Firefly Episodes Season One

After a flashback to Zoe's and Mal's days in the wars six years previous, we cut to the modern day where the Serenity crew is running a salvage operation on a deserted ship and are forced to flee witht he cargo when the Alliance show up. Their buddy Badger refuses to buy the cargo so they head off to the rim worlds after picking up three passengers: Book, Simon, and Dobson. En route someone sends a signal to the Alliance and it turns out to be Dobson, an undercover Federal agent, who arrests Simon but is glad to take the whole crew in. He shoots Kaylee before being captured, and Simon forces Mal to flee in return for his doctoring services. When Mal investigates Simon's cargo he finds a naked woman...

The naked woman is Simon's sister River, a government test subject he helped to escape. After ducking a dreaded reaver ship, Mal tries and cuts a deal with Patience, an old "friend" but suspects a trap. Patience tries an ambush but the team escapes just as the Reavers return and the Federal agent breaks loose. Mal shoots the agent dead and Wash manages to duck the Reavers. at the end Mal decides to take on all three of his remaining passengers full-time.

We join the crew of Serenity in a dark, musky bar. There, Captain Mal Reynolds sits with Zoe and Jayne trying to stay out of trouble, but as always, he’s having a hard time avoiding it. Mal and Zoe are playing a game that resembles Go, and Mal is losing.

A local in the bar begins making grandiose comments about Unification Day and the dawn of a new galaxy. Mal approaches the bar and talks to the man who asks him to drink to the Alliance with him. Mal is perturbed when the man accuses him of being an Independent.

Mal confronts the man and gets into a bar brawl that ends with the crew trapped against a cliff wall. Mal calls his pilot, Wash, to come and get them. As they are about to be taken out, Wash makes a last-minute rescue and flies them into space.

Back on the ship, Simon continues to nurse his sister River back to health. She continues to have nightmares, and her past remains mysterious. Mal confronts Simon and River, and River remarks that Mal means “bad” in Latin.

Also on the ship, Shepherd Book begins to delve into the lives of the passengers. Mal tells him that he’s welcome on the ship, but God is not.

Over in Inara’s shuttle, Kaylee is being pampered by Inara, the Companion. Mal walks in on them and tells Kaylee to get to the engine room and repair it. Kaylee leaves and Mal confides in Inara about an upcoming job. He tells her that they’re meeting a man named Niska, and that she should stay on the ship because it may not be safe for her.

They meet up with Niska and are escorted in by Crow, the resident henchman of Niska’s gang. Niska tells them that their job is to rob a train containing some precious cargo. Niska warns Mal that his reputation of being “hard” is not unwarranted, but if they do the job right, they’ll have no problems.

He tells them they’ll be taking Alliance goods from a train heading toward Paradiso (a planet in the Georgia System) and delivering them to Crow. They’ll receive half the money up front and half when they complete the job.

On the train, Mal and Zoe pose as husband and wife as they locate the material. They reach the cargo room and prepare the goods. Flying overhead, Wash steadies the ship for contact while Jayne readies himself to be lowered down.

On the ship, Shepherd and Inara discuss the Captain. Kaylee lowers Jayne down onto the train and they hook up the cargo. Just as things seem to be going as planned, an Alliance officer walks in on them, shoots Jayne in the leg and forces Mal and Zoe to be left behind.

The train arrives in Paradiso and everyone is questioned when the cargo is discovered missing. It turns out that the cargo was containing medicine for the city’s residents who are suffering from a degenerative malady inflicted on the miners in the town due to bad working conditions.

A local sheriff from Paradiso interrogates Mal and Zoe. Mal tells the sheriff that his uncle bought him a ticket to help set him up in a job. The sheriff seems suspect of Mal’s story, but Mal sticks to his guns.

Serenity lands in a canyon, and while Simon addresses Jayne’s wound, Jayne begins ranting about getting the goods to Crow before Niska orders them killed. The debate continues, but Wash refuses to fly without the Captain. Simon drugs Jayne, who passes out just as he’s barking orders to leave.

