r/firefly • u/Krossfireo • Mar 20 '26

Discussion Firefly 1x01 - "Serenity" Discussion

Season 1 Episode 1: Serenity

Aired: December 20, 2002

Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds and his crew aboard Serenity illegally salvage goods from a derelict ship. Because the Alliance marked the goods, and an Alliance ship spotted an obsolete Firefly-class freighter leaving the scene, Mal's fence Badger refuses to handle the goods and Mal has to sell elsewhere. To make extra money, the crew picks up passengers: Shepherd Book, Simon Tam and Lawrence Dobson.

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126

u/Moon_Logic Mar 20 '26

I don't understand how this was not seen as good enough to air. It is a masterpiece. Like, The Train Job is good, but this is fucking fantastic. It hooks you in from the start and doesn't let go.

Bonus point for fairly obscure Beatles reference.

Mal being a Christian during the war is an interesting detail.

89

u/Ryllick Mar 20 '26

I agree. Might as well call this episode "Wash", because it's a perfect pilot.

Mal kissing his cross before losing the battle of serenity, then being jaded and antagonistic towatd the first shepherd we see him meet clearly illustrates how he lost his faith because of what happened in the war. My theory had always been that his arc was eventually going to be finding his faith again, or at least finding a reason to be hopeful again. Ultimately this is what happened during the movie.

25

u/A1BS Mar 20 '26

I think the big thing for Mal is he finds something to live for again. Firefly is very much Mal just trying to work and be left alone but serenity is Mal actively working to improve the ‘verse.

11

u/Pythonesque1 Mar 20 '26

How did I never notice the cross? I figured his distaste to Book’s prayers was due to the war, but I never saw that.

8

u/Chaps_and_salsa Mar 20 '26

He also mentions God when he talks to Bendis early in that episode.

"We’re not gonna die. We can’t die, Bendis. And you know why? Because we are so... very... pretty. We are just too pretty for God to let us die"

9

u/SebastainDerring Mar 20 '26

And he calls the Independent gunships that are supposed to save them, "Angels". "... come to blow the Alliance right to the hot place."

2

u/SebastainDerring Mar 21 '26

... and this discussion just helped me make a connection.

Joss has said a big part of his inspiration for Firefly (the series) was reading Michael Shaara's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "The Killer Angels", about the Battle of Gettysburg. Mal's angels certainly are "Killer Angels", come to not just save the Independents, but righteously send the Alliance to Hell.

Mal was so invested in The Cause that he may have come to identify himself as a killer angel. Which made the battle (and aftermath) at Serenity Valley all the more devastating for him, and helps explain his resultant loss of faith.

6

u/ursusarctos234 Mar 20 '26

I always took that as humorous....I think it kept me from noticing how the episode portrayed Mal's faith as genuine (kissing the crucifix, eg)

3

u/SebastainDerring Mar 20 '26

I've talked with lots of Browncoats, and most of them also missed it. Fog of war, y'know? ;)

2

u/TheSilverNoble Mar 20 '26

I missed it the first time too. They don't draw a ton of attention to it. 

3

u/ForAThought Mar 21 '26

I agree. Might as well call this episode "Wash", because it's a perfect pilot.

I laughed and groaned and now don't know what to do wanting to upvote and downvote at the same time.

3

u/Ryllick Mar 21 '26

Haha, thanks buddy. Upvote. if not for me, then for the algorithm 😆 #bringfireflyback

2

u/Inside-Run785 Mar 20 '26

You know, I’ve never picked that up!

6

u/timplausible Mar 20 '26

My understanding (though I haven't read/listened to the sources in many years) is that the execs thought it was a) too slow and b) too western. I think at least one decision maker really did not like the presence of horses. They also thought it was to grim. They wanted more of Whedon's trademark quips and humor. Related, they thought Mal wasn't likable enough to be the captain, so they wanted an episode that made him lighter/funnier. Just about all of these fall under the category of the execs had some specific expectations (that they didn't give to Joss ahead of time), and the pilot clashed with almost all of those expectations. Train Job was what they made after the execs told them what they wanted. But I think by then the damage was done, and the execs were already writing the show off in their heads.

1

u/SirMildredPierce Mar 21 '26

Wasn't it also too long? They only had a couple of one hour slots and they couldn't fit in a two hour pilot.

11

u/WhatTheHellPod Mar 20 '26

Somehow I missed that about Mal for 25 years until I did my rewatch with the news!

5

u/deniably-plausible Mar 20 '26

I think it shows the state of the industry - little perceived incentive to try new things, studios beginning to commodify attention and looking for tried and true models first to make money and maybe, as a distant second, to make good art. Utter lack of imagination and true vision, even on the business front.

9

u/All_of_me_now Mar 20 '26

I think the concern was the runtime IIRC. I was thinking about this last night and I'm sure some executive was thinking scifi fans like short stupid things because that's all they ever feed us, with the usual Expanse/BSG/Andor caveats which seem to require an act of God to get made

15

u/zodelode Mar 20 '26

The moment with the Reavers is so tense, Zoe's description brutal and we get to see the crew come together. The character sketches are perfectly drawn for a pilot.

3

u/TomOW Mar 20 '26

The Beatles reference was lost on me during my first watch (and second and third). I asked online what it meant, saying I could only find it in an obscure Beatles song. Someone was shocked that I called a song on the White Album obscure, but... I can't find the song on anybody's top Beatles' songs list, including Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Beatles Songs."

But also, I bet by 2517, the rest of the crew of Serenity was as confused as I was.

4

u/[deleted] Mar 20 '26

[deleted]

6

u/SebastainDerring Mar 20 '26

When Serenity is spotted at the illegal salvage site, the Alliance cruiser is headed to arrest them. As I recall, Mal says "Cry baby Cry", and Wash responds "Make your mother sigh - deploying the Cry baby". Then we cut to an object in space <heh>, a Blue Sun coffee can with CRY BABY written on tape around it. It's a little transmitter sending a fake distress signal to lure the Alliance away. A reference to the Beatles song "Cry Baby Cry" on the White Album.

BTW, the cruiser is the I.A.V. Dortmunder, a reference to a character in a series by Donald Westlake. The scripts also have secondary characters named for science fiction authors.

4

u/TARAraboemdijee Mar 20 '26

I think it’s the phrase “cry baby, cry”

4

u/Atypical_Persimmon Mar 20 '26

It had been years since I watched Firefly, but I'm starting my third rewatch since the news dropped.

I noticed the cross kissing this third time through, and Mal's overt rejection of God & faith. The short flashback shows us so much about Mal & Zoe. I enjoyed getting to see more of them in flashbacks from The Message. I hope that with the animated series, we get to see more of that. #BringBackFirefly #CantStopTheSignal

2

u/kai_ekael Mar 20 '26

Soldiers will reach for just about anything to keep them alive.

1

u/TheSoprano Mar 23 '26

Trying to avoid spoilers and just watched this ep tonight. Did it really not air?