Firefly 1.08 (Out Of Gas)
I’m never out of gas, not that type of gas you dirty miscreants, I’m talking about the hot air I’m constantly spewing in my reviews, get your minds out of the gutter, sheesh!
Written By: Tim Minear
Directed By: David Solomon
–The moment the score for this episode kicks in it gives off the vibe of something special, but once Mal hits the floor, I know it’s going to be something special.
–I don’t give Firefly enough credit for the cinematography that it employs, but all one need do is look at the way lighting and shadow is used in Out Of Gas to see how great the cinematography on this show really is.
–Wash’s stache is so, so awesome!
–I love Kaylee’s introduction, and Bester, oh Bester (I hope that’s a Babylon 5 reference by the way)…
–Jayne’s introduction is even better.
I may not have written a lot about Out Of Gas in my dash point section, but that is because Out Of Gas isn’t so much a “hey, look at this” episode of Firefly. No, no, no, Out Of Gas is an episode of Firefly that is all about the big picture, the reason that the show exists in the first place, love. Maybe that surprises some of you, but I can’t see why it would, could or should. Firefly is a series that is about love in it’s many incarnations, the search for love, what happens to a man when his love is thrown back in his face, and how love can rebuild that very same man. Out Of Gas is the episode of Firefly that focuses singularly on one thing and one thing alone, love.
Out Of Gas does this through the framing device of an accident as well as the various stories that brought the crew together. This fits in with the love changes motif, and it especially fits in with the motif of love slowly entering back into Mal’s life after his country took it away from him. Yes, he does seem awfully chipper when he first views Serenity with Zoë, but that’s just the way his personality is. You and I both know that what Mal shows on the outside isn’t always what is on the inside. We do see however that as each person becomes a member of the crew a little bit of love enters into Mal’s life, and in the end we discover that the crew aren’t solely responsible for this chnage in Mal, but rather that Serenity deserves a lot of the credit itself.
Maybe I’m crazy, well, I probably am, but the above is my take on Out Of Gas and the reason I love it so much as an episode. The typical Firefly wit, humor, attention to details, characters, awesome costumes, set design and created world are present, but Out Of Gas may contain more heart and meaning than any other episode of Firefly. If not for an unusual slip up with some bad looking CGI fire this would be yet another perfect episode of Firefly, but that fire, ouch!
Rating:
99/100
A
Cheers,
Bill
