 49th incoming with guns. Suddenly, Jimmy takes a throwing spike to the forehead! Tes makes sure Jimmy is okay, while the previously-mentioned intruder flees the scene. Tes puts the ship on alert, and calls on Lina to come to the cockpit (not stated, but to tend to Jimmy). She also shuts off the ship's power to make it harder for the goons with guns outside the ship to get inside.


3. Lina makes her way to the cockpit. Strangely, she finds Old Joe's boot on the way there. She makes haste, thinking that perhaps Tes was calling her to tend to Old Joe. The corridors seem very quiet, and she knows that there is an intruder, so she tries to sneak through the room. However, after entering into the common area, Lina is stabbed in the shoulder, and taken out!


4. Tes is becoming worried about Jimmy, as he seems to be shaking, like he's having some sort of epileptic seizure, though she's fairly certain he doesn't have epilepsy. Perhaps it's poison? She goes through the first aid kit, but finds nothing of particular use.
   
   (This scene may have been edited in post, as there was some misunderstanding about the state of the cockpit door) To Tes' view, Lina seems to approach the closed cockpit door, and look in at her and Jimmy Woo. Tes goes to open the door, and is stabbed in the gut through the door, and passes out.


5. Sometime later, Tes is thrown into a chair, and a sack is removed from her head. She's tied into a chair, in a room full of delicious, steaming food, and her stomach informs her that it's been a few days since she's eaten. The room is decorated like 12th century China.
   
   An ancient-looking Chinese man introduces himself as Lao Fing, the criminal underworld kingpin! He has a fu Manchu-style beard and moustache combination. He introduces his assistant, Eden, a slender woman of African decent, with braids and an athletic build, who is expressionless. It's suggested that Eden is the one who took down the crew, single-handedly.
   
   Lao Fing indicates he wishes to know about the Underground Railroad. Tes denies knowledge. Tea is offered to Tes, and she accepts it.


6. Cut to Lina, being thrown into the same chair. The early bits of Tes' scene replay, introductions and descriptions are had.
   
   Lao Fing wishes to know about the society of Friends. Lina meets Fing's eyes, but does not speak, and is almost expressionless. Lao Fing tries to draw Lina into conversation, but Lina will not respond to him or his threats.
   
   (EDIT: athenalindia, I'd really love for you to discuss what you were feeling during these scenes, and if/how the experienced changed over them. You were doing a great job of being expressionless, but I have no idea what you were feeling!)


7. Cut to Carmen, same situation, though Carmen is looking a little hungrier and thirstier than the others, owing to her delicate condition. Carmen spends the early part of the scene trying to assess her situation, and then try to get food out of Lao Fing, and otherwise try to gain some handle on the situation, something she can control or use.
   
   Lao Fing poses similar questions to Carmen as the others, but admits he doesn't understand Carmen's connection to the Railroad. Lao Fing goes over Carmen's history with her, seeming to threaten to turn her over to the Alliance. He discusses Carmen's sense of duty to her family, and her child, and Carmen is provoked into talking about this a little. When asked if Lina knows about her background, Carmen lies and says she does, but that Lina knows that she's trying to set things right. This is a complete fabrication, and while Lina is aware that Carmen did things she regrets, Carmen is quite worried about Lina finding out the extent of the bad things she's done, especially since she's relied so much on her in the past few months about motherhoody-things.


8. Tes enjoys a cup of tea (probably very much so, having not had anything to drink recently). She and Lao Fing discuss Lao Fing's home, his many wives, his garden.


9. Back with Lina, Lao Fing threatens to employ a sort-of mining shelter system as a form of slow torture on Tes, if Lina is unwilling to talk. Lina is apparently unwilling to talk. Lao Fing seems to be getting frustrated by this.


10. Carmen tries to gain some control of the situation by drawing on the ruthless side of herself, and discussing how if she were to have been running this interrogation a few years ago, she certainly would have killed the interrogated after she was done with them, so what use was answering? This leads into a discussion of their ruthlessness, and some disturbing similarities between Carmen and Lao Fing in methods. Lao Fing offers Carmen a job...
    
