Denouements

This topic is inspired by a little discussion Bytemite and I were having, about how long a story goes on, after the climactic scene.

And the thought struck me, that a number of the Firefly episodes have some considerable length of post-climax denouement.

Consider, for example, the Serenity Pilot:

Climax (#1, because there's more than one isn't there? in this complex and extended episode): Gunfight with Patience and her gang.
Climax #2: Stand-off with Dobson in the cargo bay, culminating in Mal's arrival and the shooting of Dobson.
Climax #3: (cuz it's not over yet!) Reaver chase

Well, then we are over the multi-tiered climax, and yet there's still a considerable portion of the show yet to run, and a number of scenes. We have:

1) The bridge crew wraps up after the chase. Mal takes the helm, Wash and Zoe retire for clothes-tearing and work,work,work.
2) Book and Inara tableau
3) Simon and River and fraternal love
4) Jayne and Mal: the girl's a problem; and how come you didn't turn on me, Jayne?
5) Simon and Mal: how do I know you won't kill me in my sleep / had a good day / still flying

I haven't checked times to see just how many minutes this is, but still...this is 5 scenes, post climax.

The pattern continues in other episodes.

Train Job:

Climax: Fight with Crow and henchmen. Jayne shoots Crow in the leg, rescuing Mal. Then the denouement:

1) Mal ad Zoe return the medicine to Sheriff Bourne.
2) Crow threatens Mal. Mal kicks him through the engine. "Rodney" (I love that name!) assures Mal he gets it, and will return the money
3) Simon stitches up Mal's wound
4) Blue Hands make their appearance, looking for River

Train Job is the first regular length episode, so I'll just note that the climax is at the beginning of Act 4, and occupies the first and longest scene of that act. The denouement scenes occupy the rest of Act 4.


Our Mrs Reynolds:

Climax: Jayne (and Vera) shoot at the Net, and Serenity flies free. Then:

1) Kaylee and Wash announce a partial restoration of control of the ship's helm
2) Mal tracks Saffron to her rustically plush suite. They fight. And talk. And fight. And talk.
3) Mal and Inara ("I knew you let her kiss you")


Jaynestown:

Again, the climax is at the beginning of Act 4--or perhaps even the end of Act 3, with the stand-off between Jayne and Stitch. At the beginning of Act 4, Jayne kills Stitch, finds Meadows is already dead, and knocks over the statue. Then:

1) Mal, Kaylee, Simon, etc., arrive aboard, and Mal orders take-off.
2) Wash finds they're land-locked, then released.
3) Fess Higgins confronts his father.
4) Keep walking, Preacher-man.
5) Kaylee and Simon follow-up
6) Jayne and Mal ("It don't make no sense")

It's funny, because when I thought of this episode, I said, oh, here's one where it wraps up pretty quickly. All that action, and then, bang, they're off the planet and Mal and Jayne are having their little "don't make no sense" talk. Then I went and looked, and discovered how early the climax actually occurs. It just doesn't feel long.


Ariel:

Climax: Narrow escape from the Blue Hands (early-mid Act 4). Then:

1) Kaylee welcomes Inara back to the ship. Mal, Wash, and the others arrive in the med-evac shuttle.
2) Mal confronts Jayne in the airlock. (This is so tense, it's almost a second climax.)
3) Simon and River ("time to wake up")


Trash:

Climax: Mal and Saffron escape from Haymer’s estate with the Lassiter, followed by

1) Mal and Saffron heart-to-heart, then she gets him at barrel’s end
2) Wash, Zoe and Kaylee discover sabotage (2 scenes)
3) Mal is left naked in the desert
4) Inara and Saffron stand-off at the trash bin
5) Simon confronts Jayne in the infirmary
6) Mal and Inara, then crew: “Yep, that went well.”


Not all the episodes have a long denouement. Short denouements are found in:

Bushwhacked:
Climax (Mal saves Harken's life by killing the survivor-turned-Reaver) occurs near the end of Act 4, with only 1 denouement scene: Blowing up the derelict ship.

