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Season 1, Episode 9
Written by Tim Minear
Directed by David Solomon
Original Airdate: 25 October 2002
Jayne "Hey, do you have any funny whorin'
stories?"
Inara "Oh, do I ever! Funny and sexy. You have no idea. And you never
will."
REGULAR CAST
GUEST CAST
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Stephen Flynn as Captain
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Ilia Volok as Marco
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Lyle Kanouse as Salesman
CO-STARRING
SYNOPSIS
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Serenity floats idly in space. The ship is
empty, no sign of life anywhere. Until Mal drops to the floor. He
doesn't look so healthy. Then somebody talks about buying the ship. Mal
flashes back to the first time he showed Zoë the ship. She's
unimpressed.
In the present, but hours earlier, the rest of the crew is laughing and
enjoying a great dinner: talking about good times and planning their
next trip. They plan to go under the radar and get far away from
everything. Then they hear a rumbling and the lights flicker.
Kaylee goes to check it out. Suddenly, a fireball races down the
hallway. Zoë pushes Kaylee aside and the explosion blasts her across the
room. The crew scrambles to fix the problem. The fire is contained and
blown out the cargo door. The group then rushes Zoë to the infirmary.
Kaylee informs Mal that the ship isn't moving. He needs her to figure
out what happened.
Mal orders Wash to the bridge, but he refuses to leave his wife's side.
Mal grabs him and tells him he's going to get the ship going, and that's
not a request.
Flashing back farther, Mal and Zoë interview pilots. Wash, sporting a
moustache, takes the job. Zoë says something about Wash bothers her, but
she's not sure what. Moving forward in time, Zoë's heart has stopped.
Simon jams her with some adrenaline.
Back in the present, Mal is alone in the infirmary bandaging up his
belly and shooting himself with some adrenaline. He's not in great shape
right now. Flashing back hours again, Kaylee tells Mal the catalyser on
the port compression coil blew. The ship is dead in the water and she
doesn't think she can fix it. What's worse, the main life support is
down because the engine is dead. There's no auxiliary life support
either. The crew only has a few hours of oxygen left.
Mal asks Wash if he's sent out a beacon yet. Wash doesn't think it'll
make a difference They're too far out of range. Mal and Wash have an
angry showdown about their options. Wash eventually realizes that Mal's
idea will muck up a passer-by's navigation system, and they'd be forced
to stop and dig out Serenity's signal before they could move on.
In the present, Mal is still staggering around the ship. Flashing back
further again, Mal interrupts his mechanic, Bester, and a young lady “in
the act.” Mal wonders why Bester hasn't fixed the engine. Bester
complains that the grav boot is shot, but the young lady says the right
couple is bad. She fixes it by removing the couple and plugging the
g-line straight into the port pinlock. The engine starts humming again.
The young lady turns out to be Kaylee, Serenity's new mechanic.
Moving to the recent past, Kaylee apologizes to Mal for not taking
better care of the ship. She says they need a new catalyst. Mal says
they have to make do. In the present, Mal stumbles around as the alarms
sound about the life support failure. He tries to work the catalyst back
into the engine when he drops it down a hole.
Hours earlier, and Mal has gathered the troops to give them a straight
overview of their problems. He says the crew will split up into two
shuttles and they'll launch them in opposite directions to see if they
can find help. Mal is staying with the ship.
After final preparations, the two shuttles depart, leaving Mal behind.
He bundles up in a blanket and falls asleep, missing another ship's
radio call about receiving Serenity's beacon.
Later, Mal wakes up and Serenity is nose to nose with the S.S.
Walden. The captain is quite skeptical about Mal's intentions, thinking
an ambush might be waiting for him. He finally agrees to come onboard
and deliver a catalyst.
The Walden crew comes aboard, guns drawn. They're going to check the
ship to make sure Mal isn't lying. Finding the ship empty, the Walden
captain shoots Mal in the gut and says they're taking Serenity.
Mal comes to his feet, gun drawn. He orders the Walden crew off his
ship, minus the catalyst they brought over. They leave and Mal drops to
the ground...
Mal fixes the engine and attempts to call back the shuttles, but passes
out. When he comes to, he's lying in the infirmary with the crew. He's
confused as to why everybody is back. Zoë ordered the shuttles back and
they found Mal in time. They also found a fixed ship.
One last flashback shows Mal with a ship dealer. The dealer is extolling
the virtues of one particular craft. But Mal looks across the lot and
sees Serenity. He's sold on it.
TRIVIA
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Nathan Fillion is now voicing the opening
narration. It's now as followed: "Here's how it is: Earth got used up,
so we terraformed a whole new galaxy of Earths, some rich and flush with
new technologies, some not so much. Central Planets, thems formed the
Alliance, waged war to bring everyone under their rule; a few idiots
tried to fight it, among them myself. I'm Malcolm Reynolds, captain of
Serenity. She's a transport ship, Firefly-class. Got a
good crew: fighters, pilot, mechanic. We even picked up a preacher for
some reason, and a bona fide companion. There's a doctor, too, took his
genius sister outta some Alliance camp, so they're keeping a low
profile. You understand. You got a job, we can do it. Don't much care
what it is."
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The
episode is Zoë-light due to the fact that Gina Torres got married and
went on her honeymoon during the filming of this episode.
CONTINUITY
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The
compression coil that blows has been referred to by Kaylee several times
in the series’ run, most notably in
Serenity
(Part 1)
and
The Train Job.
It blows in this episode.
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This
episode reveals how Wash, Kaylee, Jayne and Inara come aboard
Serenity.
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Again,
someone refers to Serenity as ‘go-se,’ a derogatory Chinese term.
This time it’s the commander of the ship that arrives to aid Mal, while
in
Shindig
it was Atherton Wing.
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River
knows the fire is coming before it happens.
GOOFS
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In the flashback scenes, Mal's coat sleeve is
torn/mended, even though this is long before he was shot by Patience's
man on Whitefall.
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During the first flashback, someone drags a cable
on the floor of the cargo bay away while Mal is showing Zoë the ship for
the first time.
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In the birthday cake scene, one of the candles is
lit and then unlit and then lit.
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Although costume designer Shawna Trpcic says that
Zoë's cord necklace is symbolic of her marriage to Wash, Zoë is wearing
the same necklace in the flashback scenes even before she meets Wash.
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
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