History Recap / FireflyE07Jaynestown

* HollywoodDateless: The handsome 26-year-old virgin that can't get any women. (Of course, the only people around are mudders, who are all but slaves of his father, so either he doesn't want to take advantage of them or they're afraid of facing the magistrate's brutal punishments--such as having their hands and feet amputated and thrown into the bog--if they displease his son.)

'''Original airdate:''' October 18, 2002

* AccidentalHero: Jayne is mistaken for a hero because he threw money out his ship. He did so because the money was weighing his damaged ship down (he threw his partner out first).

As it turns out, Jayne did a job in Canton stealing a large sum of money from the magistrate, but was hit by anti-air emplacements and forced to jettison the cash. It landed on the "mudders" (local peasants who harvested the mud and made up most of the population), and since that day he had been a folk legend, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8omJvCrwRdY "the Hero of Canton."]] Though Jayne tries to lie low, he is soon recognized, celebrated, and plied with alcohol.

* ProfessionalSexEd: The episode dances back and forth between playing this straight and subverting it. Inara is hired by the Magistrate to "make his son a man". The son has much more confidence afterwards, but this may have had as much to do with Inara's pep-talks before and after as with the actual sex.

* OpenMouthInsertFoot: In attempt to explain NotWhatItLooks like, Simon tries assure Mal that nothing happened. What he ''meant'' to say was that he wouldn't take sexual advantage of a drunk or passed out Kaylee. What ''said'' was "I would never... not with ''Kaylee''" , making it sound like he doesn't like her at all. Kaylee takes this... not well.

* NotWhatItLooksLike: Simon awkwardly insists to Mal that he and Kaylee did not sleep together, even though they ''[[ImplausibleDeniability fell asleep]]'' together with ''the latter lying on top of the former''.

* DarkReprise: A sombre version of "The Man They Call Jayne" is plucked out on one guitar as he tries to make sense of what happened in the closing scene.

-->''"Ohhh, I'll be gorrammed. That's where that cash went. I stole that money from Higgins just like the song says, lifted me one of his hovercraft. But I got tagged by anti-aircraft, started losing altitude. Had dump them strongboxes to stay airborne. Oh... 60,000, untraceable. And I drop it right square in the middle of mud-farmer central."''

* HiddenDepths: Jayne goes from being embarrassed that the mudders made a statue of him towards familial love for the town making him a hero ("You all had a riot for me? My very own riot?"). Halfway through the scheme to get smuggled goods out of the town, Jayne openly starts musing about [[GoodFeelsGood how good it feels for him]] to be a hero to people. By episode's end he's visibly shaken by the senseless sacrifice of a mudder to save him even after the reveal Jayne wasn't anybody's hero.

* SuddenDownerEnding: The tragedy at the end comes out of nowhere. Most of the episode is pure comedy.

* YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: Inara, who hasn't seen the statue, hears from her client about "The Hero of Canton" being in town. She immediately starts badmouthing Mal, only to be told the hero is actually ''Jayne''. Just watching her brain reboot from that is priceless.

* UnresolvedSexualTension:
** Inara hears from her client about "The Hero of Canton" being in town. She immediately blabbers about how Mal can be, only to be told it's ''Jayne''. Just watching her brain reboot from that is priceless.
** Kaylee and Simon discuss theirs.

* YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: Inara's reaction to the Hero of Canton being Jayne, not Mal is open-mouthed shock and confusion.

The next morning, Mal returns to find Kaylee on top of Simon. Simon hastily denies that anything happened between them, and she leaves, offended. The celebration begins in front of Jayne's statue, and the Hero of Canton gives a brief speech. Stitch takes Simon hostage and indignantly barges in on the festivities. He explains that Jayne only dropped the money because the ship was damaged, and he kicked out Stitch first. He shoots at Jayne, but a mudder leaps in the line of fire and is killed. Jayne kills Stitch, and is overcome with disbelief that anyone would take a bullet for him after learning that he betrayed his partner and only helped them accidentally. He says they shouldn't expect people to simply drop money on them, pushes over the statue and leaves.

* NotWhatItLooksLike: Simon awkwardly insists to Mal that he and Kaylee did not sleep together, even though they ''[[ImplausibleDeniability fell asleep]]'' together.

As it turns out, Jayne did a job in Canton stealing a large sum of money from the magistrate, but was hit by anti-air emplacements and forced to jettison the cash. It landed on the "mudders" (local peasants who harvested the mud and made up most of the population), and since that day he had been a folk legend, "the Hero of Canton." Though Jayne tries to lie low, he is soon recognized, celebrated, and plied with alcohol.

* AManIsNotAVirgin: The Magistrate thinks so, but Inara doesn't, and makes this clear to the son.

* CodeOfHonor: Simon explains to Kaylee that his is why he does not swear or sleep around, even when he is on the run in the middle of space.

* HollywoodDateless: The handsome 26-year-old virgin that can't get any women.
** FridgeBrilliance: The only women around are probably mudders under his father's employ. None of them would risk getting involved with the magistrate's son, given that his usual method of dealing with people he doesn't like falls under the category of "hacking their hands and feet off with a machete and rolling them into the bog."

* UnresolvedSexualTension: Inara hears from her client about "The Hero of Canton" being in town. She immediately blabbers about how Mal can be, only to be told it's ''Jayne''. Just watching her brain reboot from that is priceless.

* JustLikeRobinHood: The people of Canton ''think'' Jayne did this for them. See AccidentalHero.

* NotWhatItLooksLike: Simon awkwardly insists to Mal that he and Kaylee did not sleep together, even though they ''fell asleep'' together.