FIREFLY EPISODE DISCUSSIONS

Objects in Space

POSTED BY: DA
UPDATED: Monday, April 5, 2004 02:10
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VIEWED: 7440
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Tuesday, March 30, 2004 11:16 PM

DA


Ok, let's just say that for more reasons than one that I understand River. The fractured thought process the being able to see into people's emotions and have that manifest itself the way that Joss presented it.

However, I'm having one small problem.

As we start out the episode we are following River through the ship. And as she enters each room at least one person notices her before she gets her "reading" on them. Simon, Kaylee, Jayne and Mal. That's all well and good however, did no one notice her carrying the big 44 auto in her hand? No. Because she wasn't carrying it.

::sighs:: Now she runs to the cargo bay and steps on the twig (I have on more than one occassion picked up something and thought that it was something else) then we flash to outside River's reality and wham there's the gun. Okay. But how did the gun get there? It is completely inconsistant that Jayne would somehow leave his precious weapons laying around and since we followed River on her entire journey through the ship, when did she have time to stop break into Jayne's stash of weapons, load it, take it down to the cargo bay, leave it there and then happen upon the twig at a later juncture?

This is what is bothering me. Anyone have any insights that I'm missing?

Imagery aside, how'd it get there?


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Wednesday, March 31, 2004 1:15 AM

BARNEYT


I think there's an amount of time fracturing here as well as everything else! The reason she's not seen carrying the gun when she passes each of the rest of the crew is because at that point she isn't - she gets it after then, and before we then see her in the cargo bay.


Either that, or she isn't actually 'there' when she's reading the minds of the crew...


I'll have to go home and watch the episode again, see if I can decide!


---
"I think the right place to start is to say, fair is fair. This is who we are. These are our numbers." Mr Willis of Ohio - The West Wing

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Wednesday, March 31, 2004 2:07 AM

JENTLE


.... Those are both possible, I guess, but I don't know that I buy either of them...

I'd like to get your input after you review the episode.

I'm at a loss, personally. I don't know how the damned thing got there, but I didn't see anything that suggested to me that it was River's doing.

But then it also doesn't make sense that Jayne would be careless with his firearms, so I dunno.

-------------
Every well-bred petty crook knows that the small concealable weapons always go to the far left of the place setting.

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Wednesday, March 31, 2004 2:28 AM

CALHOUN


I think the "space monkeys" moved Jayne's gun.

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Wednesday, March 31, 2004 11:24 AM

MISGUIDED BY VOICES


As I recall, River was mind reading the crew, and as a visual interpretation of this, we saw River walking around the ship. That may have been where her mind was, but her body was elsewhere.

Jayne was in the kitchen, so I'd say River wandered over to his room, got the combination out of his head, opened it up and stole a shiny.

She clearly didn't recognise it as such on her "concicious level" (the twig), but I'm thinking some heavy duty Manchurian Candidate hard wiring was involved and it some how kicked in a bit to send her off to locate a weapon.

"I threw up on your bed"

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Wednesday, March 31, 2004 11:41 AM

THATWEIRDGIRL


Quote:

Originally posted by Misguided By Voices:
As I recall, River was mind reading the crew, and as a visual interpretation of this, we saw River walking around the ship. That may have been where her mind was, but her body was elsewhere.

Jayne was in the kitchen, so I'd say River wandered over to his room, got the combination out of his head, opened it up and stole a shiny.

She clearly didn't recognise it as such on her "concicious level" (the twig), but I'm thinking some heavy duty Manchurian Candidate hard wiring was involved and it some how kicked in a bit to send her off to locate a weapon.



I agree with you here. Her mind was somewhere else and did not realize she had the gun until the crew pulled her back to their level.

I need to watch the Manchurian Candidate again, it's been awhile. Thanks.

www.thatweirdgirl.com

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Wednesday, March 31, 2004 1:11 PM

HIGHIRON02


I agree with you here. Her mind was somewhere else and did not realize she had the gun until the crew pulled her back to their level.

You should consider other imagery of this film sequence. River is standing alone in a very serene place filled with trees, fallen leaves and of course the branch that she steps on. Once the branch snaps, it suddenly has her complete attention. She picks up the branch and studies it. She says "It is not what you think. It is just an object." That would suggest that while she percieves that it is just a branch, she knows on another level that it is something else.

