Firefly

Season 1

The Train Job

1. The two-hour Firefly: Serenity (2002) was originally intended as the pilot for the show. The network (FOX) however, decided not to air it, citing that they wanted a pilot with a more action-packed feel to it. With exactly one weekend to write a new pilot, executive producers Joss Whedon and Tim Minear wrote Firefly: The Train Job (2002), which appeared first on the show. A slightly retooled version of "Serenity" was later showed as an 'origins' story after Firefly (2002) had been canceled.
2. When Serenity approaches to dock with Niska's space station, you can see what looks like a US Space shuttle docked in much the way it would be at the International Space Station.
3. Chinese translations: 1- MAL: "Ching zie lie ee bay Ng-Ka-Pei?" ~ "Can I have one more glass of Ng-Ka-Pei [a medicinal-herb wine], please?"2- MAL: "Oh, juh jen sh guh kwai luh duh jean jan..." ~ "Oh, this is a happy development..."3- KAYLEE (to Mal): "Kuh-ooh duh lao bao jurn..." ~ "Horrible old tyrant..."4- KAYLEE (about Mal when it comes to plans): "jen duh sh tyen tsai" ~ "an absolute genius"5- JAYNE: "dong ma" ~ "understand"
4. The big fight scene with Niska's men was actually written and choreographed for Angel (1999), but Tim Minear changed the names in the script and handed it to Joss Whedon to use on Firefly. Angel was still in this scene in a sense, however: the guy that Wash hits with the ATV, was played by Angel's stunt double.
5. Jayne's line after shooting Crow in the leg, "I was aiming for his head", later used by Nathan Fillion in Castle (2009), is lifted from Blake's 7: Orac (1978), which was on while Joss Whedon was living in the UK. That line itself is a mis-quote from The Magnificent Seven (1960), where the original line was "I was aiming for his horse".
6. The ominous "Hands of Blue", two men who are pursuing River, first appear in this episode.
7. Inara questions Mal for walking into her shuttle "unannounced", just as she did in the pilot.
8. As noted by Tim Minear in the DVD commentary, Book's knowledge of underworld dealings (particularly his theory of Niska's reaction to an incarcerated Mal and Zoe) alludes to his cryptic past.
9. Since this second episode was actually the first to be aired, Joss Whedon and Tim Minear had to introduce the characters to the new audience, even though many elements of these introductions were covered in the actual pilot, Firefly: Serenity (2002). Quite a bit of the dialogue alludes to information provided in the pilot.
10. On DVD, Netflix and more, this is the second episode, as originally intended.
11. The battle gear from the film Starship Troopers was later reused in the episode The Train Job.
12. Michael Fairman plays a character named 'Adelai Niska'. In '13 Days', he played politician Adlai Stevenson.
13. Joss Whedon planned to have Mal keep the cargo from the train to show that Mal puts the needs of his crew above the needs of others. However, executives at Fox told Joss to have Mal return the cargo to the town folk in order to make Mal more likable to the audience.
14. Kaylee claims that her messy rewiring in the engine room is required because "somebody won't replace that crappy compression coil", which she first brought up in Firefly: Serenity (2002). In Firefly: Out of Gas (2002), the catalyzer on the compression coil will be the source of the explosion that stops Serenity dead, just as she predicted in "Serenity".
15. Niska warns Mal that "things between us [will be] not so solid" if Mal fails to bring him the cargo, and Zoe is perturbed by mental images of the dead man hanging from the ceiling (leading Mal to express a desire for it not to be him). Niska's lieutenant dies rather than accept Mal's returning of the money. Mal's thwarting of Niska's goal comes back to bite Serenity's crew in Firefly: War Stories (2002).

