Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of discovering Firefly discussion where today I have just watched episode eight, Out of Gas. This episode started off very ominously with a variety of shot showing the ship to be empty. Then just before the opening credits rolled, we see a badly injured Mal on the floor bleeding out. That is definitely one way to draw the audience immediately in.

It turned out that the opening sequence was in fact a flash forward to later on, and the episode brilliantly utilised flash forwards and flash backs throughout. The flashbacks were all interesting as we got to see how each of the original crew ended up on the ship. We didn’t really know all that much about any of them joining up to this point as when the season started they all already seemed very pally and comfortable with one another.

The flashbacks had a plethora of enjoyable moments, but my favourite had to be Zoe’s first reaction to meeting her future husband. The line “I don’t like him” was delivered so well and was amusing considering how much they love each other now. The actor who played Wash deserves particular praise for his performance following Zoe’s injury as he managed to really make you feel his pain and the love he has for his wife without over-acting or being too dramatic. Mal’s response to Wash and other’s throughout the episode were very strong and revealing of his character as he just straight up refused to let them wallow or have any sort of doubt enter their mind.

The other introductions including Inara taking no nonsense in negotiating her terms and Jayne being geniusly recruited by Mal while the former and his then partner are holding the latter and Zoe at gunpoint. It showed off Jayne’s mindset perfectly as he jumped ship to Serenity as soon as he got a better offer. And well…we saw how he recruited Kay Lee too. Can’t say I would have guessed how that happened beforehand.

The ship half exploding and running out of air may have been wrapped up a tad too neatly and quickly in my personal opinion, but my joy at having the whole team make it through and Mal being ok definitely outweighs those minor complaints. Imagine if this was the final and they just had the others leave as Mal died alone on the ship? That would have been a very depressing way to go out.

DD Rating: 8.5/10