Suddenly the scene changes. What we would consider to be reality, is swiriling and chaotic as the camera pans about the cargo bay. She is suddenly lost. A deer in the headlights, so to speak. Mal takes the gun.

Mal says to River, "No touching guns!" To which she replys, "She understands, she does not comprehend." This would suggest when she is lost in her mind, she has little percption of other things.

The previous episode (War Stories), after playing with Kaylee, Simon finds her distraught in her bed. She tells him that after the drug treatment that for a while she surfaced toward reality, she hates it because it won't last. After a while reality becomes chaotic (apple bits) and she spirals back into that safe and tranquil place in her mind. Unfortunately this is also the place where her nightmares reign unchecked.

We got you partially surrounded

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Wednesday, March 31, 2004 1:48 PM

LJOSALF


Ah, yes, the fully-loaded, safety-off, honkin' big hand gun. Yes...Well...Here's my take: River wasn't the person meant to find the gun, but, since she didn't kill anybody, no harm done. No, someone wants Mal and the rest of the crew to mistrust Jayne, enough maybe get him thrown off the ship, maybe even before landfall. My money is on Book and when River reads him as saying, "I don't give half a hump if you're innocent or not. So, where does that put you?" Book is in fact referring to Jayne even though he apparently is civilly discussing aspects of the religious life in realtime.

Why would Book want Jayne gone? Well, here are two possibilities: first, perhaps Book is indeed a Shepherd but is also a member of the group that helped Simon get River out of the Academy. Maybe, he suspects Jayne sold the Tams out on Arial; maybe he's just tired of Jayne trying to get Simon and River off Serenity one way or another and believes that they are safer staying aboard. Second, perhaps Book is an Alliance operative (as has been suggested elsewhere recently). Jayne has voiced a great number of questions about how Book knows what he knows and can do what he does in the way of the non-religious life--e.g. Niska's reputation, identifying sniper rifles by the wounds that they make, expertly handling a weapon in the firefight to get Mal back from Niska, and so on. Jayne's always asking questions and it would certainly be easier to maintain cover if Book didn't have to deflect this sort of attention or come up with reasonable answers (like the discussion with Jayne about celibacy).

Just a thought.

Ljosalf

The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.
Marcel Proust (1871 - 1922)

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Wednesday, March 31, 2004 1:51 PM

RANGER


I think the key to this is in who River gets readings on. She gets input from everyone but Kaylee. In the end, she finds the gun, which is the thing which changed her relationship with Kaylee.

I think River is trying to find her place on the ship. In her effort to read Kaylee she remembers the gun and ends up in the same place with the gun that she was in with Kaylee with it. This is her mind trying to understand her relationship with Kaylee.

We still don't know how powerful River is. Perhapse she stole the gun from Jayne, or perhapse she simply "remembered it" and brought it to herself psycicly.

Traveller, if you go to Sparta, tell them you have seen us lying here as the Law commands.

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Wednesday, March 31, 2004 2:35 PM

LJOSALF


Quote:

Originally posted by Ranger:
I think the key to this is in who River gets readings on. She gets input from everyone but Kaylee. In the end, she finds the gun, which is the thing which changed her relationship with Kaylee....This is her mind trying to understand her relationship with Kaylee.



I have to disagree here. Too subtle; too static. It's clear that River isn't invisible for real but only because no one expects her to be able to interact normally, and, so, they don't pay any attention to her. She walks past them all and no one acknowledges her presence. She is, after nearly a year aboard, alienated. No special powers required for that just plain human social interaction. From the commentary, we get that Joss wanted us to think that he would test the envelope, so to speak, by making us believe that River had discorporated and become Serenity when in the end he really had no intention of going that far out there. Psychic, mind-reading powers, OK. Destroying/creating matter; possessing inanimate objects, not so much. So, I don't think we are going to see super powers from River. Only, really well thought out, fallible, pushed mental abilities--like the mind reading.

So, I'm sticking with the gun getting to the cargo hold in a normal, everyday manner, and here are the people who did NOT put it there: Jayne (I believe him; there is evidence of the care he takes with his weapons sprinkled through several episodes), Mal (no point to him doing this; his is meant to be the audience's point of view), Kaylee (I except her character at face value; I just do), Simon (contrary to his personality and profession), River (just did not happen; what, she put the gun in the cargo hold and then rediscovered it? Nah, not buying it). Maybe not Zoe or Wash (They both appear to jump on the blame Jayne train only after Mal cuts Jayne off when he starts in blaming River as dangerous, leaving the impression with them that Jayne's done something else wrong in regards to River to piss Mal off.) Maybe not Inara (to what purpose?). That leaves me most suspicious of Book.

