Season 1, Episode 3
Written by Joss Whedon and Tim Minear
Directed by Joss Whedon
Original Airdate: 20 September 2002
"Are there aliens or monkeys in the engines? Flying
space monkeys?"
Malcolm Reynolds
REGULAR CAST
GUEST CAST
CO-STARRING
-
Valerie Red-Horse as Deputy
-
Kevin Will as Officer
-
Lina Patel as Ensign
-
David Reynolds as Henchman
-
Jeff Ricketts as Blue-Hand Man #1
-
Dennis Cockrum as Blue-Hand Man #2
-
Eric Lange as Fed
-
Tawny René Hamilton as Immigrant Woman #1
-
Michelle Ferrara as Immigrant Woman #2
SYNOPSIS
-
Captain Reynolds (along with Zoë and Jayne) gets
into a bar brawl over the celebration of Unification Day in a bar, but
is rescued by Wash with some exaggerations on the weaponry of Serenity.
Safe back on the ship, the crew find that he managed to pick up some
info on a possible job.
River awakens from nightmares about the experiments being done to her
when she was being held captive. Simon is still trying to determine what
was done to her.
Mal is searching for Kaylee and finds her in Inara's shuttle, having her
hair brushed. After Kaylee is ordered to clean up the disaster area in
the engine room, Mal warns Inara not to become involved with the man
they're meeting with about a job, as he is extremely dangerous.
Mal, Zoë, and Jayne meet up with this man, Adelai Niska, who is exactly
as Mal described. He wants them to lift two boxes from a train, and Mal
accepts the job, agreeing not to ask what's in the boxes. Niska warns
them not to attempt to double cross him or screw up the job in any way.
He means business.
Zoë and Mal are on the train, preparing to pull the job off. There is a
car full of Alliance soldiers, but they aren't protecting the cargo
Niska wants, so Mal and Zoë go ahead with the plan. Wash is flying
Serenity directly above the train and Jayne drops down on rope from
Serenity to the train and into the car with Zoë and Mal. As they
hook the rope to the cargo, an Alliance soldier enters and fires at them
as he is blinded by their smoke bomb. Jayne is shot in the leg, but
manages to get on top of the cargo and is lifted back to Serenity
with it. Mal and Zoë are stuck on the train, but have not been caught as
the thieves.
The train is stopped and all passengers are pulled off for questioning
by the local sheriff. Mal and Zoë are questioned, but come up with a
fairly weak cover story about being newlyweds looking for work in this
area, despite the disease everyone there catches, Bowden's Malady. They
also discover that the stolen cargo was medicine destined for the town
in order to treat the disease. Neither Mal nor Zoë seems very happy that
this is what they stole. The sheriff buys their story - for now. But
they're still stuck.
On Serenity, Jayne is attempting to assert his "authority", and
convince the others to ditch Mal and Zoë, and make the exchange with
Niska on their own, but Simon manages to dope Jayne and he passes out to
the relief of everyone on board. The crew devises a plan to rescue Mal
and Zoë, and Inara heads to the town in full Companion garb, and
reclaims Mal as her "indentured servant". Since she is a fully
registered Companion, the sheriff has no choice but to let Mal and Zoë
go with Inara.
Back on Serenity, Mal informs the crew that they're not going to
make the exchange with Niska. They'll give him his money back, but
return the medicine to the town. However, Niska's henchman, Crow,
manages to arrive just at that point and a huge fight ensues. Of course,
our heroes win, and Mal and Zoë return the cargo to the sheriff. Mal
tells Niska's man that they're returning all his money, so everything
should be squared away. However, Niska doesn't seem like the type to
forgive and forget, even if his money is returned.
River is still having visions and chants to herself "Two by two... hands
of blue." Onboard an Alliance ship, two men are speaking to an officer
about a theft. He informs them that the medicine was returned, but
that's not the theft they're referring to. They produce a photo of River
- and they have blue hands.
TRIVIA
-
Apparently, the logo for the show was originally
green.
-
We first hear the opening narration in this
episode. It's voiced by Ron Glass: "After the Earth was used up, we
found a new solar system and hundreds of new Earths were terraformed and
colonized. The central planets formed the Alliance and decided all the
planets had to join under their rule. There was some disagreement on
that point. After the War, many of the Independents who had fought and
lost drifted to the edges of the system, far from Alliance control. Out
here, people struggle to get by with the most basic technologies. A ship
would bring you work, a gun would help you keep it. A captain's goal was
simple: find a crew, find a job, keep flying."
-
Jeff Ricketts has appeared in all three Whedon
series: He played Weatherby in Buffy's
This Year's Girl and
Who Are You, and the same character
again in Angel's
Sanctuary.
He also played a demon in the Angel episode
Sacrifice.
-
Drew Goddard, a writer on Buffy, Angel
and Alias appears as a man on the train.
CONTINUITY
-
Kaylee
makes another reference to ‘that crappy compression coil,’ which will
cause great problems in
Out of Gas.
-
Mal
pulls out of his deal with Niska and returns the cargo that they stole.
Niska swears revenge, which will come in
War Stories.
-
Book
knows of Niska’s reputation, a reference to the fact that there is more
to Book than meets the eye.
-
The
Blue-Handed Men make their first appearance at the end of this episode,
and quite clearly want River returned to the Academy. They return in
Ariel.
-
Inara
mentions that she’s been leasing her shuttle for eight months, the
introduction of which we see in
Out of Gas.
-
River
removes the labels from cans at one point, to remove the Blue Sun logo.
In
Ariel,
she takes a knife to Jayne when he wears the logo on his shirt.
GOOFS
-
The lady in a burkha on the train is shown
carrying a baby in the background when everyone has to get off the
train. Watch her, a jeep passes by her quite slowly and she doesn't
notice and walks right into it, baby's head first!
-
On the sheriff's "police" patch, the Chinese
character is written backwards, noticeable in the interrogation scene.
Serenity
(Part 1) | Serenity (Part 2) |
The Train Job |
Bushwhacked |
Shindig
Safe |
Our Mrs. Reynolds |
Jaynestown |
Out of Gas |
Ariel |
War Stories
Trash |
The Message |
Heart of Gold |
Objects in Space
|