1.03: Bushwhacked

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Tabitha

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1.02: Bushwhacked

Bushwhacked

Guest Stars: Doug Savant

On a salvage mission aboard a drifting colony ship, the Serentiy crew find signs that the crew were killed by the cannabalistic Reavers. They find one survivor, but things take a turn for the worse when an Alliance ship looking for an unspecified Firefly-class ship with brother-and-sister stowaways shows up and takes them in. They hide Simon and River and deflect the Alliance commander's questions but the survivor has been rendered insane by his exposure to the Reavers and goes on a bloody rampage. Mel saves the Alliance commander and he eventually lets them go.


b: 27-Sep-02 pc: 1AGE02 w: Tim Minear d: Tim Minear

[Information from www.epguides.com ]

This one I have seen! Only episode I have managed to catch, unfortunately. I have to say I was rather unimpressed too
I don't mean there was anything particularly bad about it, there just wasn't anything that grabbed. I don't really want to compare the show to Buffy, but in this case it is fairly similar for me. It took me quite some time to warm to Buffy, or any of the characters on the show, perhaps this one will follow the same route.

The characters aren't hateful, but I feel that they all have some vaguely interesting bits.

I am fascinated by the reavers. I don't think we have seen one yet, but I am anxiously awaiting a more direct encounter with this (sub) species.

The 'look' of the show is very nice. I am not totally sure about the western thing, but the interiors and exterior CGI shots are lovely to look at.
 
I give it a three stars. It was alright but it just didn't have that good of a plot.
 
From www.fox.com/firefly

-----
“Bushwhackedâ€

1AGE02
Writer: Tim Minear
Director: Tim Minear
Airdate: 9/27/02

The crew of Serenity is playing a basketball-type game in the main cargo area. Everyone comes to watch as they let off steam from their long days in space.

Inara joins Simon on the catwalk and asks him about River. He says that she still won’t talk about what happened to her at the academy. Suddenly a siren goes off and Wash has to attend to the emergency. The game is one man short, and Kaylee asks Simon to join them.

When Wash reaches the cockpit he sees an abandoned ship in front of them as a dead body crashes into Serenity. The rest of the crew comes up to the cockpit and they can’t seem to identify if anyone is still alive.

They analyze the ship and notice that it’s a transport ship for settlers. Shepherd tells Mal that what distinguishes humans from other life forms is how they treat their dead. Mal decides to hook up with the ship and look for survivors, as well as any cargo he may be able to take for himself.

Mal and Zoe put on their space suits and head over to the ship to check it out. They quickly realize that whatever killed the passengers of this ship did it quickly, because there is still food sitting out.

Zoe happens upon a personal log that was stopped mid-entry. At the same time, back on Serenity, River seems to be convulsing with each new find on the transport ship.

Jayne tells Simon that they need him over on the transport. Meanwhile, Inara goes to check in on River but she’s suddenly missing.

Back on the transport, Kaylee and Simon venture off together and Simon wonders why anyone would abandon the ship. Kaylee remarks that there’s nothing wrong with it mechanically, leaving them searching for clues.

Zoe and Mal keep searching, while Jayne goes off on his own to scour for goods. Mal comes across farm supplies, which confirms their initial suspicion that the ship was transporting settlers. They look up and finally find all the people, hanging upside down from the ceiling.

Mal says he knows what did it, and tells everyone to get off the ship. Suddenly, Jayne is attacked and random shots are heard firing. The rest of the crew meets up and finds Jayne. He says he was attacked by something big and strong. They finally find the thing that attacked him, and it’s just a small man. Mal finds him and knocks him out with one punch.

They bring the man back onto Serenity and Simon begins analyzing him. Jayne guesses that the man killed all the other passengers, but none of the other crew believes it. Mal tells Simon to dope the man, somehow seeing something no one else does.

Mal talks to the crew and tells them that the ship was hit by Reavers. The crew becomes frantic and doesn’t realize what Mal is getting at. Mal tells them the man saw Reavers and that he’s never coming back to normal.