The crew devises a plan to send Inara in and concoct a story that Mal is Inara’s indentured man who ran off with her money. Her story passes, and the sheriff lets them go.

On the ship, Mal tells the crew that they aren’t taking the cargo to Niska, since the people of Paradiso need it much more. Just then, Crow and his men arrive on Serenity. A fight breaks out on the ship, and Mal’s crew disables Crow and his men.

Mal and his crew begin to haul the cargo back to town and are met by the sheriff. The sheriff remarks on Mal’s admirable character, lets them go, and has the locals take the cargo into town.

A restrained Crow tells them that he’ll hunt them down until he dies. Mal kills him, and goes to the next henchman in charge. That henchman quickly agrees to return to Niska with the money.

Simon begins tending to Mal’s wounds and they discuss River. Simon tells Mal that she’s perfectly normal one minute and completely incoherent the next. We then see River in her room, cryptically muttering “two by two, hands of blue” to herself.

Up in space on an Alliance ship, a couple of Alliance investigators tell the ship captain that they are looking for River. They are wearing blue gloves.

The crew of Serenity is playing a basketball-type game in the main cargo area. Everyone comes to watch as they let off steam from their long days in space.

Inara joins Simon on the catwalk and asks him about River. He says that she still won’t talk about what happened to her at the academy. Suddenly a siren goes off and Wash has to attend to the emergency. The game is one man short, and Kaylee asks Simon to join them.

When Wash reaches the cockpit he sees an abandoned ship in front of them as a dead body crashes into Serenity. The rest of the crew comes up to the cockpit and they can’t seem to identify if anyone is still alive.

They analyze the ship and notice that it’s a transport ship for settlers. Shepherd tells Mal that what distinguishes humans from other life forms is how they treat their dead. Mal decides to hook up with the ship and look for survivors, as well as any cargo he may be able to take for himself.

Mal and Zoe put on their space suits and head over to the ship to check it out. They quickly realize that whatever killed the passengers of this ship did it quickly, because there is still food sitting out.

Zoe happens upon a personal log that was stopped mid-entry. At the same time, back on Serenity, River seems to be convulsing with each new find on the transport ship.

Jayne tells Simon that they need him over on the transport. Meanwhile, Inara goes to check in on River but she’s suddenly missing.

Back on the transport, Kaylee and Simon venture off together and Simon wonders why anyone would abandon the ship. Kaylee remarks that there’s nothing wrong with it mechanically, leaving them searching for clues.

Zoe and Mal keep searching, while Jayne goes off on his own to scour for goods. Mal comes across farm supplies, which confirms their initial suspicion that the ship was transporting settlers. They look up and finally find all the people, hanging upside down from the ceiling.

Mal says he knows what did it, and tells everyone to get off the ship. Suddenly, Jayne is attacked and random shots are heard firing. The rest of the crew meets up and finds Jayne. He says he was attacked by something big and strong. They finally find the thing that attacked him, and it’s just a small man. Mal finds him and knocks him out with one punch.

They bring the man back onto Serenity and Simon begins analyzing him. Jayne guesses that the man killed all the other passengers, but none of the other crew believes it. Mal tells Simon to dope the man, somehow seeing something no one else does.

Mal talks to the crew and tells them that the ship was hit by Reavers. The crew becomes frantic and doesn’t realize what Mal is getting at. Mal tells them the man saw Reavers and that he’s never coming back to normal.

Mal tells the Shepherd he can go say a prayer for the dead while they pick up the rest of the cargo from the transport ship. The other obstacle is that the Reavers have rigged the ship so that when Serenity detaches, it will blow up. Kaylee tells Mal she can bypass it, and gets to work.

