FOX Broadcasting Company: Firefly

“Ariel”

1AGE08
Writer: Jose Molina
Director: Alan Kroaker
Airdate: 11/15/02

Serenity hurtles through space. On board, the crew mulls around while discussing Ariel, a core planet. Shepherd Book is not present, as he’s been dropped off to meditate at an Abbey. Zoe says she's not getting off the ship. Too many Feds. Mal says nobody's getting off the ship. They're dropping off Inara so she can renew her companion's license. Guild law requires an annual physical for all companions.

Cleaning his guns, Jayne spits on them. Simon asks him not to, but he does anyway. Suddenly, River picks up a butcher's knife and slashes Jayne across the chest. In the infirmary, as Simon is stitching him up, Jayne tells Mal the siblings have to go before she kills somebody. Mal refuses, but tells Simon that River is completely confined to her room.

Later, Mal and Jayne complain that they have no job to do while waiting on Inara. Simon says if the crew helps him get River into the hospital's diagnostic ward, he'll help them get into the hospital vault and tell them what medicines to steal (to later sell on the street for huge money). Simon wants to get River into a 3-D neuro-imager to find out what they did to her at the Academy.

Simon reveals his plan to sneak into the hospital unnoticed. Kaylee and Wash will build an ambulance ship from old scrap parts, and Mal, Zoe and Jayne will pose as medics. They'll be carrying Simon and River, who will be induced into unconsciousness to seem like corpses.

The ambulance touches down at the hospital and the plan is underway. Jayne assures Mal that he's okay with Simon's plan. The on-duty nurse sends our crew down to the morgue. Mal gives River and Simon an injection that will revive them in a few minutes, then he and Zoe depart for the vault. After a moment, Jayne walks down the hall to a telephone and calls the police. The officer asks if Jayne has the fugitives, Jayne asks if the officer has his reward.

Jayne heads back to the morgue, where River and Simon come to. Up in the hallways, Mal and Zoe are pushing their gurneys towards the vault when a doctor stops them, asking to see Mal's badge. Meanwhile, as Simon and Jayne wheel River through a patient wing, a patient begins having a heart attack. Simon jumps in and saves the man's life.

Back in the hallway, the doctor orders Mal and Zoe to follow him. He begins yelling at them, but Zoe shocks him with the paddles, knocking him out. They take off for the vault and get in using the doctor's ID card.

Simon lays River down in the neuro-imager and kicks it on. In the vault, Mal and Zoe begin cleaning house according to Simon's shopping list. They load up the gurneys, close the lids and take off.

Simon begins scanning River. A hologram of her brain appears over her. Simon is shocked by what he sees. He says they cut into her brain, over and over, removing the part that allows her to suppress feelings. Jayne tries to rush out the group. Simon says they have twenty more minutes, but Jayne says the plan changed while Simon was out. Captain's orders.

The group moves outside, where Federal marshals are waiting for them. Jayne asks the officer he spoke with how they want to handle things. The marshals arrest Jayne for aiding and abetting fugitives. Jayne asks about his money. The officer says it's his money now.

Mal and Zoe make it back to the ambulance. Mal wonders where the rest of the group is. Well, they're inside, being held by the marshals. Outside, Mal realizes something is up. He and Zoe arm themselves and looks for a way to sneak in the back.

The marshals transfer their captives into a holding room and Jayne goes on the attack. He knocks out one guard and kills another. Mal and Zoe hustle through the hospital. Kaylee and Wash radio directions to them.

Two sinister men, dressed in black suits, show up and interrogate the arresting officer. When the suited men find out the officer spoke with the captives, one of the men pulls a blue wand device out of his pocket and triggers it. The arresting officer begins to bleed from every orifice, as well as his fingernails.

Inside the holding room, Jayne, Simon and River hear the men screaming outside. The screaming continues until the suited men have killed all of the marshals. Our group takes off in the other direction. They're unsure of where they're going, but it's away from the screaming. The suited men find the guard that Jayne knocked unconscious and bleed him to death as well.

The trio finds a door, but it's locked. Jayne tries to blast it open, but his stolen weapon malfunctions. The suited men are rapidly approaching. Jayne tries to break the door open when the handle is blasted off from the other side. Mal and Zoe are standing there.

The ambulance arrives back on Serenity just in time to meet Inara, who has also returned. The entire crew is safe. Simon is optimistic about a possible treatment for River, based on the data he collected. Simon thanks Jayne for saving them. After the crew leaves, Mal and Jayne begins to unload the pilfered medicine. When Jayne turns around, Mal cracks him in the face with a wrench, knocking him out cold.

When Jayne comes to, he's locked in the cargo hold with a radio. From the other side, Mal opens the cargo bay door and asks Jayne why he went out the back. He knows Jayne called the Feds. Jayne denies it vehemently.

Mal says if Jayne turns on any of his crew, he turns on Mal. Worried that he's about to be sucked out the door when the ship pressurizes, Jayne asks Mal to not tell the crew what he did. Mal walks upstairs, but not before closing the cargo bay door. He leaves Jayne in the cargo hold to think about what he did.

River sits quietly drawing as Simon approaches to give her an injection. She asks if it’s time to go to sleep again. He smiles and says that it’s time to wake up.

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