Safe:
Climax (The Big Damn Heroes arrive to rescue Simon and River from the stake), is followed by 2 brief denouement scenes: Mal and Simon ("you're on my crew") and a wordless scene of the crew sharing a meal.

The Message:
Climax (Stand-off with Womack, Tracey is shot, dies) followed only by Tracey’s funeral.


Middling-length denouements are found in some episodes:

Shindig:
Climax (Mal's duel with Atherton) is followed by:
1) Crew begins to enact rescue plan, but is derailed by the arrival of Mal and Inara.
2) Kaylee relives happy memories of her first ball.
3) Mal and Inara have a quiet moment in the cargo bay with engine wine and cows.


Out of Gas:

This one's just a little more complex, on account of the three different time-lines interweaving, but I'm going to call it a middling-length denouement.
Climax: Stand-off with Captain of the Walden and his thugs, Mal collapses // Mal reaches for the red button, collapses

The follow-up is not that many scenes, but the first is long
1) Mal awakens in infirmary to find everyone is back
2) Used spaceship salesman, Mal finds Serenity


War Stories:

Climax: The rescue of Mal from Niska. Then:

1) Simon has fixed Mal's ear; Book: "I'm fair sure you haven't shot anyone yet"
2) Wife soup, Mal and Zoe have to get it on, Jayne finds it "downright unsettlin'" and free soup


Heart of Gold:
Climax: Mal confronts Rance Burgess

1) Petaline takes revenge
2) Nandi’s funeral
3) Mal and Inara’s truthsome talk


Objects in Space:

The climax comes at the end of Act 3, with Early shooting Simon, but Act 4 is very short:

1) Follow-up to the shooting scene, Early is still menacing
2) Mal tosses Early off into Space and welcomes River back
3) Zoe stitches up Simon’s injury / Mal and Inara moment / Book and Jayne aftermath / Kayle and River play
4) Early “here I am”

Anyway, my conclusion to this rambling analysis is that
the denouement can be long, short, or of middling length;
Firefly episodes tended toward lengthier denouements;
some of the most important scenes are found after the climax of the story.

Share your thoughts on the subject of denouements.

Hmm, I forgot about some of those. Like in Serenity I kind of thought that the Jayne and Mal conversation and Simon and Mal conversation were all one scene, and that was the only denouement.

In the train job the scene with the hands of blue would more accurately be called an epilogue. There's usually one or two forms of epilogues, the first is a jump forward in time that shows the fate of the characters, and the second is an epilogue that introduces a tangentially related storyline to set up successive stories.

Apparently I've also been using the term falling action wrong. I always thought the climactic scene was the confrontation with the main villain, but I guess that's the falling action? The climax is when the story apparently starts to turn around, when the life of the hero starts to get better (as in a comedy, or when he makes a plan or uncovers an artifact that will help him against the villain), or starts to get a lot worse.

May have to reevaluate these scenes with that in mind, for example in Our Mrs. Reynolds, the falling action scene is everything from shooting out the net to confronting Saffron, and the denouement is the conversation between Mal and Inara.

Oh, I'm sure *I'm* the one using the term's wrong, Bytemite! Denouement, falling action, climax, whatever, I'm using those terms very loosely. (That what I get for never studying literature properly!) But my main point still stands.

And feel free to take issue with the places I've selected as "climaxes" -- whole point here is to stimulate some thought and discussion.

Nah, I just looked them up on wikipedia, and I thought the denouement was the same thing as the falling action but it's not. Luckily I still think my story works within the framework, so I think it's okay.

Your account of Shindig is probably correct.

Jaynestown I'd probably have falling action up to dealing with the land lock (resolved anti-climactically) and Fess confronting the magistrate. But then there are still three scenes of denouement.

Ariel, I'm not sure if Mal confronting Jayne counts as a confronting the villain of the episode, so I'm not sure.

Out of Gas probably correct.

War Stories: agreed. Those are the two scenes I remembered that I would have called denouement.

Trash, Saffron forcing Mal to strip and Inara confronting saffron are all probably falling action, Simon confronting Jayne may also count.

Heart of Gold: Agreed.

Objects in Space: scene in and outside infirmary is the denouement, Early floating is an epilogue.