Bushwhacked

1. The syringe that Inara has is not to commit suicide. It was originally intended to kill anyone who rapes her in case they were boarded by Reavers. This would have been in a future episode but the show was tragically canceled.
2. The derelict spaceship set was recycled from an old "Power Rangers" series.
3. A passenger log on a computer screen is seen briefly. The entry on the screen reads as: "Passenger 4352 - Schultz, Sharon I received a communication regarding the shipment and have been apprised of the situation awaiting us upon arrival at the docking bay as well. I have been assured that every precaution has been taken to insure the safe arrival and expedient dispersion of said materials. All is under control. Will contact representative upon arrival. Passenger 4399 - Robinson, Johann Today, my darling, for the first time I regret embarking on this journey"
4. The Alliance commander observes that the unnamed fugitive siblings were last seen leaving Persephone aboard an unidentified Firefly-class transport around the same time Serenity left the same planet, events which were depicted in Firefly: Serenity (2002).
5. It is strange that Harken was not given information on the Tams. In the other episodes information on the Tams is posted on the Cortex; made available to bounty hunters, Federal agents, Federal marshals; and shown to others by the Hands of Blue.
6. During the "basketball" game in the opening scene, Jayne has a bandage on his leg from injuries sustained in the previous episode, Firefly: The Train Job (2002).
7. River continues to utter mysterious statements that turn out to have meaning in subsequent events.
8. On DVD, Netflix and more, this is the third episode, as originally intended.
9. Nathan Fillion later reunited with both Summer Glau and Doug Savant in the Castle (2009) episode "Castle: G.D.S. (2016)".
10. This is the first significant look at the handiwork of the "Reavers", a population of humans that have become cannibalistic and apparently feral raiders, first encountered in Firefly: Serenity (2002).

Our Mrs. Reynolds

1. The supposedly biblical quote Saffron uses in her seduction of Mal does not appear in the Bible. She may have fabricated it assuming Mal would not know the difference.
2. This is the only episode in which River does not speak. She had lines in the original shooting script, but they were cut before the episode made it to air.
3. Jayne's favorite gun, Vera, is actually a highly modified Saiga-12 shotgun. The prop gun was custom built by gunsmiths Larry Zanoff and Jim Boland for the film Showtime (2002) before being used on Firefly (2002). Jayne also carries Vera in Firefly: War Stories (2002), but notably does not fire it on camera.
4. First appearance of Christina Hendricks as Saffron.
5. When Inara is searching for clientele on Beumomd, she references the date October 24th. This is also the date that Frodo woke from his wounds in Rivendell, from Fellowship of the Ring.

Jaynestown

1. Adam Baldwin admitted to swiping the Jayne statue's head as a souvenir after filming the episode. Later on, additional shots were needed for the episode (scene where the crew first sees the statue) and the crack where the head was broken off and then reattached is visible.
2. River: River interprets Book's Bible in scientific and mathematical terms. When Book removes his hair tie, his shock of white hair is very reminiscent of Albert Einstein.
3. The theme of the episode is faith. Shepherd Book's faith in the Bible fixes him. There have been many hints that he was once someone who knew a lot about crime and not in a theoretical way. The mudders have faith in Jayne, a criminal whom they have mythologized into a Robin Hood hero.

Out of Gas

1. The red button Wash rigs to call the shuttles back and return the crew to Serenity was removed from the set on one of the last days of filming by Alan Tudyk, as by that time the cast and crew knew they were being canceled. Scenes on the bridge for Firefly: Out of Gas (2002) were filmed the next day, and the button is noticeably absent. Alan then mailed the button to series creator Joss Whedon, with a note saying "When you get your miracle, just hit this" (quoting Wash's line). Whedon was hoping to revive the series, which he did, in the form of the film Serenity (2005).
2. Gina Torres' character spends most of this episode unconscious in the ship's medical bay, partly because Torres was absent for part of the shoot. She was on her honeymoon with husband Laurence Fishburne.
3. Mal narrates the pre-credit opening rather than Book. The introduction at the beginning of the show in this episode is somewhat different from the normal introduction, but close-captioning displayed the words for the normal introduction.
4. When Inara tells Simon, "I don't want to die at all," she is thinking of a disease that is killing her. Morena admitted in her answer to a fan's question at a convention that if Joss Whedon had told the fan's friend that Inara is dying, then it must be true.
5. The highest rated episode of Firefly.

