Firefly

During a cargo transfer seventy-two hours earlier, Mal meets up with Monty, a fellow ex-Browncoat turned smuggler. Surprised to see that Monty has shaved off his beard, Mal learns that he has married a woman named Bridget. Bridget turns out to be Mal's former "wife" Saffron, and a fight breaks out between them. Enraged to learn of Saffron's double-dealing, Monty and his crew throw her off their ship and depart. Mal draws his gun and orders Saffron to walk away, implying that he leaves her marooned even when she tempts him with the prospect of a lucrative heist. Later, Serenity arrives to pick up Mal and the cargo. After Inara criticizes Mal for only doing "petty thefts" instead of taking more lucrative jobs, he frees Saffron from the crate he had locked her in and agrees to the heist.

In the common room, Saffron describes to the crew her plan to steal a priceless antique laser pistol, the "Lassiter", from Durran Haymer, a wealthy collector of Earth-That-Was artifacts who obtained most of his collection during the Unification War. She claims a detailed knowledge of Durran's security arrangements and the layout of his estate on Bellerophon, but explains that the difficulty lies in sneaking the weapon out, something Serenity's crew could accomplish. The crew is outraged that Mal has brought Saffron on board, but they reluctantly agree to the plan. Inara, however, warns Zoe to keep an eye on Saffron (not knowing that Saffron is eavesdropping) before leaving Serenity to attend to her clients.

Jayne tells Simon and River that they will have to hide during the heist so Saffron won't try to turn them in. River worries about the situation, telling Simon she doesn't trust Saffron and that she knows Jayne had earlier tried to betray them to the Alliance. Meanwhile, Wash and Kaylee instruct Mal and Saffron to dump the collectible pistol, once they procure it, into an automated trash disposal unit, which Kaylee can reprogram to have the trash taken to a remote desert where they can pick it up safely.

Mal and Saffron slip into the estate dressed as workers. They find the pistol, but run into Durran himself. Durran rushes to Saffron and embraces her, calling her "Yolanda" and thanking Mal for bringing back his wife, who had apparently disappeared six years ago. Saffron gets him to leave, and Mal deduces that Durran is Saffron's original husband, explaining how she obtained the knowledge needed for the heist. Durran suddenly appears and reveals that he knows why Saffron is here, and has already alerted the authorities. While Mal dumps the pistol, Saffron knocks Durran out and the two manage to evade arrest and reach Mal's shuttle. Meanwhile, Kaylee and Jayne work to reprogram the trash unit, but Jayne is incapacitated by an electric shock, forcing Kaylee to finish the task instead. Jayne is dragged back on board by Shepherd Book, and turned over to Simon for treatment. As Mal and Saffron head to Isis Canyon to pick up the loot, Mal continues to explore his theory that Durran was Saffron's true love, and that she only robbed him because she was desperate for money. Saffron seems to become emotional, but when Mal is off guard, she steals his gun, forces him to strip naked, and leaves him in the desert before flying off. While going through the trash pile, she is shocked to see Inara with the Lassiter holding a gun on her. Inara explains that Mal knew she would betray them, and so had a backup plan of his own in place. Saffron is locked inside the trash unit, the authorities already on their way to collect her.

On Serenity, the crew discovers that Saffron had sabotaged their engine, forcing them to delay meeting Mal so they can make repairs. Jayne awakens in the infirmary to find that Simon has medically paralyzed him after he suffered a spinal injury. Simon reveals his knowledge of Jayne's plan to sell out the Tams, but reminds him that they are both part of the same crew, and that he trusts Jayne never to sell them out again. River, however, warns Jayne that she can "kill him with her brain". The repaired Serenity picks up Mal and Inara, and Mal, still fully naked, congratulates his crew on a job well done as he closes the rear door behind him.

Aboard the Serenity, Inara receives a distress call from Nandi, an old friend of hers. Inara goes to Mal and explains that Nandi and the prostitutes who work in her brothel are not Companions, and thus not protected by the Guild. After she relates their plight, Mal agrees to help them. Upon landing, Jayne takes one of the women to his room, Shepherd Book agrees to conduct a prayer reading, and Simon goes to examine Petaline, who is due to give birth soon. Mal gets to know Nandi, who explains that Burgess deliberately keeps the people poor so he can live out his Wild West fantasies.

