Out of Gas

Written by: Tim Minear Directed by: David Solomon

Original Airdate: 10.25.02 The episode begins with a wounded Mal wandering the ship, delirious. We find out that after an engine explosion the Serenity lost its life support. The other eight crew take the two shuttles as Mal remains to respond if anyone comes for their beacon. Back in the present, Mal wanders the ship and flashbacks to how he purchased Serenity, hired Wash and Kaylee, acquired Inara as a passenger, and was tracked down by Jayne and recruited him.

A salvage ship arrives and offers Mal the part they need, but its captain shoots him before he drives them off and keeps the part. The badly wounded Mal tries to attach the part, succeeds, and fails to sends the signal to recall the shuttles. But they come back for him anyway.

Review

Warning: If you’re feeling a bit dizzy and light headed, it may be because there are SPOILERS just ahead for the latest episode of Firefly, “Out of Gas.” You may want to sit down and take a few deep breaths before proceeding any further…

In short: Firefly turns the corner.

: While watching the Washington Redskins play the Indianapolis Colts last evening, the TV commentators kept saying how the Redskins felt like they had “turned the corner.” For the first time all year, the scheme all made sense and the one rag-tag group of players had come together into a cohesive unit. And the evidence was apparent on the field for much of the game. : Which is exactly what happened this week with Firefly. : For the first time, Firefly took a diverse group of writers, actors, and behind the scenes people and delivered a solid, entertaining, gripping, edge-of-your-seat episode that not only had me glued to my screen but left me yearning for more as soon as possible. : The entire show just clicked on every level. : A lot of this credit has to go to Tim Minear, who was able to craft a script that drew me in from the first moments. The way the script jumped back and forth between the present, the recent past and the early days of the Serenity crew was intriguing and a lot of fun. Seeing snippets of the story slowly unfold was compelling and it generated enough interest to keep me going. Of course, early on there were the obvious questions–what had happened to Mal? Where was the rest of the crew? etc. But the real meat of the script wasn’t what had happened but why it had happened and what led the crew to this point? : Of course, Minear’s superb script and sense of pacing were ably helped by the direction of David Solomon. I liked how each different era had a different tinge to it–the early days seeming washed out, like those old-time photographs that you can have done at amusement parks, the recent past was done in full, warm colors and the present tense events were done in tinges of blue. All of this worked well because it easily helped us shift between eras without having to stop and think–OK, where am I now? : It’s great to see a writer and a director just click so well. : And I have to admit that I like the way the origin story unfolded. We got to see different sides of things–new and interesting perspectives. Seeing the early days of Mal’s buying the ship, hiring Wash, finding Kaylee and brining Inara aboard the ship were extremely well done. Mineear did a good job of playing with our perceptions of how the characters are and how they interact now. Indeed, there was a contrast between how the crew interacted in the dinner scenes and how they all initially came together. Of course, the most amusing belonged to Jayne (a character who is really growing on me quickly) in which he goes to the highest bidder during a confrontation. I loved that and I get the feeling that Jayne has changed a bit–he does have some loyalty to Mal, even if it’s just that Mal brings about big profits to him. I’d love to see some exploration of how Jayne changed and what brought this about. Then we had Inara, whose back story was the most obvious–she is initially cold toward Mal and it was an interesting contrast of her attempts to reach out and tell him (possibly) farewell when everyone is forced to abandon Serenity. : I think my second favorite story, though, was the story of how Kaylee got to be part of this crew. Indeed, I figured when we met the original engineer early on that at some point, he’d have to go. But what I didn’t see was how Kaylee would get there. Indeed, who would figure that a quick tryst in the engine room might lead to her job on the ship. Again, there was such a great contrast between her initial coming on board and the events of the recent past was nicely done. Seeing that Kaylee came on board because of her understanding of the engine and then later realizing that not everything can be fixed was a nice little touch. It’s nice to see that she can’t always pull a Scotty and hold things together with “spit and baling wire.” : And while I did enjoy seeing all of this back story unfold, I have to admit that part of be wanted to find out the circumstances of how Book, Simon and River came on board the ship. Alas, then we’d have to have a two hour episode, which that wouldn’t necessarily have been a bad thing since “Out of Gas” was firing on all cylinders this week. I could easily have enjoyed another hour of this episode, simply because it seemed to be firing on all cylinders. : But while we got a good bit of exploration about the past of the various crew members, the focus of this episode was on Mal. It’s interesting to see Mal, as flawed a focal character as he is. However, when it all boils down to it, Mal has a never say die attitude and he’s not about to let anything stand in his way. We saw this time and again in “Out of Gas.” Mal is not one to simply let the universe defeat him–he will fight it to his last breath. We saw this in his argument with Wash about how to boost the signal and hopefully reach someone, we saw this as stood firm against the pirates and single-handedly took the part he needed and forced them off his ship. We saw this time and again as he was running low on air and close to death–each time he stumbled, he managed to get up and keep fighting. This will to save himself and the ship was superbly realized in what was the most wince-inducing scene of the story–Mal’s injecting himself with adrenaline in sick bay. That was one of those intense moments that had me wanting to look away because of what was happening (plus I hate needles) but yet I was totally compelled to watch. : And at the center of this was Nathan Fillion, who took a strong script and ran with it. At every corner, he found just the right blend of insanity and determination to bring Mal totally to life. Seeing him stumble through the ship, it was easy to believe that Mal was running out of air and life. The way that Fillion carried himself through the ship was riveting. As I said before, the scene where Mal has to inject himself with adrenaline hit all the right notes, as did everything else he did here. I admit that I was a bit skeptical when I heard Fillion was cast–honestly, I saw Two Guys and A Girl once or twice and he wasn’t that impressive there. But this episode alone showed why he was exactly the right choice for this role. : And he makes Mal come alive. : So, I guess that’s about it for now except a few small things… : –I liked seeing how Zoë didn’t instantly take to Wash. Again, there’s a story I want to see more of. : –I enjoyed how the crew found out it was Simon’s birthday and went out of their way to make him feel like part of a family by celebrating it. Also, those scenes with the obvious flirting between he and Kaylee were nicely done. : –Interesting that Mal is a bit more uptight about sex than others on the crew. On two occasions, we’ve seen him be uncomfortable with it. Of course, here walking in on Kaylee and the engineer would tend to be a bit embarrassing. : –I loved the argument between Mal and Wash about how to boost the signal’s power and strength. : So, overall, “Out of Gas” was the first really great episode of Firefly I’ve seen. All the pieces came together for an enjoyable episode. Everyone on the cast and crew should be commended for a fine effort.

