Avoid the Codeless
PFC William Santiago is dead, and that is a tragedy. But he is dead because he had no code. He is dead because he had no honor, and God was watching.
- Lieutenant Kendrick, A Few Good Men
Watching Firefly, one thing you notice (perhaps intuitively) about Reynolds is that he is a relatively stable individual or, if you prefer, consistent in his behavior. He is not prone to random swings in temperament or wide contrasts in how he treats people from one episode to the next. He may be mysterious as some described him, but he is reliable.
The reason for this is simple: Reynolds has a code that offers him stability and grounds him despite his iterant existence. He demands to get paid for a job and he is fiercely loyal to anyone he deems a member of his crew. Unlike codes men such as Book adhere to that originated elsewhere, Reynolds’ is of his own creation. Nobody told him to think or act like that. As a result, he has a proactive, assertive mindset.
Finding Serenity requires you to have a code, or rules for life, that you make for yourself. However, the rules have to go both ways; you must demand things of others that are appropriate, but you must also demand things of yourself. A code that only demands of others or only demands from yourself is unbalanced.
One of the final episodes of Firefly provides an excellent example of what an unbalanced code looks like. In “The Message,” Reynolds receives a crate containing the body of a Private Tracey Smith, a former Browncoat soldier who served under him. He appears to be dead, but it’s merely a ruse to smuggle him across the galaxy to deliver internal organs.
As it turns out, Smith has become somewhat of a drifter following the failed war of independence. Rather than finding Serenity as Reynolds has, he finds himself mixed up in an unsavory business and has unscrupulous men now after him. Instead of forming or joining a group of like-minded individuals, Smith is a loner.
This is lack of a balanced code or mission effectively makes him like a ship without a rudder; its course is directed by the wind, rather than using the wind to sail in a desired direction. The lack of grounding explains why he eventually turns on Reynolds and his crew, taking Kaylee hostage when he mistakenly believes they planned to betray him. After mocking Reynolds for his perceived sentimentalism, Smith is shot and mortally wounded.
Dying, he suddenly becomes remorseful, asks for forgiveness, and begs for them to take his body back home to his parents.
Simply put, Smith didn’t demand trust of himself, and because of that he distrusted others. Had he adhered to a balanced code in that regard, he would have likely given Reynolds the benefit of the doubt. He might have even eventually joined the crew.
But, he ended up as dead in the end, as he first appeared to be at the beginning of the episode.
Some might point to Jayne and his apparent lack of a balanced code, considering how he betrays members of Serenity’s crew. How come he survives?
Jayne is simply a much more complicated individual. He is prone to selfishness and short-sighted decisions, but he is also capable of idealism and sentiment; he sends money to his mother and proudly wears a goofy cap she knitted for him. He experiences regrets, shame, and sorrow.
Nevertheless, his code is not as balanced as Reynolds’ and, in fact, nearly does get him killed when he betrays them to the Alliance.
But Reynolds spares him, and while the precise reasons can be debated, I think part of it is that Jayne - expecting to be killed - pleas with Reynolds not to reveal his treachery to the crew. When facing death people often reveal their true selves, and what Jayne revealed in that moment is that for all his serious imperfections, he cared what the others thought of him, even if he wasn’t to witness it.
Of course, it’s a TV show and his character survived because the scriptwriters chose that outcome. It’s not hard to see why. Jayne is a likable, popular character because he had a combination of witty gallows humor and competence.
Nevertheless, the takeaway is that to find Serenity you need your own personal code, and it needs to be a balance of getting what you need and giving something to others.
Moreover, beware the person without that kind of code.