Meanwhile, Inara watches over River, who begins convulsing again as the rest of the crew hauls the cargo onto Serenity. Kaylee is able to get Serenity free from the transport, but just as they detach, they are met by an Alliance Cruiser.

On board the Alliance Ship, they begin suspecting that Serenity may be holding River and Simon. Simon begins to worry, not realizing what Mal has in store for him. The Alliance men attach and board the ship.

The Alliance men begin searching the ship and interrogating the crew. Mostly looking for Simon and River, the Alliance Captain brings the whole crew on board the Alliance Ship. The Alliance Captain gets nowhere, however, as the Serenity crew leads them astray with varying tales and personal anecdotes.

The Alliance men continue to search but come up with nothing as we see where Simon and River have been stashed – outside the ship, wearing space suits.

Meanwhile, the man that Mal took from the transport ship is brought into the Alliance Infirmary. The Alliance Captain accuses Mal of killing the people on the Transport and torturing the man, but while he’s being interrogated, the man in the infirmary goes on a killing spree, wiping out the medical team that was examining him.

The Alliance Captain finally gets wind of the killing and forces Mal to walk in front of his Alliance crew in an attempt to find the killer. Mal brings the Alliance men back onto Serenity where the man attacks the convoy, nearly killing the Alliance Captain. Mal jumps the man, breaking his neck and saving the Alliance crew.

After saving his life, the Alliance Captain decides to let Mal and his crew go free, but not before confiscating all of the stolen goods from the transport ship.

We start in a bar with Mal and Jayne playing pool with some ruffians. A fight breaks out, and Mal and Jayne clean house. Inara is quite amused watching the proceedings.

Back on Serenity, the crew prepares to land on Persephone. Zoe says the planet is starting to feel like a second home. Mal says it's no home here. There are too many people they need to avoid. They're going to re-supply, look for work and head on home.

Pre-landing, Inara reviews her video messages, all from people hoping to enjoy her company during this visit. She takes a call from a man called Atherton. It seems that he's engaged her services for a few days in order to attend a ball.

Kaylee, Jayne, Wash, Zoe and Mal take in the sights of the city. Mal seems to become a little sensitive whenever Inara's name comes up. The groups has enough of Mal's attitude, and leaves Mal and Jayne behind. As soon as they leave, a man points a gun in Mal's direction. Another man, Badger, says it's time he and Mal have a conversation.

Badger has an offer for Mal. It seems that a local gent, Warrick Harrow, has some property he wants to sell off-planet. However, local powers won't let that happen. Harrow needs a smuggler and Badger is willing to cut Mal in on it. Why? Mainly because Harrow despises Badger and won't deal with him.

At an elegant ball, Atherton Wing is introduced with Inara Serra. It's all very proper and high class. Fawning over Inara, Atherton asks her to live on Persephone as his personal companion. At that moment, Miss Kaywinnit Lee Frye and escort are introduced to the ball attendees. Mal and Kaylee. Mal immediately begins looking for Inara. Kaylee tries to fit in with the debutantes, without much success.

Mal introduces himself to Mr. Warrick Harrow. Pardon, Sir Warrick Harrow. Atherton comes over and introduces himself to Warrick during his conversation with Mal. The tension broils between Mal, Atherton and Inara. Mal asks Atherton for a dance with his date. During the dance, Mal and Inara tension reaches an all-time high. Atherton glares on, searching for a sign of something amiss.

Across the hall, Kaylee has found a group she fits in with. The men. They all talk about spaceships and engines and such.

Atherton cuts into Mal and Inara's dance, saying Inara is his because money has changed hands. Mal socks Atherton in the face. Atherton says he accepts Mal's challenge to a duel. It will take place tomorrow morning. With a sword. Not Mal's weapon of choice.

Back on the ship, Badger spreads the word of Mal's troubles. And he brought his gang along to make sure they don't leave the ship to rescue Mal. Badger wouldn't want word of his shady dealing spreading around the planet.

