War Stories

Simon (Sean Maher)'s treatment of River (Summer Glau) is helping her sleep a little better, but she's still unstable. Inara (Morena Baccarin) entertains a powerful client, who turns out to be a woman, on the ship. Jayne (Adam Baldwin) has stolen a crate of apples, which he strangely shares with the rest of the crew. Kaylee (Jewel Staite) notices that Mal (Nathan Fillion) and Zoe (Gina Torres) always cut up their apples before eating them, which leads Zoe to tell another grisly war story. Wash (Alan Tudyk), tired of the reverence with which his wife seems to treat the captain, messes with the shuttle so that Zoe can't fly it, forcing Mal to use Wash instead of Zoe the next time he goes to deliver some stolen goods. Wash tries to reassure the captain about his experience. "I've been in a firefight before!" he tells Mal. "Well, I was in a fire..." he amends, "Actually, I was fired...from a...fry cook opportunity." Unfortunately, the pair are waylaid by Niska (Michael Fairman), the powerful criminal Mal double-crossed in "The Train Job." Niska decides to torture Mal and Wash to death, while Mal keeps Wash's spirits up by arguing with him about Zoe. Zoe shows up and tries to pay Niska for his captives. Niska decides she's only got enough money for one of them, necessitating a daring rescue mission. River turns out to be surprisingly -- almost disturbingly -- handy with a gun.