“The Train Job”

1AGE01
Writers: Joss Whedon & Tim Minear
Director: Joss Whedon
Airdate: 9/20/02

We join the crew of Serenity in a dark, musky bar. There, Captain Mal Reynolds sits with Zoe and Jayne trying to stay out of trouble, but as always, he’s having a hard time avoiding it. Mal and Zoe are playing a game that resembles Go, and Mal is losing.

A local in the bar begins making grandiose comments about Unification Day and the dawn of a new galaxy. Mal approaches the bar and talks to the man who asks him to drink to the Alliance with him. Mal is perturbed when the man accuses him of being an Independent.

Mal confronts the man and gets into a bar brawl that ends with the crew trapped against a cliff wall. Mal calls his pilot, Wash, to come and get them. As they are about to be taken out, Wash makes a last-minute rescue and flies them into space.

Back on the ship, Simon continues to nurse his sister River back to health. She continues to have nightmares, and her past remains mysterious. Mal confronts Simon and River, and River remarks that Mal means “bad” in Latin.

Also on the ship, Shepherd Book begins to delve into the lives of the passengers. Mal tells him that he’s welcome on the ship, but God is not.

Over in Inara’s shuttle, Kaylee is being pampered by Inara, the Companion. Mal walks in on them and tells Kaylee to get to the engine room and repair it. Kaylee leaves and Mal confides in Inara about an upcoming job. He tells her that they’re meeting a man named Niska, and that she should stay on the ship because it may not be safe for her.

They meet up with Niska and are escorted in by Crow, the resident henchman of Niska’s gang. Niska tells them that their job is to rob a train containing some precious cargo. Niska warns Mal that his reputation of being “hard” is not unwarranted, but if they do the job right, they’ll have no problems.

He tells them they’ll be taking Alliance goods from a train heading toward Paradiso (a planet in the Georgia System) and delivering them to Crow. They’ll receive half the money up front and half when they complete the job.

On the train, Mal and Zoe pose as husband and wife as they locate the material. They reach the cargo room and prepare the goods. Flying overhead, Wash steadies the ship for contact while Jayne readies himself to be lowered down.

On the ship, Shepherd and Inara discuss the Captain. Kaylee lowers Jayne down onto the train and they hook up the cargo. Just as things seem to be going as planned, an Alliance officer walks in on them, shoots Jayne in the leg and forces Mal and Zoe to be left behind.

The train arrives in Paradiso and everyone is questioned when the cargo is discovered missing. It turns out that the cargo was containing medicine for the city’s residents who are suffering from a degenerative malady inflicted on the miners in the town due to bad working conditions.

A local sheriff from Paradiso interrogates Mal and Zoe. Mal tells the sheriff that his uncle bought him a ticket to help set him up in a job. The sheriff seems suspect of Mal’s story, but Mal sticks to his guns.

Serenity lands in a canyon, and while Simon addresses Jayne’s wound, Jayne begins ranting about getting the goods to Crow before Niska orders them killed. The debate continues, but Wash refuses to fly without the Captain. Simon drugs Jayne, who passes out just as he’s barking orders to leave.

The crew devises a plan to send Inara in and concoct a story that Mal is Inara’s indentured man who ran off with her money. Her story passes, and the sheriff lets them go.

On the ship, Mal tells the crew that they aren’t taking the cargo to Niska, since the people of Paradiso need it much more. Just then, Crow and his men arrive on Serenity. A fight breaks out on the ship, and Mal’s crew disables Crow and his men.

Mal and his crew begin to haul the cargo back to town and are met by the sheriff. The sheriff remarks on Mal’s admirable character, lets them go, and has the locals take the cargo into town.

A restrained Crow tells them that he’ll hunt them down until he dies. Mal kills him, and goes to the next henchman in charge. That henchman quickly agrees to return to Niska with the money.

Simon begins tending to Mal’s wounds and they discuss River. Simon tells Mal that she’s perfectly normal one minute and completely incoherent the next. We then see River in her room, cryptically muttering “two by two, hands of blue” to herself.

Up in space on an Alliance ship, a couple of Alliance investigators tell the ship captain that they are looking for River. They are wearing blue gloves.

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