Mal and Inara meet Burgess at the local theater, with Mal making polite conversation and even getting to hold Burgess' personal laser gun. After they leave, Burgess gets confirmation that the baby is his. Mal advises Nandi to close the brothel and evacuate her people off-planet, but Nandi refuses to leave her hard-earned property and way of life. Mal, impressed by her stubbornness, agrees to stay and fortify the ranch for Burgess' impending attack. As the Serenity crew makes their preparations, Zoe has a tense conversation with Wash about whether they should have a child of their own. Petaline goes into labor, with Inara, Simon, and River beside her. That evening, Mal learns that Inara was skilled enough to potentially become a leader of the Companion's Guild, but instead chose to leave the comfort of the central planets to travel the galaxy. Nandi admits that she gave up on her Companion training because she found it too restricting, and that even though Inara was supposed to shun her per the Guild's rules, the two women have kept in touch regardless. Nandi and Mal sleep together. Back in town, one of Nandi's girls, Chari (Kimberly McCullough), secretly reveals Mal's plan to Burgess. The next morning, Mal tries to explain his night with Nandi to Inara, but Inara calmly tells him that there is no reason to be embarrassed about his sex life, and also thanks him for comforting her friend. Nonetheless, Inara subsequently sobs deeply in private.

Burgess' men attack the ranch, and a battle ensues, with the Serenity crew leading the prostitutes to fight their attackers. On board the Serenity, Wash and Kaylee find some of Burgess' men searching the ship and manage to outsmart and lock them in a hallway. As Petaline gives birth, Chari lets Burgess inside. He steals the baby, and shoots Nandi dead when she tries to stop him. Mal pursues him on horseback, and drags him back to the ranch, where Petaline shows him their son, Jonah, before killing him. The surviving men, as well as Chari, are ordered to walk back to town. Following a funeral for Nandi and the rest of the fallen, Serenity departs.

Back on the ship, Inara reiterates her gratitude that Mal was able to comfort Nandi on what turned out to be her last night, but Mal can only regret his failure to save her. As Mal tries to broach the subject of his and Inara's unacknowledged feelings towards each other, Inara muses about how the family Nandi made for herself isn't that different from what she has on Serenity. She then tells Mal that she intends to do something she should have done before - leave him and the ship.

River's and Early's tactile and spiritual connection with physical objects reflects an existential experience in Whedon's youth and his subsequent study of Jean-Paul Sartre's existential novel Nausea.

Despite being placed as the final episode on the home video releases, it was the tenth episode produced and was intended to take place before "Trash" and "The Message".

Simon is relaxing with Kaylee in the common room, telling her an amusing anecdote about medical school. River suddenly "sees" them looking at her, with Simon telling her that he'd "be there right now", implying she is responsible for taking him away from his successful medical career. She then finds Jayne and Shepherd Book in the kitchen, where she "hears" Jayne repeat his confession to Mal about selling out the Tams on Ariel, and Book mutters an angry but cryptic statement hinting at his less wholesome past. River continues to wander the ship and is moved by the sound of ocean waves as Zoe and Wash passionately kiss on the nearby bridge. Above the cargo bay, as Mal and Inara discuss her impending departure, River sees their unspoken frustrations over their unrealized relationship. None of the people she encounters are aware of her presence - except when speaking directly to her - making it clear that this is River's mind "walking" telepathically through the ship.

Fleeing the intense emotions, River runs down to the unoccupied cargo bay, where she spots a tree branch and picks it up. Suddenly, the real world returns, and she finds that she is holding one of Jayne's pistols while the crew surrounds her in a panic. Mal takes the gun from her and discovers it is loaded with the safety off. He orders her not to touch a weapon ever again, and River runs off, crying.