Shindig

1. The final scene revealing the cargo as cattle was created digitally because, among other reasons, cattle do not walk on grating, of which the cargo bay floor is made.
2. When Kaylee calls Mal "Captain Tightpants" at the party, this was an inside joke referring to an incident that occurred while shooting the original pilot episode "Serenity". During the scene when Kaylee gets shot and Mal bends over to help her the back of his pants split, hence the name.
3. Kaylee's full name is announced at the ball as Kaywinnit Lee Frye.
4. As the crew begin to wander through the streets of Persephone, a ship with an oval front section followed by two square sections lands in the background. This ship is the Starlight Intruder from the Star Wars graphic novel series "Dark Empire".
5. The part of recurring character Badger, was originally written to be played by creator and executive producer Joss Whedon himself (according to Joss's DVD commentary for the Firefly: Serenity (2002). In the end, actor Mark Sheppard was cast in the part instead.
6. When Mal and Kaylee enter the ballroom, Kaylee points out the chandelier. When the camera pans to the chandelier, a huge gold ring with elvish script can be seen in the center of the chandelier. It is the one ring from Lord of the Rings.
7. The dress that Inara wears to the ball was a (heavily) remade version of costume designer Shawna Trpcic's actual wedding dress.
8. On Netflix this is episode 4 not 6. This is because on Netflix they are in the order originally intended by Joss Wheden. The same order as the DVD box set.
9. The covered bridge seen in the background during the Duel is the same covered bridge seen early on in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Emissary (1993).

Safe

1. This episode marks the television debut of a young Zac Efron, appearing as an adolescent Simon Tam in the flashback sequences.
2. Inara asks whether a carved wooden statuette in a trading post is supposed to be a duck, and Kaylee replies that it's a swan. There is a Chinese proverb that says, "A badly painted tiger looks like a dog; a badly carved swan looks like a duck." (The meaning of the proverb is that it's better not to do certain things than to do them badly.)
3. The garbled line Mal speaks to Simon as they are about to burned at the stake is "Your talent for alienating folks is near miraculous," to which he responds "Yes, I'm very proud."
4. Nathan Fillion appeared with Alan Tudyk as a guest on Kevin Smith's "Fatman on Batman". When asked about his favorite memory from Firefly, Nathan related that at the end of this episode referencing cattle rustling, the crew of Serenity sits down to dinner. If you look closely, you will see that they are having one of the few fancy meals they ever enjoyed during the series. They are eating a steak dinner compliments of one of their former cargo passengers. The Serenity dinner scene was the last shot before lunch that day. After finishing the take, the crew broke for lunch and the cast actually ate lunch on the steak dinners provided for the shot. Nathan said it felt like being at home having dinner with all of his best friends.
5. While this episode is currently rated the lowest, it's the origin of one of the most quoted scenes: Mal: ...Well, Zoe, looks like we got here in the nick of time. What does that make us? Zoe: Big damn heroes, sir.
6. On Netflix and the DVD collection this is episode 5 not 7.
7. This is the lowest rated episode of the series.

Ariel

1. Shepherd Book doesn't appear in this episode (the explanation given is that he is meditating at an abbey), making it the only episode in the series not to feature all nine protagonists.
2. The futuristic body carriers used to transport Simon and River are actually automotive rooftop cargo boxes made by Thule (the Evolution series) in production at the time of filming.
3. The half-scale helicopter mock-up used for the exteriors of the "flying ambulance" was found by a fan in an aircraft graveyard located outside Mojave, California, still fully painted and reasonably intact. A fan campaign has begun to raise enough money to purchase the prop from the owner and donate it to a museum.
4. The drug that Simon and River take to slow their physiological functions enough to make them appear to be dead is fictional, but not science fiction; it is a major plot device from William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet, which he wrote in the 1590s.
5. The scene in which Malcolm grabs and hugs Kaylee from behind after the hospital robbery is finished was not scripted. It was improvised by Nathan Fillion, because Jewel Staite kept standing in the wrong place during takes.
6. The E.M.S. vehicle used to sneak everyone into the hospital is a modified version of the Russian Airforce's Mi-24 Hind attack helicopter. The main rotor was removed, however the short wings and twin bubble canopy remained intact. The section that Wash sits in to fly the craft is actually the second half of the canopy; the first was filled in with the rubber material.
7. Ariel is the name of one of Uranus's moons, which, like all Uranian moons, is named after a character from Shakespeare (in Ariel's case, "The Tempest") or m Alexander Pope's "The Rape of the Lock" (characters named Ariel appear in both works).
8. The last item listed as drugs worth stealing on Nathan Fillion's arm is fillioxalyn.
9. In this episode, Wash is holding a part in his hand in the junkyard which he then tosses away. Adam Baldwin in the movie "My Bodyguard" tosses a part away in a junkyard in a similar fashion.
10. The part which Wassh throws in the scrap yard looks to be the same part that Serenity needed in "Out of Gas".

