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Oh, Zoe. Firefly creator Joss Whedon is amazingly adept at creating strong, dynamic female characters, and of course one aspect of those characters is their love lives. Typically in Joss’ works, however, those love lives are a mess. You’re either having to skewer your vampire boyfriend to save the world, or you’re falling for that charming British gent just in time for your soul to be obliterating by a parasitical godling. But with Zoe and Wash, we finally got to see Joss’ vision of a healthy, stable, committed relationship. Zoe and Wash were perfect for each other, in all the unexpected ways the best relationships are. Like Farscape’s Aeryn and Crichton, Zoe and Wash flip the alpha-male marriage on its head: Wash wouldn’t have a chance against Zoe if it ever came to blows, but he’s sweet and always has her back and makes her laugh, a vital commodity when your life mostly involves living on the run from an oppressive government. Wash and Zoe make each other better. So, of course, they’re doomed.
It’s funny that one of the most defining moments of Zoe’s life — the death of Wash — comes near the de facto end of her story. With Firefly’s story collapsed into the salvaged finale that is Serenity, we don’t get to see much of how Zoe will deal with the loss of Wash — or at least, we hadn’t until recently. Thankfully Zoe’s story is continuing in the form of Serenity: Leaves on the Wind, the in-canon comic series that picks up where the movie left off. And unsurprisingly, Zoe is in a very dark place as it begins: pregnant with Wash’s child, still reeling from his death, and with the crew of Serenity arguably in worse shape than they were before they won a Pyrrhic victory over the Alliance during the movie’s climax. It’s a bad time to be Zoe.
