yeah I'd show her the pilot

The pilot is a great introduction, that's what Joss made it for. It's just about perfect, but it's 2 hours long. next behind it, for one hour long, are OMR and Shindig.

My mom hates all science fiction with a passion, but she watched all 14 episodes of Firefly, and then asked, "Then what happened?" My advise: Start from the beginning. She'll love you for it! :)

If you’re thinking of something from the second disk I think OMR is a good choice. It’s kind of a self-contained story. You can probably get your mom to watch it without having to fill her in on a lot of the details of what’s gone on before. You’ll likely have to tell her Zoe and Wash are married and Simon and River are siblings, a few things like that, but I think you’ll have the most fun watching her when she hears Mal’s comment to Inara at the very end. That little segment of FF humor should hook her and get her to agree to watch a couple more episodes. Good luck!

Z

Tell her it's not science fiction. It's a western that happens to take place in the future. Unless she hates westerns. My personal favorite is Jaynestown, but it's likely to confuse people who aren't familiar with the characters. My mom caught it on the SciFi chanel, apparently, and liked it okay but didn't really understand what was going on. So I'd say if you have the chance, watch the pilot first. That's what it's there for :)

A lot of 'coats love 'Our Mrs Reynolds' for the first episode. My personal fav is 'War Stories', but i think that 'WS" is best watched when one has the feel of the crew already. I guess i would nominate the pilot for your mom. At least she gets to see the episodes from the start. Good Luck! :)