I liked this one for many reasons. It works on its own in a self-contained way while also connecting to past and present episodes. It foreshadows a lot (though it's easily missed on first viewing, one example being how River actually slashed the Blue Sun on Jayne's shirt...in a previous episode she also ripped off the labels of cans with the Blue Sun logo). Blue Sun is apparently like the Umbrella Corp of the verse, involved in many secret government black ops (as a private contractor) as well as dominating many mundane markets, and they're apparently the ones who run the Academy.
I presume the "hands of blue" represents the Blue Sun somehow.
The one thing I don't get story-wise is why 2 men would go around killing even security detail and/or cops in such a horrid fashion that must raise a lot of questions. Even if the government can cover it up, the horrible shrieks have to draw attention. It's good to scare the audience, but I don't see how it's explained in-universe.
I will say that the "hands of blue" guys along with the Academy are the only things I can think of offhand that make the Alliance seem truly evil. They don't seem that bad otherwise, more benign than say the Empire of Star Wars, or the Romulans and Cardassians of Star Trek.
Heck, I imagine the UFP isn't that much better since it's strongly hinted more than once that there's a dark underbelly beneath the shiny, happy exterior (similar to the Alliance), though the law abiding--and thoroughly indoctrinated--don't see the
Section 31 (who, like the Operative, don't officially exist) and other hidden underbelly, just as the law abiding like Inara almost never do with the Alliance. Or like how Sisko shocked me on DS9 when he said it was time to become the villain and did so by making a planet uninhabitable, forcing the Maquis to evacuate (which I don't think even the Alliance ever did) and threatening to repeat that action against all Maquis (rebels) worlds. And Sisko was one of the more conscientious officers of Star Fleet when fighting the Maquis.
Star Fleet, just like the Alliance, had a dark side, well hidden but terrible, and I'd say most people of the United Federation of Planets are about as brainwashed to trust Star Fleet just as people under the Alliance are brainwashed to trust their own government, and that if Star Trek wanted they could adapt their own "Firefly" show that show the Federation as ominous with shades of evil (despite all the shiny, happy people in it) as well. Just because Star Fleet uses a strange economics (which simply can't be as simple as Picard makes it out to be, particularly in that too much wouldn't make sense if it did), and given how even officers have limits on what they can generate out of nothing, it sounds to me like Star Fleet is careful to maintain control of its citizens by control of resources that don't really need to be controlled, and given how even civilians dress I dare say they're probably a police state comparable to the Alliance (though more benign, generally speaking).
And mentioning the Maquis...why would people go off to join colonies unless they found the Federation too restrictive? Just as people go to the rim to minimize Alliance control, so to did people in the Federation go to colony worlds to get away, which helps explain why the Maquis was so rebellious to Star Fleet (not just because of what the Cardassians were doing). Heck, Star Fleet and the Alliance probably both pushed their more rebellious elements away from the core worlds so as to maintain better control where the power was at (and where they'd recruit their enforcers). And even colony worlds in Star Trek could be vicious, given that Tasha talked about having to flee rape gangs on some colony world, which sounds as bad (maybe even worse) as many of the rim planets of the Alliance run by vicious thugs and narcissistic bullies. While comparing the Browncoats to the Maquis sounds like comparing apples to oranges, I can see similar social forces that shaped both of them.
I'm not saying the Federation is evil, mind you, but I am saying that the Alliance doesn't strike me as that evil even though there are corrupt individuals and heinous black ops within the system (well hidden in both verses), and that the Federation of Star Trek strikes me as comparable. The Alliance has great technology and reach, and maintain a lot of control over their worlds, but that in itself doesn't make them evil, though it does make it dangerous to be a criminal or a rebel. The law abiding in our world would tend to want law breakers, no matter how idealistic or freedom loving the criminals may be, to be punished, and themselves would not be likely to feel the iron fist of the authorities as criminals do. It makes sense to me that Mal has learned to fear and hate the Alliance, but that doesn't make the Alliance in general evil anymore than it makes barons and colonists far from Alliance or Federation control good.
Of course their governments, like ours in the real world, make an effort to hide their more shady and outright vile actions from public scrutiny, and the kids in the public school systems would be raised with a sugarcoated version of the history of their government just as we are in our world.
Other than that, the only thing I feel like saying right now is that I like how they make Simon so brilliant and clever in many ways, but also so gullible and naive at the same time. I think they get his character so right, and he's another example of someone who never even seemed to suspect a dark side of the Alliance until the Academy got his sister, and even as a clever criminal mastermind who has learned a thing or two from being on Serenity, he's still not very streetwise and easily tricked. He's terrible at lying, though I can see how he bluffed being a doctor assigned to that hospital (as he never really lied, he merely played his role and let others make their assumptions). I also liked how he tossed the Alliance rifle to Jayne, realizing Jayne would be the most proficient with it while not realizing that Jayne had betrayed him (as Simon is so honest, he wrongly assumes others are as well).
All the characters are played well. Even Jayne, who was a bit more complex despite his very simple reasoning and motivations. I can see why Mal spares him at the end. His request for Mal to "make something up, don't tell them what I did" showed genuine shame...and that's the kind of subtle thing Mal is good at picking up on and what...barely...got Mal to spare his life. (Of course Mal, given his history, would have a seething hatred for any who sold out his side or his people to the gorram Feds. I'm sure the Browncoats did much worse to traitors they caught in their midst, and probably worse than what the Alliance did to the traitors of their own ranks.)