Meanwhile, a small vessel silently hovers above Serenity. The crew discusses what to do with River. When Zoe muses whether River has ever handled a gun, Kaylee reluctantly tells everyone about her experience during their assault on Adelei Niska's skyplex, when River killed three men with her eyes closed. The crew begins to speculate that River may be a "reader", having psychic powers, and though Simon objects, they question whether she might be dangerous. Both River and a man in a red spacesuit listen in. Once the crew goes to sleep, the man boards Serenity. He runs into Mal, subdues him, and locks the crew in their cabins. He surprises Kaylee in the engine room, ties her up, and threatens to rape her unless she keeps quiet. When Book hears him moving downstairs, the man disables him with a blow to the head. Simon hears a noise and rises to check on his sister, only to be attacked by the stranger, who addresses him by name. The man, Jubal Early, reveals that he is a bounty hunter pursuing River. As he waxes poetic and shares his opinions about various topics, he tells Simon that Kaylee will suffer unless he helps him find his sister.

Simon and Early search the ship, and run into Inara; Early pistol-whips her when she tries to appeal to his emotional side. The two men eventually reach the bridge, and Early, impatient and annoyed, threatens to shoot Simon if River doesn't give herself up. River then responds over the ship's intercom, explaining that because no one wanted her on Serenity but she didn't want to leave, she "melted away" and merged with the ship itself. River contacts Kaylee, telling her to cut herself free. As River reveals dark secrets about Early's past, unnerving and distracting him, Kaylee frees the crew, and River tells Mal she has a plan to deal with their assailant.

Early becomes suspicious when River mentions "how shiny it looks", and realizes that she isn't part of Serenity, but rather broadcasting from his own ship. He suddenly becomes frantic and tries to bargain with her, but River reassures him that she's ready to surrender as she cares for her shipmates and thinks leaving them is for the best. Simon attacks Early, but the hunter shoots him in the leg and knocks him flat on his back before donning his helmet and exiting Serenity. Once he's free of the ship's artificial gravity, Mal suddenly appears and shoves him off the ship into the deep of space, while River puts Early's ship on a preprogrammed course to nowhere and happily returns to Mal.

Later, in the infirmary, Simon carefully guides Zoe and Wash as they treat his bullet wound. Inara walks away from Mal as he tries to examine her cut lip. In the cargo bay, Jayne mocks Book's failure to defeat Early, despite "all them years of priest trainin'", and Book implies that he fought Early and only succumbed after a prolonged fight. Their friendship restored, Kaylee and River play jacks while Kaylee relates a racy anecdote from her past. River picks up and examines the bouncing ball, with its swirling, multicolored surface, as she drops it on the floor. Early, quietly floating through space as his oxygen supply slowly runs out, mutters to himself "Well, here I am."

Back on Serenity, Kaylee playfully chases River around the cargo bay for an apple she stole, despite Jayne having contributed a crate's worth to the ship's stores. Once she takes hold of the apple, Kaylee claims that "no power in the 'verse can stop me." Amid the noise, Inara urges Mal to respect the privacy of her imminently arriving client, a local councilor of some political importance. Mal agrees to do so, as he prepares to depart on a "milk run" to sell off a shipment of stolen medicine.

Later, Zoe and Wash puzzle over Jayne's generosity as they eat the apples, Wash munching it, and Zoe slicing it with a knife. Kaylee asks why Zoe and Mal always cut up their apples, and Zoe tells a war story about the time Alliance troops gave their unit apples packed with hidden grenades that killed members of their platoon. Wash sardonically embellishes the story, visibly annoyed by the close friendship between Mal and his wife. Mal vetoes Wash's idea to improve their profit from the medicine sales by bypassing the local middlemen, then begins cutting his own apple. Wash is surprised by this, and is furious to discover that Zoe herself had agreed with Mal's decision. He angrily tells Zoe that there is no room for "two husbands" in their marriage.

As Mal prepares to leave, Wash purposefully sabotages his shuttle's controls, demanding the chance to accompany Mal instead of Zoe. Mal reluctantly agrees. In her quarters, Inara massages the councilor, while remarking that when she chooses her rare female clients, she does so because they are extraordinary in some way, and hints that the councilor's gift is allowing Inara herself to relax and serve her own needs as well as the councilor's. At the exchange, Mal's contacts are killed by a sniper team, and he and Wash are tied up and taken off-planet. Zoe, Book, and Jayne go to look for them, and quickly deduce from the evidence that Niska was responsible.

