=====

Like the old song goes, the beginning's a very good place to start. Six minutes into "Serenity," the original two-hour pilot of Firefly, the camera pulls back from where our heroes are salvaging a derelict ship and enters the bridge of Serenity:

INT. BRIDGE - CONTINUING

The first time I saw this scene, it was hard not to fall in love a little bit right there. It's got to rank up there in terms of great, classic TV entrances in recent memory for me. Yet what really amazed me, especially after I'd watched all the episodes and returned to "Serenity," was how it summarised Hoban "Wash" Washburne [1] so thoroughly in such a small amount of time. Joker? Check. Competent pilot (notice how fast he loses all pretence of humour the instant he realises the Alliance is on them)? Check. Kind of a dork? Yeah, let's go ahead and add another check. Perhaps not as gung-ho or battle-ready as the rest of the crew, as evidenced by the fact that he's one of only two people who've stayed behind on the ship during this particular operation? Check.

As far as first impressions go, I'd say it leaves its mark.

You mention Wash during a Firefly line-up, and the first thing that'll come to mind is the wisecracks. It's just how the superficial personality traits fall: Kaylee's the sweetheart, Book's the pious one, Inara's the motherly type, Wash is the funnyman. Like Xander on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Wash serves as Joss Whedon's avatar, so aside from being inflicted with tacky shirts and dorky (yet loveable) hobbies, many of the trademark Whedon witticisms end up falling from his mouth.

It's often a dry, sarcastic, faintly self-depreciating kind of humour, though -- something that can be seen as an attempt to cover up his own insecurities about his position on Serenity (as the only non-fighter in the official chain of command, and the one whose usual assignment during "milk runs" is to stay with the ship, it's not a huge stretch to say that he has some issues with it), and one that's as likely to make the tension as break it.

ANGLE: IN THE CRATE are bars that looks a lot like gold.

It's a challenge not to like a guy who can see the funny in what's frankly a difficult life, especially when they have a snarky streak and can turn that snark on themselves just as quickly as they shoot it at someone else. And it's this same humour that also helps create a rarity in television, maybe even more so in sci-fi TV: a genuine, well-rounded, and altogether interesting relationship with his wife.

"Not everybody gets me and Zoe at first glance" [5], he explains, and it's pretty easy to see why. On the one hand is the first mate, a "warrior woman" ex-soldier who served under Serenity's captain, ostensibly serious and rigid in demeanour. On the other...is Wash, the resident jokester who's more or less trained, like any pilot would be, to evade rather than plunge headlong into a firefight. By all accounts, it shouldn't work.

And yet, it does, and in a way that's a lot more realistic than most marriages that usually air in primetime. Despite all the space travel and random Chinese interjections and 26th-century tech, Wash and Zoe are like any ordinary couple. They bicker, occasionally get into outright fights, retaliate in petty ways when they're frustrated with one another...and at the end of the day, when they return to their bunk or sit down to dinner, interact in a way that's filled with small gestures that make it plain just how much they're truly in love with one another. Their marriage doesn't fall into gender stereotypes or turn into something where there's an obvious "dominant" one in the relationship, either: Zoe's often seen as the stronger of the two, but Wash steps up to play protector just as often. It's an imperfect partnership that's just that -- a partnership -- and it's beautiful.

So that's Wash within the confines of the series. How did he get there, though? What events in his past sparked his sense of humour, or the fascination with toy dinosaurs and Hawaiian shirts? And there has to be a reason he fell in with a crowd that, by and large, he probably wouldn't have fallen in with had everything gone his way. Right?

Weeellll...we don't know. Aside from Shepherd Book, there's no one else in the main nine whose history we know less of than Wash's. It's definitely implied that he took the job on Serenity because of Zoe, judging from the nice long look he gives her in his "Out of Gas" flashback scene, but it could just as easily be, as popular fanon runs, because he wanted to try his hand at flying a rare boat like a Firefly. The flashback's more so the writers can set up a sight gag, give us a chance to see Zoe's rather unfavourable reaction to her first encounter with her future husband; meanwhile, his interrogation when Serenity is hauled in by the Alliance in "Bushwhacked" -- which is utilised to provide bits of backstory for a few other crew members -- only gives him a chance to wax rhapsodic about his wife's physical assets. We're given none of his political views, no hint of what he did (if anything) during the Unification War, and only the single throwaway comment about his childhood from "Our Mrs. Reynolds" that's quoted above.

As a gen fanfic writer, I'll admit that there's a ton of appeal to a character with this little sense of history. What better source of inspiration can you find for genfic than a past that's full of gaps and holes? Still, it's pretty telling that even in the broader context of how the show itself is written, Wash, just like he is during milk runs and salvage missions, is shunted to the side.

