"Out of Gas"

Written by Tim Minear
Directed by David Solomon


In which a systems breakdown in the engine room leads to the loss of oxygen on Serenity, and the resulting crisis triggers memories of how the crew came together...

Synopsis - Analysis - Memorable Quotes - Observations


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Synopsis

As the episode begins, Serenity hangs motionless in space. The ship is empty, and inside the engine room, the walls are scorched. The engine turbine is offline. Everything loose appears to have been strewn onto the decks. Down in the cargo bay, Mal flops down onto the metal grating of the floor, his face pallid. He’s obviously in agony, struggling to remain conscious.

Flash back about two or three years. Mal brings Zoe into the empty and dusty cargo bay. There’s a feeling that Zoe still considers Mal to be her commanding officer from the days of the war. Zoe’s not impressed with Mal’s purchase. But Mal sees the ship as their chance for freedom, a chance to escape the growing influence and authority of the Alliance. All the ship needs, of course, is a good mechanic and a pilot. He’s already got the name picked out…

Back to the present. Mal lies on the metal grating, blood dripping from his gut. Forcing himself to his feet, he grabs a small engine part from the floor and stumbles off towards the engine room.

Flash back several hours. The crew and their passengers are sitting around the table in the mess, telling humorous stories. Wash walks in late, missing one of Book’s more interesting tales from his days in the monastery. Mal asks if Wash managed to set a course, and Wash confirms that they will be able to make it to their next destination without encountering Alliance patrols. Or, apparently, anyone else, given the remote space they will be traveling through.

Kaylee starts cleaning up the table, and Simon moves to help her. But she diverts him into telling a funny medical story. As Kaylee walks off, Simon starts telling his story, but Jayne interrupts, trying to draw Inara into telling a funny “whorin’” story. Inara coolly declines. When Kaylee returns, she has a makeshift birthday cake for Simon. It seems his birthdate was listed on the new warrant issued for his arrest. Kaylee took the opportunity to make him the best cake possible.

Just as Simon leans forward to blow out the candles, there’s an odd grinding noise from deep inside Serenity. The power begins to flicker, and then everything returns to normal. Kaylee and Wash excuse themselves to check on the engine and the helm. Just as Kaylee walks towards the door, there’s a huge explosion. Zoe lunges towards Kaylee, knocking her out of the way, and takes the full brunt of the fiery concussion blast from the explosion.

As Wash rushes to Zoe’s side, and Inara and Book check on Kaylee, Mal forces the metal fire door shut, just as another concussion wave hits. Mal is tossed back, but not nearly so badly as Zoe. Simon runs over to examine Zoe, and Mal orders Jayne to seal off everything leading to the engine room. As Mal works on the bridge to take care of the fire, Simon tries to find a way to the infirmary. Jayne stops him, making him realize that everything is sealed off until the fire is out. On the bridge, Mal opens the cargo bay airlock doors, and the resulting rush of air draws the fire out into space.

Back to the present. Mal stumbles down into the infirmary, the engine part still clenched in his hand.

Flash back several hours. Zoe lies on the examination table in the infirmary. Wash is distraught, unable to think of anything but Zoe’s condition. By the infirmary doors, Mal finds Kaylee. She’s in a bit of a panic, because Serenity’s not moving. Mal breaks her out of her daze long enough to get her to check the engine room.

Having dealt with that, Mal turns to Wash. He orders the pilot to go to the bridge and figure out how badly the ship is damaged, but Wash refuses to go. When Mal reinforces that it’s an order, Wash still refuses. Mal resorts to slamming Wash against a wall to make his point clear. Though he’s clearly still upset, Wash ultimately does as he’s told.

Flash back to two or three years ago. Wash is on his back, examining the control panels on the bridge. Wearing a Hawaiian-style shirt and a thick blonde mustache, Wash is confident that he can pilot the ship to Mal’s preferences. Of course, when Mal and Zoe discuss him, Zoe doesn’t like Wash at all. Something just bothers her about him. But Mal dismisses her worries, since they now have a “genius mechanic” named Bester who can get the ship flying.

Flash forward to several hours before the episode began. Simon reports that Zoe’s heart has stopped. Mal arrives just in time to help Simon gather what he needs to revive Zoe as fast as possible. Simon instructs him to pull out a huge syringe from one of the drawers. It’s filled with pure adrenaline. As soon as the needle is out of its sterile package, Simon plunges it directly into Zoe’s heart. Zoe jolts at the sudden restoration of her heartbeat.