On Niska's skyplex, Mal and Wash are tortured with an electroshock device; Mal deliberately provokes Wash by discussing his marital problems in order to keep him from passing out. The crew pools all of their money and gives it to Zoe, who goes to see Niska and tries to buy Mal and Wash's freedom. Niska says there is only enough for one man, and Zoe chooses Wash, leaving Mal behind to be tortured to the brink of death. Zoe gets Wash back to Serenity, and organizes a rescue mission with the entire crew, except for Inara and River. As the others fight their way through the skyplex, Kaylee is cornered near the Serenity, too frightened to shoot back. River finds her, takes Kaylee's gun, closes her eyes, and kills all of her attackers without hesitation, scaring Kaylee.

Seeing his abductor distracted, Mal gets up effortlessly despite the hours of pain he's endured and proceeds to beat a terrified Niska before his torturer interferes, allowing the crime lord to escape. Zoe, Jayne, and Wash arrive and gun down Mal's attacker, saving his life. Back on the ship, Inara's former client provides Simon with the expensive medical technology needed to treat Mal's injuries. As Wash sits down to a bowl of "wife soup", Mal surprises him by declaring that he must sleep with Zoe to deal with any lingering sexual tension between them, causing Wash to abandon his meal so he can spend time with his wife. Back in the cargo hold, Kaylee stares at River with a look of fear on her face, no longer wanting to play with her.

The crew is bemoaning their recent run of bad luck in finding jobs when Simon approaches them with a proposal. Aware that Ariel City has one of the Alliance's best hospitals, he decides to smuggle River in so he can scan her brain using the hospital's advanced diagnostic equipment. As payment, he informs the crew that all Alliance hospitals have well-stocked pharmaceutical lockers that are replenished daily, enabling them to steal millions of credits worth of drugs without anyone noticing.

Simon puts himself and River into medically-induced comas so they appear to be dead, allowing the crew to enter the hospital dressed in EMT uniforms on a refurbished medical shuttle Wash and Kaylee find in a scrapyard. The group then splits up, with Jayne assigned to keep tabs on Simon as he analyses River's condition while Mal and Zoe steal the drugs. Jayne secretly contacts an Alliance officer, McGuinness, and agrees to turn in the Tam siblings for their bounty. Once awakened, Simon, disguised as a doctor with River as his patient, brings her to the diagnostic ward and conducts his examination. He discovers that River's brain is missing its amygdala, preventing her from suppressing her emotions or negative thoughts.

With the analysis complete, Jayne leads the siblings to a rear entrance, where they are arrested by Alliance marshals; Jayne is double-crossed by McGuinness, who intends to keep the bounty for himself. Mal and Zoe return to the medical shuttle with the loot, but realize that Jayne and the Tams are late and head back into the hospital with their weapons to find them. The three prisoners are moved to a holding area, where Jayne and Simon overpower their guards and escape. Shortly afterwards, two blue-gloved men arrive to take custody of the Tams, using a mysterious sonic device to kill McGuinness and the other marshals when the pair learn that some of them talked to the Tams. Meanwhile, a terrified River leads Jayne and Simon through the rear of the hospital to a locked door, where Mal shoots out the lock and rescues them.

Inara returns to Serenity just as the crew arrives. Once everyone else has left the cargo area, Mal knocks Jayne out. Jayne awakens to find himself in an open airlock as the ship begins to leave Ariel's atmosphere. A terrified Jayne confesses his betrayal, and Mal tells him that when he betrays one of the crew, it's the same as betraying him. As Mal turns to leave, Jayne asks him not to tell the others about what he did. Mal silently agrees and seals the airlock, but leaves Jayne stuck inside for some time as punishment. Simon is about to administer a drug to his sister when River asks if its time to "go to sleep" again. Simon replies "No. It's time to wake up."

The episode is the television debut of actor Zac Efron, who appears in flashback as the young Simon Tam.

In the present day, Simon continues to try and diagnose River's condition, while Mal demands that they stay out of the way while he conducts business. Upon arriving at the backwater colony of Jiangyin, Shepherd Book aids Mal and Jayne in unloading and penning their cattle and meeting with the Grange brothers, their disreputable buyers. Just as they come to an agreement on price, the local marshals arrive to arrest the brothers for murder, and Book is seriously wounded in the ensuing gunfight.