Inara offers Mal a backdoor escape from his overnight lodging. He refuses because he wants to fight. On the ship, the crew tries to plan a diversion to overpower their guards. Back in Mal's room, Inara tries to teach him swordsmanship.

The morning comes and so does the duel. Atherton radiates confidence. Mal cuts Atherton's shirt, but Atherton lands the first piercing, to Mal's right side. Atherton forces Mal to the ground, and stomps his foot down on Mal's sword, snapping it at the hilt.

Atherton slowly moves in for the kill. Inara begs Atherton to spare Mal, saying she'll stay here with him if he does. When Atherton looks over to her, Mal jumps to his feet and punches him in the face. Mal picks up his broken sword blade, tosses it into Atherton's chest and lands another punch, dropping Atherton to the ground. Now Mal looms over for the kill. However, he decides to spare Atherton's life. After a few small stabbings, of course.

Impressed with Mal's courage, Warrick agrees to let him smuggle his cargo. On Serenity, the crew is still planning their diversion when Mal returns. Warrick's smuggled booty turns out to be cattle.

We open on the Tam estate of the past, and are introduced to Simon and River as children. River demonstrates her amazing mental abilities, and Simon’s father promises Simon a gift in exchange for him growing up to be a successful doctor.

In the present, Serenity touches down on Jiangyin. Judging from the locals, it seems to be fairly primitive. And they're not happy to see a "fancy vessel" like Serenity coming in. The locals figure the ship is only looking to sell something.

After landing, the crew unloads the cattle cargo from their most recent job. River talks to the cattle as they mill about their new pen. She says they remember where they are now that they see sky. Mal orders Simon to take River for a walk so he can wrap up his cattle-smuggling business. Simon is reluctant since the Alliance considers he and his sister fugitives, but Mal says go. He says the Magellan is a thousand miles away, so they shouldn't worry about the Alliance.

In town, Inara and Kaylee go supply shopping. Simon and River walk in. Simon isn't enjoying looking after River. He also doesn't enjoy being on a junky ship schlepping across the galaxy, which Kaylee takes offense to. River wanders off during their conversation and Simon can't find her.

At Serenity, the men show up for their cattle. Heavy negotiation ensues, but a price is finally met and a deal is struck. Unfortunately, as the men are paying, the law shows up looking to arrest Marcus and Nathaniel Grange, the would-be cattle buyers. They're wanted for a murder.

Simon finds River as she wanders into a dance and music performance. River joins right in as Simon nervously looks on. Back at Serenity, a shootout ensues. One Grange boy is shot down and the other is tackled from behind by Mal. In the aftermath, Mal sees that Shepherd Book has been shot in the chest.

Over at the dance, three men - local boys - throw a sack over Simon's head and drag him away. The men walk Simon through the forest. We flash back to Simon’s past, and see him arguing with his parents over hidden meanings in River’s letters to him from the Academy. He suspects that something is wrong, but his parents attempt to convince him otherwise. In the present, River comes across Simon and the kidnappers and figures they're playing a game.

On Serenity, Wash returns from town. He says there's no sign of Simon and River in town. Wash thinks they were kidnapped because of some warning signs he saw in town. It seems to be a problem on this planet. Mal gets ready to lift off in order to rush Shepherd to medical help. He's not worried about leaving River and Simon behind.

Speaking of which, they see Serenity lift off as they're walked through the woods by their captors. On board, Mal and Wash check galactic charts for the nearest medical help. Inara comes on the bridge and suggests “certain nearby facilities.” Mal doesn't want to discuss that as an idea.

On Jiangyin, the kidnappers march Simon into town and show him off as a doctor. The filthy masses straggle out to see him. The captors take Simon to a sickhouse. They want him to help heal their residents. Simon realizes the situation and begins to aid people.

In space, Serenity glides next to the Alliance cruiser Magellan and requests permission for docking.