War Stories

1. The long Chinese phrase Wash angrily yells at Zoe on the bridge translates (roughly) as "Shove all the planets in the Universe up my ass!".
2. On the DVD commentary, Alan Tudyk pointed out that despite the way Zoe and Wash were constantly portrayed, with Zoe being taller than her husband, Alan is in fact taller than Gina Torres. He is 6', she is 5'10''.
3. In the opening scene, where Simon and Book are discussing the operations performed on River, Simon is looking at a computer display of River's brain. The text that scans past underneath the brain model is lines of Javascript code from a web page.
4. When Niska asks if Mal had ever read the works of Shan Yu, he relies with "You starting a book club? are you trying to torture me?" Nathan Fillion would go on to star as Richard Castle, a famous mystery/crime novelist, who is an avid reader as well as writer.
5. The fact that both the preacher and Niska quote Shan Yu is likely an allusion to Book's past. Book may have been involved with extracting information from people via torture or other methods. We also get that feeling in the opening scene of "Objects in Space", when Book is shown to be thinking/remembering saying "I don't give half a hump whether you are innocent or not."

Objects in Space

1. The reappearance of Jubal Early's spaceship, which made an appearance in "Trash", which was seen near a floating island.
2. The bounty hunter, Jubal Early, was named after lawyer and Confederate general, Jubal Anderson Early (November 3, 1816 - March 2, 1894), who attempted (and failed) to invade Washington, D.C. in 1864. Joss Whedon named the character as such after hearing that Nathan Fillion is related to the general, who died in 1894. Jubal Early is also the name of a ferry between the Maryland and Virginia sides of the Potomac River.
3. When the Firefly series was released on DVD, this episode was placed as the series finale. However, according to the official companion, this episode was originally filmed between "War Stories" and "Trash", but Joss Whedon and Tim Minear felt that this episode best summed up the series. If you watch some of the other episodes, you will notice that they let slip some of the things that should've been discovered in this episode: for example, in "The Message", Jayne mentions that River is a psychic, which Jayne doesn't learn until Objects in Space (although the audience and Simon Tam learn of her psychic ability in the much earlier episode "Safe"). Similarly, in the episode "Trash", River says that she can kill Jayne with her brain, which is supposed to be based on River having psychic abilities.
4. The final episode of the series. The series was canceled in December 2002.
5. This episode takes place a few months before Serenity (2005), which is based on the television series.
6. The character of Jubal Early was partially influenced by the Star Wars character, bounty hunter Boba Fett.
7. The boots that Jubal Early wears are made by New Rock, a Spanish brand that specializes in metal-plated leather goth boots.
8. Jubal Anderson Early (November 3, 1816 - March 2, 1894) was a lawyer and Confederate general in the Civil War. Early was promoted to brigadier general after the First Battle of Bull Run. He was present at the Battle of Malvern Hill, the Battle of Cedar Mountain, the Second Battle of Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Shenandoah Valley, the Battle of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, the battle for Richmond and Petersburg, and Waynesboro. He was at almost every significant battle of the civil war. The fact that he survived so many engagements is remarkable.
9. Early's spaceship bears a striking resemblance to that of star wars bounty hunter Boba Fett's 'Slave I'.