Besides, you get tension and a plot hook to boot. Whereas the issue of River working through her relationship with Kaylee is pretty much resolved by the end of the episode.

Ljosalf

The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.
Marcel Proust (1871 - 1922)

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Wednesday, March 31, 2004 2:48 PM

KARENKAY99


Quote:

Originally posted by ljosalf:
Quote:

That leaves me most suspicious of Book.



exactly!!

"They say the snow on the roof is too heavy. They say the ceiling will cave in. His brains are in terrible danger."

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Wednesday, March 31, 2004 2:54 PM

ECGORDON

There's no place I can be since I found Serenity.


I think Ljosalf is getting pretty close to the truth. There is no way Jayne is responsible for the gun being there, and no one else would have any motive for doing it either...except Book. Other than why Inara is on Serenity, Book's story is the one with the most holes. And this is the first time anyone has said anything about Book's "I don't care if your innocent or not" pronouncement that has made sense to me. It was referring to Jayne and not River.

But this brings me to something that has bugged the hell out of me from the first time I saw "Ariel." This is not really off topic, since it relates a bit to what Ljosalf said about Book figuring out that Jayne attempted to sell out Simon and River. Did Joss really expect us to believe that no one overheard his accusations and threats to Jayne?




wo men ren ran zai fei xing.

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Wednesday, March 31, 2004 3:09 PM

RANGER


Quote:

Originally posted by ljosalf:
Quote:

Originally posted by Ranger:
I think the key to this is in who River gets readings on. She gets input from everyone but Kaylee. In the end, she finds the gun, which is the thing which changed her relationship with Kaylee....This is her mind trying to understand her relationship with Kaylee.



I have to disagree here. Too subtle; too static. It's clear that River isn't invisible for real but only because no one expects her to be able to interact normally, and, so, they don't pay any attention to her. She walks past them all and no one acknowledges her presence. She is, after nearly a year aboard, alienated. No special powers required for that just plain human social interaction. From the commentary, we get that Joss wanted us to think that he would test the envelope, so to speak, by making us believe that River had discorporated and become Serenity when in the end he really had no intention of going that far out there. Psychic, mind-reading powers, OK. Destroying/creating matter; possessing inanimate objects, not so much. So, I don't think we are going to see super powers from River. Only, really well thought out, fallible, pushed mental abilities--like the mind reading.

So, I'm sticking with the gun getting to the cargo hold in a normal, everyday manner, and here are the people who did NOT put it there: Jayne (I believe him; there is evidence of the care he takes with his weapons sprinkled through several episodes), Mal (no point to him doing this; his is meant to be the audience's point of view), Kaylee (I except her character at face value; I just do), Simon (contrary to his personality and profession), River (just did not happen; what, she put the gun in the cargo hold and then rediscovered it? Nah, not buying it). Maybe not Zoe or Wash (They both appear to jump on the blame Jayne train only after Mal cuts Jayne off when he starts in blaming River as dangerous, leaving the impression with them that Jayne's done something else wrong in regards to River to piss Mal off.) Maybe not Inara (to what purpose?). That leaves me most suspicious of Book.

Besides, you get tension and a plot hook to boot. Whereas the issue of River working through her relationship with Kaylee is pretty much resolved by the end of the episode.

Ljosalf

The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.
Marcel Proust (1871 - 1922)



I get everything you're saying here, but I still find it odd that Kaylee is the only one River doesn't get a reading from, then she finds the gun in the same condition it was in just before her relationship with Kaylee changed (fully loaded, safety off, which is how it was just before River shot the three guys in War Stories). But hey, that's half the fun of the show, trying to figure out what is up with (fill in your favorite charators here).

Traveller, if you go to Sparta, tell them you have seen us lying here as the Law commands.

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Wednesday, March 31, 2004 4:04 PM

JENTLE


I would like to address the "why River didn't get a reading from Kaylee" thing.

Here's the deal. (In my opinion.)
River is wandering through the ship, present but practically invisible, from a social standpoint. Yes, a lot of them glance at her, but no one tries to engage her in any way. (Hell, she's halfway to being the ship already, or a chair... one of those folding ones that occasionally snap closed on people and pour soup in their hair.)
She's empathic to the point of psychic ability and she's picking up on each person's strong underlying emotion/thoughts/etc. The things people are holding in. The hidden.

