423 – Firefly – Bushwacked

There’s Reavers in them thar spacelanes!  Beware the boogeyman! Simon and Eugene discuss “Bushwacked.” Plot Synopsis:  Traversing remote space, the Serenity crew take the time to enjoy some form of team sport, but the levity is interrupted by a proximity alert.  Nearby, a drifting cargo ship converted to settler ship and a dead body.  After some debate, and for differing reasons, they opt to board the ship. [expand title=”Click to see the rest of post”] At first, they find a ship abandoned suddenly, with meals half eaten in the galley, and a ship’s log entry interrupted mid-sentence.  And while the first signs are that a life-pod got away, a fortune in valuable seeds was left behind.  Then they find the bodies, strung up in the rafters.  Mal understands what happened and makes to get away, immediately. They find a survivor, who attacks Jayne. The survivor is mad, and while they take him back to Serenity, Mal is convinced he’d be better off dead.  It was space-bogeymen, the Reavers, that attacked the ship. Book argues that the bodies should be given proper rites and, surprisingly, Mal agrees, much to Inara’s surprise and approval. But Mal has a second motive, he knows the Reaver’s probably booby trapped the ship to destroy any would-be rescuers, and indeed they find one attached to Serenity.  While much of the crew is unaware and over on the settler ship, Kaylee succeeds in defusing the bomb.  They head on their way. No sooner do they leave, they are taken in by an Alliance cruiser patrolling the area.  They’ve got a bulletin about a firefly-class ship that is harboring fugitives Simon and River, so they detain and question the Serenity’s crew.  They do not find them because Mal has stashed them on the outside of the ship in spacesuits. Mal warns it is the Reavers that destroyed the ship and crew and not his crew engaged in piracy, but his warnings fall on deaf ears until the survivor from the ship, mad with what he’s seen, begins to take on the characteristics of the Reavers and begins killing the Alliance crew and escapes back to the Serenity. Mal offers to help search the ship and, when the Alliance commander is nearly killed and Mal saves his life by killing the survivor, the Serenity is allowed to leave – without the spoils of their salvage operation. [/expand]