Serenity

1. In the pilot, during the opening sequence depicting the Serenity Valley battle, Captain Mal (Nathan Fillion) is seen using a DCA cannon. If you look closely at the head-up display interface of the gun, at the top center you'll see the Weyland-Yutani logo as seen on most of the Alien franchise movies. Alien Resurrection having been written by Joss Whedon
2. Although this was the original series pilot, introducing the characters and setting up their story arcs, it was the final episode broadcast in the show's original run on Fox.
3. For some reason, Jayne can be seen wearing an old-style German police jacket from the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
4. In the battle for Serenity Valley, the Browncoats can be seen carrying G36k assault rifles by Heckler & Koch, a variant of the service rifle of the German Army since 1997.
5. On DVD, Netflix and more, this is the first episode, as originally intended.
6. The scene where Inara boards Serenity and is introduced to the passengers was initially filmed with Inara's original actress Rebecca Gayheart in the role, however Joss Whedon already felt that Gayheart wasn't right in the role (due to a lack of energy with the other actors). Having already decided to replace her, Whedon then shot the scene entirely as single-shots only focusing on a single character, therefore when Morena Baccarin was cast it was simply a case of filming her lines rather than reshooting the entire sequence.
7. After the Reavers are introduced, the screen goes to near black before cutting to commercials. Joss Whedon wanted to give the audience time to "breathe" before being hit with commercials, but a true black would automatically cue the ads. Instead, he went with a color that was as close to black as he could go without causing this.
8. Simon states in this episode that he had merely arranged for and funded River's escape from the Alliance, however this is seemingly retconned in Serenity (2005), when it is shown he was the one who broke her out of the facility.
9. This episode has two deleted scenes.An alternate opening scene showing the aftermath of the Battle of Serenity Valley. Most of the Independent soldiers are dead. Mal and the survivors witness the long-awaited arrival of the medships; when Zoe says "Thank God" for the ships' arrival, Mal bitterly asks whose side God is on. This scene was deleted because the studio wanted a more action-packed opening scene. This scene would have explained why Mal, who is seen kissing a cross on his neck during the battle, lost his faith in God. A scene where Simon is taking care of the wounded Kaylee. Book asks why Simon chose to come aboard Serenity and Simon replies that it seemed disreputable. Book suggests that Simon lacks a knowledge of history. Simon researches the Battle of Serenity Valley on his encyclopedia and Zoe tells him about how many soldiers died during the battle and its aftermath. She tells Simon that Mal won't kill him unless he's got no other option. When Simon asks why Mal named the ship after such a horrible battle, Zoe replies that "once you've been in Serenity, you never leave."
10. Despite the script stating that Dobson is killed by Mal, Joss Whedon had planned to bring the character back. Although the series was cancelled, Dobson coming back for revenge was a key part of the plot in "Serenity: Those Left Behind", a three-issue comic book miniseries intended to bridge the television series and Serenity (2005).
11. Summer Glau's first nude scene. In addition, she is also barefoot the entirety of the pilot.
12. Carlos Jacott and Andy Umberger had also appeared in Joss Whedon's other shows, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997) and Angel (1999).
13. Chinese translations: 1- MAL (on learning of approaching Alliance cruiser): "Ta ma de." ~ "Dammit."2- MAL (interrupting Zoe & Jayne): "Bizui." ~ "Shut up."3- KAYLEE: "Shi" ~ "Affirmative" "Goin dark."4- WASH: "Aiya! Huaile." ~ "Something's wrong." [exclamations for bad news] "Captain, we're humped."5- MAL (again, interrupting Wash) : "Bizui." ~ "Shut up."6- WASH (to Zoe when they separate on Persephone): "Zhen ta ma yao ming. Zhu yi." ~ "This is pretty dangerous. Watch your back."7- INARA (while bathing, when Shepherd Book knocks): "Qing jin." ~ "Come in."8- MAL (when Wash tells him there's a mole on board): "Ni ta ma de. Tianxia suoyoude ren. Dou gaisi." ~ "Everyone under the heavens ought to die."9- INARA (to Kaylee when she goes into shock): "meimei" ~ "little sister"10- MAL (interrupting when everyone is arguing about the Alliance agent) : "Bizui." ~ "Shut up."
14. When Serenity first sets down at the Eavesdown Docks on Persephone, Kaylee mentions to Mal that the ship she would like to find a new compression coil, adding that, if the compression coil bursts, the ship would be "drifting." This foreshadows the events of episode 8, "Out of Gas" in which Serenity has an engine failure caused by its faulty compression coil.
15. During the battle of Serenity Valley that opens this episode (and the entire series), Malcolm is seen kissing a cross on a necklace around his neck. After the military defeat he becomes, throughout the rest of the series, a religious skeptic.

