If “Firefly” is one of the best science fiction series in recent history, then “Out of Gas” is perhaps the shining example of why. Continuing the strong emphasis on character development, this episode leaps back and forth in time, as Mal remembers how each member of his crew came to Serenity. Each flashback adds to each character, but in the end, it’s all still about Mal. Every moment is meant to be taken from his point of view, and with few exceptions, that perspective is maintained.
Every season of a Mutant Enemy series can be broken down into three parts: introduction/rising action, complication, and climax. This episode marks the end of the introduction to the characters and their basic background and psychology. Had the episodes aired in the proper order during first run, then the audience could have seen how artfully those introductions were interwoven with the escalation of the initial conflicts.
The episode begins with Mal in obvious pain, the rest of the crew nowhere to be seen. He recalls the first time that he introduced Zoe to Serenity. Almost immediately, Mal’s desire for freedom and space to call his own is palpable. This is a man with a dream, even if it’s one that has been battered and bruised by the crushing effect of spreading corporate thinking. To Mal, Serenity represents the kind of ship that people of like mind seek out; a ship that needs people who are looking for something to call their own.
When Mal looks back on the circumstances that led to his current sorry state of affairs, he sees a crew that’s coming together as a family. Deep in his heart, no matter what he might otherwise claim, he’s seeking that level of connection. At the table, everyone gets along about as well as they ever could, even Jayne. The banter is friendly, and when it comes to celebrating Simon’s birthday, even Jayne gets in on the act.
Of course, things quickly go wrong. An explosion from the engine room forces the crew to evacuate the air from the back end of the ship, and Zoe is badly hurt in from the compression wave while saving Kaylee. (In truth, Gina Torres was getting married that week, and needed the time off!) It seems to take forever for the fire to be dealt with, but once it is, the action moves to the infirmary. Wash is obviously distraught, and Simon switches into pure doctor mode as soon as he walks through the door.
Typically, as worried as she is about Zoe, Kaylee is more worried about Serenity. As seen in previous episodes, Kaylee has an almost instinctual understanding of engineering, and she knows that something is fundamentally wrong with Serenity before she even checks the engine room. For one thing, Serenity is no longer moving under her own power, and her comments suggest that much (if not all) of the forward momentum was lost when the fire was purged. Mal instantly begins talking to Kaylee like an older brother, gently but firmly coaxing her into doing her job.
Mal takes a distinctly different direction with Wash. For Mal, Wash is not someone he’s especially close to. In fact, Mal was against Wash and Zoe getting married, and it’s not hard to see why that would be the case. Mal might understand something of what Wash is going through, but he needs Wash to be the expert, not the husband. Underneath it all is the conflict between Mal and Wash over who holds Zoe’s loyalty, which remains unspoken. It’s not surprising that Mal’s memory of his confrontation with Wash would lead him right back to the moment Wash first joined the crew. It’s funny that Mal took to him long before Zoe did, and one has to wonder if Mal now regrets that decision.
Just as powerful is Mal’s memory of the moment that Zoe’s heart stopped. That memory saves his own life, as it gives him the chance to carry on despite his gut wound. The scene is neatly placed just before the explanation for Mal’s decision to give himself an adrenaline shot in the first place. If it were just about the gut wound, it would be one thing. But it’s also the lack of life support. Mal is fighting against the cold and the lack of oxygen, gambling that his increased heart rate won’t kill him before he can fix the problem.
At this point, the overall sense that the episode is being told from Mal’s point of view strays a bit. There’s a sweet conversation between Simon and Inara, speaking to the semi-friendship that they’ve built together, going back to the earlier episodes. Book and River continue to have an odd relationship, with River at her creepifying best. There’s no way that Mal should have known about those conversations, and as such, they don’t really fit. But they are good scenes, and the episode is better for them.
Things get back on track as Mal’s argument with Wash continues. The conversation gets about as close to a melee as it can get without bloodshed, which shows just how patient Mal can be when he just wants to get something done. It wouldn’t be a “Firefly” episode if the argument wasn’t laced with great bits of humor, of course, and this scene delivers.
As Mal stumbles into the engine room, he remembers the time he walked in on his original engineer during an energetic sexual encounter with a certain young woman. A lot of fans were stunned to find Kaylee having casual sex in an engine room, but there’s something about her unassuming manner that makes it all sound reasonable. Kaylee sounds like a young woman searching for a direction, and given her intuitive skill for engineering, there’s little chance that Mal would fail to see how she would fit in with his dream crew. Of course, the fact that she’s there with her parents’ permission explains a lot about Mal’s protective attitude towards her.
The full weight of Mal’s present situation comes into focus as he remembers the moment that Kaylee explained that the part needed to fix the engine and save the crew can’t be fixed. It’s the same part that Mal’s been lugging around since the beginning of the episode; halfway through the story, it’s finally possible to see where events are converging. The writers understand that the mystery can’t be kept for too long, and that the character moments become that much more poignant once the audience gets a glimpse of how things are meant to turn out.
