RW356 - Firefly S01E12-13 - Message of Gold

In this weeks episode of The Firefly Rewatch, Cory and Tom help old friends and new as they discuss episodes 12 & 13, "The Message" and "Heart of Gold."

The Message:

Episode Title: The Message

Written by: Joss Whedon & Tim Minear

Directed by: Tim Minear

Original airdate: July 28, 2003 (second run in the UK) as episode 14

As the crew stops in at a carnival aboard a space station, Kaylee and Simon have a date that ends up going a bit wrong when he again inadvertently insults her while Mal checks in with the local postmaster and picks up two packages, one of which is a hat for Jayne from his mother, and the second of which is for Mal and Zoe, the body of a former soldier they served with in the war, Tracey Smith, who had left a dying request for them to get his body back home to his family. 

Serenity takes off and begins their journey but are quickly contacted by the Alliance police who had tracked the body to the station and after interacting with the postmaster, has now found Serenity. Mal stalls then and orders Simon to do an autopsy to find out why Tracey’s body is so important to the Feds, reasoning that using bodies to smuggle contraband is not unheard of. However when Simon begins his incision, Tracey awakens, screaming and attacking the doctor while Mal rushes in and gets control of him, calming him down. 

Tracey reveals he was smuggling internal organs to Ariel, where his buyer would take those organs out and replace his original ones back, but he then received a better offer for more than enough money to help his family move to a better planet and a better life. Unfortunately the original buyer found out, killed the new buyer, and set off to find Tracey. He reasoned if he was found dead, then he would have been safe. 

Mal orders Wash to set them down in an area on the local planet with a rough and complex landscape, hoping to buy some time, but the Feds begin sending down explosive charges to locate the vessel. Book finds that even though the Feds are nearby a local precinct, they don’t call for backup, alerting him that something about the situation is not on the up and up, and ultimately recommends to Mal that he turn over Tracey. 

Tracey however, grabs a gun and holds them all at gunpoint, refusing to be turned over, even going so far as to shooting and grazing Wash when Mal orders him to call the cops and let them know they are giving him up. Zoe shoots Tracey in the chest but he grabs Kaylee, asking her to help him get away, given their brief flirting and connection they had earlier. Mal faces Tracey down and while he’s distracted by Jayne advancing from his rear, Mal shoots him, incapacitating him. 

The Feds arrive in the cargo area with all hands showing guns aimed at them. The lead, Womack, starts to inform them of the multiple charges they will be facing now but Book appears and approaches him, not afraid, and calls him on his story, saying that he knows that this organ smuggling job is not an official one for them and if they happened to be shot here and left for dead, no one would be missing them. Womack takes his men and leaves the ship as Tracey apologizes for the ruse, before finally succumbing to his wounds, leaving Mal and the crew to take his body back home to his mourning family.

Shiny Trivia:

Tracey was played by Johnathan M. Woodward. He doesn’t have a whole lot of credits but was on an episode of Buffy the year before this, likely where Whedon had found him. He followed this up with 7 episodes of Angel playing Knox. Apparently, in each of his Whedon roles he appears happy and nice but eventually turns out to be the opposite.

Womack was played by Richard Burgi. He’s had a run of major recurring roles on General Hospital, Days of Our Lives, Desperate Housewives, Point Pleasant and 24, as well as a run of roles where he was a supporting or guest actor. He was the lead in The Sentinel, playing a detective with heightened senses. We’ve seen him in The Flash ‘90 episode “Deadly Nightshade” where he played Curtis Bohanon, a man wanting to atone for his father’s crimes by becoming a vigilante who brutally murders the criminals he comes across.

Heart of Gold:

Episode Title: Heart of Gold

Written by: Brett Matthews

Directed by: Thomas J. Wright

Original airdate: August 4, 2003 (second run in the UK) as episode 12

When Rance Burgess, the richest rancher on a distant planet threatens to take his unborn baby from the mother, Petaline, a prostitute working at a whorehouse, the madam, Nandi, who was once studying to be a companion, calls in a favor from her old friend Inara, who brings Serenity in to help.

