Episode discussion - Out of Gas S01E8

Robb Stark

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Sineya
Original air date: 10/25/02 

Written by: Joss Whedon, Tim Minear 

Directed by: David Solomon

Storyline:
On Simon's birthday, Serenity's engine stops turning and an explosion knocks out auxiliary life support, severely wounding Zoe. With few options, Mal orders the rest of the crew off the ship, but he stays behind hoping for a miracle. The story is told in multiple time frames shifting from Mal's time alone on the ship to the events prior to the crew's departure. Flashbacks to Mal's initial meetings with many of his crew members are also a part of the narrative, showing how and why Mal and Zoe decided to buy the old Firefly-class ship, as well as revealing it wasn't love-at-first-sight for Zoe and Wash when he was hired as the Serenity's pilot, as well as how Inara charmed her way into letting Mal rent out one of the Serenity's shuttles for herself, how Mal met the mechanic/engineer Kaylee in a compromising position, and how the crew met Jayne who was an tough, but dumb, interplanetary bandit.


Trivia:
The red button Wash rigs to call the shuttles back and return the crew to Serenity was removed from the set on one of the last days of filming by Alan Tudyk, as by that time the cast and crew knew they were being canceled. Scenes on the bridge for Firefly: Out of Gas were filmed the next day, and the button is noticeably absent. Alan then mailed the button to series creator Joss Whedon, with a note saying "When you get your miracle, just hit this" (quoting Wash's line). Whedon was hoping to revive the series, which he did, in the form of the film Serenity.
Gina Torres' character spends most of this episode unconscious in the ship's medical bay, partly because Torres was absent for part of the shoot. She was on her honeymoon with husband Laurence Fishburne.
Previously, Kaylee had been complaining about the "crappy compression coil." It was the compression coil finally blowing that crippled Serenity.

--All of the above comes from IMDB

My take:

-Definitely the most unique opening we've seen so far.
-I'm excited to see the start of Serenity. Mal and Zoe first finding the ship was neat.
-Okay, we've got three timelines going on now. This is either going to be really cool or really confusing. Possibly both.
-Huh, this just made me think, it being Simon's birthday. I'm with River on this one. If they're not settled on one planet, how the hell does time as we know it apply? I mean, seriously, days, months, years, if that's all related to our sun and orbit, and now there is no "our sun and orbit""¦jeez. "I didn't get you anything." Great line.
-Man, Serenity sure has a lot of problems. Massive fireballs seems a step up though.
-I'm gonna say it again: Three timelines! I think Wash made the right call in getting rid of that moustache.
-Okay, Simon has pure adrenaline on board but no defibrillator? I know that T.V. shows never take the time to actually do basic CPR research, but come on"¦
-Okay, no air. Not good.
-I like the friendship between River and Shepherd. River may not always have the best advice, but it's sweet.
-Mal and Wash figuring out a plan by yelling at each other was great. And who knew Jayne would be the voice of reason?
-Fester has crap tattoos. Just putting that out there.
-I always like the Mal/Inara scenes, and Mal going down with the ship was touching. And I like his warning about Jayne: "Don't trust him and don't let him take over."
-The Mal/Jayne goodbye was pretty funny. I like that they showed that Jayne does care, but of course, it's freaking Jayne, so there's no special farewell.
-At this point I'm not really sure how Mal is going to get out of this one.
-Man, seeing a ship just appear like that would be pretty freaky.
-Okay, the Jayne flashback has been the best one so far. "Tell us where the stuff's at, so I can shoot ya."
-Man, Mal can tough it out when he needs to.
-I like how it tied back into the original opening. I thought that was well done.
-Great ending too, coming back to the beginning.

-I thought that "Jaynestown" was the funniest episode so far, but this one has been the best. From start to finish it was really, really good. It hooked me right from the beginning, and gaining a deeper insight into the characters was very cool. Best one yet.
 
Jules
Jules
I didnt know she was married to Laurence Fishburne!
Everyone raves about this episode, but to be honest I find it kinda boring. Not the flashbacks, but the rest of it. 😀
 
Interesting opening. And a bit creepy.

"You paid money for this sir. On purpose?"

"A ship like this, be with you till the day you die.
Because it's a death trap."

I just love seeing them all having fun.

Mal just can't stop jinxing things. A week of not meeting anyone. Hopefully. "As it should be."

Zoe as the warrior she is got fast reflexes. Rivers sixth sense show again.

Chaos inside but dead silent outside (in space) as it should be.

Mal's being a jerk but he needs to be. Not easy being the leader.

Wash with a moustache. 😀 There's a bit in the gag reel there they make fun of it.

Zoe dislikes Wash. Of course they end up married.

Genius mechanic. Surprise, it's not Kaylee.

