Deep space. The corner of No and Where. No one else about but Serenity.

In the midst of crew indecision over whether River should remain on the ship after her latest flirtation with violence, bounty hunter Jubal Early secretly boards the ship. He locks the crew in their quarters and stalks River throughout Serenity's nooks and crannies with Simon as his guide and hostage.

Objects in space. Incorporeal beings. Existentialism with bullets.

Original airdate: 12/13/02
Written by: Joss Whedon
Directed by: Joss Whedon
Read the script

Highlights

• Just about every damn thing - this was a great episode, but...
• Jubal and Kaylee.
• Jubal in the cargo bay.
• River and the Captain, both times.

Quotes

SIMON: This is a morality tale about the evils of sake.

JAYNE: You made that sound kinda ominous.

BOOK: I just direct my energies elsewhere.
JAYNE: What, you mean like masturbating?

RIVER: It's just an object. It doesn't mean what you think.

MAL: This here's a recipe for unpleasantness.

MAL: We're deep in space, corner of No and Where.

WASH: Little River just gets more colorful by the moment. What'll she do next?
ZOE: Either blow us all up or rub soup in her hair. It's a toss-up.
WASH: I hope she does the soup thing. It's always a hoot, and we don't all die from it.

JAYNE: Anybody remember her comin' at me with a butcher's knife?
WASH: Wacky fun.
JAYNE: You wanna go, little man?
WASH: Only if it's someplace with candlelight.

JAYNE: She killed 'em with mathematics. What else could it have been?

SIMON: I'm sure she didn't know what she was doing...she probably thought she was playing a game.
JAYNE: Later on you can explain to me how that's a comfort. Might have to use some of that "math" we've been hearin' about.

JAYNE: Are you saying she's a witch?
WASH: Yes, Jayne. She's a witch. She has had congress with the beast.
JAYNE: She's in Congress?
WASH: How did your brain even learn human speech? I'm just so curious.

WASH: Psychic, though? That sounds like something out of science fiction.
ZOE: We live in a space ship, dear.
WASH: So?

JAYNE: Yeah, and if wishes were horses, we'd all be eatin' steak.

SIMON: I have to go check on my assassin.

SIMON: ... I thought the hospital was home. I was really making a difference there... and embarrassingly large stacks of money.

EARLY: You throw a monkey wrench into my dealings in any way, your body is forfeit. Ain't nothing but a body to me. And I can find all unseemly manner of use for it.

EARLY: I don't think of myself as a lion. You might as well, though. I have a mighty roar.

SIMON: You're out of your mind.
EARLY: That's between me and my mind.

EARLY: You oughta be shot. Or stabbed. Lose a leg. To be a surgeon, you know? Know what kind of pain you're dealing with. They make psychiatrists get psychoanalyzed before they can get certified, but they don't make a surgeon get cut on. That seem right to you?

EARLY: People don't appreciate the substance of things. Objects in space. People miss out on what's solid.

RIVER: I'm not on the ship. I'm in the ship. I am the ship.

EARLY: Where'd she go?
SIMON: I can't keep track of her when she's not incorporeally possessing a space ship.

EARLY: That's somewhat unsettling.

EARLY: You folks are all insane.
SIMON: Well, my sister's a ship. We had a complicated childhood.

RIVER: I know you have questions.
MAL: That would be why I just asked them.

EARLY: You know, with the exception of one deadly and unpredictable midget, this girl is the smallest cargo I've ever had to transport, yet by far the most troublesome.

WASH: What about his face? Is his face wearing armor?

WASH: Can I mop your brow? I am at the ready with the fearsome brow-mop.

SIMON: Okaaay. I'm just gonna pass out for a minute, but you're doing great.

MAL: Air he had left I'd say his chance would have to be one in... a very large number.

Chinese Phrases

• FAY-FAY duh PEE-yen
  

• BEE-jway, neen hen BOO-TEE-TYEH duh NAN-shung!
  

• shiong-mung duh kwong-run
  

For more information and a pronunciation guide, see the Firefly Chinese Pinyinary.

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