Synopsis

The ship is a one-way transport for settlers, 17-20 families worth. Serenity docks, not for humanitarian purposes, but after the point is made that there could be valuable salvage aboard. In their rush, they don't see cables snake out to connect the airlocks. The boarding team (Mal and Zoe, sans Simon, who volunteers despite his fear of spacewalks) finds no one onboard, only a powered-down ship and evidence that whatever happened, happened fast. While they investigate, River wakes up crying about the screaming in her head; as Simon tries to soothe her, Jayne comes to tell him to suit up and get over to the other ship. He reluctantly leaves River in Inara's care, and goes across in his pressure suit -- the butt of an unfunny practical joke by Jayne, since Simon didn't need to be there, and certainly not in the pressure suit. Which he had on wrong. The crew settles down to looting the ship of supplies and anything valuable -- as River wanders onto the ship by herself, following something only she can hear. Kaylee still can't find any mechanical reasons for the ship to be abandoned, but Mal and Zoe hit the jackpot in the vault, finding colony supplies that are worth a fortune -- and that the colonists should have taken if they'd abandoned ship. Mal already knows nobody escaped, even before they turn to find River in the room behind them, looking silently up. Both flashlights follow her eyes up -- to the bodies hanging in a mutilated cluster from the ceiling. Mal yells for everyone to get the hell off ship, but Jayne is attacked from behind before he can move.

The shots from Jayne's gun are audible on Serenity; Mal orders the others off the ship as he and Zoe ride to Jayne's rescue. He's shaken, but managed o to hit his attacker; they follow the blood trail to a panicked colonist, hiding in the air ducts. Mal knocks him out, then hauls him clear; Simon treats him on Serenity, then Mal orders him to dope the colonist again when he starts babbling about whoever attacked the ship -- "Cattle for the slaughter. No mercy. No resistance." Mal leaves the infirmary to tell the others that the ship was hit by Reavers; everyone power-freaks. Seems Reavers have been living on the edge for so ong that most people, like Mal and Jayne don't consider them men anymore, which seems to be a reasonable attititude. Simon volunteers to go with Book to perform funeral rites; Mal lets them -- and tells the crew, now that the passengers are out of the way, about the booby trap they triggered when they docked. As Simon and Book perform their grisly task, Kaylee crawls out into the airlock to disarm the trap, and River twists uneasily in her sleep -- as does th drugging colonist in the infirmary. His eyes pop open and River wakes screaming, as he finds a weapon in shards of broken instruments. As Jayne offloads cargo, Kaylee successfully diarms the booby trap (which oozes something disturbingly like blood), but before they can undok, the proximity alarms go off again. it's not Reavers, but it's almost as bad -- a big-ass Alliance warship pulling them into dock.

The Alliance ship is captained by an officer so new and shiny he practically squeaks; regulations are tattooed on his forehead and probably woven into his shorts; there's an alert out on a Firefly-class ship carrying two fugitives -- River and Simon -- so he gives orders to shoot on sight. Mal orders Jayne to unload the cargo and put it plain sight, then orders Simon to go get his sister. Simon pitches a fit, thinking Mal wants to turn them over to the Alliance, but finally obeys. When the Alliance soldiers enter, they find the entire crew assembled, with the salvage waiting, everyone ready to cooperate -- and Simon and River nowhere in sight. They retrieve the injured colonist and begin interrogating Serenity's crew, as they search the ship stern to bow. Inara and Book are polite and attentive and completely unhelpful; Zoe shoots down all inquiries about her marriage, while Wash gleefully expounds on it; Kaylee bends his ear on why Serenity is not junk; Jayne merely crosses his arms and glowers. Mal is congenial and cooperative and the captain doesn't believe a word he says, but he can't find anyone on the ship. Because he didn't look outside, where Simon and River are clinging in pressure suits. River seems to be enjoying herself; Simon so isn't. The captain, failing to find his fugitives, settles for the next best thing -- he decides Mal and company (as dirty brown-coats and smugglers and all sorts of other undesirable things) are lying about the Reavers and that they killed the colonists. Mal warns him he's putting his energy in the wrong place, as docotors work frantically over the "rescued" colonist. Until he whips out his salvaged weapon, and somone gives a strangled scream.

