ADVENTURES
Note: Episodes are in order of how they appear on the Firefly DVDs.
Episode: Serenity pt. 1 and 2
Original Airdate on FOX: 12/20/02
Synopsis: This episode was originally supposed to be the first episode aired but FOX changed it at the last minute. This ep starts out showing Mal in the war. It then proceeds to show the crew on Serenity, getting ready to land on Persephone and take on passengers for extra money. He ends up taking on Shepherd Book, Simon Tam and an undercover Alliance spy. Mal get suspicious of Simon and opens the crate he brought on with him, revealing his sister River in cryo. She wakes up and the Alliance spy begins sending messages to the Alliance about the siblings whereabouts. Mal confronts the spy and he ends up shooting Kaylee. Simon tells Mal that he'll save Kaylee if Mal agrees not to turn him and River over to the Alliance. If Mal refuses, Simon will let Kaylee die. Mal agrees and Simon patches Kaylee up. Mal decides that he needs a doctor on the ship and allows Simon and River to stay.
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Episode: The Train Job
Original Airdate on FOX: 9/20/02
Synopsis: Because of changes, this turned out to be the pilot for Firefly on FOX. Mal and the crew accept a job from Adelai Niska to rob a train carrying Alliance goods to Paradiso. After getting the cargo off the train, it is discovered that the train has been robbed. All passengers are unloaded in Paradiso and questioned by the authorities. Mal and Zoe pose as a married couple looking for work to avoid suspicion and while they are waiting, they find out that the cargo they stole was medicine to help the sick people of Paradiso. After they are released, Mal decides to give the medicine back. He does and then tries to give Niska's men back the money that Niska already payed him. His number one guy refuses to take it and gets kicked into Serenity's engine. The next guy down the line takes the money back but Niska isn't happy about it.
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Episode: Bushwhacked
Original Airdate on FOX: 9/27/02
Synopsis: This ep starts in the hull of Serenity where most of the crew is engaged in a game of basketball. The proximity alarms begin going off, so Wash goes to see what is going on. He sees a ship floating outside the window and Mal decides that they are going to check it out after they can't get anyone to answer. They board and find out that it was a ship full of settlers that was attacked by Reavers. They find a surviver and take him back to Serenity where Simon tries to help him. In the meantime, an Alliance ship discovers them hooked up to the ship and brings them all (except River and Simon, who are hiding outside) onto their ship. They question the entire crew and then are going to hold them for torturing the man they saved from the ship. Mal realizes that the man is turning into a Reaver and after he escapes back to Serenity. Mal is ordered to hunt him down and he ends up saving the Alliance Commander by killing the man. The Alliance lets them go after taking the cargo they harvested.
BANTER
Episode: Shindig
Original Airdate on FOX: 11/1/02
Synopsis: After getting a job from Badger, Mal has to take Kaylee to a fancy ball in order to meet with the man that has the job. Mal meets up with Inara there, who has been hired by Atherton Wing to accompany him to the ball. After being rude to Inara, Atherton gets punched out by Mal, thereby declaring a duel to the death between the two of them. Mal is made to stay with Atherton to make sure he doesn't run and Inara tries to teach him how to swordfight. Meanwhile, Badger and his men board Serenity and take the crew hostage to make sure that Mal doesn't try to run off without securing the job. The next morning, Mal and Atherton fight and after getting stabbed pretty seriously, Mal wins but leaves Atherton alive to live in shame. The man who had the job dislikes Atherton and decides that Mal is worthy of the job, so he gives him cows to transport.
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Episode: Safe
Original Airdate on FOX: 11/8/02
Synopsis: After delivering the cows from the previous episode, Book is shot. Meanwhile, Simon followed River into a small gathering where she dances with the people. Then, after finding out Simon is a doctor, they kidnap the two of them and force Simon to help their sick people. Back on Serenity, Mal leaves the planet in search of help for Book. They finally have to dock with an Alliance ship to help Book and after showing them some kind of ID, he is immediately rushed into surgery. Back on the planet, River reads the mind of a mute girl and tells the nurse woman about the little girl's life. The woman thinks the girl has spoken but when River tells her she didn't, the woman brands River as a witch. The townsfolk prepare a bonfire to burn River at the stake but Mal and the crew come back and save her and Simon just in time.
