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The Independents (Browncoats)
Bendis
Bendis
Played By: Eddie Adams
A fellow Browncoat who fought in the war with Malcolm Reynolds and Zoë Alleyne Washburne in the Battle of Serenity Valley.
- Posthumous Character: Appears only in a flashback.
Monty
Monty
Played By: Franc Ross
A long-time colleague of Mal Reynolds who also fought on the side of the Independents in the Unification War. An extremely large, hairy (Zoe refers to him as a "sasquatch") and genial man, he is known among his friends for wearing a thick beard and mustache.
- Casual Danger Dialogue: After Saffron and Mal pull their guns on each other.Monty: So...you guys have met?
- Fire-Forged Friends: With Mal. They're old war buddies.
- Gentle Giant: He's a big guy, but greets Mal with a massive hug.
- Hero of Another Story: He seems to have fallen into smuggling just as Mal did, and probably for much the same reason.
- Important Haircut: He used to have a beard, but Saffron didn't like it, so it ended up becoming one of her victims.Monty: I shaved my beard for you, devil woman!
- Old Friend: To the entire Serenity crew, but mostly Mal and Zoe.
- Remember the New Guy?: Kaylee and Jayne (at least) have met him before the series started.
Tracey
Tracey Smith
"When you can't run anymore,you crawl, and when you can't do that, well— Yeah,you know the rest."
Played By: Jonathan M Woodward
"You know, it's funny. We went to the war never looking to come back. But it's the real world I couldn't survive."
A war buddy of Malcolm Reynolds and Zoe Alleyne from the war against the Alliance. Mal helped get Tracey through the war, but after the war Tracey became something of a drifter, eventually falling in with organ smugglers.
- Death Equals Redemption: Realizing that he really is mortally wounded this time, he humbly asks for his prior 'last request' to be carried out for real.
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Designated Monkey: He never really meant for anyone to get hurt and he probably wouldn't have freaked out and pulled a gun on everyone if the crew had simply told him that they weren't really going to sell him out. - Didn't Think This Through: He didn't seem to consider that Womack wouldn't take kindly being double-crossed...or how he was going to get his original organs back even if he did successfully get his new buyer's money since Womack would presumably still be in possession of them.
- Distracted by the Sexy: As soon as he sees Kaylee, his heart-rate goes up and he's completely distracted.
- Faking the Dead: Tracey fakes his own death to escape from his partners-in-crime, mailing his 'body' to Mal and Zoe.
- Full-Frontal Assault: After waking up early from his comatose state, he attacks while fully naked.
- Human Mail: Tracey ships his corpse to Mal and Zoe so they can see to it he's buried on his home planet. Except he's not actually dead.
- Missing Steps Plan: Alright, Tracy, so your plan was to take the new offer for three times what Womack was paying for the organs inside you so you could help your family. Even if it had gone through smoothly, how exactly were you going to collect when Womack or who's associated with him presumably still has your original organs in hand?
- Old Friend: To Mal and Zoe.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Was this to his regiment during the war. Mal even recounts a story of how Tracey shaved off a belligerent Colonel's mustache while he was sleeping & glued it to his own face.
- Posthumous Character: He's dead by the time he appears during the main events of the series. Averted, he was faking.
- Returning War Vet: Tracey was unable to get his life working after the war; he fell into crime very quickly and became tormented by a lack of purpose.
- Rhetorical Question Blunder:Tracey: Do you think I'm stupid?Mal: In every way possible.
- Later, as he's bleeding out, he concedes that Mal was right.Tracey: You weren't far off about me bein' stupid. Never could get my life workin' right after the war.
- Later, as he's bleeding out, he concedes that Mal was right.
- Too Dumb to Live: During a heated battle in the Unification War, he sits down alone in an unsecured room, removes his helmet and his rifle, and starts chowing down on a can of beans. Predictably, an Alliance soldier gets the drop on him - only Zoe covering him from in hiding saved him from dying right then and there. In the present time, his poor decisions and general lack of planning indicate that he never grew out of this.
Maude Reynolds
Maude "Ma" Reynolds
Malcolm Reynolds's mother
- Abusive Parents: She genuinely loves and cares about Mal, but her harsh discipline causes him to resent her somewhat.
- Calling Out for Not Calling: She doesn't do it herself, but Mal does it to himself. He promises to call her "at least twice a year."
- Crusading Widow: Her husband was killed during the buyout dispute and she’s determined to get back at the Alliance any way she can.
- Never Mess with Granny: She was a tough frontier rancher, soldier, and outlaw. She lost her husband when Mal was still a baby but kept their ranch going, resisted when the Alliance tried to displace them, and joined the Browncoats.
- The Remnant: When Mal is captured by the Unificators, she joins up with other former Browncoats rallying to rescue him.
- Shipper on Deck: She likes Zoe, who's closer to her in personality, and is a bit disappointed that her son is smitten with Inara.