Back to the present. Sitting on the examination table, Mal painfully wraps a bandage around his badly bleeding midsection. When he tries to stand on his own two feet again, he nearly passes out. Steadying himself, he stumbles over to the drawer where the adrenaline syringes are stored. With very little hesitation, he injects the needle into his heart, reacting violently as the syringe drops to the floor.

Flash back to several hours earlier. Zoe is now stable, so Mal wants to know what Kaylee found in the engine room. Kaylee informs Mal that the catalyzer on the port compression coil blew, and now they’re dead in the water. But worse than that, life support is completely down. The only oxygen left in the ship is what remained after the fire was blown out the airlock. In a few hours, there won’t be anything left.

Not much later, Simon and Inara stand by the infirmary doors, watching over Zoe. Simon remarks that Zoe will last longer than any of them, being unconscious. Simon is struck by the fact that today is his birthday, and he’s going to die. Book seeks comfort in Scripture, while River is…well, River.

On the bridge, Mal checks with Wash about their options. Wash is less than helpful, and more than a little resentful. Mal just wants Wash to do everything possible to get someone’s attention by boosting their distress beacon signal, and finally gets Wash to realize that there’s a way to do it.

Back to the present. As Mal stumbles towards the engine room, visibly weakening with every step, alerts for life support failure blast over the intercom. He finally makes it to the engine room door.

Flash back to about two years earlier. Mal angrily steps into the engine room, ready to confront Bester over yet another delay. Unfortunately, Bester can’t hear him over the rather interesting moaning coming from behind the engine. Mal looks around the engine just enough to see Bester having some very energetic sexual relations. Shouting to get the young man’s attention, Mal finally confronts Bester about the delay…and his other activities.

Bester notes that engines make his “girlfriend” hot. Mal doesn’t much care, especially when Bester explains that the ship can’t fly yet, because the secondary grav boot’s shot. From behind the engine, Bester’s playmate counters that it’s fine. She pops into view, hastily dressing, and it’s Kaylee! Rather quickly, she demonstrates a far more extensive engineering ability than Bester could ever muster. She fixes the engine in about five seconds, and just as quickly, Mal offers her a job. As she goes to ask her parents if she can go, Mal not-so-subtly sends Bester packing.

Flash forward to a few hours before the episode began. Mal meets Kaylee in the engine room. In her hands, she holds a very broken engine part. Mal wants to know how to fix it, but Kaylee makes it clear that the part can’t be fixed, and there is no replacement. Still, Mal refuses to give up.

Back to the present. Standing over the engine turbine, Mal takes the new engine part (which is the same type of unit as the one Kaylee removed) and begins installing it. Unfortunately, just as he manages to slide the part into place, it slips out of his bloodied fingers, falling under the turbine. Mal is not amused.

Flash back a few hours earlier. Standing in the common area, Mal informs the crew that they are going to split up and take the two shuttles in opposite directions, with the hope that they can find someone before the shuttles run out of air. Mal, however, intends to stay on Serenity. His excuse is that someone needs to stay, just in case someone responds to their beacon. None of the others are pleased. As the crew members move on to their respective shuttles, Inara tries to convince Mal to come with her. Mal refuses, but gently.

Flash back about a year or so earlier. Inara steps into the empty shuttle, Mal right behind her. After a quick inspection of the shuttle, Inara recites her list of demands, should she agree to fly with Serenity. She wants total autonomy, as well as assurance that she would be able to keep her appointments…and a 25% discount on the rent. Mal’s not happy with the extra conditions, but Inara reminds him that he needs the kind of respectability her presence would afford him. Mal wonders why she needs to fly with him, but she doesn’t answer. She does mention, however, that she supported Unification under the Alliance.

Flash forward to a few hours before the episode began. Again, Inara tries to convince Mal to come with her. But he’s intent on staying with Serenity. A little later, on the bridge, Wash shows Mal the button to press should someone fix the ship. The shuttles would get the signal for recall. Moments later, Jayne gives Mal some last minute advice before everyone boards their respective shuttles. Before stepping into her own, Inara shares one final significant look with Mal. Then the shuttles leave, and he’s on his own.

Sometime later, Mal is sealed on the bridge. The lack of oxygen is beginning to lull him into sleep. He almost misses the signal when the captain of a salvage vessel calls in. Mal doesn’t actually realize what’s happening until the salvage ship appears in the space outside the window. Mal contacts the salvage captain and explains the situation. The salvage captain has the part Mal needs, but acts wary.

