Relationship Spotlight: Zoë & Wash (Firefly)

Wash and Zoë are a great example of my fondness for established supporting couples that stay largely in the background.  They get some focus, and some drama, here and there, but for the most part, they just carry on doing their thing and being awesome.

At the start of the series, Zoë and Wash are both the only existing couple on Serenity and a somewhat unexpected couple.  On the ship, they serve entirely different functions.  Zoë is Mal’s number two, an extremely competent former soldier who protects them stoic efficiency.  Wash, meanwhile, is a masterful pilot with a sardonic attitude and a mouth that’s often a step or two ahead of his thoughts.  Their respective positions often place them on opposite sides of the action – Zoë goes out on the crew’s sketchy jobs while Wash stays on the ship and waits to hear that she’s all right – and their respective temperaments make them a less-than-obvious pairing choice.

And yet, they fit together wonderfully.  Each looks after the other in their own way, no one brings Zoë into herself like Wash, and any shore leave they get usually starts with sexy fun times and ends with cheeky pillow talk.  They both give their work the attention it deserves (in the long run – Wash sometimes takes some doing to get there,) but their greatest priorities are definitely one another. 

One thing I really appreciate about them is that Zoë is the tough, fighting one and Wash isn’t, and he’s not the least bit concerned about that.  By which I mean, he does worry about her safety, and his biggest clashes with Mal come when he thinks Zoë is too often sent into dangerous situations.  However, there’s really not a sense that he gets in a snit over the fact that his wife is stronger than he is.  That’s a thread that works its way into a lot of pairings involving strong women, particularly those whose most apparent strength is physical and combat-related.  It somehow seems to become the woman’s fault that her partner feels emasculated.  Generally, it’s an unfortunate plotline at best; even if it’s addressed well, it’s a tired device, and it sometimes resolves depressingly with the woman trying to “hold back” to spare her partner’s feelings.  But with these two, we don’t get that.  Instead, it’s something that Wash loves about her.  He admires Zoë’s toughness, her calm in a crisis, and her superb fighting skills.  If anything, he finds it a turn-on.  Zoë loves Wash’s capability as well – her most overt come-in to him is just after a highly-impressive piece of expert flying.

I also like that there’s no real sense of a triangle between Wash, Zoë, and Mal.  There is one episode where Wash is openly bothered by Mal and Zoë’s connection, and he does make a comment about unresolved sexual tension while under serious duress, but when it comes down to it, it’s not about romantic jealousy, perceived or otherwise.  Rather, the conflict is born of several threads that don’t get trotted out as often.  Since Mal is the captain, Zoë’s devotion to him is essentially devotion to her job, and Wash worries that she puts their work above everything else.  Mal and Zoë are also old comrades from the war; as such, they’ve been through experience together that Wash can’t relate to, and he feels left out of their bond.  And, as I’ve said, Wash worries about Zoë’s well-being whenever she goes out on a job, and he fears that she follows Mal too willingly into danger.  All of that is more complex than any sort of triangle, and I love that, if the show needed to address Wash’s feelings about Zoë’s relationship with Mal, it took that less obvious route.