History Recap / FireflyE03Bushwhacked

Elsewhere in the ship, Jayne is searching every corner for loot--you know, business as usual--when some douche suddenly comes out of the darkness and attacks him. Fortunately, Mal knocks him out and the crew puts him in ''Serenity'''s medical bay. The man is the sole survivor of the Reaver attack. Though physically unhurt, his psychological condition is [[GoMadFromTheRevelation rather worrying]]. Finally, the crew prepare to leave, but the Reavers have booby-trapped the derelict ship with a trap rigged to blow up any docking ship. Damn. Fortunately, Kaylee manages to disarm the trap.

* DoesNotLikeShoes: River is barefoot the entire episode.

'''Originally aired:''' September 27, 2002

* InterrogationMontage: Seven of crew are arrested, resulting in a truly hilarious game of this - especially given that half of them are reacting comically, and the other half are being [[ComicallySerious excessively serious.]]

** And invoked by Jayne on the Reaver victim--when he attacks from stealth, Jayne calls for back up about how he's being attacked. When the others come and find who it really was, they point out how scrawny the guy actually is. Jayne responds, "He was bigger when I couldn't see 'im."

Soon enough, an Alliance warship decides to crash in, bring the crew into their custody under suspicion of hiding ''dangerous'' fugitives Simon and River Tam (whom the crew have [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome given spacesuits and told to cling to a window]]), and once they find the sole survivor cutting his face up, accuse them of torturing him. The survivor is then brought to the medical bay for treatment, but the medics fail to notice that [[AxCrazy he's hidden a knife]]...

* GenreSavvy: Mal knows an awful lot about how the Reavers operate, even knowing exactly where to search for a booby-trap they left behind. His dialogue with Captain Harken and the crew heavily implies he witnessed a Reaver attack at some point, and somehow survived with his body and sanity intact.

The episode opens with the crew playing a wild basketball(-ish) game in the cargo bay while Simon, River and Inara watch from the railing. Suddenly, the ship's proximity alarm goes off, indicating that A. ''Serenity'' is nearing another ship and B. Wash isn't doing his job. As ''Serenity'' approaches the stationary transport ship, the body of a passenger strikes the cockpit, indicating that whatever happened, it wasn't exactly nice.

Elsewhere in the ship, Jayne is searching every corner for loot - you know, business as usual - when some douche suddenly comes out of the darkness and attacks him. Fortunately, Mal knocks him out and the crew puts him in ''Serenity'''s medical bay. The man is the sole survivor of the Reaver attack. Though physically unhurt, his psychological condition is [[GoMadFromTheRevelation rather worrying]]. Finally, the crew prepare to leave, but the Reavers have booby-trapped the derelict ship with a trap rigged to blow up any docking ship. Damn. Fortunately, Kaylee manages to disarm the trap.

Sure enough, an Alliance warship decides to crash in, bring the crew into their custody for hiding ''dangerous'' fugitives Simon and River Tam (whom the crew have [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome given spacesuits and told to cling to a window]]), and once they find the sole survivor cutting his face up, accuse them of torturing him. The survivor is then brought to the medical bay for treatment, but the medics fail to notice that [[AxCrazy he's hidden a knife]]...

!!!Tropes

* DeathGlare: Jayne during the interrogation scene. PlayedForLaughs.

** And invoked by Jayne on the Reaver victim -- when he attacks from stealth, Jayne calls for back up about how he's being attacked. When the others come and find who it really was, they point out how scrawny the guy actually is. Jayne responds, "He was bigger when I couldn't see'im."

* SalvagePirates: the crew of ''Serenity'' is accused of trying to pull this on other ships, but the crew never actually abandons anyone and does try to save the only survivor they find.

* NothingIsScarier: The abandoned ship. It's several long minutes before the crew works out what's happened. Before that they're just examining a dark ship where everyone apparently vanished in the middle of what they were doing.

* TerribleIntervieweesMontage: The interrogation montage alternates between the serious (Mal, Book, Zoe, Inara) and the hilarious (Jayne, Kaylee, Wash).

* ShipTease: the Alliance officer interrogating Inara says "Do you love him?" Then the shot cuts away to reveal he was actually talking to Zoe and referring to Wash.

* FootFocus: First episode to have the camera drop down to River's [[DoesNotLikeShoes bare feet]].

* {{Calvinball}}: The "hoop-ball" game they play at the star, which even Simon says is not being played according to any rules that he can discern. It may be called "Spaceball," based on a soundtrack title.

The episode opens with the crew playing a wild basketball game in the cargo bay while Simon, River and Inara watch from the railing. Suddenly, the ship's proximity alarm goes off, indicating that A. ''Serenity'' is nearing another ship and B. Wash isn't doing his job. As ''Serenity'' approaches the stationary transport ship, the body of a passenger strikes the cockpit, indicating that whatever happened, it wasn't exactly nice.

* PsychicRadar: River wanders aboard the abandoned vessel, partly drawn by the [[SupernaturalSensitivity residual horror]] and partly by the presence of the mind of the survivor.

* GhostShip: "Bushwhacked" is, essentially, 'Firefly'''s version of the ''Marie Celeste.'' Right down to there still being dinner on the table, even though the ship has been attacked by Reavers.

!!!Tropes

The news gets through, and Mal offers to help the Alliance troops search ''Serenity'' for the survivor. After a while, the guy comes out of hiding and attacks them, but fortunately Mal manages to snap his neck. The Alliance troops, being grateful, decide to leave the crew without any charges. However, being douchebags, they also confiscate ''Serenity'''s cargo.

The episode opens with the crew playing a wild basketball game in the cargo bay while Simon, River and Inara watch from the railing. Suddenly, the ship's proximity alarm goes off, indicating that A. ''Serenity'' is nearing another ship and B. Wash isn't doing his job. As ''Serenity'' approaches the stationary transport ship, the body of a passenger strikes the cockpit, indicating that whatever happened, [[{{Understatement}} it wasn't exactly nice]].

The news gets through, and Mal offers to help the Alliance troops search ''Serenity'' for the survivor. After a while, the guy comes out of hiding and attacks them, but fortunately Mal manages to snap his neck. The Alliance troops, being grateful, decide to leave the crew without any charges. However, being douchebags, they also confiscate ''Serenity'''s cargo.