The captain, of course, isn't listening to a thing Mal tells him, even when Mal wanrs him that anyone who lives through the kind of evil colonist did, can only survive by becoming it. The captain nods, then sends Mal to the brig; he declares the Serenity will be sold and used to pay for their defense costs. Simon and River reboard Serenity now that the searches are over; Mal ordered them to lie low. Aboard the warship, the colonist has, of course, escaped, doing damage along the way. Mal knows where he'll head... Simon has to struggle to get River out of the airlock into the common area when she freaks; at the same time, the boarding party from the Alliance ship finds the bodies of two soldiers in the other airlock. "He's on the hunt," Mal says, and talks the captain into letting him go, since he knows Reavers. The captain relents enough to recuff Mal's hands in front of him, then sends him in first. The sound of footsteps sends the Tam siblings ducking into cover; Mal, as Polish Mine Detector, leads the Alliance soldiers within inhes of their hiding place, before the colonist cum Reaver, his face mutilated, assaults them from behind The captain goes down, but Mal gets the chain of his handcuffs around the Reaver's neck -- and breaks it.

Serenity is released from the Alliance ship, but the captain keep the cargo. The derelict ship is blown to pieces behind them as they fly away.

Perri's Review

River is showing signs of either clairvoyance or telepathy -- there are voices screaming in her head.

Inara used to be based on Sihnon; she's apparently aboard Serenity to give both her and Mal a wider client base, through his transportation and her respectability.

Relationships:
Nothing to speak of, other than Kaylee inviting Simon to play, and a few seconds of Mal/Inara lust.

Characters:
With the exception of Simon and Book, we probably learned more about these people during the five-minute interrogation montages than we did during the whole rest of the episode. < g > For instance, we learned that Wash can't actually believe Zoe actually married him, and is so proud of the fact that she did that he'll brag to whomever's listening. But he's cute, and the bit about "Who's flying the ship?!?" was funny, so we'll smile indulgently and let his get away with it. He as Zoe continue to be damned cute -- you'll note they were on opposite teams during the game. And Zoe's "Not now, dear," while Wash is freaking was priceless. Zoe is the epitome of coolness herself, treating Captain Shiny-Pants like the moron he is without even bothering to raise her voice or insult him. Zoe rocks.

Let's see, Kaylee is fiercely proud of her ship and still a sweetheart, and has guts enough to crawl and and disarm an explosive booby trap... really, what's not to love about this girl? And Jayne really is that big of a jerk, and is also the type to find badly scaring someone else unecessarily to be hilarious. Given that and his refusal to go help the other ship until profit presented itself, I'm this close to writing him off as too irritating to be attracted to, outstanding muscles aside. The only things saving him are his evident loyalty to Mal, and the fact that Kaylee was on his shoulders for a good part of that ball game. Apparently she thinks enough of him to have a serious big brother-little sister dynamic going on, so I'll continue to reserve judgement. For the moment.

But it must have really burned Jayne when Simon volunteered to go back to the ship that had Jayne so loudly terrified. < g > I like Simon, he does stuff that scares him, and he gets revenge in his own quiet way. That absolutely dead-pan, "He's a real beast." was absolutely classic. And he continues to be fiercely devoted to River, to the point of getting in Mal's face -- which, you know, was wrong because Mal seems to have put both of them on his 'protect' list, but still. I respect the emotions behind it. If Simon keeps being this much of a doll, he can have the slot I reserved for Jayne on my "Must Jump Now" list. (I am not a slave to my hormones; I merely recognize outstanding genetic material when I see it. And I've been watching too much Andromeda, because I'm starting to sound like a Nietzchian. Oy.) Not that I'm in favor of Simon being an earnest young saint -- the more gotcha's he can aim at Jayne, the better, as far as I'm concerned.