Meanwhile, Simon and River join Inara and Kaylee in town as the women are shopping. Although Kaylee contemplates buying something nice for Simon, the doctor proceeds to insult her and her beloved Serenity with his complaints about their predicament, and the Tams are left to their own devices. Simon quickly discovers River has wandered off. She finds a maypole dance, and Simon watches his sister enjoy herself for a change. River's ecstatic dancing suddenly falters when Book is shot, but before Simon can react to his sister's distress, he is kidnapped by three shabbily-dressed men. River follows and is seized as well.

Mal and Zoe manage to get Book back to Serenity to stabilize him. When Wash is unable to find Simon to help Book, Mal realizes that Simon and River have probably been taken by local hill-folk, who are known to kidnap people, especially skilled workers, when they need their talents. He decides to abandon the Tams in order to seek urgently needed medical help off-planet for Book. On Inara's insistence, they dock with the Alliance cruiser Magellan; its captain refuses to help until Book tells them to check his identification card, at which point the captain orders immediate assistance. Mal and the rest of the crew wonder what kind of connections with the Alliance Book has to receive such treatment, but a recovering Book dodges Mal's questions, stating merely that "it's good to be home."

The hill folk initially welcome Simon and his sister, and Simon quickly takes up his new responsibilities as the town doctor. Doralee, the village teacher assigned to work as his nurse, merely suggests that Simon may well be in the place he is fated to be. Simon and River share a memory of their childhood, and River despairs of how her plight has cost Simon everything he worked for. When River tells Doralee about the cause of a young mute girl's silence, the devout woman believes her to be a witch and summons the town leader, who orders River to be burned alive when she reveals that he murdered his predecessor. Simon tries to talk the villagers down, but when these efforts fail, he instead chooses to stand beside her as the fire is lit. Serenity then swoops over the village, and with Jayne positioned above with a sniper rifle, Mal and Zoe force the villagers at gunpoint to release the Tams.

As Serenity leaves Jiangyin, Simon asks Mal why he came back for them, and Mal explains off-handedly that Simon is part of his crew. "But you don't even like me," Simon reminds him. "Why'd you do it?" "You're on my crew," Mal repeats. "Why are we still talking about this?"

At the ball, Atherton asks Inara to be his personal Companion, remaining in a world more suited to her, but she diplomatically defers making a final decision. Suddenly, the arrival of "Miss Kaywinnet Lee Frye and escort" is announced — Kaylee, in a ruffled dress she had earlier coveted in a shop window, accompanied by Mal in a fine suit. Back on Serenity, Simon, Book, and Jayne play cards, using ship chores as currency. River, experiencing another of her manic outbursts, frantically shreds the Blue Sun labels of their canned food supplies before Simon and Book calm her. Meanwhile, Wash and Zoe have sex.

At the ball, Kaylee's friendly attempt to mix with the debutantes fails, but she is rescued by an older gentleman, then draws in a group of several mechanically minded men fascinated by her knowledge of ships. Meanwhile, Mal finds Warrick, who is cool to any proposal that Badger is behind, despite Mal's professionalism. Just then, Atherton Wing, with Inara in tow, interrupts their conversation. Mal escorts Inara onto the dance floor, but when Atherton cuts in and insists on his right to take Inara away because "money changed hands", Mal punches him in the face, unknowingly making a challenge that commits him to a duel by sword against Atherton, a renowned fencer. Warrick agrees to be his second and Mal is put up in an expensive room by Atherton for the evening to ensure he won't try to escape.

On Serenity, Badger and his henchman arrive uninvited to explain to the remaining crew that Mal will be fighting Atherton for his life, with Badger admitting that his only interest is making sure the crew uphold their end of the deal should Mal be killed. As Mal ineptly practices for the duel, Inara sneaks into his room to talk; she is confused by Mal's decision to punch Atherton because he insulted her, when Mal often does this himself. Mal replies that he merely insults her profession, whereas Wing insulted her.