Kaylee doesn't do hidden. Kaylee is a wide open friendly book with fuzzy animal patches on it. Therefore there's nothing to uncover.

River looks at everyone and sees what's underneath, so it makes sense that she'd look at Kaylee and see... more Kaylee.

-------------
Every well-bred petty crook knows that the small concealable weapons always go to the far left of the place setting.

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Wednesday, March 31, 2004 4:22 PM

DA


I want to thank you for all of your ideas. As I am now ready to start watching the series, again (Boy I need to get out more), I will keep your ideas and theories in mind and respond back when I have more insight. Not that anyone can have a complete insight to River (based on the Joss commentary) I don't think anyone does.




--------------------------------------------------
I hope she does the soup-thing. It's always a hoot and we don't all die from it.

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Wednesday, March 31, 2004 5:32 PM

ROCKETJOCK


As I've posted on another thread, the readings River gets in her wanderings are all about personal regets. Simon regrets the good life he had to leave behind to save his mei mei; Jayne regrets both being stupid, and getting caught at it; Book regrets that at some point he didn't care about justice; Inara regrets pressuring someone (her doctor? Her Priestess? A lover?) to tell her the truth about her condition/situation; and Mal regrets having lost his faith.

Zoe and Wash are too lost in ecstasy to regret anything, so River gets no clear reading past pleasure; and Kaylee, well, she's a total innocent. No regrets.

I could be wrong, of course, and this doesn't answer the "where the Gorram Hell did the gun come from" question. Unless, of course, Book's real regret is the necessity of setting Jayne up...

"You can't enslave a free man. The most you can do is kill him." -- Robert A. Heinlein

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Wednesday, March 31, 2004 7:46 PM

ARP


>As I've posted on another thread, the readings
>River gets in her wanderings are all about
>personal regets. Simon regrets the good life he
>had to leave behind to save his mei mei; Jayne

Maybe this has already been extensively discussed but I haven't seen it mentioned so I'll say it: People keep saying River does readings, but I think that's a slightly inaccurate word. It looks to me like River isn't reading people, but having other peoples' experiences. This is most obvious in OIS, when River is observing Wash and Zoe -- the camera shows us an arm on a sleeve, then cuts back to River and we hear a loud rustling of fabric, then see River grab her own arm. Nearly the entire episode is about River experiencing other things (Joss even comments on how River 'experiences' walking down the stairs). So the inner monologues we get might not be thoughts they're having, but just some verbalization of their states of mind. This fits in pretty well with every fact I can recall about River -- for example, Simon says the operation removed the part of her brain that lets her ignore experiences. This makes sense, if she's an experiment no one wants her to have the ability to shut it off.

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Wednesday, March 31, 2004 8:10 PM

BEATLE


I think that River kept the gun from 'War Stories'.

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Wednesday, March 31, 2004 8:41 PM

DA


Beatle and ARP,

I think you're both on the better track here. I certainly don't think that River picks up on regrets. She picks up on the feelings that are the most raw at the moment.

Simon reflects on the good ole days at the academy on Osiris and even mentions later that he would be there right now if they hadn't messed with River.

Jayne glances at River and then his most raw situation is that he turned traitor on Mal so of course his statement is perfectly logical.

Book I think is referring to Jayne but I can't be positive of that one.

Zoe and Wash are enthralled in each other so of course their feelings are very deep and very much on the surface.

Mal and Inara are discussing something that is killing them both. They want to be together but neither has the guts to actually say it out loud. Inara's comment is to Mal to admit his feelings toward her. Mal's comment is that no matter what he does she's leaving anyway so it doesn't mean a damn thing.

River could absolutely could have kept the gun from War Stories because I don't think that anyone remembered to take it away from her. Still doesn't explain why she put it in the floor of the cargo hold only to rediscover it as a twig later on. But it is River so who knows.

-----------------------------------------
I hope she does the soup-thing. It's always a hoot and we don't all die from it.

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Wednesday, March 31, 2004 9:15 PM

BEATLE


Is the gun that River shot in WS the same she held in OIS? If it is, then that would help with the explaination. And make me feel she kept it.
If it is the same from WS, she must have kept it. She took it from Kalee, so did Kaylee have the gun from Jayne(any clear shots of Jayne having it before Kalee, or if it was in the pile of guns before Jayne 'dressed up' to help in WS)? Because Mal makes it clear it was Jayne's gun.



