Always in control

I caught a little of Serenity on TV yesterday right about the part where the government assassin said to Mal, "You can't make me angry."  It was one of those lines that you hear and you can't help but think, what does that mean?

I go through bouts of depression every few months or so, but I'm lucky in that it's mild enough for me to be able to deal with it without medication.  For me, dealing with it means recognizing it and thinking my way through it.  It's not really quite that simple and sometimes it doesn't work, but the point is that I think about it a lot.  One of the things I realized is that depression and anger are two sides of the same coin.  They're both emotional responses to when you feel like you're not in control.  You can respond to that with depression or with anger.

So when someone says, "You can't make me angry." they're telling you that they're always in control, and  nothing you can do will be able to change that enough to tick them off.  Of course, that just makes it all the funnier as Mal repeatedly out-manuvers him and catches him off guard until the assassin finally loses his cool.