In the meantime, the crew of Serenity sits in the cargo hold, attempting to plot an escape from the watchful eyes of Badger and his cronies. Jayne comes up with the idea that they need a diversion to get Badger separated from his men. River appears and, in a display of her as-yet unrevealed talents, converses with Badger in his own accent, reveals his criminal history, and tricks him into thinking she was born on his home planet. River departs, leaving behind a confounded but amused Badger.

In the course of the duel, Atherton wounds Mal several times through his knowledge of swordplay and Mal's own incompetence, and when he has Mal at his mercy, turns at a plea from Inara, who offers to stay with him if he will only spare Mal's life. Mal uses his distraction to disarm Atherton, deliver a punch to the face, and throw his own broken sword blade at him, stabbing him in the shoulder. Mal stands over the wounded Wing, wielding his own sword, and Warrick insists that he deliver the final blow, lest Atherton be humiliated for life. Mal, however, shows mercy (after getting in two more pokes), saying that he has to be the "better man". As Inara helps Mal off the field, Atherton calls out to her, saying he will ruin her for rejecting him. Inara responds by informing him that he is now persona non grata in the Companion registry, implicitly ruining him. Entertained by Mal's trouncing of the conceited Wing, and impressed by his tenacity, Warrick agrees to send his cargo with Mal.

The as-yet-unbegun escape plan plotted by the Serenity crew is aborted by the return of Inara and Mal, who chases a pleased Badger off his ship. Kaylee quietly sits in her room, listening to classical music, and gazing with pride at her ballgown. Inara and Mal share a moment on the cargo bay landing, watching over their cargo from Harrow — a bay full of cattle.

After Serenity suffers a catastrophe that leaves her crew with only hours of oxygen, flashbacks show how Mal and Zoe acquired Serenity and assembled their motley crew.

Hours later, a salvage ship arrives and makes contact with Mal. He offers to trade the captain anything in the cargo hold for a new catalyzer, but the salvagers shoot Mal in the chest and attempt to commandeer the Serenity for scrap. Mal is able to pull a hidden gun, and forces the salvagers to drop the catalyzer and leave the ship. Despite outnumbering him, they comply and promptly depart. Bleeding from a stomach wound and on the verge of passing out, Mal manages to get the new catalyzer installed and restarts the engine just as the ship's oxygen runs out. He then staggers up to the bridge, but falls unconscious before he can recall the shuttles.

He wakes up in the infirmary, surrounded by the rest of the crew while Wash is hooked up to him as part of a blood transfusion. A supine but conscious Zoe welcomes him back. She reveals that she ordered the crew to return to Serenity when she regained consciousness, against Mal's orders. Mal thanks her for disobeying him and falls back asleep, though not before asking Shepherd Book to assure him that the crew will still be there when he wakes back up.

Spread throughout the episode is a sequence of flashbacks showing the events that led to each crew member joining the ship. Flashbacks are intercut with the two more recent timelines based on spatial relationships, contrasting past events in certain areas of the ship with current ones. First, Mal, having just obtained the Serenity from a used-ships dealer, convinces Zoe to sign on as his first mate. He then hires Hoban Washburne, a skilled pilot whom Zoe finds bothersome, and a laid-back mechanic named Bester. On a layover for repairs, Bester brings a young woman to the engine room for sex; this woman, Kaylee Frye, soon replaces him as engineer when she points out Bester's mistakes in repairing the engine and gets it running. Mal then decides to hire out the Serenity's shuttles, and meets Inara Serra, who uses her high status as a Companion to bargain for a 25% discount on the rent. She also insists that Mal never call her a "whore" again (a promise that he makes without ever keeping it). During one of their first jobs as a crew, Mal and Zoe are held up by a crew of bandits, including gunman Jayne Cobb. Mal, realizing that Jayne is being exploited by his greedy comrades, talks him into betraying them and switching sides.

The episode closes with a final flashback, as Mal and the ship dealer are inspecting a vessel. As the dealer waxes poetic about his offerings, Mal's eye suddenly spots a neglected old transport ship in the rear of the dealer's yard - Serenity.

