saylee scene analysis, part three, 1.03 bushwhacked
bushwhacked is an underrated saylee episode To Me shsjils. they don't actually have That Much going on here (future lex here: i wrote several words about it anyway) but what is here is very juicy to me. and funnily enough, i think they spend more time together here than they do in what are commonly remembered as episodes more signifcant to their relationship.
i adore this so much shujsjls. and i think it is at least partially the crux of why i like them sm?
like, on the one hand, i do think simon x kaylee as a couple at least in their initial conception is pretty obviously rooted in some degree of heteronormativity because they saw they had a male and female main character in (debatably!) roughly the same age group and decided they would be a Ship. which is kind of why i Am surprised i like saylee as much as i do bc like... again, they are not necessarily my most usual ship! not necessarily bc they are technically a het ship (i don't begrudge anyone at all only shipping queer ships!!! bc god knows enough het couples are represented on screen!!! but for me, i find it personally restrictive to my enjoyment to Not ship a het couple bc of that if i otherwise like/am interested in them) (also i don't think either of them are het regardless hdshss. even canon saylee is bi4bi To Me) but because i very often don't like ships where there's clear attraction on the part of one or both parties right away
but for one thing, i don't think you're supposed to believe even kaylee is In Love atp (mal names it for what it is in the first ep! she has a crush!) like, an initial spark of attraction where they then have to work through all the Real stuff is much easier for me to grapple with than Love At First Sight bc it's much more realistic.
but okay tangent aside! this moment above is one reason i do think saylee is more meaningful to me than some ships of semi-similar natures and serves more of a purpose than Just slotting together another couple. the exploration of reconciling class differences is also part of that, but i also really enjoy ships where part of the reason they're drawn to each other is thematically relevant to what they need (and often what they lack.) and i do think a big part of simon's arc would have been (and already is, to some degree) acclimating/becoming more like the people he's running with now than what he would have been taught was 'proper' in his core upbringing.
kaylee is literally inviting him down into their game, but also, 'come play for our side' is really speicfic and not all that subtle wording lol. kaylee has very consistently been the main one inviting him into their world! even though we don't see it, she must have been the first person he even interacted with because they meet off-screen and the pilot and she's the one who introduces him to mal, she asks him questions about himself at dinner in the pilot and answers his questions in the train job, and now this! and it will continue later. so i do think there's something to the idea that in some ways, the closer he gets to kaylee is him getting closer to the fullfillment of that arc - and at least some of his stumbles with her are at least partially indicative of his struggle to adapt, even as he's trying to.
(note: i don’t even think this is all they represent to each other — i think more stuff on simon’s end comes up especially later, but i could make an argument with some stuff w kaylee that i will when we get to it didhhd.)
and some unsubtle writing is forced and bad and i don't like (and we will talk about it! bc there are definitely times that applies to them hsjkdshs) but i DO like it here. like i simply think a show should be able to announce an obvious theme on occasion. it's fun!
it's difficult to say bc the camera cuts away from his expression/is distant, but i thiiink he might start to smile when kaylee directly addresses him, too?
(another side tangent, but: i like it when they call him doc! i think it's cute ldjsslk. it's the closest simon gets to having a nickname)
shslss there's nothing actually That interesting to say here but: simon struggles with the helment, and the captions don't capture it, but you can hear kaylee go: 'oh!' and realize he needs help before she goes to help him. i am not immune to finding this cute!
this is kaylee's reaction after jayne starts laughing about the trick he pulled on simon. and i do think it's noteworthy that no one else really finds it all that funny—
(lex gets on a very autistic soapbox) (bc it's not) (there's not even any joke attached to this prank he just lied to be cruel i don't get it but i guess i'm not supposed to) (i just have so much difficulty wrapping my head around why anyone would find this funny! i understand teasing and that sometimes people are mean as a way of being funny but there's just no obvious actual joke attached to this. he just lied!) (okay wait actually i figured it out he thinks it's funny bc it's supposed to have humiliated simon and played on his fear of deep space. the issue with that is that simon should just literally not be humiliated by this. he just went to a place he was told to go. that was like. it. that’s actually all that happened. and how is it humiliating for simon to have tried to do something to be helpful in spite of his fear? if anything, that's admirable.) (smh @ jayne at least Actually be funny when you’re being mean. your joke failed my standards it wasn’t even a joke.) (/soapbox over lmao)
— mal smirks/has to choke back a laugh a little bit, but he makes a point of doing so and directs the conversation away from this as quickly as he can. and kaylee, as the literally nicest person on board, was never going to find it funny. so i do partly think she's looking at simon to gauge his reaction.
but she also looks?? really freaked out/alarmed? which does make me think this was the actual moment she realized he'd had his helmet on wrong lmao. like if he Had actually needed it, that wouldn't have been good!
