Season 1, Episode 15
Written by Joss Whedon
Directed by Joss Whedon
Original Airdate: 13 December 2002
Wash "Psychic, though? That sounds like
something out of science fiction."
Zoë "We live in a spaceship, dear."
REGULAR CAST
GUEST CAST
SYNOPSIS
-
Serenity glides through space near a moon.
Inside the ship, River awakes in her bunk. She leaves her room to find
Simon and Kaylee talking and flirting on the couch. Simon is telling a
story about getting drunk after graduating medical school, and how good
those days were. River thinks she sees Simon turn to her and say, "I
would be there right now." Shocked, she leaves. She next comes across
Jayne and Book. Jayne is marvelling at Book's abstinence. During the
conversation, River sees Jayne turn to her and say, "I got stupid. The
money was too good," followed by Book saying, "I don't give half a hump
if you're innocent or not." She leaves them and continues wandering.
In the cargo area, River steps on what she thinks is a tree branch. She
picks it up and suddenly sees hundreds of leaves on the ground. The crew
begins to swarm around her, telling her to "put it down." In reality,
she had picked up a gun off the floor. Mal eventually grabs the gun off
of her. River runs off and Mal tells Simon he needs to take extra care
with her.
Continuing through space, a bounty hunter's ship comes up behind
Serenity. Inside the ship, the hunter, Jubal Early, has "Wanted"
posters of River. In the cockpit of Serenity, Mal and Jayne
enter, arguing about Jayne leaving his gun out for River to find. Mal
wonders if it's time to bolt River in her room. Wash thinks that's a
little drastic, and Zoë agrees, saying River has probably never picked
up a gun before. Kaylee appears and disagrees.
Outside, Early leaves his ship and floats over to Serenity. In
the dining area, Kaylee tells the crew the story of their mission to
rescue Mal from Niska. Kaylee was pinned down, and River took Kaylee's
gun, closed her eyes and blasted three of Niska's henchmen. Below deck,
River is listening to their conversation through the floor. Atop the
ship's hull, Early listens in electronically as Mal asks the crew if
River belongs on the ship. They debate whether or not she has psychic
abilities.
The crew hunkers down for the night. Early opens a hatch and sneaks into
the ship. Mal spots Early. They fight and Mal is knocked down a hatch.
Early locks the doors to everybody's private quarters. He finds Kaylee
tinkering with the engines. He ties her up and tells her not to make any
trouble before asking her where River sleeps.
Book walks back from the bathroom when he hears some noise upstairs.
Early jumps down the stairs with a dropkick, knocking Book out cold.
Early moves through the ship, finding Simon next. He asks where River
is. She isn't in her bunk. Simon refuses to help Early, who says that's
fine. He can just shoot Simon now, then go upstairs and have his way
with the little mechanic he tied up in the engine room. Simon relents
and they go off in search of River.
Throughout the ship, there aren't any signs of River. Early begins to
lose patience and shouts out for her to come up before he spreads her
brother's brains around a bit. River's disembodied voice speaks out to
Early. It says he's wrong about her being on the ship. They didn't want
her there, so she melted away. The voice fills the entire ship, waking
up Mal from his unconscious state, and awaking Wash and Zoë in their
bed.
Early asks what she means. The voice says she's not on the ship. She's
in the ship. She is the ship. Simon calls out his sister's name, but the
voice says, "River's gone." Early asks whom they're talking to. The
voice says, "You're talking to Serenity. And Early, Serenity
is very unhappy."
Kaylee is still tied up in the engine room. The voice speaks to her and
reassures her. Early isn't going to hurt her. He's only visiting. Kaylee
apologizes for telling Early where she was, but the voice says it's
okay. Still in the cockpit with Simon, Early wonders where the voice
went. The voice laughs and asks if she can call Early "Jubal." He says
nobody calls him that, but the voice says his mother does. Or did. She's
dead now. The voice tells Early his intentions are dishonourable. He
hurts people. Early says he only hurts people when he has to, and he's
about to shoot Simon if she doesn't come out.
By this time, Mal is coming to. The voice says she needs him to do her a
favour. Over in the engine room, Kaylee is now untied. She sneaks out
the door and through the ship. Just outside the cockpit, she unlocks the
door. Inside Wash and Zoë's room, the voice describes Early to them, and
says they can't use any guns on him. Just sit and be good and he'll go
away. Below deck, the voice tells Mal to go now.
In the cockpit, the lights go down. The voice tells Early he's not
welcome here. He says he ain't leaving empty-handed. The voice tells
Early all about his past. He became a bounty hunter because he likes the
power. The pain. Early finally realizes: she's not in his mind, she's on
his ship! River is sitting in Early's pilot seat. She says she can see
everything from there and tells him to put his gun away. He does. He
tells River not to fiddle with any dials. River says he's not righteous.
He has issues. He nervously agrees with everything she says.
She says not to worry. She's going away with Early since she's too
dangerous and nobody trusts her on the ship. She'll become his bounty
and just fade away. Early begins walking back to his ship, but Simon
attacks him. They struggle briefly, but then Early shoots Simon.
Early walks down the stairs from the cockpit when Simon jumps him from
behind. Early knocks him off. He exits through a hatch on top of the
ship and watches his ship glide toward Serenity. Mal appears
behind him and shoves him off into space. He slowly floats away. River
floats down to Mal and the Serenity's crew is back together.
Simon talks Zoë through surgery to remove the bullet from his leg.
As the ship returns to normal, Kaylee and River happily play a game
together, and Early is left floating in space. Alone.
TRIVIA
-
This is the final episode of the show as it was
cancelled by the FOX Network.
-
Jubal
Early is the name of one of Nathan Fillion's ancestors, a renowned
southern general of the American Civil War. Nathan mentioned the name
and the general's story to Joss Whedon in the course of filming, and
Joss used the name for this character.
CONTINUITY
-
When
River is ‘reading’ the crew, she hears Jayne mention that the ‘money was
too good,’ referring to the events of
Ariel.
Jayne complains about not wanting River on the ship, and Mal menacingly
asks him, "Is that the direction you want this conversation to go in?",
alluding to Mal's nearly throwing him off the ship the end of that
episode.
-
Jubal
Early tells Simon that he’s been tracking them down since the Feds were
tipped off on Ariel, referring to the events of the same episode.
-
Jayne
also refers to time when River slashed his chest apart to get at the
Blue Sun logo, which strangely happened in…
Ariel.
-
Kaylee
tells the crew of River’s uncanny shooting ability which she
demonstrated in
War Stories.
-
When
River is ‘reading’ Book he comes across as very un-Shepherd like,
commenting that he doesn’t care if someone is innocent or not. It’s
unclear if he’s talking about River or Jayne, who he’s talking to at the
time. When Simon asks Early if his plan involved beating a Shepherd,
Early, who’s comments about the crew have been spot-on so far, comments
that Book ‘ain’t no Shepherd.’
-
The crew finally acknowledge that River has psychic abilities.
GOOFS
-
When River is still claiming to have merged with
Serenity, she is able to speak to several rooms individually. Is
this possible to do from Early's ship? And how could she tell that Mal
was rolling his eyes - was it a psychic awareness?
-
Jayne asks if River can read minds - two episodes
after calling her a 'mind-reading witch.'
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
|