"Jaynestown" originally premiered on Fox as the show's fourth episode. It aired on October 18, 2002 following a two-week hiatus due to Fox Sports' coverage of the MLB postseason game between the Anaheim Angels and the Minnesota Twins the previous Friday.

The crew reaches Canton, with Simon posing as a merchant looking to purchase industrial clay and the others as his employees. After talking with the foreman, they enter the town, where they find a statue of the "Hero of Canton", which to Jayne's shock is him. At a tavern, the crew hears a folk song revealing that the locals, who refer to themselves as "mudders", worship Jayne as their savior. Jayne reveals that years ago, he robbed the local magistrate, Higgins, but his getaway vehicle was damaged and he was forced to dump the stolen money to escape. The loot apparently rained down on the mudders, causing them to mistakenly believe that he robbed the magistrate to protest his corrupt rule. Jayne is recognized and the mudders surround and honor him. Mal's smuggling contact is horrified, fearing that the authorities will catch wind of their presence, but Mal decides to use Jayne's popularity to their advantage by convincing the mudders to throw a celebration for Jayne while they move the goods to Serenity.

Inara meets with Higgins, who introduces her to his 26-year-old son Fess. Fess is still a virgin, so the magistrate has hired Inara to "make a man of him". She reassures Fess that there is nothing wrong with his being a virgin, and after having sex with him, talks about how he needs to be his own man and not let his father control his life. Higgins and his foreman release a half-blind man, Stitch Hessian, from what appears to have been four years of solitary confinement in a very small cell, giving him a loaded shotgun and telling him that this is his chance to get revenge on his old partner, Jayne.

On the ship, an agitated River tears up Shepherd Book's Bible, insisting that it makes no sense and that she has to "fix" it. Book manages to calm her down and explains that the Bible cannot be understood in a logical or scientific sense, but rather acts as an instrument of faith that fixes people rather than needing fixing itself. Later, she attempts to repair and return it to him, but panics when she sees his wild head of hair (per the rules of his order) that he normally keeps in a tight bun. Zoe then forces Book to tie his hair back when River tries to hide from him.

Inara prepares to return to the ship. When Fess expresses puzzlement at not feeling any different now that his virginity is gone, she explains to him that being a man is about being old enough to ask such a question rather than just having sex. Inara then learns from Fess that Jayne is set to either be killed or arrested by the magistrate's men, and that the ship has been "land-locked". He tells her that he sympathizes with what Jayne did, and hopes that he can escape.

Mal returns to fetch Kaylee and Simon from the bar, finding the mechanic draped over the doctor on a couch. He tries to explain to Mal how "nothing happened", but once again manages to accidentally insult the frustrated Kaylee. Collecting a tipsy Jayne, they head off, but Kaylee stops Simon in his tracks with her scorn. As the doctor eats breakfast alone, Stitch arrives. The scarred criminal brutalizes him in an attempt to locate Jayne, but the roars of an approving crowd outside give away his location instead. Stitch drags Simon along as a hostage to confront Jayne.

Stitch tells the mudders that he helped Jayne steal the money, and that when they found themselves needing to reduce weight, Jayne chose to throw him out first instead of the money; Jayne retorts that Stitch would have done the same. Stitch then shoots, but a young mudder jumps in front of Jayne and is killed. Jayne kills Stitch with his knife, and screams at the mudders that he is no hero and that they shouldn't have to wait for someone to come along and solve all their problems. He then tears down his own statue and angrily grabs his knife from the hands of a young boy before storming off with the crew.

Wash attempts to start the ship, but is unable to achieve ignition due to the land-lock. It is quickly released, however, due to Fess using his position to order Serenity's release. Kaylee has a heart-to-heart talk with Simon but cannot resist briefly making him worry about what happened after the previous night's party. In the cargo bay, Jayne broods about the mudder's sacrifice and how the townsfolk will probably put the statue back up and continue to worship him. Mal attempts to explain to Jayne the hero worship is not about him, but about what the townsfolk need, but Jayne only replies: "Don't make no sense."

River leaves the ship and finds Mal and Zoe before pointing out mutilated bodies hanging from the ceiling. Mal knows what did this and orders everyone to regroup in the engine room, but Jayne is ambushed by a mysterious attacker and fires his gun wildly. Mal finds the wounded man hiding behind an air grate and has him brought back to the ship.