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Wednesday, March 31, 2004 9:22 PM

CALDEEN


I belive the answer is even simpler. River just went into Jayne's bunk and picked up the gun. While Jayne doesn't "Leave his guns laying around." They are just hung on the wall above his bed behind that blanket. The only time I ever noticed the doors to the bunks being locked was when Early did so. I mean Zoe tells Wash he could stop Jayne by locking the door so it seems that they don't do so as a matter of routine even when making love.

The gun in OOG was not the same one from War Stories. The one in WS was some kind of longslide, and the one from OOG was a Desert Eagle.

I doubt Book is trying to set Jayne up. Book is smart enough to know that the only way to get Jayne off the ship now is to kill him. Mal can not put him off the way he did the first mechanic. Jayne knows to much and as soon as he was no longer part of the crew he would sell out Simon and River.

River's mind was altered so that she can not control her emotions. She feels everything. Like when you get ticked at someone who thinks you should move to let them merdge onto the highway. Instead of ramming them just to show you were have the right of way, you push the emotion down and slow down to let them in.

I like the theory about River seeing people's regrets. Hadn't thought of that. It does make sense though. Also that Kaylee doesn't have any real regrets. Becuase of being an open person, and the fact that she is young and hasn't really done much to regret.

I am not worried about the bullet with my name on it. Just the thousands marked "Occupant".

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Wednesday, March 31, 2004 9:30 PM

ZORIAH


Also don't forget that in Out of Gas there was a spare gun strapped to the mule which Mal was able to use to threaten the boarders with. It is possible that River came upon one of the 'stashed for emergency' firearms in the hold, while, in her minds eye, she thought she was in a tranquil place with leaves and twigs etc.

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Wednesday, March 31, 2004 9:46 PM

OBSESSED


I think she is picking up on what people are feeling at the moment. I'm also willing to believe that she might have kept the gun, left it out, and then happened on it again. She could also have just walked into Jayne's bunk and taken it. These theories make a lot more sense to me than Book leaving it out. People have said that he is the only one likely to, but if he has a violent past, then he would be just as careful as anyone else. We know he has knowledge of guns from his comments about the sniper rifles; he wouldn't be any more careless than anyone else. I know that Book has a mysterious, maybe sinister past, but that doesn't mean that he is conspiring against everyone. I think he really has moved on; he's had so many opportunities to betray all of them and has continually shown his loyalty.

I think it's more likely that it just got dropped when people were moving stuff. Maybe Jayne, Mal, or Zoe were cleaning their guns and dropped one without noticing, or maybe it was left unnoticed after one of the many firefights in the cargo bay. If it was dropped out of sight, it could have been bumped around when they were moving cargo and ended up in the open. I just don't think this is worthy of a conspiracy, since the real reason is probably just that they needed a reason to make River feel unwelcome, and the gun was a convenient way...............


Book: I'd forgotten - you're moonlighting as a criminal mastermind now.
Simon: No, but I'm thinking about growing a big black mustache. I'm a traditionalist.

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Wednesday, March 31, 2004 11:04 PM

STEALTH


I don't think Book was trying to set up Jayne by leaving the gun in the cargo bay.
I think River picks up on emotions/feelings that maybe on the surface as with Wash and Zoe or maybe hidden and non verbal and in Books case is something from his past before he repented and found God and I believe nothing to do with Jayne at all.
We as the viewer are presented with a snapshot of events not all the events but the ones that are important to the story.
We don't have a complete record of Rivers travels through Serenity hence no record when she got the gun or how or if it was in a hundred bits and she was able to put it togeather with her eyes closed or not.. only that she somehow managed to do it at some point.
Well my thoughts anyway

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Thursday, April 1, 2004 11:21 AM

MISGUIDED BY VOICES


Quote:

Originally posted by Ranger:
I get everything you're saying here, but I still find it odd that Kaylee is the only one River doesn't get a reading from, then she finds the gun in the same condition it was in just before her relationship with Kaylee changed (fully loaded, safety off, which is how it was just before River shot the three guys in War Stories). But hey, that's half the fun of the show, trying to figure out what is up with (fill in your favorite charators here).