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Episode: Our Mrs. Reynolds
Original Airdate on FOX: 10/4/02
Synopsis: After defeating bandits on a prairie planet, the crew celebrates with food, dancing and drink. The next morning after they leave, Mal discovers that one of the women from the town has snuck on the ship and to his surprise, she insists that they are married. After Book explains the ceremony to Mal, he realizes that he did unintentionally marry the woman. The woman, who tells him her name is Saffron, tries everything she can to get Mal to like her and accept her as his wife. He tells her that it isn't going to happen and tells her he'll drop her off on the next planet they visit. The woman agrees but still tries to seduce Mal. After kissing her, he passes out and Saffron completely changes from innocent prairie woman to super-cool criminal. She knocks out Wash and sets Serenity's path for a giant net that will catch the ship for the men she's working for. In the meantime, she runs into Inara, who figures out what's going on. After telling Inara that she is "Malcolm Reynold's widow", Inara hurries down to Mal and afer kissing him, passes out as well. Saffron escapes and the crew manages to blow up the net and the people running it. Then Mal goes after his shuttle. He meets up with Saffron on another planet and knocks her out, then takes back his shuttle.
BANTER
Episode: Jaynestown
Original Airdate on FOX: 10/18/02
Synopsis: The crew gets wind of a job on a moon called Canton and Jayne tells them that he's nervous about going there because he had a job that went bad there a while ago. Mal makes him go so Jayne disguises himself. When they arrive on Canton, they find out that Jayne is a hero to the Mudders (people who mine mud for the Governor of Canton) because when his job went bad, he dumped the money on the Mudders on accident. Jayne tries to keep a low profile but a kid in a bar recognizes him. When he goes to leave the bar, all the Mudders are outside cheering for him. In the meantime, Mal meets with the middleman for the job and decides to use Jayne as a distraction so they can sneak the goods across the town. While all this is going on, Inara is meeting a client, Governor Higgins son Fess. Fess is embarrassed about his father's attempt to "make a man out of him" and tells Inara that. That night, Boss Higgins gets word that Jayne is back in town so he lets out Jayne's old robbing buddy, Stitch, who has been in prison since Jayne dumped him out of a ship to lighten the load. Stitch wants to get revenge on Jayne so he goes to the celebration the next day that Mal planned as a diversion. He confronts Jayne and ends up shooting at him. A Mudder takes the bullet and Jayne tells everyone what happened with the job. Meanwhile, Boss Higgins puts a landlock on Serenity so that Jayne can't escape but Fess has it lifted and they get away.
BANTER
Episode: Out of Gas
Original Airdate on FOX: 10/25/02
Synopsis: This episode jumps around a lot. It starts by showing Mal, bleeding and half dead, trying to put a part into Serenity's engine. It then flashes back to earlier that day, when the crew is sitting around the dining room table. It is Simon's birthday and Kaylee made him a cake. As he's getting ready to blow out the candles, the lights flicker. Kaylee starts to go check it out when an explosion occurs and comes racing towards her. Zoe pushes her out of the way, taking brunt of the explosion. She is rushed to the infirmary and actually dies for a second but Simon brings her back by injecting adrenaline straight into her heart. Mal asks Kaylee what's going on and she tells him that a part on the engine is broke and the engine won't work without it. Without the engine turning, they don't have any life support and their backup was knocked out by the explosion. Mal decides that he's going to send both shuttles out with four people a piece in each direction and try to find help. Inara begs Mal to come but he won't, saying that he needs to be on the ship if help comes. The two shuttles leave and Mal is alone on the ship. Another ship happens by and they have the part he needs for the engine. He lets them onboard and their captain shoots him and starts to take the ship. Mal gets a gun and forces them off, after making them leave the part. He takes the part and after stopping to inject himself with adrenaline, he fixes the engine, but passes out before he can call the shuttles back. He wakes up in the infirmary, and finds out that Zoe woke up and made them all return. During this entire story, there are flashbacks of how Mal gathered the crew in the first place.
BANTER
Episode: Ariel
Original Airdate on FOX: 11/15/02
Synopsis: River is getting worse and Simon tells Mal and the others that he can get them medicine that will fetch a huge price on the black market if they will sneak him and River into a high tech medical facility on Ariel, a central planet of the Alliance. The crew agrees and spends a week or so getting the proper supplies they need. When they are ready, Mal, Zoe and Jayne, posing as paramedics, sneak River and Simon in as corpses. After waking them up, Mal and Zoe leave them with Jayne and go to get the medicine. In the meantime, Jayne calls the Alliance to turn in River and Simon. They get to the neural imager and Simon finds out what he needs to know. They are on their way out when they are captured by the Alliance. The three of them are locked up and after awhile, they escape, just as the Blue Hands arrive. River is terrified and insists that they must hurry. Meanwhile, Mal and Zoe return to Serenity and find out that the other's have been caught by the Alliance. He goes back to rescue them and finds them just as the Blue Hands were about to catch them. Back on Serenity, Mal knocks Jayne out and sticks him in the airlock just as they are about to break atmo. Mal tells Jayne that he knows that he called the Feds and is going to let him get sucked out into space. Jayne begs for his life at first but then finally asks Mal not to tell the others why he died. Because of that, Mal closes the airlock but doesn't let him back into the ship.