11. Tes discusses The Family, and how, as a group of individuals, they aren't directly involved with the Railroad as Lao Fing believes. We discover that Lao Fing is extraordinarily long lived. When mentioned, Lao Fing doesn't seem to know about Old Joe's presence on the ship, offering a glimmer of hope! Lao Fing seems to offer Tes the option of keeping Old Joe alive, if she'll offer up information.


12. Lina is offered a gun. It is placed on the table, and she is told that she could end this situation right now. Lao Fing attempts to provoke Lina into breaking her pacifism by killing him. Lina seems to struggle a little, but in the end continues her tactic of non-responsiveness. Lao Fing seems a little shaken.


13. Carmen and Lao Fing discuss the job. Carmen is trying to draw Lao Fing into wasting time discussing this, hoping that the Captain would be along any time now to the rescue (surely they didn't get all of us, right?). Carmen denies the job offer, in the end, by suggesting that they'd have professional differences, but while she's reacting with hostility (as Carmen does, when afraid), she has a depressing realization that if this was the only option open to her, and it was the only way to save her child, she might be willing to become the monster she was before. The part of her that's trying to be a better person is not at all pleased with this.


14. Tes' last conversation with Lao Fing discusses the downsides of living forever. Lao Fing discusses how the Fandango will be flying with him, one way or another, with or without Tes. Tes (and, really, everyone at the table) reacts very strongly to this. In response, Tes throws hot tea in Lao Fing's face (everyone reacts to this too, with cheers!).


15. Tes wakes up later, in a cell, apparently beaten while off-camera.
    
    The little girl, who has been appearing in our dreams recently, is outside the cell. She tells Tes that she's not dreaming, and that she's been sending messages that might be receives like dreams. She apparently knew that they would be here, and offers to help. She's bringing Tes (us?) home to her. She instructs that the man down the corridor is full of fear, but he can help our protagonists escape.
    
    Tes discovers that Sandoval, a gambling man we met a few months back, is in another cell. Lina also wakes up in a nearby cell. Sandoval wants to get out, but his fear is getting the better of him.


16. Back on the Fandango, we see some 49th goons leave the ship, and Old Joe emerges from a hiding hole on the ship. He grabs a big wrench and gets ready to go after them, but a black-gloved hand stops him and pulls him back!


17. Elsewhere, Carmen wakes in an empty cell. She thinks herself alone still, until she discovers that Jimmy Woo is in a nearby cell. Jimmy fills Carmen in on events as he knows them: He hasn't been taken for questioning, but thought he'd never see anyone again.
    
    Carmen begins to lose hope in rescue - if Jimmy was taken, the Captain and the others might also have been taken. In frustration, Carmen sets about a (futile) attempt to break out of the cell to help her keep her focus.


18. Tes sings some in her cell, and Sandoval quiets down, seeming to find himself ("My mother used to sing to me when I was afraid."). Sandoval reveals that he has a secret lock pick on him. He sets to work, and quickly frees himself and Tes. While working on Lina's cell, they can hear that someone is coming. They get ready to hide in the cells again, so as not to blow their escape attempt, but…
    
    … it turns out to be the rescue team! Old Joe and Perez, with Carmen and Jimmy Woo in tow. It's explained that Perez has an old two-seater loaded with explosives docked nearby, so the group had best be off.
    
    After a short running sequence, an explosion rocks the station, and gravity cuts out. Old Joe and Tes work together to get everyone to the Fandango, the engines are revved, and the group gets the heck out of there!


19. Later, back on the ship, after a bit of food and water (dished out by a very self-controlled Lina), everyone decides to get some rest.
    
    Tes heads to the cockpit, determined to fall asleep in the her chair there. Lina is sceptical, but Carmen confirms that this has totally happened before.
    
    Lina heads to her bunk, and cries herself to sleep.
    
    Carmen also heads to her bunk, but her sleep isn't fast in coming. While she's glad she managed to get herself and her child safely through the ordeal, she's disturbed by her realization that she might become a ruthless monster again if that was the only way to save her child.