Mal and Jayne carry Shepherd onto the Magellan. Armed guards are there to meet them. The ship's security chief seems reluctant until Shepherd begins mumbling about an ID card. His card is fetched from his pocket and scanned. The security chief orders Shepherd taken into the emergency room immediately.

In the sickhouse, River bonds with a girl named Ruby. The nurse doesn't think River will get much out of Ruby because she's a mute - at least for the past few years. Later, River says Ruby explained what happened to her, but not through speaking. The nurse thinks River is a witch and must be killed.

The nurse rings the old town bell, rallying the citizenry. The town patron slaps River after she explains that the old patron was sick and died. The patron thinks she's a witch because she can read minds. The townsfolk tie her to a pole for a good, old-fashioned witch burning.

On the Magellan, Shepherd comes to. Mal wonders why the Alliance allowed a wanted ship to dock, then took care of Shepherd. Shepherd doesn't offer any answers, but says it's good to be home.

Simon tries to save River from the mob. He attacks their ignorance and says this is not God's will. He hugs River and tells the people to light the post if this is what they want. At that moment, Serenity hovers over the people. The cargo door opens, and there's Jayne, gun trained on the townspeople.

Mal and Zoe walk toward the crowd, guns also drawn. They take back River and Simon without much fuss from the patron or anybody else.

Back on Serenity, Mal says he came back for Simon simply because he's on his crew. That's all that matters. The crew shares a nice dinner and all is well on Serenity once again.

We join the crew of Serenity riding a horse and buggy through a stream. Mal is disguised as a settler woman and Jayne as his husband. Suddenly a group of bandits storms them. Mal and Jayne surprise the bandits and pull out their guns, while Zoe appears from the back of the buggy to get in on the action.

Later that night, the crew is in a local village celebrating the victory from their latest job. Inara remarks to Mal that he should celebrate because they were finally hired to be heroes, and not criminals.

Mal and Jayne both get drunk at the ceremony, dancing, enjoying the people. A young woman places a headdress on Mal and gives him something to drink. He then dances with her around a large bonfire into the night.

The next day, back on Serenity, the crew is prepping to leave as the villagers pay them with what little they have. Up in space, Mal is putting things away when he happens on a stowaway. It’s the same woman he danced with the previous evening.

She tells Mal that she’s bequeathed to him. The dance and headdress from last night were in fact part of a marriage ceremony, rendering Mal her husband. Mal is in a state of shock as the rest of the crew enters the cargo bay to find out what the news is.

Zoe hams it up, introducing the woman to everyone as Mrs. Reynolds. The woman begins crying when Mal tells everyone she’s not his wife. Mal tells Wash to turn back, but unfortunately they can’t because right after they left, an Alliance ship touched down on the village.

Wash tells them they have to continue on. The woman runs off when Mal asks Shepherd what it’ll take to get a divorce. Mal finds her crying in the engine room and tells her that they have five days left on the ship until they reach their destination, so it’s best to remain friends and make herself comfortable.

The woman tells Mal she’d be a very good wife, but he tells her that he wouldn’t be a good husband. She then runs off and cooks Mal a meal. She tells him her name is Saffron. Shepherd then approaches Mal and tells him that if he takes sexual advantage of Saffron, he’ll go to a special part of hell, reserved for child molesters and people that talk at the theatre.

Meanwhile, the rest of the crew continues to tease Mal about his new “wife.”

Over in Inara’s shuttle, Mal tries to hide from Saffron. Inara tells Mal that she finds his whole “marriage” degrading. He begins to play around and tease her, when Inara snaps and kicks him out of the shuttle.

Jayne confronts the Captain telling Mal that he doesn’t feel appreciated. He offers to trade his favorite gun for Saffron. Mal yells at him, telling Jayne that she’s not to be bought or sold.

Saffron overhears his conversation with Jayne and tells Mal that she’d rather work on a ranch than be wed to Jayne. Mal tells her that it’s good work and reveals that his mother owned a cattle ranch on Shadow, where he was brought up.
Mal catches himself talking about his past, but notices that he seems to have ease telling Saffron about it.