Happy birthday Simon...
River. Oh River. ""That won't happen." Positive news? Does she know/feel something? "We'll freeze to death first." Ah, yes. Very positive.

There's Kaylee. Chipper as always.

Even the computer speaks mandarin. Now there's a sign that things aren't going well if I ever saw one.

The red button! If you read the trivia in the opening post you know why it's important.

Talk about luck. Here comes help. Or?

Jayne flashback. 😀 Good idea, not shooting them until they tell where the stuff is. "Tell us where the stuff's at so I can shoot you."

So it's wasn't the Firefly the seller wanted Mal to buy. Didn't see that coming.

I love the flashbacks in the episode and although the rest isn't bad my mood decides what I think of it. Sometimes I'm fond of them but other times I want to skip them. Might be because I've seen it a few times. I wish I could remember what I felt about it the first time I watched it. So [MENTION=10297]Spikefan31[/MENTION], you're not alone. The episode is a huge fan favourite though.
 
Ohh flashbacks! I typically enjoy flashback episodes, it's nice to get some more backstory.

I enjoyed seeing the crew around the dinner table talking and laughing. Zoe and Wash were cute, I guess I was totally off thinking that there was something between Mal and Zoe.

Kaylee and the pretty boy! 😱 And how stinking cute is she in that dress rather than her usual jumpsuit! 🙂

Favorite part of this episode was Mal convincing Jayne to join him and Zoe. Makes perfect sense, lol!

Umm they have like five people with guns, some which look like machine guns, and they are going to turn and leave because Mal has an open shot at their captain?! Why not just kill him and pick apart Serenity? Glad they didn't, but odd.

That would never happen with Mal and his crew, he would have Zoe or Jayne take the shot.

Overall a bit of a filler episode, doesn't add much to the plot, but the flashbacks were neat and it's nice to see that the crew really does care for each other.
 
Well, reading the one-sentence recap on Amazon makes me think this is going to be horribly depressing. 🙁 (And my snack for this evening is Life cereal, if anyone is interested.)

-Empty Serenity makes me sad!
-Nice to see flashbacks of Zoe and Mal. They have such great chemistry.
-So, captains going down with their ship holds true for spaceships as well? I'm already depressed.
-Yay for group laughter! Jayne, too, even!
-And awesome that they are celebrating Simon's birthday. He's all one with the crew and all. 😀
-What the crap?!?!?!?! Call the fire department! Would the fire actually get all sucked out like that? I might need to consult with a firefighter...
-What exactly is it that is wrong with Zoe? No visible injuries...apparently she still has a pulse because no one is freaking out...??
-Wash with a mustache?! That is so...very...wrong...
-Mal really is a good captain, though he might seem heartless. He's keeping calm, trying to keep everyone occupied and focused even though he's got to be ripped up about Zoe, too.
-Hearing Kaylee give that kind of news makes things seem so much more horrible.
-"We'll freeze to death first." Thank you, River...
-I dislike Wash and Mal fighting.
-Um, nasty Kaylee?!?! *gasp* But also, great scene! Wish she wouldn't blamer herself though.
-LOVE Inara and Mal's first meeting and negotiation. Shed a lot of light on why they are so abrasive. And I can't really blame Mal that much, either.
-Wow. That guy from the other ship is kind of a jerk face. Mal has the worst luck. Ever.
-Jayne. Always had such a way with words. And now we know how Jayne got picked up.
-There are some serious bad words in space in the future. Seriously. No commong decency anymore at all, apparently.
-Mal should really take some engine repair classes. In case they should come in handy.
-"Wash, you ok? You have a thing in your arm." And yay for the crew going back for their captain!
-Jayne freaked out by incense. Haha.
-Love the ending.

Now that was a love story. About a man and his ship. 😀
 
VisionGirl
VisionGirl
"All ironical" about life cereal, & yes to your last statement. :)
I thought this was an amazing episode. I loved seeing the flashbacks of how the crew got together. Its ironic that Zoe didnt even like Wash to start with. Is it just me or is Wash wearing the shirt that Spike wears in Season 4 of Buffy? I love how Jayne joins the group. It fits into the Serenity episode were him and Mal talk about when the day finally comes when someone will pay Jayne more than Mal does.

I love the heated arguement that Wash and Mal have, it was tense and funny at the same time. I also really enjoyed how at the end its Wash giving Mal blood, sort of symbolising that there blood brothers (in my opinion.)

Did Zoe order the ship back because River had a premonition that it was ok to do so or did she just want everyone to die on Serenity? Because unless she got the ok from River then that's all she was doing, she had no way of knowing it would be safe and there was nothing anyone else could really do, to her knowledge. Is her loyalty to Mal that strong???
 
