I know, just what we need around here, another Firefly thread, right?
I just watched the series again and I have to say - it gets better with every viewing. I’m now willing to declare it is simply the best show that has ever been put on TV, despite on lasting 14 episodes. And that’s the amazing thing - shows rarely hit the ground running, they have an awkward growing phase before they get good - which makes me wonder how great Firefly could’ve become.
But even so, it’s just so expertly crafted. The episodes clearly and logically established the characters and the relationships between the characters fluidly as an integral element of the plots. War Stories establishes the Mal/Zoe/Wash relationship, Ariel gives Jayne a way to develop some loyalty, Safe has a moment where Simon hops on the pyre and says “light it” where I just completely bought his all-consuming love for his sister.
You can also tell it’s a work of love. Everyone loved their characters and loved being part of the show. You get a real sense of family. The trivia section on IMDB says that instead of waiting between shots in the green room, they’d sit around on the ship set.
The universe and setting is simply brilliant. The single giant star system, lack of aliens, continuum of degrees of civilization/wealth/technology, the dialects - it is the most interesting fictional universe ever created on TV. The series is as hard sci fi as TV has ever gotten.
Which actually brings me to a complaint - the whole point of having the outer worlds use horses, basic tools, and basic, proven firearm designs is that they’re low maintenance and rugged. It makes sense that people would ride to a fight on horseback with an AK-47 on their back. There are energy weapons available to the rich worlds and the military, but they’re shown to be expensive and sometimes impractical. Perfect. So why in the hell did they sound department add sci-fi energy noises to the operation of mechanical firearms? It’s both totally illogical, and ruins the great high tech to low tech continuum they had going. It’s the only thing I hated about the series and it drives me nuts.
Anyway, I’m curious as to how everyone rates all of the episodes. There are few enough of them that it isn’t much work to rank all of them in order. I think Out of Gas and Objects in Space will be the only contenders for #1, but I’m curious where people rank some of the lesser episodes. I also made this a poll to see what people’s top three turn out to be, so only select 3. Poll is public.
If you don’t know the episode names, here’s a list.
My ranking:
- Objects in Space. This episode is simply art the whole way through. The aesthetic, camera work, dialogue, just amazing. I think this very well could be the best hour of television ever created. Jubal Early is awesome, River gets a chance to prove she has some usefulness (even if it was her presence that created the problem), and her little speech when she volunteers to go back with Early still moves me, since there was some truth in it.
Zoe: “I know she’s unpredictable, but I don’t think she’d harm anyone”
Jayne: “Butcher’s knife!?”
Zoe: “…anyone we can’t spare”
Early: “I don’t think of myself as a lion. You might as well, though: I have a mighty roar.”
- Out of Gas
I suspect this will top most people’s list. It’s certainly a great episode. The backstory interspersed with the story is done in an excellent way. The story of how they recruited Jayne is perfect and really fits the character. And the way you hear the ship salesman throughout the episode, selling you on what you assume will be Serenity - only at the end to see that he was talking about another ship, but with Mal and Serenity it was love at first sight anyway, was touching. The show does an amazing job of making the ship into its tenth character.
Mal: “Ship like this, be with you till the day you die.”
Zoe: “Because it’s a death trap.”
- Our Mrs. Reynolds
The first two rankings are pretty clear, but I have a hard time sorting my next few favorites. Our Mrs. Reynolds was probably the funniest episode. Christina Hendricks was amazing. Too many quotes on this one - there are at least a dozen great ones.
Mal: “My days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle”
Mal: “But she was naked! And all… articulate!”
Mal: “If someone is trying to kill you, you try to kill them right back!”
Jayne: “That’s why I never kiss 'em on the mouth”
- Ariel
Jayne’s “don’t tell 'em what I did, make something up” realization is one of the most amazing character development moments ever. Mal’s loyalty to his crew finally hits Jayne, and makes the ultimate mercenary come to realize that he has some loyalty too. It was the perfect - probably only - to redeem Jayne’s sudden but inevitable betrayal. The caper aspect of the episode was really good too. And the way Jayne struggled to learn his line - and damn it, he was going to say it - is awesome. And I wish we’d have had more of a choice to learn about the hands of blue guys.
Jayne: “Hell, I don’t know. If I wanted schooling, I’d have gone to school”
Simon: “Could you not do that while we’re… ever?”
- Serenity
The original pilot. I thought it was a much better episode than the actual first one aired, The Train Job. It did a great job of setting up the universe and the characters while still being an interesting story in its own right. It features the first crowning moment of awesome (when Mal comes back to the ship, and the fed is holding the River hostage, and he just ends him without breaking stride). Actually, the first moment of awesome might’ve been when Mal told Simon that Kaylee was dead - he runs dramatically to the infimary, and then you see the rest of the crew laughing it up. Kaylee gets intimate with a strawberry. Wash’s dinosaurs.
Zoe: “If they take the ship, they’ll rape us to death, eat our flesh, and sew our skins into their clothing. And if we’re very, very lucky, they’ll do it in that order.”
Mal: “We are not gonna die. You know why? Because we are so… very… pretty. We are just too pretty for God to let us die”
Zoe: “I know something ain’t right.”
Wash: “Sweetie, we’re crooks. If everything were right, we’d be in jail.”
