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Season 1, Episode 13
Written by Joss Whedon and Tim Minear
Directed by Vern Gillum
Original Airdate: 28 July 2003
"What'd y'all order a dead guy for?"
Jayne
REGULAR CAST
GUEST CAST
CO-STARRING
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Al Pugliese as
Amnon
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Tod Nakamura as
Fendris
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Craig Vincent as
Skunk
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Morgan Rusler as
Barker
SYNOPSIS
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In a marketplace, Simon is out with Kaylee seeing
a sort of sideshow, when he says something wrong and makes a mess of
things with her again. The rest of the crew is at the post office when
Jayne gets a package from his mother including an orange hat. Mal and
Zoë get a package as well: the body of a war buddy. Flashback to seven
years ago when they were fighting together in the war against the
Alliance. Zoë had just saved the man, Tracey’s, life and as she is
explaining to him that stealth is an important key to combat, Mal comes
running in, screaming and shooting at the enemy. The three discuss what
move to make considering their situation, but before making any move,
Tracey is wounded.
Mailing a body is illegal, so the postal worker, Amnon, is nervous until
Mal and Zoë take the crate back to Serenity with the rest of the
crew following. The crate is placed in the cargo bay and opened as
everyone stands around it. There is a recording found on the body which
is played. It explains he made some bad decisions and asked that his
friends from the war take his body back to his family. Wash immediately
sets a course for Tracey’s home planet of St. Albans.
Alliance Lt. Wormack, with some back up, arrives at the post office that
Mal and company have just left. They intimidate Amnon, trying to find
out where the body that was shipped there is now. He gives in after a
little bit and tells them that Malcolm Reynolds has it. There is a
little more intimidating before the men go to find Mal and the body.
Back on Serenity, Kaylee is listening to the recording alone in
the engine room. Book is saying words over the body as Jayne finishes a
work out, replacing his orange hat and River decides to lie on the
coffin; Book comments that they all just deal with death in their own
way.
Mal and Zoë are telling funny old war stories to Inara over some drinks
at the dinning room table. Something interrupts, rocking the ship. They
go to the cockpit, joining Wash and Book in trying to see what’s going
on. A video message from Wormack comes across. He introduces himself as
being with the Alliance and explains that he is looking for stolen
goods. They think he is there after the Lassiter gun, which Mal just
helped Saffron steal, but Womack says he is looking for the crate. Mal
plays nice while stalling as everyone goes down to the body, taking
apart the crate and eventually, Mal allows Simon to perform an autopsy
on Tracey.
In the medical room, Simon prepares to begin when he notices that Tracey
has been opened up before. Then as he starts to make an incision, Tracey
sits up screaming and fighting back. Mal holds him down until he is
calm. Tracey explains that he had all his organs replaced with
genetically engineered organs and was the vessel to transport them for
some people; he wanted to make some money to give his parents a better
home. But he got a better deal, so he decided to ditch the original
buyer. But when he got to that new buyer, he was dead and there were men
there to catch him. But Tracey escaped and figured the best thing to do
to throw his pursuers off was to appear dead, taking some drug that was
supposed to simulate death for a week.
The ship rocks, still being pursued by Wormack. They all hang on to
something as Wash navigates some intricate terrain in an attempt to lose
their pursuers. Kaylee and Tracey are in her room talking, at Mal’s
command, in order to keep him out of trouble. Book is in the cockpit
with the others when he notices that their supposed Alliance pursuers
aren’t calling for back up from a nearby fed station. But these guys are
persistent, shooting at the ship in attempts to fry them. Book then
makes a suggestion to let them board. Tracey has left Kaylee’s room to
see what is going on and overhears this idea and doesn’t like it at all.
He pulls a gun out and aims mainly for Wash, who is still being told by
Mal to call Wormack. After some arguing and gun pointing, Wash goes to
make the call. Tracey shoots at him, but the bullet only grazes him, and
Tracey is shot in turn by Zoë. Tracey then starts to make a run for it,
grabbing Kaylee on his way as a hostage. But he doesn’t make it that far
in the ship, when he finds himself surrounded by Jayne, Mal and Zoë, all
armed and Tracey ends up shot again.
Wormack boards to find he is also surrounded by the armed crew above him
and a shot Tracey tells him that the goods are damaged. Book approaches
him, telling him that he won’t be getting anything off of Serenity.
He calls him on not getting back-up earlier and that his uniform stripes
aren’t right and finally that he won’t be missed by anyone if he gets
killed by the crew. So Wormack leaves Serenity, after making fun
of Jayne’s hat, and leaves the area.
Tracey, dying, apologizes to Kaylee and everyone; he just couldn’t get
his life straight after the war. They promise him that they will get his
body home and he dies. The crew delivers the body to St. Albans on a
snow evening. Zoë and Mal give his body to his family and Kaylee gives
them the recording. Snow begins to fall over the funeral as Jayne
removes his hat and Kaylee holds Simon’s hand.
TRIVIA
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This episode was originally unaired in the US, and
was aired first on the Sci-Fi Channel in the UK.
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Jonathan Woodward is one of five actors to appear
in every Whedon show so far. Woodward played Holden Webster in Buffy's
Conversations With Dead People, and
had a recurring role on Angel during it's final season.
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Joss Whedon is an uncredited extra in the funeral
scene.
CONTINUITY
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Mal
and the crew are still trying to find a buyer for the Lassiter, which
they appropriate with Saffron in
Trash.
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Book
knows the location of an Alliance base, as well as information on
Wormack. How he knows intricate details on this is unknown. And still
unexplained.
GOOFS
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A piece of straw that is on Jayne's hat
continuously appears and disappears.
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When the ship is backing up into the ice cave, the
engines are pointed in the wrong direction for it to actually go
backwards!
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In the scene where Tracey is waving a gun around,
and Mal says, "you mailed your ugly business to Zoë and me" - out the
window behind Mal, a hand reaches across and grabs hold of one of those
chunks of ice/snow.
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The Big Red Button established in
Out of Gas
is missing in one scene (Alan Tudyk mentions in the commentary that he
had stolen it from the set after he thought they were done shooting, but
had to go back the next day to shoot pickups and left the button at
home. He later sent the button to Joss with a note that said "when your
miracle gets here, pound this button and we'll all come back.")
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
|
