Firefly (TV Series) Objects in Space (2002) User Reviews

Beautiful- The Highlight of Whedon's Career

[Dexter099 · 10/10 · 17 September 2013]

This episode is a real stunner through and through. From the opening walking shot to the breathtaking scene in space to the final scene with the marble, this episode is a masterpiece if only due to its cinematography.

What makes it an eternal classic is the fact that on a conceptual level it integrates 14 episodes of plot, reveals a huge mystery, resolves a character, presents the fantastical without appearing fake or oblique, presents the ideas of choice and justice as fundamental, and thereby delivers the greatest ensemble television piece ever to have existed and be rewarded with cancellation because of its virtues.

The last episode, but by far the best

[FilmSchoolWriter · 10/10 · 15 June 2006]

"Objects in Space" was the last Firefly episode to be filmed and to be aired. And it is by far the best. We finally find out about River being psychic (which isn't a spoiler if you've seen Serenity). Plus, Simon and Kaylee almost kiss, which is a big advancement in their relationship. :D Although I'm heartbroken that Firefly was canceled, "Objects in Space" was the best episode to end with. It wraps things up better than other episodes, such as "Jaynestown" or "Ariel", which end with a great deal of uncertainty. "Objects in Space" is totally my favorite episode of them all. Masterfully created, it relies more on the mental action (River totally freaking Jubal out) than the gun waving crazed action that is favored by Jayne and Mal. 10/10

Serenity, choices and existential Angst

[KuroWashi · 10/10 · 7 September 2009]

The visceral quality of Jubal Early's interactions with Firefly remind us with force how important is this ship. It is the tenth actor often neglected and unspoken; firefly makes this crew come together, live together and work together; is the glue that holds them. No wonder that in the last shot as we go from one to the other member of the firefly crew, in the end we have travelled most of the ship's inner world...

It is a story of existential angst. Jubal Early goes from knowing who he is in the beginning of the episode into losing his control. River, often lost and confused, by the end of the episode is clearer about herself, who she is and where is her place among the firefly crew.

It is also a story of choices. In the beginning River has insights to the choices the others have made or have to make in their lifes. Then she chooses to see Nature and beauty where there is death. Jubal Early chooses to be a bounty hunter. In the end Malcolm chooses to accept River as one of the crew for better or for worse.

Brilliantly done, peppered with doses of dry humour from Richard Brooks it remains one of my favourite Firefly episodes.

The jerk has some quirk

[Fluke_Skywalker · 8/10 · 20 March 2018]

Plot; A lone bounty hunter sneaks aboard the Serenity looking to claim the bounty on River.

This is an odd episode. Not bad. Not by a longshot. Just... odd. It starts w/the bounty hunter character played w/an admirable quirk by Richard Brooks, who sets the tone for the proceedings. Joss Whedon, who wrote and directed this episode, really works to make this villain fresh and unique. Brooks is more than equal to the task, delivering what is easily the most memorable guest performance of the series. Also really good here is Summer Glau as River. While most of the crew are more or less fleshed out right from the start, hers is a character that was clearly meant to be unpacked as the series went along. A chance she, and us, sadly didn't get. This also applies to Run Glass' Shepard character, whose past is shrouded in mystery.

The best episode of Firefly

[Psilio · 10/10 · 28 October 2019]

I'm just binge watching Firefly for like the 20th time, and this episode is the best one of all.

I don't why they cancelled this show. I'ts so much better than most shows.

This episode is hilarious and serious at the same time, like all the episodes of Firefly, but this one stands out.

Highly recommendable!

Ultra-Wow, Beyond Wow, Son of Wow, (input Superlative here)

[A_Different_Drummer · 10/10 · 27 November 2013]

Hoisted on my own petard. In my various reviews on IMDb, I have already made frequent reference to the peculiarities of Joss "Long Arc" Whedon and how this man, moreso than any other writer before or since, likes to plan his characters far into the future -- even if (as with this show) there is no longer any future left. (My PhD in all things Whedon is from the School of Reality where I watched all episodes of Buffy and Angel in sequence, twice, the first time gob-smacked and drooling, the second time taking notes). It is beyond irony that, in this the LAST episode of the show before the axe fell, we have writing on an order of magnitude that makes all the other prior episodes look droll in comparison. That this episode which is both pulse-pounding (not a cliché) yet contains elements of Rod Serling, was not named in any awards only demonstrates that sometimes the awards fail to keep track of the actual shows. The other reviewers are right, not only the best episode of the series but one of the best half-hours in TV history. And a great prequel to the film.