Mal agrees to come to the cargo bat airlock without weapons, so long as the salvage captain shows him the engine part before he opens the door. Everything seems to go as planned, but as soon as the salvage crew steps into the cargo bay, they pull guns on Mal. The salvage captain orders his crew to search the ship.

Flash back about a year or so earlier. Mal and Zoe stand on the ramp to Serenity’s cargo bay. They’re being held up by three bandits…and Jayne is one of them. While not a mental giant, Mal and Zoe recognize that Jayne was able to track them down rather easily. Mal casually wonders what kind of cut Jayne is getting, and whether he gets his own room. Jayne’s not that stupid, and he quickly changes sides.

Flash forward to just before the episode began. The salvage crew returns to the cargo bay, confirming that Mal is alone. When Mal offers anything in exchange for the engine part, the salvage captain shoots him in the gut. They intend to take Serenity for themselves. Thankfully, there’s a gun strapped under the workbench close to where Mal fell to the ground. Soon enough, Mal’s the one holding a gun on the salvage captain. He orders them to leave the engine part on the floor, and then chases them off Serenity. As soon as they leave, he falls to the floor…just as seen when the episode began.

Back to the present. With a huge effort, Mal manages to retrieve the engine part from under the turbine, and installs it properly. The turbine begins to move, and power is restored, including life support. Mal forces himself to stumble back towards the bridge, but every step is a struggle. As he steps into the bridge, the recall button in sight, he falls to the floor, and everything goes black.

Sometime later, he awakens to the sound of familiar voices. He opens his eyes, and discovers that he’s on the examination table in the infirmary. Zoe is lying on a bunk nearby, and she’s the first to see that he’s awake. The others quickly come to his side. He belatedly realizes that Wash is sitting next to him, giving him a transfusion. He remarks that he never called them back, and Zoe takes responsibility for turning their shuttle back. Jayne quickly comments that they would have been back first, except Inara supposedly did something wrong to her shuttle. Kaylee enters, and compliments Mal on his repair work. Simon orders them to let the captain rest, and he falls into a deep, contented sleep.

Flash back about two or three years. A used spacecraft salesman pitches a ship to Mal, and it’s a huge monstrosity. But Mal doesn’t seem to be paying attention. Instead, he’s staring at a banged-up, run-down Firefly-class vessel, and dreaming of freedom…


Analysis

With the original pilot for the series being held until the end of the year, a great deal of the information that would normally be presented to the audience has been left out of the equation. This episode, while not intended to take the place of the pilot, manages to answer some basic questions about the crew of Serenity. Along the way, we get some insight into how characters have changed since joining Mal on Serenity, and how those changes inform the current crisis.

In the synopsis, there’s an attempt to build a timeline out of what we’re presented, but since the flashbacks aren’t given a time reference, it’s hard to know if the events take place sequentially or not. In this particular case, that assumption is as good as any. It fits that Mal and Zoe would have been working together following the war, and that it might have taken Mal as long as two or three years to get the resources and capital to buy a ship.

The next few flashbacks appear to happen very soon after Mal purchases Serenity, and that also makes perfect sense. Mal’s priority was to get the ship flying, and that meant getting the bridge ready for a pilot, finding one, and then getting an engineer to get Serenity off the ground. Wash gets a de facto introduction here, and other than a moment of comedy when Zoe initially doesn’t like him, there’s not much to it.

The introduction to Kaylee, on the other hand, speaks volumes. Some fans might take exception to discovering that sweet, young Kaylee was a little free spirited, obviously not at all bothered by the concept of some hot and sweaty sex when the inclination comes on. But that makes a certain amount of sense, given her circumstances. Kaylee mentions that she usually works for her father, but recently there hasn’t been any work to do. Stuck on a frontier planet with little or no future, Kaylee is going to take whatever happiness the moment can provide. This also fits her not-so-subtle advances towards Simon, and Mal’s quick understanding of Kaylee’s intentions in “Jaynestown”.

When Inara joins the crew, it’s not clear how much time has passed. However, in “Bushwhacked”, Inara mentions that she’s been with Serenity for about a year. So Mal and the crew would have been attempting to get work for at least a year, and would have realized that they needed something extra to gain some degree of respectability and notice. We never learn, however, why Inara feels the need to sign on with Serenity. The fact that she supported Unification also brings up some interesting questions about Mal’s intentions, since it’s rather obvious that Mal is still very much aligned with Independent thinking.