Not surprisingly, Mal recognizes that the chances of survival are slim. Rather than keep the crew on Serenity, where they would all be waiting to die, Mal sends them off in opposite directions in the shuttles, so they can hold on to the hope of being rescued. It’s a smart psychological move, because simply moving in the shuttles is better than doing nothing at all. At the same time, Mal decides to stay behind, and despite his claims to the contrary, it’s all about meeting his end on his own terms, going down with the ship that represents his last hope for personal liberty.
Out of everyone in the crew, of course Inara is the one that objects most strongly against Mal’s decision. So much is left unspoken between them during Inara’s attempt to change his mind, and of course, Mal would reflect back on their first meeting. The chemistry between them exists from the moment they meet, and considering that it’s been about a year since she joined the crew, that speaks to how wounded Mal really is. It’s also very interesting that Inara immediately insists that Mal never again call her “whore”, and yet he continues to get away with it.
After Wash sets up a recall system and even Jayne does his best to give Mal every chance at a prolonged survival, Mal is left to wait for a miracle. The episode lingers over those moments with an amazing amount of reverence, driving home the fact that Mal had no expectation of survival. When someone finally arrives, it doesn’t just happen as though it were destined from the start. The moment feels like a miracle, even expected as it is.
What isn’t surprising is the fact that the ship that comes to Mal’s aid is really there for salvage purposes. It’s rather plain from the beginning that they intend to kill Mal and steal Serenity whole. It’s not at all shocking that this confrontation reminds Mal of Jayne. Much like his quick and dirty logic in that past showdown, Mal finds a way to enforce his will upon the universe and survive. Gut wound and all, Mal still stares down several other men and manages to win the day. But the effort costs him, and when he falls to the ground, the episode comes full circle.
Mal manages to fix the engine, thanks to Kaylee’s earlier demonstration of how the compression coil should fit and work, and that get life support going again. But even with breathable air, Mal is still bleeding out and coming down from the adrenaline shot. He never makes it to the recall button, and it looks very much like Mal could die alone, just as he told Inara it would happen.
Of course, that would only happen if the crew wasn’t as loyal to their captain as Mal is to Serenity. It’s interesting to note that Zoe, upon recovery, insisted on returning to the ship. What’s more, Wash was the one that volunteered to save Mal’s life with that transfusion. The final scene emphasizes the fact that Mal considers his crew his family, because Serenity isn’t the same without them there. They are, after all, his chance at redemption and restoration. But none of that would be possible without the one thing that Mal risks his life to save: Serenity.
The episode is impressive enough as it was presented, but perhaps the most incredible aspect of the episode is how it was constructed. Scenes were written into the script with the full knowledge that the order of scenes would change during the editing process. This is an example of how important post-production can be; the end result looks and feels entirely deliberate, when it was really a combination of the writers and the editors working together. It’s that kind of synergy that made “Firefly” one of the best genre series in recent history.
Memorable Quotes
MAL: “Ship like this, be with ya ‘til the day you die.”
ZOE: “’Cause it’s a deathtrap…”
MAL: “And try to see past what she is, and on to what she can be.”
ZOE: “What’s that, sir?”
MAL: “Freedom, is what.”
ZOE: “No…I meant, what’s that?”
MAL: “Oh…yeah, just step around it…”
JAYNE: “Now Inara, she’s gotta have some real funny whorin’ stories, I wager.”
INARA: “Oh, do I ever! Funny and sexy! You have no idea. And you never will…”
KAYLEE: “Catalyzer on the port compression coil blew. That’s where the trouble started.”
MAL: “I need that in Captain Dummy talk, Kaylee…”
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. We’ll freeze to death first.”
MAL: “I’m getting a little weary of this attitude, Wash.”
WASH: “Are you? Well, I’m so very sorry, sir. I guess the news that we’re all gonna be purple and bloated and fetal in a few hours has made me a little snippy!”
WASH: “Well, maybe I should do that, then!”
MAL: “Maybe you should!”
WASH: “OK!”
MAL: “Good!”
WASH: “Fine!”
JAYNE: “Hey! What do you tow think you’re doing, fightin’ at a time like this? You’ll use up all the air!”
KAYLEE: “Ain’t nothing wrong with your grav boot. Grav boot’s just fine. Hello!”
BESTER: “She doesn’t…that’s not what…no it ain’t!”
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: “Mal…you don’t have to die alone.”
MAL: “Everybody dies alone.”
MAL: “Which one you figure tracked us?”
ZOE: “The ugly one, sir.”
MAL: “Could you be more specific?”
MAL: “Well, looks can be deceiving.”
JAYNE: “Not as deceiving as a low down dirty…deceiver.”
MAL: “Well said. Wasn’t that well said, Zoe?”
ZOE: “Had a kind of poetry to it, sir…”
Final Analysis
Overall, this episode is easily one of the best episodes of genre television ever written. The plot is wonderfully simple yet structured in a fluid and complex way, revealing much about Mal’s relationship to each character and reinforcing what has already been established. Even the smallest moments work incredibly well, and the entire production from beginning to end is an obvious labor of love. This is an episode that gets better every time.
Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 4/4
Original Rating: 9/10
Final DVD Rating: 10/10
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