The Train Job
"The Train Job" is the original series premiere and second episode of the American science-fiction western television series Firefly created by Joss Whedon. It was the second episode produced and aired on Friday, September 20, 2002, on Fox. The episode was written by Whedon and Tim Minear as the second pilot to the series following Fox after executives were unsatisfied with original pilot "Serenity", which later aired as the series finale. According to the 2003 DVD commentary, Whedon and Minear had only two days to write the script. The crew of Serenity take on a hovertrain robbery commissioned by a sinister crime lord. However, the cargo is worth more than they realize. Synopsis Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds, Zoe and Jayne Cobb are in a bar. When a drunk patron named Lund celebrates the sixth anniversary of the Alliance's victory on Unification Day with a toast, Mal, a former Browncoat soldier, picks a fight. Zoe immediately backs him up, Jayne hesitates but reluctantly joins the fight. Greatly outnumbered, Mal radios his pilot, Wash, for help. Serenity rescues them, despite the ship not having any weapons. In the ship's infirmary, Dr. Simon Tam tends to his mentally disturbed teenage sister River. Another passenger, "Shepherd" (preacher) Book, tells Mal that Simon is brave to sacrifice his life of luxury to go on the run and protect his sister. On a "skyplex" (an orbiting space city), Mal, Zoe, and Jayne meet crime lord Adelei Niska and his hulking lieutenant, Crow, to arrange a job. Niska sadistically shows them the body of the last person who failed him. The job is to steal two crates from a moving train. Mal shows no interest in knowing the contents of the crates. During the heist, Mal and Zoe must sneak past an entire squad of Alliance troops who are coincidentally on the train. They break into the locked train car and find the crates, while Serenity flies over the speeding train and lowers Jayne on a winch to collect the cargo. Meanwhile, a curious trooper sets off a booby trap that Zoe had set. Jayne is wounded, Mal knocks out the soldier before he can see what is happening. Jayne and the crates are hoisted onto the ship. Mal and Zoe covertly reenter the passenger car and pretend to be regular passengers. Wash parks Serenity in a nearby canyon. Jayne wants to get to the rendezvous point and finish the job, but Wash refuses to leave without Mal and Zoe. Shepherd Book urges caution, and Jayne tries to take the ship by force, but Simon sedates him. Meanwhile, Mal learns that the stolen cargo is desperately needed medicine. The nearby mining town is afflicted with "Bowden's Malady", a degenerative disease caused by mining activity. The local sheriff is suspicious of Mal's cover story that he and Zoe are a married couple looking for work. Inara appears and uses her considerable status as a Companion, falsely claiming that Mal is her runaway "indentured man" who persuaded Zoe to