Wash

This post contains spoilers for the movie Serenity if you are one of those Nimen dou shi shagua who hasn't seen it.


I can't watch any episode of Firefly without feeling a sadness that Wash didn't make it through the movie. Whenever he is typical Wash, funny, frustrated with the latest maneuver he has to do that the ship wasn't made to do... I almost cannot bear the episode knowing that he will die. I don't know what it was. I watched Serenity before I ever saw Firefly. Yet in the theatre, at my first viewing of this cast ever, after watching him talking about floating like a leaf on the wind, the horror and reality of the Reaver's spear through him had me curl into a ball in my movie theatre chair and bawl like a baby. When Kaylee asks after Wash, and realizes "he ain't comin'", I started to cry all over again. I liked Wash's character. The jokes, the happy go lucky, loving his wife - these were all things that made me feel close to the character. In fact, I "fell in love" with everyone from Serenity (one viewing) and immediately went to Firefly for my fix. Yet the "ghost" of Wash's death hangs over the show, bringing a bit of sadness at odd moments, like in the episode Trash, when Mal gets back on the ship at the beginning, tissue in his bloody nose, and Wash recoils at the sight of him. I laughed and then felt sick to the pit of my stomach because he doesn't make it. No, he didn't make it, but boy would I have liked to see his and Zoe's kids.