Actually, she does get a reading from Kaylee, a great big stonking one - Kaylee looks right at her as I recall, and there is a certain detremined look in her eye.



"I threw up on your bed"

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Friday, April 2, 2004 5:05 PM

LJOSALF


Quote:

Originally posted by obsessed:
I think she is picking up on what people are feeling at the moment.


I agree that the "readings" in OiS have a more immediate feel and this is in large part why I think Book's "reading" refers to Jayne.
Quote:

I'm also willing to believe that she might have kept the gun, left it out, and then happened on it again.

But it's not the same gun as was pointed out earlier.
Quote:

She could also have just walked into Jayne's bunk and taken it. These theories make a lot more sense to me than Book leaving it out. ...if he has a violent past, then he would be just as careful as anyone else. We know he has knowledge of guns from his comments about the sniper rifles; he wouldn't be any more careless than anyone else.
I think it's more likely that it just got dropped when people were moving stuff. Maybe Jayne, Mal, or Zoe were cleaning their guns and dropped one without noticing, or maybe it was left unnoticed after one of the many firefights in the cargo bay. If it was dropped out of sight, it could have been bumped around when they were moving cargo and ended up in the open.


So Book isn't any more careless with guns than the rest of the crew who lose track of a fully-loaded weapon with the safety off plus kick it around for a while? Besides, it isn't the "crew" who have been "careless"; it's Jayne because it is his gun--he doesn't deny this. Seems to me Jayne is pretty careful with his weapons: in Safe he objects to the rough handling the marshall gives his weapons when Mal doesn't, for example; he clearly treasures Vera and he and Mal are the only two I recall actually cleaning and caring for their weapons.
No, how the gun got to the cargo hold is significant and so is the fact that none of the characters stops to figure it out.

As for Book being smart enough to know that the only way off the ship for Jayne was feet first, IIRC, the script direction for Book's "reading" is that the delivery is "lethal"....

(edited for formatting)

Ljosalf

The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.
Marcel Proust (1871 - 1922)

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Sunday, April 4, 2004 8:00 PM

JEBBYPAL


Okay, very interesting discussion and nothing really new to add except that as I was reading through another interpretation of Book's "reading" by River occured to me. He says to effect "I don't give half a hump if you're innocent or not, so where does that leave you?"

-Although delivered as an accusation, it is interesting if interpretted in relation to his Christian background: Basically the statement could be in reference to how Jayne and others feel he judges them when in theory, christianity would argue not to judge the sinner because that's God's place. Just an idea to futher confuse the issue:) Maybe one day joss will write his memoirs to firefly and answer all of our questions if he never addresses them in any other form!

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Sunday, April 4, 2004 10:46 PM

SGTZOOK


It's seems to me, that in the pilot episode, when Simon jumped the Allience guy, the big handgun slid away and nobody bothered to pick it up. Perhaps no one accounted for it, it got lost amongst the equipment, only to show up again in "Objects".

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Monday, April 5, 2004 12:50 AM

ECGORDON

There's no place I can be since I found Serenity.


Quote:

Originally posted by SgtZook:
It's seems to me, that in the pilot episode, when Simon jumped the Allience guy, the big handgun slid away and nobody bothered to pick it up. Perhaps no one accounted for it, it got lost amongst the equipment, only to show up again in "Objects".


Dobson picked it up. It was the gun he was threatening River with, and Simon had his smaller gun. Mal then shot Dobson, but just because you never see anyone pick the gun up afterwards doesn't mean they didn't. There is at least six months narrative time, possibly more, between those two episodes, I doubt the gun would have been laying around there all that time.




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Monday, April 5, 2004 2:10 AM

SOUTHERNMERC


And Dobson's gun was gunmetal grey, not chromed like Jayne's gun is. Besides, Jayne claimed the weapon, and Mal clearly knew it was his.

One thing to remember, as had been stated earlier, is that whole opening sequence was from River's point of view. So she could, considering the amount of monkeying that the Alliance did to her brain, quite easily have "blackout" periods where she doesn't recall quite what she had been doing. Or possibly perceive going into Jayne's room and retrieving the weapon, loading it, then moving to the cargo bay and being discovered by the others without ever knowing just what EXACTLY she was doing. When the others called out to her, she became anchored again, and realized something was wrong. Oy, that girl has a rough road ahead of her.

Edited for grammar.

Jayne: "How big a room?"

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