Firefly
War Stories
original airdate: 12-06-02
This week
treats us to a fairly formulaic episode. The evil Niska, the
bad guy from
the first episode, returns and wants revenge on Malcolm Reynolds
for the injury inflicted on his pride.
During
a routine sale of some of the stolen drugs, Malcolm and Wash
are kidnapped by Niska and taken back aboard his space station.
There they are tortured and abused in the most unpleasant
ways, as opposed to the pleasant torture they normally get.
Inara
takes on her first woman client, causing the crew to take
on surprise and alarm. Unsurprisingly, Jayne seems to be the
most affected by it. After seeing the two meet he runs off
for a little solitude. But let's move on...
Kaylee
and River seem to be getting along really well at the beginning
of the episode. They are playing a game with each other and
having a great time as Kaylee chases River to get her apple
back. Jayne runs off for a little solitude.
The revenge
plot is a pretty standard story line. But the story is told
well and holds your attention long enough to develop the characters
in some new directions. This gives Wash a chance to develop
a backbone, and River a chance to get even more scary.
In the
big picture of the Firefly world, a few new pieces
of information are gained. Simon believes there was a pattern
to what the government was doing to his sister. From his research,
he concludes they were repeatedly cutting into her brain for
some desired effect.
We get
a brief glimpse of the possible purpose during a gunfight
on the space station. The timid River takes a gun from the
terrified Kaylee and efficiently dispatches three attacking
soldiers like it was nothing. Off course, this freaks out
Kaylee, now not quite sure how to react to River.
Jayne
is trying to make up for what he did to River and Simon. It
appears the only one that knows he tried to betray them is
still Mal. But Jayne is doing what he can to make amends for
his poor choice. Or at least he's trying to calm his own conscience.
He spent some of his reward money to buy the crew a crate
of fresh apples.
Zoe and
Mal always eat their apples with a knife, a piece at a time.
After a little prodding from Kaylee, Zoe tells the story of
why. It seems that during the war there were two opposing
camps of fighters in bunkers, not far from each other. They
were both out of ammo and the rebels were starving. So the
alliance fighters, only too happy to help, threw a bunch of
apples over to them. Without thinking, some of the fighters
starting grabbing the apples and eating them. The apples had
tiny grizwald grenades in them and Zoe and Mal watched as
some of their soldiers had their heads and chests blown out.
Ever since
then, they have eaten apples with knives.
River
is getting sick from the medications Simon is trying on her.
She is also having really bad dreams. It's unclear if the
dreams are related to her psychic powers, or a result of the
drugs. But so far, Simon's attempts at a cure have not been
successful.
Notable
Quotes:
Zoe - "This is something the captain has to do for himself."
Malcom - "Not it's not"
River
- "No power in the verse can stop me."
On next
weeks episode:
From the preview it appears a bounty hunter has stolen his
way onto the Serenity. What does he want? Why is he there?
Who is his personal trainer?
All this and more, next week.
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