TVSquad

Here we are at the end of the line, the last stop, the last episode of a show which deserved a much longer run. Let's take a moment and consider the world we live in where Firefly only gets 11 shows aired while Charmed has been on for, like, 15 years. Anyway, let's get into the recap.

A dizzying tour through the ships inards leads us to River's bedroom. She leaves her room and sees Simon and Kaylee talking and flirting. All of a sudden Simon says to her he would be living his normal life right now. She walks to the dining room where Jayne and Book are talking. They, too, break from their conversation to say something disturbing and it's clear she's sensing these things telepathically, reading their inner most thoughts. In the cargo room she steps on a branch, which winds up not being a branch but a gun. The serene setting is disturbed when we're back in reality and the crew is trying to talk to her, with Kaylee backing away slowly. Outside the ship we see another vessel slowly approaching Serenity. Cue credits.  
 The pilot of the other mysterious ship holds up a picture of River. On Serenity Jayne is trying to convince Mal that River's getting a gun is not his fault. Kaylee makes her way to the bridge and begins to tell the others that River has, in fact, held a gun before. The mysterious pilot exits his ship and floats over to Serenity. On board Kaylee tells everyone about how River got involved in the fight to rescue Mal from Niska a couple episodes ago. Simon is a bit skeptical of the account of the incident. We see that River is eavesdropping from below and the pilot is doing so while still outside the ship.

The crew is slowly coming to the realization of what River might be, which seems to be a highly intuitive psychic assassin. This is mildly disconcerting to everyone to say the least. Mal says he's not going to decide what to do about this right now. Kaylee and Simon almost have their "moment" but are interrupted by Book on his way to bed. Finally the pilot makes his way into the ship.

Mal encounters him in the hallway and is, after a brief fight, knocked out and locked in his room. He proceeds to lock the rest of the crew quarters until he makes his way to the engine room, where he finds Kaylee. He then starts talking in some goofy metaphysical way but promises not to hurt her if she tells him where River sleeps. Book is on his way to his room when he's knocked out by the shady figure. Simon's next and gets some more wandering philosophy. We then learn his name is Early and he's a bounty hunter. Simon is reluctant to help him of course but he agrees when Early threatens Kaylee. When Simon discovers Book still unconsious and is shocked to find a Shepard beat up Early responds that Book is not a Shepard. Hmmmm....

They make their way to the bridge where Early says he's getting tired of this game. All of a sudden River's voice comes over the intercomm claiming she is the ship, she is Serenity. River talks to Kaylee over the intercomm while the latter is still tied up in the engine room. River says she needs Kaylee to do something for her but then goes back to broadcasting ship-wide and exposes Early's deepest secrets. Kaylee escapes the engine room and unlocks the crew quarters. River gets Mal, Zoe and Wash moving on her plan while still playing mind games with Early.

He then realizes River is not on Serenity but on his ship. River says she's going with Early, since that will let everyone, mostly Simon, get back to the lives they should be living if not for her interference and problems. Simon jumps Early but gets shot in the leg in the struggle. Even so he continues to fight. Early leaves Serenity but as soon as he's outside Mal is there and throws him into the deep dark void of space. River floats back to the waiting Mal, where she makes a joke about Simon being the one who needs looking after.

Life returns to normal on Serenity as Zoe stitches up Simon and everyone gets back to doing what they do in their off hours. And so the curtain comes down on Firefly.