Reviews Series / Firefly

Bushwacked - 12th Best

The crew investigate a ship that's been attacked by the Reavers and find a survivor- and the Alliance.

I'd just like to emphasise how good Firefly is here, when drawing up this list, Bushwacked was often 6th best, but in a series that produces excellent events that will stick in the public mind, multiple times at every episode, Bushwacked is the quiet hardworking kid who the teachers struggle to remember come parents evening.

There is a lot to love here, it opens with the crew playing sports with each other and really emphasises the comeradery and the idea that Serenity is their home, for good or bad a large amount of their life experiences are had on this ship. And the game like them, is a bit rough and tumble, but even Jayne is there having fun with the rest of them, even giving someone a boost so that they can score. This is actually probably one of the bets moments in the series for understanding, why everyone is willing to go through so much together.

The Reavers are the focus of this episode and they make the excellent decision of not including a Reaver anywhere, we have the still tense moments on the ship, the horrific aftermath and the idea that they are so awful just watching them will drive a man insane, is powerful. There mysterious horrific nature is then used to highlight why the Alliance are what they are and it lends credence to the idea that the writers didn't really think of the Alliance as evil. The old rules don't account for the harsh realities of the border planets and the error is in being too stiff and bureaucratic to adapt. Saying that, there are many points of human decency, sparing supplies, using medical facilities that would seem to be what they do and we're never giving enough insight into why they are averse to that. Here is the closest we get, with the merest suggestion of good feeling from the alliance towards Mal, but it would have been nice if the series had continued the humanisation at a later point.

It would be remiss of me not to highlight the excellence of the interview segment, there can be no argument stronger for the wide strong personified cast than the close human quick pace humour it allows in scenes like this.Finally, a point of Fridge Logic, if the survivor spent all his time in the infirmary and was unconscious when being transferred, why did he think of Serenity as familiar territory?