Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Firefly first watch with today’s episode: Bushwhacked. Having found its feet and settled down a little, this story did feel more self-contained to the episode and had more of a “monster of the week” kind of feel. That’s not a complaint (I love Doctor Who which is basically nothing but that) and I still very much enjoyed the episode. Already I’d say that it is the characters and the way they interact with one another that is one of the show’s biggest hooks.

An example of this is how the episode started: all playing some random space ball game and letting loose. They trust one another and can let loose and have fun. They just have a great group dynamic and stops the show and the team from feeling overly formal. Even Book was playing! Simon and River did not involve themselves in the game, with River continuing to be creepy by speaking about ghosts. She still won’t talk about what happened to her (apart from seeing some quite disturbing flashes) but hopefully we get to find out soon as then she might be able to somewhat overcome them and become more of an active and sociable character.

The plot involved the team investigating a seemingly empty ship and Book was determined to convince them to take a look. He was really trying and not being subtle about it. Mal and Zoe went to take a look and it seems that they are the go-to team, just like last episode. I’m still struggling to completely warm to Jayne as he can be really mean for no reason at times. But then on the other hand his actions can make me laugh like when he made poor Simon put the space suit he was unsure of on, only to laugh at him and reveal that he didn’t actually need to! The icing on the cake was that he had it on wrong anyway so that situation really couldn’t have gone any worse for him.

They decided to help themselves to the supplies but once again ended putting it all back. A question: do they ever actually get to keep anything they take? They always seem to have an awful lot of trouble keeping hold of anything. Things took a dark turn when it was revealed that rather than everyone having escaped, almost everyone had actually died. It was a tad morbid but did up the sense of danger and tension. And I find it great how scared of Reavers. They really sell them as a threat and we haven’t even really seen them yet. I could see both sides of the argument when Book wanted a funeral: it was the respectful thing to do but was it really the best use of everyone’s time? Mal allowed it, but it turned out just to be a way to keep one group distracted while the others got to work. Unfortunately the Alliance soon arrived, ready to bust them for initially what was basically having no license/registration plates. Traffic Police!

There was a single survivor and was River connected to him somehow? It seemed rather vague (unless I missed something) so maybe this is something that will be built on in future episodes? The other thing I wondered but wasn’t sure if I missed was whether the Alliance have Simon and Winter’s photos? Surely they have to or else they could just hide in plain sight. They managed to stay hidden (of course poor Simon had to put the space suit on again, but at least he did it properly this time) while the rest of the team all ended up arrested. Why the hell were the guards flipping all the table mats though when looking for Simon and River? They’re not going to be under there! The Zoe and Wash contrasting conversations about their relationship was brilliant and lightened up the mood a little. They were both funny but in different ways.

Overall another enjoyable episode with the show starting to feel more comfortable with itself and knowing very well what to do with its characters.

DD Rating: 7.25/10