The Train Job


"The Train Job" is the second episode of the American science-fiction western television series Firefly created by Joss Whedon, although it was the first to be shown. According to the DVD commentary, Whedon and Tim Minear had only two days to write the script.
The crew of Serenity take on a hovertrain robbery commissioned by a sinister crime lord. The cargo they are after, however, is worth more than they know.

Synopsis

Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds, Zoe and Jayne Cobb are in a bar. When Lund celebrates the sixth anniversary of Unification Day with a toast, former Browncoat rebel Mal picks a fight. Zoe immediately steps up to help him out, but Jayne holds back at first, but eventually joins the melee. Greatly outnumbered, Mal radios his pilot, Wash, for help. Serenity arrives just in time and rescues the hapless crew.
In the ship's infirmary, Dr. Simon Tam is tending to his mentally disturbed teenage sister River. One of the other passengers, "Shepherd" Book, tells Mal that Simon is very brave for giving up his life as a wealthy doctor to go on the run to protect his sister.
On a "skyplex", Mal, Zoe, and Jayne meet with crime lord Adelei Niska and his hulking lieutenant Crow. To show that he is not to be trifled with, Niska shows them a bloody corpse hanging by its feet: the last person who failed him. Niska has a job for Mal and his crew: steal two crates from a train as it travels from Hancock to Paradiso and deliver it to Crow. Mal shows no interest in knowing what is in the crates.
When Mal and Zoe board the train, they discover that an entire squad of Alliance troops is also aboard, though not specifically guarding the cargo. After the pair break into the locked train car and secure the crates, Jayne is lowered on a winch while Serenity maintains station over the speeding train. While they attach the cargo to the winch, a curious Fed trips a smoke trap Zoe set up at the car door. In the resulting chaos, a wounded Jayne is hoisted back to the ship along with the crates, Mal knocks out the Fed before he can see what is happening, and Mal and Zoe take advantage of another smoke bomb to reenter the passenger car without anyone the wiser.
Wash parks Serenity in a canyon, not at the rendezvous point. Jayne tells the crew that they should finish the job. Wash refuses to abandon his wife and Mal. Shepherd Book, who knows a lot about crime lords for a shepherd, says, "If Niska finds out is being held, and may speak as to who hired him — I think we're better off being a little late."
Meanwhile, in Paradiso, Mal and Zoe are aghast to find that they stole medicine desperately needed in the poor mining town, whose residents all suffer from "Bowden's malady", a degenerative disease. The local sheriff is suspicious of Mal's cover story. Inara appears and uses her considerable status as a Companion. She claims that Mal is her runaway "indentured man" who persuaded Zoe to leave her husband. The impressed sheriff lets her take the "runaways" back into her own custody.
Back on the ship, Mal announces to the crew that they will deliver the medicine to the townspeople. However, Crow and his henchmen find them, and a violent fight ensues, which the Serenity crew wins. After the villains are secured, Mal and Zoe drive the cargo back to near the town, intending to drop off the crates and notify the sheriff once they are well away, but they run into the sheriff. Realizing what they have done, he lets them go.
Outside Serenity, Mal offers Niska's money to a trussed-up Crow, but Crow threatens to hunt Mal down. Mal casually kicks Crow into Serenity's running engine intake, killing him. Mal finds the next henchman more cooperative.
Back on an Alliance cruiser, two mysterious men in suits and wearing blue gloves inquire about a girl and show the captain a photo of River Tam.

Guest cast