[MENTION=2230]Jules[/MENTION]....Wash wearing Spike/Xander's shirt. That's why it looked so familiar! Heehee.

I think Zoe ordered the crew back so they could drag Mal out of there, kicking and screaming. She's a loyal crew member and her and Mal definitely have a friendship/understanding/relationship that is very important and long-lasting. I'm not really "up" on ship etiquette, but if the captain goes down with the ship, maybe the crew should go down with the captain?
 
This is one of my favorite "Firefly" episodes, but every time that I see it, the little Vulcan logic demon keeps whispering in my ear, "With the volume of air present in the ship, it would have taken probably several months for a single man to use up all of the oxygen, and the temperature would never have dropped, because there is no heat transference in the vacuum of space, any more than there is in an old style vacuum Thermos bottle. Vacuum doesn't either heat or cool, it insulates. The temperature within the ship would hace remained constant.

Vulcan logic demon notwithstanding, this was a great episode, giving insight into Mal's character and revealing his single greatest love in the series: his ship. Quite similar to a scene from Season 1 of the original "Star Trek," ("The Naked Time") where Kirk's personal feelings for "Enterprise" are first revealed. "I won't lose you. I'll NEVER lose you!" when he, also, refused to abandon his critically damaged ship.
 
-"Because its a deathtrap"
-compression coil- why doesn't Mal ever listen to Kaylee?
-Love the flashbacks, both the immediate & older ones.
-Hmm, fire in space. There can't be fire without oxygen, so shouldn't the fire just die off rather than be sucked out into space.
-What's worse: Wash's mustache or Angel's pornstache from Amends? 🙂
-Love the Wash/Mal argument.
-The part when the shuttles leave makes me tear up, especially since when the show was cancelled Alan Tudyk gave Joss that red button and told him that the cast would come back if he called them. 🙁 And of course he did, they did, & they made a movie.

---------- Post added at 11:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:30 PM ----------

@Jules says:
Did Zoe order the ship back because River had a premonition that it was ok to do so or did she just want everyone to die on Serenity? Because unless she got the ok from River then that's all she was doing, she had no way of knowing it would be safe and there was nothing anyone else could really do, to her knowledge. Is her loyalty to Mal that strong
In a word, yes. This is all about Zoe's loyalty to Mal. This will come up again in other episodes. If Zoe had been conscious when Mal ordered the evacuation, there's no way she would have left him.

---------- Post added at 11:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:44 PM ----------

Steven Flynn, who plays the captain of that other ship, is sure a busy actor: http://m.imdb.com/name/nm0283631/filmotype/actor

---------- Post added at 11:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:51 PM ----------

Mandarin Translation
(Special Thanks to BrownCoats.com.)

"It's a piece of feiwu [junk]." "Feiwu? [Junk?]" - Zoà« and Mal talk about Serenity.
"Qu ni de. [Screw you.]" - Wash curses Mal when the captain demands he leave his injured wife to get to work.
"What the gui [hell, demon] do you two think you're doing, fighting at a time like this? You'll use up all the air." - Jayne.
"Gausaang haitung guzoeng. Gimcaa jeonghei gungjing. [Cantonese: Life support failure. Check oxygen levels at once.]" - Serenity. Repeated several times.
"What in the name of suoyou de5 dou shidang... [all that's proper...]" - Mal walks in on Bester and Kaylee in the engine room.
"Sorry, Captain. I'm real sorry. I shoulda kept better care of her. Usually she lets me know when something's wrong. Maybe she did, I just wasn't paying attention..." "I cannot be having this from you right now. We got work to do. Dong ma? [Understand?]" - Kaylee, then Mal.
"Billy, get this plugged in. Jesse, call Stern over here. You and him'll pilot this pile of goushi [dog crap] out of here." - The pirate captain instructs his crew on making off with Serenity.
http://firefly.wikia.com/wiki/Out_of_Gas
 
I absolutely love the flashbacks to this episode. I really wasn't expecting that girl being Kaylee though, hahah! 😉

I don't really understand why Mal stayed behind though. 😕
 
I don't really understand why Mal stayed behind though. 😕

Ignoring "A captain goes down with his ship" he adds a third chance of them being rescued. Shuttles going in two different directions and he's staying put. That's also what saves them in the end. If he hadn't had stayed the ship hadn't been repaired. Although he did go through some serious trouble for it. Still, he never got to the button to call the others back but since they got back anyway it all worked out.
 
Nathan Fillion live tweeted during the April 29th Science Channel Firefly marathon. I don't know if you can see these, but these are his tweets for "Out of Gas". Read them from the bottom up:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v323/stephs9/tumblr_m39etpHv2b1qh6tevo3_1280-1.png

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v323/stephs9/tumblr_m39etpHv2b1qh6tevo2_1280.png
 
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PassionBecoming
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