Mal tells the Shepherd he can go say a prayer for the dead while they pick up the rest of the cargo from the transport ship. The other obstacle is that the Reavers have rigged the ship so that when Serenity detaches, it will blow up. Kaylee tells Mal she can bypass it, and gets to work.

Meanwhile, Inara watches over River, who begins convulsing again as the rest of the crew hauls the cargo onto Serenity. Kaylee is able to get Serenity free from the transport, but just as they detach, they are met by an Alliance Cruiser.

On board the Alliance Ship, they begin suspecting that Serenity may be holding River and Simon. Simon begins to worry, not realizing what Mal has in store for him. The Alliance men attach and board the ship.

The Alliance men begin searching the ship and interrogating the crew. Mostly looking for Simon and River, the Alliance Captain brings the whole crew on board the Alliance Ship. The Alliance Captain gets nowhere, however, as the Serenity crew leads them astray with varying tales and personal anecdotes.

The Alliance men continue to search but come up with nothing as we see where Simon and River have been stashed – outside the ship, wearing space suits.

Meanwhile, the man that Mal took from the transport ship is brought into the Alliance Infirmary. The Alliance Captain accuses Mal of killing the people on the Transport and torturing the man, but while he’s being interrogated, the man in the infirmary goes on a killing spree, wiping out the medical team that was examining him.

The Alliance Captain finally gets wind of the killing and forces Mal to walk in front of his Alliance crew in an attempt to find the killer. Mal brings the Alliance men back onto Serenity where the man attacks the convoy, nearly killing the Alliance Captain. Mal jumps the man, breaking his neck and saving the Alliance crew.

After saving his life, the Alliance Captain decides to let Mal and his crew go free, but not before confiscating all of the stolen goods from the transport ship.
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Since I have now had the opportunity to get more familiar with firefly, my opinion of this episode has improved immeasurably. I originally watched this ep in a roomfull of hostellers in Washington DC, so perhaps I wasn't giving it my undivided attention.

On a second watching of this ep, I still find it somewhat below par compared to the rest of the season, but nevertheless very good.
The reavers are never actually seen, but the hanted house stylings of the abandoned ship are scary scary scary. The horror of what the survivor has seen is quite effectively translated not only by the remains of his crew, but also by the reactions of Serenity's crew to what they find.

The combative relationship between Jayne and Simon is continued - what a mean practical joke! Mind you, if I were the Doc, I just wouldn't have wanted to hear that I had my spacesuit on all wrong :dead:

The Alliance still come across as Star Wars style Imperials, one dimensional and just plain nasty. I guess the only good thing they have going for them in this ep is that they actually let the crew go!


I think originally my main problem with the show, other than unfamiliarity, was the dialogue. The western-style manner of speaking seemed too far out of place, but I have now gotten used to it. I think I had the same problem with Buffy in the beginning too, though.
 
Originally posted by Tabitha
The Alliance still come across as Star Wars style Imperials, one dimensional and just plain nasty. I guess the only good thing they have going for them in this ep is that they actually let the crew go!
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I haven't seen all the episodes yet, so maybe I'm talking rubbish, but if you compare the Alliance Captain here with the one in the episode 'Serenity' he wasn't one dimensional or plain nasty, he was just a guy doing his job. Maybe a little longer in the borderlands will change him, but there was no reason for him to let Serenity and her crew go. They still had an illegible registration number and they still had taken part in an unauthorized salvage operation, even if it was proved that the Reavers attacked the settlers ship. A Star Wars Imperial Captain would have thanked Mal for saving his life, then had them all executed anyway.

Do we find out more about the reasons behind the conflict?

From what I've seen the Alliance aren't a bad government, they just have overstretched resources, with the exception of the treatment of River which is designed to make us dislike them. Mal has a personal agenda, he fought a war against them, but if this was a true civil war, there should be people who equally agreed with the enemy. So far, I've only seen the rednecks in the bar at the start of 'The Train Job'.
 