Mal and Inara do some recon to learn about Rance, leading him to decide that they should all just leave. Nandi however has pride in her work and establishment that she's built up over the years and she’s ready for a fight, to which Mal and crew agrees to help with. 

Unfortunately, one of the prostitutes, Chari, has turned and informed Rance of their plans to fight him, leading him to prepare plans of his own for the next morning’s attack.

The afternoon finds Wash and Zoe preparing for the attack, discussing her desire to have a child while he is adamantly against it while the evening finds Mal getting close with Nandi, eventually spending the night with her. When Inara discovers this the next morning, she hides her disappointment but later ends up breaking down when alone. 

As Rance and his posse come riding in to take his child, in the process of being born at that moment, the Serenity crew and prostitutes attack. Meanwhile, Wash and Kaylee are trapped in Serenity by some of Rance’s men, leaving those at the whorehouse to try and hold the fort down themselves. Mal and friends manage to take out a number of men while suffering some casualties of their own, however Rance disappears from their view as he sneaks in via Chari’s subterfuge and steals the newly born baby away from Petaline.

Nandi confronts Rance while Inara grabs him from behind, holding him at knife point, allowing one of the other girls to retrieve the child. Rance manages to get the drop on Inara and fatally shoots Nandi and runs away with Mal close behind. After a brief struggle, Mal gets the better of Rance and takes him back to the whorehouse, where Petaline comes out to introduce her baby to her father before she shoots the rancher, ending his dominion over them, sending the remaining men and Chari back to town. 

Back on Serenity, Inara thanks Mal for his help while he begins to confront his hidden feelings for her, but before he can voice them she stuns him with the information that she has decided to leave Serenity.

Shiny Trivia:

Thomas J. Wright, got his start as a storyboarder on the Alfred Hitchcock film Topaz (1969), and became a production illustrator and sketch artist on films such as The Andromeda Strain, Diamonds are Forever, Jaws, Family Plot, Rocky II, Staying Alive and Terms of Endearment. As a director, he got his start in the second unit department, having worked on, again Staying Alive, as well as Beverly Hills Cop, Howard the Duck and Final Destination. His first directing credit is the film Torchlight about a young married couple whose life becomes jeopardized by cocaine abuse. He then got into television, directing on series such as The New Twilight Zone, Max Headroom, Highlander, The X-Files, Angel, CSI, Alias, Dinotopia, Smallville and Supernatural (to name just a few).

Brett Matthews was Joss Whedon’s assistant during his time on Buffy, Angel and Firefly. This episode is his first writing credit, followed by the animated shot The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury. He went on to write and produce for the series Supernatural, Vampire Diaries, Scream The TV Series and Legacies (where he has his only directing credit).

Melinda Clarke played Nandi, the brothel owner. She also played Lady Heather, the proprietress of a bondage establishment, in six episodes of CSI. She played Amanda in Nikita, Julie in The O.C, Margo in Soldier of Fortune (based on the movie), all with multiple seasons. She had a run of 60some episodes in Days of our Lives, but we’ve seen her as Allisandra in the Sliders episode “This Slide of Paradise.” She was also the lead role, Candy, in Killer Tongue.

Chari was played by Kimberly McCullough. She has done 1000 episodes of General Hospital, as well as the spinoff called Night Shift. The same character (Robin Scorpio) also appeared in All My Children. In recent years she’s done some directing for episodes of The Conners, Almost Family and One Day At A Time, among others. 

Fredric Lehne played Rance. He appeared in Lost as the Marshall escorting Kate. Besides making guest appearances in shows all over the place, we saw him in the Sliders episode “Dead Man Sliding” as Phil. 

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.

Whats Next?

Cory and Tom will be discussing episode 14, "Objects in Space."

Thanks:

For more information, head over to the Firefly-Serenity Fan Wiki. We thank them for compiling information on the show.

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