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Episode: War Stories
Original Airdate on FOX: 12/6/02
Synopsis: While selling some of the medicine from the job on Ariel, Mal and Wash are captured by Adelai Niska, who is still pissed about them not finishing the job he hired them for. Niska tortures Wash and Mal, just for the fun of it. Meanwhile, Zoe gathers up all the money everyone has left to buy back Mal and Wash. When she goes to get them, Niska only lets her take one. She chooses Wash and goes back to Serenity with him. Wash insists that they have to save Mal too so the two of them hatch a plan. Gradually, everyone agrees to help and they decided to storm Niska's skyplex. They do and after a lot of shooting, they rescue Mal from Niska.
BANTER
Episode: Trash
Original Airdate on FOX: Never Aired
Synopsis: Mal goes down to meet with an old war buddy, Monty and is surprised to find out that he is married to Saffron, who is calling herself Briget. They attack each other and after Mal tells Monty about her, he leaves Saffron on the planet with Mal. Mal plans on leaving her too but after telling him about a job worth lots of money, he decides to bring her along but stuffs her in a crate for transport. Back on Serenity, Inara calls Mal a petty theif, causing him to trust Saffron enough to join her on the job. They plan it out and Inara is angry with Mal for trusting Saffron. Before they start the job, she storms off in a huff. Mal and Saffron get into the house where the Lassiter (the gun they are going to steal) is. They are in the room with the gun but are discovered by the man who owns the gun. Mal thinks they are in serious trouble until the man hugs Saffron, calling her Yolanda and thanking Mal for bringing back his wife. The man goes to get Mal somekind of reward and Saffron takes the Lassiter and throws it into the trash, per the plan. Meanwhile, Kaylee is ontop of Serenity trying to rewire the trash bin to dump where she wants it to go. Jayne ends up getting zapped and Zoe has to help her. They get the bin rewired just in time and the bin zooms off to the desert drop point. Back in the estate, Saffron's husband finds out they stole the Lassiter and Saffron is forced to knock him out. They escape and then on the way to the drop point, she takes Mal's gun and forces him out into the desert naked. She gets to the drop point and is digging through the trash bin when Inara shows up with the Lassiter. It was planned all along for Inara to go and get it before Saffron could. Inara locks Saffron in the trash bin to await the authorities, then picks up Mal and goes back to Serenity.
BANTER
Episode: The Message
Original Airdate on FOX: Never Aired
Synopsis: Mal and the crew are picking up mail when he and Zoe get a package, which turns out to be their old war buddy Tracey in a coffin. There is a recording asking them to take him back to his home planet and they decide to honor his last wish. On the way, Simon is going to do an autopsy on Tracey to see what killed him and after the first cut, Tracey wakes up. After calming down a little, Tracey explains that he got paid by some people implant artificial organs in his body to keep them alive until they were needed. When the people came back for them, he decided that he wanted to sell them to someone else so he's running from the people who implanted them in him in the first place. Mal finds out that a rogue Alliance commander is the one who is after Tracey and he tries to blow up Serenity. Mal decides to turn Tracey over to the Alliance but Tracey, not wanting to be turned over, takes Kaylee hostage. After a standoff, ends up shooting and killing Tracey. The Alliance guys board Serenity but after Book tells them that he knows they aren't operating under the Alliance's rule, they leave and Mal takes Tracey back to his family.
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Episode: Heart of Gold
Original Airdate on FOX: Never Aired
Synopsis: Inara gets wave from a friend of hers who runs a brothel on a desert planet and asks for her help in dealing with a wealthy man who claims one of her prostitutes is carrying his son. Inara tells Mal and Mal agrees to help and they go to the Heart of Gold brothel. While Simon, Inara and River are helping the prostitute, Petaline, have her baby, everyone else is preparing for an attack by the baby's father, Rance Burgess. That night, Mal ends up getting drunk and sleeping with Nandi, the madam of the brothel. Inara finds out and is very upset. The next morning, Rance attacks and everyone defends the brothel. While fighting Rance's men, Rance gets inside and kills Nandi then runs. Mal chases him down and brings him back. In the meantime, Petaline has her baby, whom she names Jonah. When Mal brings Rance back, she shoots him.
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Episode: Objects in Space
Original Airdate on FOX: 12/13/06
Synopsis: A bounty hunter named Jubal Early sneaks onto Serenity to claim the enormous bounty on River's head. He ties up Kaylee in the engine room, knocks out Book, forces Simon to help him find River, who is missing, and locks everyone else in their rooms. While they are looking for her, River sneaks into Early's ship and begins messing with his mind. River helps everyone escape and after Early figures out he's in her ship, he shoots Simon and goes after her. When he goes outside, Mal is waiting for him and pushes him off Serenity into space.
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