u/LostInAMazeOfSeeking

Spoiler Warning for the Firefly TV show and Serenity the movie.

Firstly, apologies if this is an old and tired theory... It's been several years and someone else probably came up with this theory long ago. Secondly, apologies for the long, waffling post.

A friend and I recently binged through the original series and the follow up movie, afterwards we were discussing loose ends that never got tied up, most notably Shepherd Book and his mysterious backstory that never got explained. You know... the military knowledge, the ID that got him priority treatment at an Alliance med centre, etc. The bounty hunter in the final episode saying about Book: "That ain't no shepherd."

Clearly he was more than he appeared to be.

We agreed that his story was probably too complex to be quickly explained and that it would be a disservice to the character to have his background explained quickly being as the focus of the movie is River Tam and her story.

Then we got talking about The Operative... What a great character he is, what an interesting subversion and expansion of the 'silent nameless assassin' trope he is. It's interesting that he isn't killed off as most characters like him would be in a movie like this. Instead he ends the movie starting a new life after his faith in Parliament has been destroyed.

We agreed that on one level, Serenity works as a kind of origin story for the Operative... what would he do next in his life?

Then we had one of those "are you thinking what I'm thinking?" moments.

So, we have this man who is a dedicated believer (the Operative's faith and belief is a core component of his character). He's shown to be a fundamentally decent person (yes, this can be debated) who is well aware of the horrific nature of his work. He does it because he has such faith in the 'better world' that will eventually be created. He even accepts that he has no place in that better world due to his terrible actions.

What does a guy like that do when he loses faith in his masters?

I'll tell you what he does. He becomes a shepherd!

So that's it, my (possibly lame af) theory....

TLDR, Serenity did give us Shepherd Book's origin story by introducing a villain, The Operative, and through his character they show us what Book may have been in his past life then leaving The Operative's story open for him to fulfill the same role as Book.

Firstly, my apologies if this has already been asked. Second apologies because this might be a long post. And obligatory spoiler warnings (seriously though, why are you reading if you havn't watched the show?)

I just watched the final episode, I love this show! Great premise, can't wait to see where else the story goes. So with that said, I'm interested to read what other people think about the reason for the signal. What is the end-game intention behind sending that signal out into the universe?

My theory (if you can call it that) is that the signal is absolutely NOT benign or well intentioned. I think it's a form of "killing with kindness" that is intended to wipe out any species that receives the signal and follows the instructions.

In my opinion life needs a certain degree of aggression to survive and multiply. We overcome obstacles and difficulties in order to go on living, thriving and propogating. Without that degree of aggression (or if you want to give it another name - survival instinct) then we would be utterly passive.

This is what the plurbs in the show are. They would stand by an apple tree and starve to death unless an apple falls naturally. They are living under a long term death sentence as they no longer have a survival instinct (I mean, they delivered a nuke to someone who seeks to get rid of them).

---

DARK FOREST THEORY

I'm going to bring up Dark Forest theory here... For anyone who has read the Three Body Problem books (the tv show hasn't tackled this part of the story yet so... more spoilers.)

Dark Forest theory is (very simplified and in a nutshell) the universe is not a friendly place and any truly mature and intelligent life form will try to wipe out any other life they encounter because one day you're going to be competing with them for the universe's resources. It's not evil, it's just common sense if you care about your survival.

Those books detail some of the ways that alien civilisations do this. Usually they find signals in space, indicating that a particular species has reached a level of sophistication. If they can trace those signals back then they do so and they destroy whatever sent the signal. Even if they can't trace the signal back immediately they know that eventually the target civilisation will give themselves away or reveal their location in another manner, and then someone else will carry out the task of destroying them.

But what if some alien civilisation has a different idea.... You just send a seemingly benign signal out into space. If another civilisation picks up the signal and follows the instructions then they doom their selves. They become so completely passive and unaggressive that they will no longer persue sustenance if doing so means committing any harm at all.

You're not actively seeking out other civilisations to destroy, you're just putting a signal out. If another civilisation is advanced enough to pick it up then the signal found its target and the process will result in that civilisation becoming passive to the point of utter helplessness.

That seems like a long term but guaranteed death sentence to me.

That's just the way I'm taking it. No idea if the show will ever delve more deeply into the reason for the signal. I'd love to know what you think about this.