The Tams

SIMON & RIVER 

SHY/SIMPLE/RELATIVELY-PERFECT-MAN

Tam is a Hebrew word meaning shy or simple or relatively perfect man.

The Simon has (or had) a job; he was employed; he has nice, clean, neat hair, clipped accent, fine clothes and good manners - he was "respectable"

The River runs wild.

"I look out for me and mine. 

That don't include you 'less I conjure it does. 

Now you stuck a thorn in the Alliance's paw. That tickles me a bit. But it also means I got to step twice as fast to avoid them and that means turning down plenty of jobs. Even honest ones. 

Put this crew together with the promise of work, which the Alliance makes harder every year. 

Come a day there won’t be room for naughty men like us to slip about at all. 

This job goes South, there well may not be another. 

So here is us, on the raggedy edge. 

Don't push me, and I won't push you.

Esau, a “man of the field,” [ a savage ] became a hunter who had “rough” qualities that distinguished him from his twin brother. 

Among these distinguishing qualities were his red hair and noticeable hairiness.

Jacob was a shy or simple man, depending on the translation of the Hebrew word “Tam” (which also means “relatively perfect man”).

Throughout Genesis, Esau is frequently shown as being supplanted by his younger twin Jacob (Israel).

11And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man: 

12 My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing. 

13 And his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse, my son: only obey my voice, and go fetch me them.

14 And he went, and fetched, and brought them to his mother: and his mother made savoury meat, such as his father loved. 

15 And Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob her younger son: 

16 And she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck:

ZOE: 

You've never heard of Reavers?

SIMON: 

Campfire stories . . . Men gone savage at the edge of space, killing, and . . .

ZOE: 

They're not stories.

SIMON: 

What happens if they board us?

ZOE: 

If they take the ship, they'll rape us to death, eat our flesh and sew our skins into their clothing, and if we're very, very lucky, they'll do it in that order.