My rating: 10.0 (out of 10.0)

Next up: Mal faces a duel….

Quotes

Mal: Ship like this, be with you until the day you die. Zoe: That’s because it’s a deathtrap.

Mal: I need that in Captain Dummy mode, Kaylee. Kaylee: We’re dead in the water.

Inara: Mal, you don’t have to die alone. Mal: Everyone dies alone.

Mal: Which one you figured tracked us? Zoe: The ugly one, sir. Mal: Could you be more specific?

Mal: Looks can be deceiving. Jayne: Not as deceiving as a low down, dirty deceiver. Mal: Well said. Wasn’t that well said, Zoe? Zoe: It had a kinda poetry to it.

Jayne: Tell us where the stuff is so I can shoot you. Mal: Point of interest. Offering to shoot us might not work so well as an incentive as you might imagine.

Jayne: Hey, you know, we’d have been back first but there’s something wrong with Inara’s shuttle. She did something to it, Mal - it smells funny. Inara: I told you, that’s incense. Jayne: That’s what you say.

Jayne: Hey, do you have any funny whorin’ stories? Inara: Oh, do I ever! Funny and sexy. You have no idea. And you never will.

Wash: Well, I could boost the signal but it would muck up the navigation system of any passing ship and they’d have to dig out the signal before they could go anywhere. (pause) Well, maybe I should do that. Mal: Maybe you should! Wash: Okay! Mal: Good! Wash: Fine! Please credit Hellmouth Central with these quotes when using them for any publication.