Malcolm Reynolds Part 11: “Trash” – Firefly, Episode 1:11 (Never Aired)

We find Mal sitting on a rock in the middle of nowhere…naked…going over events of the past seventy-two hours that got him to this time and this place.

I have this episode in the Firefly 4-Disc DVD set.

Mal is on his own on another piece of nowhere collecting the cargo for his leg of a smuggler’s run from Monty, a fellow smuggler that Mal met during the war. Monty drops the news that he’s married, and Mal is introduced to Bridget only to discover that the woman is Saffron from “Our Mrs. Reynolds”. They draw guns on each other and then fight for a spell until Monty breaks it up. Mal explains that ‘Bridget’ married him a while back and went by the name Saffron, but Monty doesn’t buy it until Bridget/Saffron gives it away by calling Malcolm by his full name – which Monty never gave. Heartbroken and furious, Monty leaves Bridget/Saffron behind while Mal waits for Serentiy to arrive and load the goods.

Mal wants nothing to do with her and tells her to start walking. She tells him she’s working on a score that she’s willing to cut him in on for a ride, but he tells her to keep walking. Serenity arrives, and Mal leaves the crew to load the shipment while he sees Simon to treat his still-bloody nose.

Inara invites him to her shuttle and offer him tea. Mal smells a butter-up and she tells him that she needs clients, which she hasn’t been able to do for a while thanks to his attempts at high-thievery. They argue, and Mal takes offense that she calls his work petty. He leaves her shuttle, goes to the cargo bay and opens one of the crates to ask Bridget/Saffron for more information about the score she’s planned.

The two of them meet the others in the mess hall as she goes over the details: the mark, the prize, the layout, the place and the time. Inara tells them all not to trust her, and Mal offers to listen if there was any other job they could do at the moment. After convincing Wash and Zoe, they all agree to help.

Mal and Bridget/Saffron sneak into the place disguised as workers and make it to the prize: an antique laser pistol called The Lassiter. Mal starts working on disabling the security around it when the mark, a man named Durran, walks in…and hugs Bridget/Saffron. It turns out he knows her as Yolanda, his wife who disappeared six years ago. He thought she died along with a computer programmer who went missing at the same time. Durran goes to the kitchen to make them some tea, and while he’s gone, Mal finishes up and removes the Lassiter. Yolanda/Bridget/Saffron pulls a gun on him, but is interrupted by Durran’s return. Mal ditches the gun in the trash (which was part of the plan), comes back and pulls his gun on her. Durran tells Yolanda that he never believed she loved him, and called the police while he was away. She and Mal manage to escape the building, reach the shuttle and set course for the rendezvous point in Isis Canyon.

Along the way, Mal tries to comfort Yolanda/Bridget/Saffron, knowing that she really cared for Durran despite being the kind of person who’ll take any advantage she can…which she does…when she pulls Mal’s gun on him. She gets him to strip, and leaves him naked in Isis Canyon, not far from the drop-off.

Serenity arrives, and Mal learns that everything went according to plan. He told his crew about Yolanda/Bridget/Saffron and her score before ever opening the crate. They expected her to double-cross them and had Inara pick up the Lassiter first and contain Yolanda/Bridget/Saffron for the authorities.

Pleased as pie on a job well done, Mal walks onto Serentiy…naked…and tells his crew to prepare to leave orbit.

Notes of Interest:

1) Mal cares about what Inara thinks of him.

2) He also knows how to fly a shuttle.

3) Mal bites his nails.

4) Modesty is not an issue for him – not only in terms of his nakedness in front of others, but his willingness to do any smuggling job he can get. Bobble-headed Geisha Dolls anyone?

5) He’s obviously impressed by Kaylee once more when she figures out how to get the gun out of the complex.

6) Mal has a tattoo on his right hip, but I can't tell what it is.

WTF? Moment: This episode was eventually shown on the Sci-Fi channel on June 28, 2003. While I like this episode a lot, the timing of seeing this after Ocean’s Eleven may have given some viewers a case of the “I’ve already seen it”’s.

WTF? Moment #2: Mal showed real fortitude by constantly turning Yolanda/Bridget/Saffron down at the beginning of the episode, so why does he feel sorry for her later on? It’s clear that Mal isn’t a James T. Kirk sort of “space-whore”, but doesn’t Mal turn into sort of a softy around women?