That doesn't mean he's completely useless and unable to handle himself, though. Far from it. To put it bluntly, the guy's a hell of a pilot. There's a moment in "War Stories" (which is the seminal Wash episode) where, running on a single attitudinal thrust done from thousands of miles away and still shaky from several hours of torture, Wash manages to guide the powered-down ship, unnoticed, into a docking port on the side of a skyplex. In Zoe's own words, "It's like throwing a dart...and hitting a bull's eye six thousand miles away." [6]

Then, of course, there's that chase scene at the end of "Serenity."

Serenity's port jet flips the other way and the ship LURCHES into a perfect one-eighty, spinning on a dime, the jet flips back and it's headed straight for the reaver ship, which dodges at the last second -- [2]

It's not just the fact that he's outflying the deadliest beings in the galaxy here. It's that, through the entire chase sequence preceding this moment, he doesn't so much as flinch. As everybody, even resident hardass Jayne Cobb, is pushed to the edge of panic at the sight of the Reavers, Wash just keeps flying with preternatural focus, perfectly calm and in complete control of both himself and Serenity. Watching him is to see a person in their absolute element; this, you believe, is what Wash was born to do.

We don't see that kind of intense focus again until "War Stories" rolls around. Oddly enough, though, it's not in relation to the earlier-mentioned bit of flying.

This is the episode where all of Wash's insecurities come to a head. Sick of waiting around on the ship while his wife and captain are out experiencing "thrilling tales of bonding and adventure" [6], he purposefully changes the startup sequence on one of the shuttles so Mal will be forced to take him on the mission instead of Zoe. It's phenomenally petty and bratty of him, but, unfortunately, it works.

"Unfortunately" because things go wrong, as they usually do, and Wash and Mal are kidnapped by Adelei Niska.

Now, over and over again, the works of the philosopher Shan Yu are brought up by various characters throughout the episode. In particular: "Live with a man 40 years, share his house, his meals, speak on every subject. Then tie him up and hold him over the volcano's edge. And on that day you will finally meet the man." [6]

Most people read that and immediately think of Mal. (Of course, his comment "You wanna meet the real me now?!" as he's waling on Niska might have just a little bit to do with that.) Truth is, the Shan Yu philosophy could apply to what happens to Wash just as easily. Take the scene right after Zoe's rescued him from nearly being tortured to death at Niska's hand. Kneeling on the floor of the shuttle, she explains to him what's going to happen to Mal, how Niska will draw out the torture as long as he can -- days, if possible.

And it's right then, minutes after he's been hauled back from the volcano's edge, when he's still bleeding and bruised and shaking and scared, that we meet the real Wash. This is the Wash whose face settles into steely determination as he pulls back from Zoe. It's the man who rises to his feet, hissing, "No. Bastard's not gonna get days," then powers up the shuttle without hesitation and returns to Serenity to begin planning an all-out assault on Niska's skyplex. It's a guy who, despite all his jokes and insubordinance and bouts of jealousy, is fiercely loyal to his captain; who will do whatever it takes to keep his loved ones from harm, even at the cost of his own safety. He comes into his own here, changing from pest to fighter, following a time-honoured character arc that's almost -- dare I say it? -- downright heroic.

Not too bad at all for a sidekick.

Cut back to the game. A LOUD ALARM starts sounding.

And by the end, in a lot of ways, Wash hasn't become just an avatar for Joss, but for a lot of us fans, too. He's one of those people you can relate to, you know? In a 'verse filled with all sorts of general weirdness, he's the Everyman. He's the guy who doesn't go seeking fights, but will nevertheless pull through when the time comes; the one who isn't incredibly brave, or strong, or handsome in the conventional sense, but has still eked out his own comfortable existence and is, for the most part, happy with his lot in life. He's not a big damn hero like Mal or Zoe, but so what? Neither are most of us, and we do just fine.

And so does he.

=====

FOOTNOTES:

[1] According to an interview with Alan Tudyk (the actor who plays Wash), Hoban Washburne is, canonically, Wash's full name. Really. (Poor guy; no wonder he goes by "Wash.")
[2] "Serenity" shooting script, Joss Whedon. <http://www.twiztv.com/scripts/firefly/season1/firefly-111.htm>
[3] "Heart of Gold" shooting script, Brett Matthews. <http://www.twiztv.com/scripts/firefly/season1/firefly-113.htm>
[4] "Shindig" shooting script, Jane Espenson. <http://www.twiztv.com/scripts/firefly/season1/firefly-106.htm>
[5] "Our Mrs. Reynolds" transcript, written by Joss Whedon, trans. by Shrift. <http://firefly.shriftweb.org/scripts/103.shtml>
[6] "War Stories" shooting script, Cheryl Cain. <http://www.twiztv.com/scripts/firefly/season1/firefly-109.htm>
[7] "Bushwhacked" transcript, written by Tim Minear, trans. by Ling Mao. <http://firefly.shriftweb.org/scripts/102.shtml>

home