Landing to offload a cargo of cattle, Mal gets in the middle of a firefight between the authorities and his customers which leaves Book badly injured. Unfortunately, Simon has been kidnapped by some locals in need of a doctor…

A bit of a weak story, most of the interesting elements aren't followed through purely because it would give too much away too early on. Firstly, forced to seek help for Book from an Alliance ship, there is something about the Shepherd's ID that gets him immediate treatment. Perhaps he's a member of the Alliance sent to spy on Mal; we just don't know. It does provide a deeper level of interest in a character that's remained in the background most of the season so far, but it's a bit frustrating that the only answer we get is 'Maybe I'll tell you why someday'.

Likewise, the other characters we get some insight into are Simon and River, but this suffers from similar issues: without wanting to give too much away, there's only so far the background can be revealed without telling us everything. At the moment they still seem to be glossing over even the simplest aspect: that River is psychic somehow. It keeps getting brought up, but no one seems to be outright admitting it. Here all it does is get her accused of being a witch, an aspect of the story that not only comes across as a late addition but a rather lazy and pointless one. Indeed, most of the Simon story is pointless, as after his kidnapping he's not put in any danger and it may just be an excuse to force Mal to deal with the Alliance.

The flashbacks are welcome and give an idea of how driven Simon is and what kind of background he came from, but the ending also wrecks things a little; after having to rush off and leave Simon to save Book, the Serenity crew manage to return to the planet and locate him with ease, saving him in the nick of time. Why couldn't they have dropped by and found him earlier? It doesn't make a whole lot of sense and stops the story holding together properly.

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