Heart of Gold

1. In the theater scene, depicted on the screen in the background as shadow art, are ships leaving the planet Earth and arriving at various planets. One of which appears to be a Firefly class starship.
2. This episode was nominated for a Hugo Award for Dramatic Presentation: Short Form.
3. Melinda Clarke, who played Nandi, the brothel owner, played Lady Heather, the proprietress of a bondage establishment, in six episodes of CSI.
4. The fact that Tracy speaks to Kaylee about Zoe being married in the opening re-cap (which occurs in Firefly: The Message (2003)) can be viewed as a continuity error, or as incorrectly classified as an error. In the order the episodes were aired, this conversation has not happened, but in the order they were intended to be aired, it would have been in the previous episode.
5. Director Thomas J. Wright later directed ten episodes of Nathan Fillion's series Castle (2009).
6. In keeping with the idea of fusion between the American and Chinese cultures, during the funeral, the predominant color is not black, but white, the Chinese color of mourning.
7. When Mal and Nandi kiss, Mal says "I'm just waiting to see if I pass out...long story" - is a reference to the earlier episode "Our Mrs. Reynolds", when Saffron uses poison lipstick to knock Mal out.
8. The woman who sings "Amazing Grace" at the funeral, Angie Hart, also appears in the opening scenes of the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" episode "I Only Have Eyes for You."

Trash

1. Nathan Fillion wore a picture of director Joss Whedon over his private bits during the nude scene
2. While Mal, Saffron, and Durran are having their confrontation in the artifacts room, Mal sarcastically calls her "YoSaffBridge." This is a contraction of all the aliases he has heard her use during their acquaintance (Yolanda, Saffron, and Bridget). Interestingly, the English-language DVD subtitle for the made-up name "YoSaffBridge" misidentifies it as a Chinese word.
3. The tattoo visible on Mal's hip is an Egyptian glyph meaning peace. Nathan Fillion got it at the age of 19 and reportedly regrets it.
4. When Mal and Saffron land on the island, you can see a ship fly by in the background that is shaped like the SR-71 Blackbird spyplane.
5. The name of the weapon they want to steal is the "Lassiter". Joss Whedon also wrote the script for the first "Toy Story", which was directed by John Lasseter.
6. Final appearance of Christina Hendricks as Saffron.

The Message

1. The hat Jayne's mother made for her son became a fan favorite, with people creating their own knit and crochet versions and one fan even writing a song about it ("Jayne's Hat" by Stan Peal).
2. Although it is not the last episode aired, this was the last episode ever shot.
3. When Kaylee is listening to Tracey's message in the engine room, just past her hammock you can see a statue of Han Solo frozen in Carbonite as a decoration on the bulkhead.
4. By the time this episode was shot the cast and crew knew that the show would be canceled. When Greg Edmonson wrote the music for the funeral scene at the end, he told Joss Whedon that he wasn't saying good bye to the character Tracey, he was saying good bye to the show.
5. Jonathan M. Woodward, who plays Tracey, has appeared in two other Joss Whedon series: as Holden in the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" episode 'Conversations with Dead People,' and as Knox in the last two seasons of "Angel." Interstingly, all three characters appear friendly at the start but eventually turn out to be villains who are killed by the shows' heroes.