Book gets perilously close to Bible-thumping at one point, but it's not like he's wrong, and I admire both the strength of his convictions, and his ability to use his opponents' weakness against them. Want the crew to check out the ship? Give up on morality and aim for the wallet, or whatever else gets them to do the 'right' thing. I can get behind that attitude.

I do love Mal, I've decided. I'm going to want to strangle him at least once an episode, I know, but I love him anyway. He was trying to get Book and Simon et al out of his hair, but that doesn't mean he didn't mean what he said about the victims deserving peace -- peace his own people didn't get after the Battle of Serenity Valley, from what I understand. And he goes to extremes to protect River and Simon, probably telling himself he's saving Alliance trouble -- yet doesn't give them up even when he's about to be arrested for murder, which might have gotten Captain Shiny-Pants off his ass (on that count, anyway. And harboring fugitives wouldn't have bee a fun charge, either. But still.) He's annoying and working really hard to convince himself not to care about anything but his ship and crew, but it keeps sneaking out around the edges anyway.

Anyone else have the urge to kick Captain Shiny-Pants in the butt? Repeatedly? Very hard? Mal had him nailed, this guy had never been more then a few blocks away from Mommy before, and had no clue how to deal with the Big Bad World. He wanted so badly not to beleive in Reavers, that he was willing to blame everything on Serenity's crew -- the same crew that had obviously taken care of the dead, and were carrying around a respected companion and a preacher. This guy doesn't just have a condo in Denial, he owns half the block. But, given sufficient kicks in the pants, he can get a clue, so there may be hope for him. But god, was his little trick of calling Mal Sergeant instead of Captain obnoxious!

River is... continuing to grow in strangeness, but even if I didn't have the Cliff Notes, I'd be starting to suspect the psychic stuff. Kiki goes into this a lot better than I do, so I'll just say I feel horribly sorry for the kid. Even after Simon rescues her, she's still in a kind of prison, with dead people and live ones screaming in her head, trapped on a ship of people who mostly would prefer it if she wasn't there. Inara is kind, and Simon loves her, but her life is still seriously sucking. Still, the smile on ehr face when she was watching the game, and when she was out in the stars, was something -- I'd like to see more of that.

Best Moments:
The entire game. Everyone was enthusiastic and having fun, Kaylee on Jayne's shoulders was too cute for words to express, and the spectators were almost as fun -- River watching with delight, Simon being fascinated, and Inara being amused. Plus, I liked Kaylee and Jayne teasing each other -- as I said, that's the big reason I haven't written him off yet.

River's tour of the ghost ship. Gorgeously filmed, and the discovery of the bodies was just damned creepy.

Mal knocking out the surviving colonist. His bone-deep practical streak is never going to stop being entertaining.

Simon's dead-pan hassling of Jayne. I'm never going to get tired of that.

Mal's quick look at Kaylee and Inara before he orders Simon to drug the colonist. That little glance over spoke volumes about Mal's determination to protect "the women" as Zoe put it -- Mal's not a chauvinist, he's chivalrous, and that is an underrated virtue.

The confrontation between Simon and Mal, with Book ending it. Lovely performances from everyone.

The interrogation. Wonderful, wonderful way to get some of that exposition out there without being boring. And Zoe, Jayne, Wash and Kaylee were funny as hell.

Simon and River's little spacewalk. River being so delighted and Simon thinking that getting caught isn't looking quite so bad....

The hunt through the common area. Again, creepy as hell -- Tim Minear did a gorgeous job of showing just enough of the bodies and the 'Reaver' colonist to freak us out without giving us any real details. Imagination is a wonderful thing. < shudder >

The final shot of the ghost ship being exploded -- manipulative, but still cool.

Questions and Comments:
And this is why we cuff people's hands behind them. Oh yes.

