Hello everyone and welcome to the second edition of Firefly catchup and after only one episode, I already feel very much invested in these characters. I think the first episode being feature length really did help as it was like a mini movie to kick start the story. The start of this episode throws you right in with a bar fight which ended with someone getting tossed through a hologram bar window, which was a great space version of a regular western trope. The fun and wit from the first episode carried over, such as them bluffing about the ship having any guns at all, and it looked damn cool when the ship rose up behind them from out of nowhere. There were also more uses of what is described on the subtitles purely as Galactic Language. Are the actors told what they are actually saying or is it just “insert gobbledegook here”? And one other thing that is a regular occurrence: people just keep getting shot in this show!

I still have some questions regarding Inara and what exactly her role in the crew is. Do they get a share of her earnings? Is she just an old friend who catches a lift every now and then? Hopefully we get to find out more in future episodes. I do however really enjoy her scenes with Book (and they are getting quite a few together) and it seems like they are bonding on a certain level despite them coming from completely different ways of life. Him considering her to be the most respectful was a nice moment too. You can tell though that he is not a member of the crew and that goes for Simon and his sister too. It’s hard to fit in with the way thinks and goes about their business.

The team were hired to pull a train heist which was another scenario picked and updated neatly from any number of old Westerns. They were hired by Niska and Crow, with the latter looking like a cross between a wrestler and a Viking. Basically he looked like he could have been in the tag team War Raiders for anyone who does follow wrestling. And was he the guy who played the masked wrestler in the live action Scooby Doo movie? It did look like him. Niska proved he was not to be messed with by showing off his wife’s nephew who had done him wrong, tied upside down as punishment. I must say that was message clearly sent.

When on the train I thought that they were going to struggle to complete the mission as they a made a point of showing an awful lot of guards. Turns out they weren’t really that much of a problem: hardly any did anything and those who did turned out to be pretty crap at their jobs. It turned out that they were robbing poor people’s medicine and I’m glad that Mal felt bad and wanted to stop the deal there and then. He was actually quite thoughtful unlike Jayne, who was for some reason being a moron and wanting to leave without them. I am glad that Samuel knocked him out because I wasn’t comfortable with him being in charge either.

I like the lore drop about terraforming planets for human life and the side effects that has. Would different planets have different side effects? It would be an interesting concept to find out more about. The last interesting note I would make was that as soon as Summer Glau’s (I don’t know the character names fully yet) visions and mutterings were deemed as nonsense, you knew that wasn’t the case. She’s going to be right, and it is going to cause a whole lot of trouble. Will it be in the next episode? I’ll just have to keep watching to find out.

DD Rating: 7.5/10