I have this episode in the Firefly 4-Disc DVD set.
We meet Mal as a Sergeant fighting for independence against the Alliance. He and his second-in-command Zoe are in the middle of a battle in Serenity Valley, and Mal is clearly in charge. He’s giving orders on his feet while dodging bullets on his way to shoot down a skiff that’s picking off his men like flies. Mal reaches the gun and successfully brings the skiff down. But when he returns to camp anticipating air support, orders come over the radio to lay down arms. Mal looks out to see Alliance ships – lots of them – landing nearby. The battle is lost, and Mal is speechless.We next see him six years later as Captain Reynolds of the ship Serenity, a Firefly-class vessel. He’s with Zoe and Jayne on a job – breaking into a derelict ship to steal its cargo. During the raid, an Alliance ship gets too close for comfort and Mal orders crew members Wash and Kaylee to shut down power. Mal and the others get the three crates of goods onboard Serenity and leave…but not without being noticed.
Mal checks the cargo and notices that it’s marked, but decides to continue on to Persephone where he can turn it over to Badger (who hired Mal to get the goods), take on some passengers and head to Boros for some much needed R & R. Once on Persephone, he brings Zoe and Jayne with him to Badger’s to finalize the deal and hits another snag; Badger mentions that an Alliance bulletin went out saying a Firefly-class vessel was seen pulling illegal salvage off a derelict transport. Mal explains that Serenity wasn’t mentioned by name, but Badger tells him that marked cargo is worthless and calls off the deal.
On the way back to the ship, Mal decides to take the goods to Patience, an old acquaintance currently living on Whitefall. Zoe reminds him that Patience once shot him, but Mal doesn’t hold any grudges and believes that Patience was in the right to shoot him at the time. Mal returns to Serenity and meets Dr. Simon Tam, one of his paying passengers. After take off, Mal lays down the ground rules while aboard his ship, and greets the other two new faces: Mr. Dobson and Book, a shepherd.
En route to Whitefall, Mal is told that a signal went out from his ship telling the Alliance their location. Convinced Simon is the mole, and catching him unescorted in the cargo hold, Mal hits him, and then draws his gun on the young doctor when Book tells Mal he’s got the wrong man. It turns out Mr. Dobson sent the signal and has the drop on Mal while he arrests Simon. Mal is relieved that this has nothing to do with the cargo he’s carrying, but Dobson tells him that since he was transporting a wanted man, the Alliance will be holding the whole crew for questioning. Mal tries to cooperate, but there’s confusion, and Kaylee is shot by accident as the Alliance cruiser approaches. Simon forces Mal to decide - run from the Alliance and let Simon operate, or dump him for the feds…and Kaylee die. They run, and Mal assists Simon with the operation.
Once Kaylee is stable, Mal opens the crate Simon was sneaking into the cargo area to check on and finds it contains a young woman, Simon’s sister River. After learning how the two of them wound up on Persephone, Mal explains that with the Alliance on their tail, a fed tied up and everyone onboard most likely I.D.’d, the best thing to do is finish the job – get to Whitefall, make the deal with Patience, and keep flying. As for Simon and River, he’s ready to leave them on Whitefall if Kaylee survives. If not, he’ll throw them out before then. He also leaves it to Jayne to interrogate Dobson to find out exactly what was sent in the message.
Mal’s problems get worse when a Reaver ship crosses their path. The good news is that the ship passes by, and things start looking better when Kaylee wakes up. Mal tells her that she’ll be fine and the ship can’t run without her. She tells him not to blame the doctor for what happened, and then passes out. Mal tells Simon that Kaylee’s dead, a consequence of his actions, but it turns out to be a lie, and Mal gets a good laugh out of it.
Patience calls to set up the deal, and Mal confesses that the goods are stamped with Alliance markings. She agrees anyway, and Mal thinks she plans to shoot him again. Left with little choice, he has the ship reach Whitefall ahead of schedule in order to bury the cargo and plan a strategy to walk away from the exchange. His plan is for Jayne to keep radio contact while he knocks out any of Patience’s snipers in order to cover Mal and Zoe as the drop is made.
Patience arrives as planned, with several armed guards, and Mal gives the location of the buried goods. As proof of the cargo’s existence, he hands over one of the pieces, which turns out to be food, and gets 200 platinum pieces for it. Things go wrong again when Patience asks for the money back. Considering the number of men Patience brought with her, Mal reluctantly agrees, and just before she can get the upper hand, has Jayne open fire. Mal’s hit during the firefight, but only slightly as the bullet grazes his left arm, and he manages to pin Patience under her own horse…by shooting it. He then takes the money he and his crew so richly deserve, but his happiness is short-lived. Wash calls over the comm that the Reaver ship they passed earlier has found them, and is coming…
Mal, Zoe and Jayne reach Serenity in time, but as Mal walks onto the deck, he sees Dobson holding a gun on River. Not wasting any time, Mal shoots Dobson, and together with Jayne throw him off the ship. They take off, and Mal tells Inara to take the civilians (Book, Simon, River and herself) into her shuttle and get away if they’re boarded. After some fancy flying to stay just out of Reaver range, Mal orders Wash to pull a Crazy Ivan. The plan works and they’re free.
Mal takes over flying the ship, and Jayne tells him that Dobson said the Alliance will keep coming after them for River. Mal asks if Dobson offered a deal, and when Jayne doesn’t answer, he asks why Jayne didn’t turn on him. Jayne replies that the money wasn’t good enough. Smiling, Mal then asks what would happen when Jayne finally is offered enough, and both men agree that that would be an interesting day.
As Jayne leaves, Simon enters, and first asks about tending to Mal’s injury, then about Mal’s plans for him and his sister. Mal tells him that it might be best for them to stay on board for the time being, especially since he’d need a medic from time to time. Simon doesn’t trust him, and wonders how he’d know Mal doesn’t kill him in his sleep. Mal replies that if he were to kill Simon, the doctor would be awake, facing Mal…and armed.
Simon leaves, and Mal calls this a good day, because as long as he’s still flying, it's a good day.
Notes of Interest:
1) I find it interesting that despite all the areas Mal won’t let his passengers near while aboard Serenity, the kitchen is open 24/7, and that the crew has proper sit-down meals regularly. Guess Serenity will run out of fuel before running out of food.
2) Mal has some resentment to the methods used for terra-forming planets.
3) During the scene in infirmary, Mal shows no problem being around medical equipment - having seen plenty of blood during the war no doubt - and knows how to sedate a patient.
4) Mal has a special spot for Kaylee, staying with her during the surgery, and protecting her honor at the dinner table.
5) There’s some obvious tension between Mal and Inara.
6) Mal suffers from a crisis of faith. At Serenity Valley, he says a silent prayer and kisses the gold cross around his neck before storming the gun. Six years later he goes out of his way to make Book uncomfortable once Mal learns he’s a shepherd.
7) Kaylee mentions that they could use a compression coil, but Mal dismisses it as not important enough.
8) Mal respects other peoples’ beliefs, shown here when he lets Book pray at the table.
9) Mal’s used to having the odds against him – another byproduct of the war – and seems quite comfortable when it happens.
10) Mal, like many others in this series, speaks Mandarin.
11) While he hired Wash as his ship’s pilot, Mal is capable of flying when necessary.
WTF? Moment: The one problem I have with this character in this episode is in the scene where he, Zoe and Jayne are on their way back to Serenity after being dissed by Badger. Jayne talks about not getting paid lately and Mal says the last few jobs they had were “weak tea”. Mal doesn’t strike me as someone who would say that. He would have said something in Chinese - like “sewer water” or “scrotum sweat”.
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