Inara tells the captain she's been aboard Serenity for a year, but she told Book last week that she'd known Mal for 8 months. Either Inara was lying to one of them for no apparent reason, or Joss's inability to deal with numbers has passed onto Mr. Minear.

Lots of very cool camera angles and push-in/pull-out shots thoughout -- almost too many. Let's not get too cute here.

I was uncomfortable with watching the crew essentially turn into grave robbers; Book and Simon doing the funeral rites helped a bit, but it was still... disturbing. Blegh. Book's right about how we treat our dead being part of what defines the good guys.

The pressure suits were very cool, a neat use of current-level tech. As opposed to the antique guns Serenity's crew insists on using, which are atmospheric as hell, and 650 years out of date instead of merely 500. This is my dad's rant, btw, and should have been in last week's review, but he's not wrong. Given the choice between an incredibly ancient rifle and one of the automatic weapons SG-1 carries that I can't remember the model number of offhand (P-90?), I'm going with the SG-1 crew's choice of armament. Totally aside, of course, from the stupidity of using projectile weapons in space. I know, I know -- it's just a show and I should maybe just relax. Tell it to the 'bots.

Rating:
3 stars out of 5. A solid, if not spectacular, episode that introduces us to the Reavers and the Alliance quite nicely, and gives us some fun with the crew.

Christina's Review

Loved the interviews with the Alliance captain, in order : Jayne, Wash, Zoe, Kaylee, Mal. I giggled way too much at Jayne's macho-totally-silent act. Having Zoe stiffly say "we're private people" and then cutting to a gushing and hormonal Wash was just perfect. Hehehehehehe. And I adored Kaylee not letting the Alliance guy get a word in edgewise. Plus, we got backstory on Mal. All nicely done without having to make it expositiony. Cool.

The Alliance captain is a guy I've seen play a zillion uptight bad guys, several well-meaning good guys, and Matt, the sweet gay guy on "Melrose Place." Combine those images, and I had a hard time taking him seriously as a hard-ass. As a newbie captain he kinda works, though. Too bad he didn't let them keep the grain. < pout >

I'm liking Simon more and more, especially since he isn't letting Jayne get to him too much, and as he keeps protecting River so fiercely. It was a great bit that she was enjoying the ETA walk while he was trying to keep from sicking up in his suit, too. But it hit me, reading someone's fanfic this morning, how little idea he has about what his sister is going through; from his perspective, his kid sister went off to private school. Later, he heard she was being tortured and medically tested - with no reason given at all, the rights of a private citizen thrown out the window. He thinks she's been pushed most of the way over the edge by what happened, even though the audience knows that half her problem is clairvoyance/precognition. I like that they're not making this obvious, they're working the situation for the angles, and that the characters aren't able to square-on deal with the difficulties, because they don't understand them.

And I adored the B-ball game. Nice job. Everything else was good too, but I haven't fully bonded with our heroes yet. But if they keep this up, I probably will.

SunSpeak

"I adore Wash. Well, I can't help it; I've adored that actor since A Knight's Tale; he's my kind of manic, slightly dorky funny/cute."
"Oh, I've got nothing against Wash. < g > ("We're very private people." "Have you *seen* her legs?!?!?!") And I want to be Inarra when I grow up (or, at least have her wardrobe)."
"I'd like to have something against Wash. < eg > (Don't tell my fiance!) I wanna be Zoe. She kicks major ass. And she's hot. I'm growing quite fond of Kaylee, but I wish they'd make her just a smidge less cornpone. " -- Gina and Lizbet

"The chicks on the ship rock. Although I do wonder what Joss is doing... he *knows* his shows sprout recurring characters like lichen on a stone. Why did he *start* with a cast of 33 regulars?"
"Well, consider who we're dealing with. You're assuming they're all going to survive the whole season."
"Dude. You are so not wrong. Oh, dear." -- Lizbet and Mike