As Serenity flies through space, it passes by a small moon, where some men in a chop shop are analyzing Serenity, preparing to steal it.

Zoe and Wash discuss Saffron, and Zoe can’t believe how Saffron flaunts herself over the captain. Wash defends her, saying she’s just following customs and traditions. Zoe blows up at him for no real reason, but she feels that Saffron is trouble.

Over in Mal’s room, he finds a naked Saffron, waiting for him in bed. She ends up seducing him. When he kisses her, Mal comments that he’s going to hell, but then he suddenly passes out, poisoned by her kiss.

Saffron then enters the cockpit, where Wash is sulking by himself. Saffron closes the doors and tries to seduce him too. When it doesn’t work, she kicks him in the head instead, knocking him out.

Saffron takes over the cockpit and rewires the ship, as well as sealing the cockpit doors. She then runs off, looking for a shuttle to get off Serenity when she runs into Inara. She seduces Inara until an alarm suddenly sounds, tipping Inara to Saffron’s game.

Saffron takes off in one of the ship’s shuttles before anyone knows what’s happening. Inara goes searching for Mal and finds him on the floor. She thinks he’s dead, but when she finds him breathing, she kisses him with relief and is also poisoned from Saffron’s kiss.

Mal wakes up with the crew around him. Inara tries to tell everyone she fell, not letting them in on the kiss. The crew finally gets the cockpit open and realizes that Saffron wired the ship so the crew can’t turn Serenity around. Both Wash and Kaylee marvel at how Saffron wired the ship. Inara then adds that Saffron was trained in her art of Companionship as well.

The men from the chop shop wait for Serenity to come in. They both comment on how good Saffron is.

Wash and Kaylee get the ship back online. They quickly realize that they’re running towards an electromagnetic field that would kill them all on the inside while maintaining the ship for the chop-shoppers.

Mal tells Kaylee to keep on the ship while he comes up with a plan B. He and Jayne get in their space suits, and Jayne fires at the chop shop with his gun (encased in its own space suit to provide it with oxygen to fire) that he offered to trade with Mal.

The shot hits the magnetic field and blows up the chop shop. They regain control of the ship and go off to find Saffron. When Mal storms into Saffron’s room on a nearby planet, he finds out that she was working for the elders of the town that they saved earlier.

He asks Saffron what her real name is, she stares at him blankly and he knocks her out cold.

Back on the ship, Mal confronts Inara about the real reason for her loss of consciousness. Thinking that he knows the truth, Inara is excited, only to learn that Mal smugly thinks that she kissed Saffron.

Opening in the bowels of Serenity, we see Simon trying to convince Kaylee that he is capable of swearing. She seems to be a little skeptical. The conversation is broken up by news of Jayne tearing through Simon's infirmary. Sure enough, the big man has turned the place upside down in search of tape. Simon is more than a little distressed by the mess.

Jayne needed the tape to fasten a gun to his belly. He thinks he might encounter a little trouble on this particular package pickup, since he had some trouble in this area a few years back. Mal says no guns.

The Serenity breaks through the atmosphere of Higgins' moon and touches down on the dusty planet. A dusty planet with a bit of a funky smell. That smell comes from the ubiquitous mud pits, which are the backbone of the local clay and ceramics economy.

Jayne drapes himself in a hood and goggles to disguise himself, and Kaylee convinces Mal that Simon should come along on the journey. Mal agrees, figuring Simon's rich guy looks will help their ruse of being buyers, not intergalactic smugglers. Simon doesn't like the idea of going off of the ship, but he goes after some prodding.

Walking through the mud pits, the group wonders if Jayne's disguise is really necessary. He hasn't been here in a few years, after all. We find out that the disguise is necessary, as a giant mud statue of Jayne has been erected in the center of town. Jayne starts to get nervous that he'll be recognized because, as he admits, he stole some money from the Magistrate up on the hill, and he's not the forgiving type.