which is why this happens:
jayne finds it hilarious, but kayle's really not saying it to be mean! it's just something he really probably should know for future reference, and i do think at some point while they're working together, off-screen, she must show him how to do it, bc he knows how to do it later. (it's possible someone helped him and river do it in real-time but they were in such a rush it seems unlikely? but idk.)
this is going to go on a bit of a tangent (this is the post for it ig lmao) (i promise i do have a point with this that relates back to saylee) but i've always loved the way these scenes intermingle so much. the way this episode is structured makes it so that simon asking kaylee 'aren't you the least bit curious' is set over river crossing over to the derelict. which i like a lot because a) as different as the tam siblings are in many ways, i don't actually think they're total opposites/they do in fact have many things in common. and their curiosity is one of them! b) that curisoity lends itself well to being as academically-minded as they both clearly are, but more significantly To Me, i think it's also something that? in some ways set them apart from a lot of their counterparts on the core? i don't think Everyone in the core is like, mindlessly in support of the alliance (there wouldn't be a resistance movement if that were true, which we do hear about/get hints of). but like - in the film - they go out of their way to have book say that one of the big problelms with the operative (but i think arguably this is sort of emblematic of the taught/ internalized values in the core on the whole) is that he/people in his role never stop to ask 'why'. and, well!
it's not always phrased as a 'why' (though this one is) but simon does a LOT of asking what the hell is going on and why things work the way they work and trying to understand the world around him that he now finds himself in. he was doing it earlier, too, when he asked what a short range vessel would be doing this far out into space.
and some of that is because he's serving as the audience insert character to learn more about the world, since he's the person who makes the most sense to Be asking these questions. which does also mean that some of this could read just as a little bit of naivete/lack of knowledge, and that's not Untrue.
but simon doesn't Have to ask these questions, yk? he doesn't have to try or care to understand the world around him, he could just sort of go on about his business (i mean, i don't think it'd be very smart, but he Could). but he genuinely wants to understand.
and none of that's to say kaylee Doesn't have curiosity about the world - this is just an instance where she's probably more used to understanding the circumstances of what might have gone on here, so she can easily think of a bunch of reasons people might have left this ship but doesn't feel the need to focus on them when she's got a Task in front of her.
but i do think it's signifcant to their relationship/what it would have become because simon having this curiosity/desire to understand/willingness to learn (and willingness to voice lack of knowledge and seek her opinion/guidance/perspective on it on it!!! which happens in the train job too) is important! because while he Will have stumbles and has some unlearning of shit he needs to do, at the end of the day, this is one of the biggest indicators to me that he would have gotten there eventually in his arc. (at least i like to believe.) willingness to learn is half the battle and while it's a little bit of different context in the conflicts between them and their cultural/class clash, i do still think it would have applied/ended up mattering to their dynamic a lot. in fact, i think there are observable ways in which it already does, they just cut off, but more on that at some other point.)
not including pictures bc it doesn't screencap well and there's an image limit but kaylee handing him the part and telling him to hold open the bag and simon IMMEDIATELY dropping from the weight of it klsjsiojdks see this is how to make an otherwise fairly serious character comedic relief without compromising Who He Is. (not really in reference to anything but sometimes i feel like shows do compromise their characters for the sake of a laugh.)
this isn't really a saylee Scene but i just love watching them react to each other even in moments when it's not About them. this is an otherwise serious scene! right before this kaylee was looking pretty freaked out/overwhelmed/concerned about the goings on and finding the survivor on the derelict! but one of my favorite things about early!saylee is, again, she likes watching simon assert himself. it's sort of hard to see here but she's listening into what simon's saying and thinks he's being serious at first/doesn't know what he's about to say, but once she realizes he's snarking she smiles just a little before looking away! similarly (though slightly less chaotically sjsk) to the train job, i think it's good to have a moment like this to show simon can hold his own after spending a lot of the ep so far as a fish out of water, and that kaylee doesn't just pity/feel sympathy for him and that she likes this side of him too!
idek why, i think the fact of the matter is i just have saylee brainrot, but i find the way she asks this very cute? it's a serious situation but her tone of voice is kind of playful, and 'our patient' is kind of roleplaying this being a medical drama ssjklskls but more seriously, it's one of the first chances they have for her to ask him about his area of expertise, it's a cute give and take!
and it's hard to tell bc kaylee's not included in the shot and it doesn't cut to her (and the line of dialogue in that last cap is mal's), but simon kind of looked around in answering, but the direction he's looking at again, i'm pretty sure is kaylee's - and he's also very subtly smiling! but like, she clearly cares about the idea that this survivor they found is okay, and simon likes being able to give her what he thinks is good news. it's sweet!
this is Not a saylee scene but like... you can see her in the background, and even though she's far away, while everyone else is working on packing shit back up, kaylee is staring at simon pretty much as soon as he starts talking, and i'm pretty sure she can tell the degree to which he's freaking out even before he starts accusing mal of using them as bargaining chips/before anyone else really can. (edit: anyone else except mal, who i do think knows already. they’ve just got shit to do.)
