Objects in Space

Episode aired Dec 13, 2002
TV-14
44m

IMDb RATING

9.2/10

5.7K

YOUR RATING

Adventure Drama Sci-Fi

Serenity encounters a ruthlessly professional bounty hunter, Jubal Early, who will stop at nothing to retrieve River. But River, feeling unwelcome on the ship, takes a novel approach to esca... Read allSerenity encounters a ruthlessly professional bounty hunter, Jubal Early, who will stop at nothing to retrieve River. But River, feeling unwelcome on the ship, takes a novel approach to escaping from the Alliance.Serenity encounters a ruthlessly professional bounty hunter, Jubal Early, who will stop at nothing to retrieve River. But River, feeling unwelcome on the ship, takes a novel approach to escaping from the Alliance.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

9.2/10

5.7K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
The reappearance of Jubal Early's spaceship, which made an appearance in "Trash", which was seen near a floating island.

Goofs
(at around 12 mins) While Kaylee is revealing River's extraordinary killing skills in the common area, you can see a crew member on the left side of the screen, bent over the counter reading a binder.

Quotes
Simon: Are you Alliance?
Jubal Early: Am I a lion?
Simon: What?
Jubal Early: I don't think of myself as a lion. You might as well though, I have a mighty roar.
Simon: I said "Alliance."
Jubal Early: Oh, I thought...
Simon: No, I was...
Jubal Early: That's weird.

Alternate versions
The originally-aired version of Objects in Space included a longer version of the scene beginning where Mal and Inara argue (and River comes in to hear their thoughts), clarifying that their discussion is about Inara's imminent departure. The home video version was shortened to match Joss Whedon's intentions, but includes the long version as a deleted scene. (On DVD, this is all explained in the menu, but on Blu-ray it is not.)

Connections
Featured in Cinematic Excrement: Never Back Down 2: The Beatdown (2013)

Soundtracks
The Ballad of Serenity
Written by Joss Whedon
Performed by Sonny Rhodes

User reviews14

Review

Featured review

9/10

Confederate irony

Given the first Jubal Early's prominence as a major Confederate general, and a stalwart anti-abolitionist and proponent of the "Lost Cause" after the Civil War, naming a black character after him was pretty cheeky, and was perhaps Whedon's personal reckoning with his the Confederate general to whom he is related. I did find it odd that such a specific name from old Earth would have survived the centuries given how much of Earth's history seemed forgotten in the series. Apart from a few snippets, like the singing of "Amazing Grace" at a funeral, Earth is pretty much a faded myth. The strength of this episode lay in Brook's commanding presence as the bounty hunter, and I think it a shame we haven't seen more of him in this capacity.