Jayne’s introduction is absolutely perfect for the character. Jayne has always come across as a complete mercenary, yet there is a loyalty to Mal and the rest of the crew that doesn’t quite track. Now we see the reason for his loyalty. Mal treats him as something more than a hired hand, and that has gained Jayne’s favor. He might find Mal a bit soft, but he’s learned that Mal is a better and smarter man than most in their line of work.

But if we assume that Jayne’s arrival occurred after Inara joined Serenity, then Jayne’s only been with the crew for a short time. That could factor into later episodes, if Jayne ever gets wind of a competing deal. After all, whatever respect Jayne might have for Mal, it’s only been that way for some number of months. How much loyalty has Jayne really developed in that time?

Even the flashbacks which take place hours before the episode contain perfect character moments. There’s the requisite interplay between Kaylee and Simon and Inara and Mal, but we get a better look at Wash in those moments than we’ve ever had. His righteous anger towards Mal shows us just where he draws the line between Zoe and the rest of the crew. Even more, we see where Mal draws the line. Even if he cares deeply for his friends, he considers the needs of the ship and crew to be paramount.

There’s Jayne’s typical dismissal of Simon, River’s detached and overly technical speech, Kaylee’s obsession over engines and tech, Mal’s utter determination to stay alive and keep flying…it all adds up to an episode with absolutely no filler. The plot itself is fairly simple, and without the benefit of the flashbacks and styled cuts between them, I’m not sure that this episode would have worked so well. But scenes last only as long as they need to, and for the first time, we get the sense that Serenity is just as important a character for this show as the humans that inhabit her.


Memorable Quotes

MAL: “Ship like this, be with ya ‘til the day you die.”
ZOE: “‘Cause it’s a deathtrap…”

ZOE: “Get her running again?”
MAL: “Yeah”
ZOE: “So, not running now?”
MAL: “Not so much.”

KAYLEE: “Catalyzer on the port compression coil blew. That’s where the trouble started.”
MAL: “I need that in Captain Dummy talk, Kaylee.”
KAYLEE: “We’re dead in the water.”

RIVER: “But you are afraid.”
BOOK: “Yes.”
RIVER: “You’re afraid we’re going to run out of air. That we’ll die gasping. But we won’t. That’s not going to happen.” (Pause.) “We’ll freeze to death first.”

MAL: “Wave your arms around, jump up and down. Divert the nav sats to the transmitter. Whatever.”
WASH: “Divert the-? Right. Because teenage pranks are fun when you’re about to die!”
MAL: “Give the beacon a boost, wouldn’t it?”
WASH: “Yes, Mal. It would boost the signal, but even if some passerby did happen to receive, all it’d do is muck up their navigation.”
MAL: “Could be that’s true.”
WASH: “Damn right, it’s true. They’d be forced to stop and dig out our signal before they could even go anyplace!” (Pause.) “Well, maybe I should do that, then!”

KAYLEE: “Sure it is. Grav boot ain’t your trouble. I seen the trouble plain as day when I was down there on my back before…”

INARA: “The Alliance has no quarrel with me. I supported Unification.”
MAL: “Did ya? Well, I don’t suppose you’re the only whore that did.”
INARA: “Oh…one further addendum. That’s the last time you get to call me whore.”

MAL: “Which one you figure tracked us?”
ZOE: “The ugly one, sir.”
MAL: (Pause.) “Could you be more specific?”


Observations

- I love the beginning of this episode. It sets the tone instantly.

- It’s nice to see everyone in a generally unguarded moment, yet the personalities shine through. It’s a good bit of consistency.

- Given his appearance, I’m not surprised that Zoe was a bit bothered by Wash when they first met!

- Bester, of course, is a reference to Alfred Bester, the famous science fiction novelist. (Or, alternatively, the sinister character on “Babylon 5”, whose name was similarly an homage.)

- If I wasn’t already falling in love with Kaylee, I am now. You have to admire someone with that kind of free spirit and forthright honesty…

- Damn, there was that hint of sexual tension between Mal and Inara right from the start!

- I just about laughed myself silly during the scene introducing Jayne!

- So…was it Jayne that decided to turn the shuttle back to Serenity, or was it Inara?

Overall, this is easily the best episode of the series yet. Not only were the various flashbacks handled with style, but the introduction to each of the main crew (including Serenity) had plenty of unexpected elements. If the series can build on the strength of the writing seen here, then there’s no reason why the series can’t succeed.

I give it a 9/10.


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