Speaking of the Magistrate, Higgins is his name, he's meeting with Inara as the group is in the mud pits. Seems that Higgins has a problem he wants Inara to fix.

Retiring to the bar to wait for their package to be set up, the crew tries to figure out why a statue of Jayne would be anywhere, much less a mud planet. A man comes in and informs Mal that his cargo is all ready to go, they just need to sneak it past security and the mud pit foreman.

A song breaks out in the bar about "a man they call Jayne." It seems that our guy has become a Robin Hood-type folk hero because he robs from the rich and gives to the poor. As Jayne confesses, he was trying to fly away with the stolen money, got hit by some anti-aircraft fire and had to dump the strongboxes to stay aloft. Those boxes full of money dropped down on the mud pits, where they were collected by the Mudders, who saw it as a great and noble gift.

A crowd forms around the bar to celebrate their mythic hero, Jayne. He doesn't turn away the adulation. Word spreads of a Jayne Day being held in the town square tomorrow. Mal thinks that will be the perfect diversion to sneak out the cargo.

Meanwhile, back at the Higgins homestead, the Magistrate asks Inara to make a man out of his 26-year old virgin son. He's a little shy, understandably.

While Inara and Higgins’ son get to know each other, the Foreman tells Higgins that Jayne Cobb has come back to town. Wanting revenge for the theft, Higgins frees a man named Stitch. Stitch used to be Jayne's partner in crime. Higgins hands Stitch a shotgun and advises him to get Jayne for taking four years of his life and one of his eyes. Stitch is glad to oblige.

Inside, Higgins’ son and Inara discuss a hero named Jayne. The son says his father heard that Jayne was returning, tracked him here and put a landlock on his ship. Doesn't look like he'll be going anywhere.

Jayne Day rolls around and the crowd wants a speech from their man. The nice thoughts are broken up by Stitch who tells the crowd the truth. Jayne and Stitch stole the money. After the plane was hit by fire, Jayne dumped fuel, equipment and even Stitch before dumping that money. Jayne admits he's no hero. Stitch shoots at Jayne, but a Mudder jumps from the crowd and takes a bullet. Jayne chucks a knife into Stitch's chest and beats him until there's no more Stitch. Jayne yells at the crowd for thinking he's a hero, then knocks his statue over in anger.

Back on Serenity, Wash is trying to get the ship to take off, with no luck. Inara asks him if he's having problems. Suddenly, the landlock is released and Serenity takes off. Wash says, nope, no problems. We find out that Higgins’ son overrode that system and released the ship. Magistrate Higgins is irate, but as the son points out, his father wanted him to become a man, and now he has.

Jayne is still upset about the Mudder taking a bullet for him. Mal opines that every man with a statue made of him was one kind of sonuvabitch or another. He says it's not about what Jayne did, it's about what the Mudders need.

We see Serenity floating 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 we hear somebody talking about buying the ship. Mal flashes back to the first time he showed Zoe the ship. She's unimpressed.

In another flashback, the rest of the crew is laughing and enjoying a great dinner. Talking about good times and planning their next trip. Going to fly under the radar and get far away from everything. Then we hear a rumbling and the lights flicker.

Kaylee goes to check it out. Suddenly, a fireball races down the hallway. Zoe 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 Zoe 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, we see the day Mal and Zoe interviewed pilots. Wash, sporting a mustache, takes the job. Zoe says something about Wash bothers her, but she's not sure what. Moving forward in time, Zoe'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 again, Kaylee tells Mal the catalyzer 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 passerby'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. Nobody else has been seen to this point. Flashing back further again, we find Mal interrupting 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, by the way, turns out to be Kaylee, Serenity's new mechanic.

Moving to the recent past, Kaylee apologizes to Mal for not taki