I don't think there was much more exposition on the reasons behind the conflict other than what is given in the intro voice-over.
I would love to know more about why Independence was worth fighting for for the Browncoats - I doubt any of those frontier planets would have been any better off without any kind of overarching authority.
There must be deeper reasons than political theories of independence and liberation.

I thought the Alliance Captain seemed quite mean, sending Mal into the ship first that he knew had something quite dangerous on it, and keeping him handcuffed - isn't this quite brutal? Of course, you are right, we are encouraged to be wary of the Alliance because of River, and when we do get to see a little more of the central planets' structure it doesn't seem to be an obviously bad government.

I figured that the Captain wouldn't have wanted it to get out that he had mishandled the situation, and since they didn't find the fugitives on board.
 
The reasons for the Captain of the Alliance cruiser are very obscure. If this was his first tour in the 'badlands' then it would have beeen far more likely for him to carry out the rules as written than bend them.

As it is he stepped from rookie to seasoned veteran in the space it took for a chap to stand dramaticaly over him. Perhaps he was just a decent chap, doing his National Service?

At least we had an opportunity to put a little more to the Reavers, the mentions of them elsewhere were starting to irritate. Now we have something akin to Ghosts of Mars.
 
Originally posted by ray gower

At least we had an opportunity to put a little more to the Reavers, the mentions of them elsewhere were starting to irritate. Now we have something akin to Ghosts of Mars.
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Haven't seen that movie (although if I recall correctly, your review was quite scathing, Ray ;) ), but I wasn't annoyed by any references to Reavers, however it is interesting how this episode seemed to be all about them, and yet we never really get to see an actual Reaver. Just the aftermath of their presence.

This was the first episode of FF I ever saw, and I have to admit I was somewhat disappointed. Apart from the trademark Whedon dialogue I found it to be quite reminiscent of the haunted speaceship Trek episodes. For example the Enterprise season one ep with the Klingon ship. I think it is Rick Berman who is obsessed with this Alien-like set up.

However, in this case there was certainly more of an edge to it. I was pretty jumpy, watching this for the second time, alone in the dark in my room.
 
My thoughts on Ghosts of Mars was because the plot and story were as original as a traffic cone and acting from the central characters was non-existent. Firefly is doing better than that.

I was thinking more along the lines of the Reavers and the creatures from the film. Humans that are driven by circumstances to self-mutilation and canniblism when things have gone wrong. Quite an intriguing concept, now we have a little flesh to the words.

You are right about the tension. It was better played here than in Enterprise, though at first it looked more like a heavy dose of over acting from Jayne
 
I liked this episode, again the tension was well built up and the story was interesting, if a little predictable. The settlers ship definitely had an "alien" vibe going on, so I expected the survivor to have something nasty either in him or due to the trauma, which he duly did...

The alliance ship is huge, and it is pretty Star Wars'esque, especially the lackies walking about the place in their pretty uniforms and hats..

I think it's good to keep the reavers out of direct sight for a while, the mystery value shouldn't be under-rated.
 
I agree with markpud, a little mystery is good. Besides, not sure I'm ready to see anything remotely as they were described. Not one of my favorites so far but it was ok.

As far as the way the Captain acted (on supposedly his first tour). I would tend to think that he felt justified in giving Mal a bit of a chance to prove what he was saying being that far out and not really sure of what he should do. I didn't find it surprising at all that he didn't follow the book strictly (so to speak), but then I'm really not very well versed in military agenda.
 
Originally posted by markpud
The alliance ship is huge, and it is pretty Star Wars'esque, especially the lackies walking about the place in their pretty uniforms and hats.
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I didn't realise how huge that ship was the first time around. It is enormous in comparison to Serenity. The first time I watched this was on a computer monitor. Now I have the complete series on DVD.

This probably isn't the best episode, but it does give some backstory to the alliance and details on the Reavers that I'm sure would have become important later, had the series continued.
 
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