Burn the land and boil the sea

Well, kids. Have watched the entire "Firefly series." And rewatched it. And re-re-rewatched it. I'm in awe. Joss Whedon has, single-handedly, set the standard. You wanna write SF for TV that isn't shit? This is what it looks like.

That being said, I should keep my mouth shut.

But I can't.

I'm working on an SF novel dealing with similar themes. From a vastly different direction, with vastly different implications. This is not to be presumptuous. I'm not on Whedon's level. Yet. But our paths cross.

I.e. ...

My fictional universe deals with an evil corporation that hatches a conspiracy to destroy the earth's ecosystem and force humanity to flee to another star system just to benefit their bottom line. My twist is ... THEY SUCCEED. They have an evil plot ... and it WORKS. Nobody stops them. The bad guys win. I thought I was pretty freaking original here.

Then...

I noticed something.

If the five year arc had gone as planned for the Firefly TV series, Whedon had obviously planned to expose the Reaver cover-up sometime in the third season. In the fourth and fifth season ...

And, gorramit, he's played his cards pretty close to his chest.

But ...

Mal was going to discover and disclose the Blue Sun conspiracy to destroy the earth's ecosystem and force humanity into space. Earth-That-Was didn't die a natural death. She was murdered. The ultimate fucking crime.

It's right there in the theme song. Whedon hid it in plain sight:

Burn the land and boil the sea.

I should shut up about it until I see print. But I can't. Like that peasant whispering "Midas has asses ears" to the reeds, I gotta say it.

The Blue Sun Corporation killed Earth-That-Was.

That nasty revelation. That ugly scandal dwarfing the Reavers/Miranda scandal.

That was the final rabbit ...

Whedon planned to pull out of his hat.