As Simon treats the wounded man, Mal reveals to the rest of the crew that he must be the lone survivor of a Reaver attack. He explains how the Reavers, once settlers themselves, were driven insane after seeing the nothing at the "edge of the galaxy" and now commit unspeakable acts of evil against anyone they encounter. He allows Shepherd Book and Simon to give the dead a proper funeral, while Kaylee removes a Reaver booby trap that attached itself to Serenity when they docked earlier.

Once the derelict ship's cargo is aboard, Serenity starts to leave, only to be stopped by an Alliance cruiser. Armed troops board the ship and find Mal and everyone but River and Simon waiting for them, the salvaged cargo plainly in sight to avoid accusations of theft. Alliance Commander Harken accuses them of harboring two fugitives and detains them for questioning.

Commander Harken interviews each member of the crew while his crew tend to the survivor and ransack Serenity. The space-suited Tams are undetected; Mal had shown them where to cling to on the outside of the hull knowing that the Alliance wouldn't think to check there.

Harken, aware of Mal's past as a Browncoat, accuses him of attacking the settler ship, revealing that the survivor's tongue has been split and implying that Mal did it to keep him from speaking. Mal realizes that the survivor is becoming a Reaver, having been traumatized by what he witnessed. Harken dismisses Mal's idea as nonsense designed to avoid blame and orders that Serenity be impounded so that it can be sold at auction. As Harken prepares to confine Mal, his lieutenant informs him that the survivor has killed the medical personnel attending to him and escaped. Mal convinces Harken that he knows where the madman will go. Harken allows Mal to lead him and his soldiers back onto Serenity. The survivor attacks the soldiers, but Mal is able to break the Reaver's neck, saving Harken's life. As a result, Harken allows the crew of Serenity to go, though he still confiscates their cargo. After Serenity undocks, the cruiser is seen firing on the derelict ship, destroying it.

On a "skyplex" (an orbiting space city), Mal, Zoe, and Jayne meet crime lord Adelei Niska and his hulking lieutenant, Crow, to arrange a job. Niska sadistically shows them the body of the last person who failed him. The job is to steal two crates from a moving train, which Mal shows no interest in knowing the contents of.

During the heist, Mal and Zoe sneak past an entire squad of Alliance troops who are coincidentally on the train. They break into the locked train car and find the crates, while Serenity flies over the speeding train and lowers Jayne on a winch to collect the cargo. Meanwhile, a curious trooper sets off a booby trap that Zoe had set. Jayne is wounded, and Mal knocks out the soldier before he can see what is happening. Jayne and the crates are hoisted onto the ship, whilst Mal and Zoe covertly reenter the passenger car and pretend to be regular passengers.

Wash parks Serenity in a nearby canyon. Jayne wants to get to the rendezvous point and finish the job, but Wash refuses to leave without Mal and Zoe. When Jayne tries to take the ship by force, Simon sedates him. Meanwhile, Mal learns that the stolen cargo is desperately needed medicine. The nearby mining town is afflicted with "Bowden's Malady", a degenerative disease caused by mining activity. The local sheriff is suspicious of Mal's cover story that he and Zoe are a married couple looking for work. Inara appears and uses her considerable status as a Companion, falsely claiming that Mal is her runaway "indentured man" who persuaded Zoe to leave her husband. The impressed sheriff lets her take the "runaways" back into her own custody.

Mal decides they will deliver the medicine to the townspeople and return Niska's money. Niska's henchmen find them first, and a fight ensues. The Serenity crew wins, and secures the villains. Mal and Zoe drive the cargo to the town, intending to drop off the crates discreetly. They are surprised by the sheriff and his deputies, who realize what they have done. They are grateful for the return of the medicine and allow them to go free. Mal tries to negotiate with Crow but he says Niska will refuse, and promises to hunt down and kill him. Mal casually kills Crow, and the next henchman agrees to cooperate. Elsewhere, on an Alliance cruiser, two mysterious men in suits and wearing blue gloves inquire about a girl and show the captain a photo of River Tam.