- Trash
Hard to put 6 through 8 in order, they could go any which way really. I like the caper episodes. Like the way the doctor decided to find a way to live at peace with Jayne. Beating YoSafBridge at her own game was satisfying.
Other captain: “I shaved off my beard for you, devil woman!”
Wash: “I’m confused.”
YoSafBridge: “You’re asking yourself if I’ve got the security codes, why don’t I go in, grab it for myself?”
Wash: “No. Actually, I was wondering… WHAT’S SHE DOING ON THIS SHIP?”
…
Jayne: “Okay. I got a question. If she’s got the security codes, why don’t she just walk in and grab it herself?”
Mal: “But you are a tweaked one, you are”
YoSafBridge: “But face it hubby, I’m really hot”
- War Stories
Does a great job of explaining the Mal/Zoe/Wash relationship, which would understandably cause some tension in a marriage. Shows that while our crew are bad guys, they’re certainly not the worst guys out there.
Jayne: “I’ll be in my bunk” (of course)
Nischka: “I think this is not enough… not enough for two. But sufficient perhaps for one. Ahhh, now have to…”
Zoe: “Him! … I’m sorry, you were going to ask me to choose, right?”
Zoe: “I understand, we have no choice. Take me sir, take me hard.”
- Jaynestown
Jayne as folk hero is good stuff. River deathly afraid of Book’s hair.
Jayne: “You guys had a riot… on account of me? My very own riot?”
Jayne: “The hero of Canton, the man they call… me”
Mal: “It’s my estimation that… every man ever got a statue made of him was one kind of son of a bitch or another”
- Shindig
This is about the point in the list where things go from great to pretty good. I find it somewhat implausible that Mal sticks around for a fight he’ll probably lose. I realize it’s a uniquely stubborn situation where he feels like he has to be able to operate in Inara’s world, and for her honor, but he’s a survivor and it was too risky.
Inara: “You have a strange sense of nobility, Captain. You’ll lay a man out for implying I’m a whore, but you keep calling me one to my face.”
Mal: “I might not show respect to your job, but he didn’t respect you. That’s the difference. Inara, he doesn’t even see you.”
Does a lot to establish the Mal/Inara relationship.
Mal: “Mercy is the mark of a great man. stab Guess I’m just a good man. stab Well, I’m all right.”
- Safe
Establishes the Book mystery, and really shows the degree to which Simon is dedicated to his sister. The rescue “big damn heros, sir!” is pretty awesome. Shows how backwards some of the outer planets can be.
Zoe: “Captain will come up with a plan.”
Kaylee: “Well, that’s good. Right?”
Zoe: “Possible you’re not recalling some of his previous plans.”
Simon: “I’m very sorry if she tipped off anyone about your cunningly concealed herd of cows.”
Mal: “Yeah, but she’s our witch”
- Heart of Gold
The plot in this one is pretty run of the mill, but it does make good use of the show’s aesthetic. Whorehouse covered in reflective solar panels, a machine gun mounted on a hovercraft charging amongst men on horses, the rich man with a badass but semi-impractical laser as a status symbol. The Nandi character was extremely hot - not only just physically but the whole package, suitable for someone as awesome as Mal I suppose. Jayne doing the whore’s hair was kind of adorable.
Nandi: “I’ve been waiting for you to kiss me ever since I showed you my guns”
Mal: “They’re whores”
Jayne: “I’m in”
Mal: “Well, lady, I must say—you’re my kinda stupid.”
- The Train Job
It’s unfortunate that this was the show’s premiere. It’s alright, but nowhere near as good an ep as the original pilot. It’s main redeeming quality is that the engine scene is one of the best moments in all of tv history.
Mal: “…darn”
Jayne: “You know what the chain of command is? It’s the chain I go get and beat you with ‘til you understand who’s in ruttin’ command here!”
- The Message
I just… don’t find too much to like about this episode. I didn’t find the war buddy too sympathetic. Jayne’s hat is the star of the episode. The lampoon on the “race through the canyons to escape another aircraft” trope is pretty good. I do really like the moment where the previously dead guy walks onto the bridge, and since Wash wasn’t privy to him coming back to life, loses his shit when he sees him. It seems like most TV shows have all characters know everything the audience knows, so I like little moments like this where something we know comes as a shock to a character. Is there a tv trope for this? The funeral scene at the end is touching since the cast knew at that point the show was dead.
River: “My food is problematic”
Jayne: “Spry for a dead fella!”
- Bushwacked
I don’t like the early characterization of Reavers - men who saw the edge of space and went crazy. I realize this was meant to be the popular thought on what reavers were, since at the time no one really knew, but it just never sat well with me. And I didn’t like the idea that reavers could essentially recruit because everyone who sees them brutalize becomes one of them. The interview scenes on the alliance ship are the highlight of this episode. And even at its worst, firefly is still better than 95% of everything else.
Wash: “The legs! Oh yeah, definitely have to say it was her legs. You can put that down. Her legs, and right where her legs… meet her back. Tha— actually, that whole area. That, and… and above it… Have you seen what she wears? Forget about it. Have you ever been with a warrior woman?”
Mal:“We’ll check it out, see if there are any survivors. And if not, well, then, no one’s gonna mind if we take a look around, see if there’s not something of value they might’ve left behind.”
Jayne:“Yeah, no, uh, someone could be hurt!”
So what’s your ranking?