The Bounty Hunter

[claudio_carvalho · 9/10 · 4 November 2016]

River has a daydream and holds one of Jayne's weapon believing it was a tree branch; suddenly she awakes and sees Mal and the crew scary. River overhears Mal and the crew discussing about her and she feels rejected. Meanwhile, the ruthless bounty hunter Jubal Early, who has tracked down River, boards the Serenity while everybody is sleeping. He subdues Mal and locks the crew in the cabins; ties Kaylee up in the engine room; hits Shepherd Brook on the head; and he finally captures Simon to force him to deliver his sister. However River is missing and out of the blue, she tells through the communication system that she felt rejected and had melted away becoming part of Serenity. The skeptical Early does not believe first, but soon she is convinced she is telling the truth. What will happen to River?

"Objects in Space" is the last episode of "Firefly" and also one of the best, with intense participation of River. The bounty hunter Jubal Early is an interesting character and the performance of Richard Brooks is top- notch. Unfortunately this episode ends this great show. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Objects in Space"

Nice to see the series go out on a high

[Joxerlives · 9/10 · 8 January 2012]

The good; All of it, very, very good, especially love the opening of Summer as she prowls around the ship listening to everyone's thoughts, the character of Jubal Early, the crew's meeting to discuss River and her plan is inspired.

The bad; River's reluctance to use firearms to dispose of Early seems a little strange, she's never seemed to have any reservations before. Plus shooting him would be a lot more humane than leaving him to suffocate?

Kinky dinky; Early threatens to rape Kaylee to get her co-operation. We take it that when he talks of giving Kaylee and 'present' and ridding her off a 'problem' he means River but maybe he takes her as a virgin and is telling her they're going to have sex? River observes he's all about "Power, control, pain' River voyeuristically 'mindrops' on Wash and Zoe getting kissy on the bridge (aside from Homer and Marge they seem to be the most sexually active married couple ever). Topless Simon for the straight girls and sly boys (Joss admits he doesn't mind giving his audience some cheesecake) plus him playing footsie with Kaylee. He also relates the story of some youthful streaking to celebrate his graduation as a surgeon. Book is celibate but avoids the question of masturbation.

Notches on the Serenity bedpost; we don't know what happens between Kaylee and Early after he ties her up but I don't think so. She also relates a possible story about bedding a 14 year old 'genetic experiment' but again, unconfirmed.

Capt subtext; Mal says that he's perfectly fine with Kaylee never having killed anyone, he wants to keep her the one sweet and innocent thing in his life. Early's fate, left hanging in space with an uncertain future is a metaphor for the series itself. When Jayne threatens that he and Wash will 'Go somewhere' over his teasing Wash says he hopes it's somewhere with candlelight.

How'd they get away with that? Early threatening Kaylee is hard to watch as is his pistol whipping Inara across the face. Early licks the ship? Is he descended from Benton Fraser RCMP?

Fanfic; Plenty about the future adventures of Jubal Early. Amongst the means for his survival are; 1) Venting air from his spacesuit to propel him back to his own ship 2) Boosting the power of his magnetic shoes in order to attract him back to it 3) Remote control of his own ship once Serenity is out of sensor range (it does seem to fly off under some form of direction) 4) Firing his gun to use the recoil to direct himself 5) Picked up by the blue gloves who are also trailing Serenity. Unfortunately some include him making good on his threats to Kaylee.

Missing scenes; or deleted scenes in this case 1. Scene where we see Zoe and Mal being picked up by the rescue ships after the battle of Serenity. Very graphic with the ground littered with corpses and Zoe in particular looking as though she's on her last legs. It's a powerful scene but if they had left it in it would have detracted from Mal's 'loss of faith' moment in the pilot. 2. Zoe tells Simon about the battle of Serenity in all it's gory detail, 500,000 killed in less than 2 months. What makes this more interesting is that she states that the Browncoats leaders left them to rot on the battlefield for a week, they resent the Independents High Command as well as the Alliance.

Well I guess I owe Alan Tudyk an apology, there IS an incestuous subtext between Simon and River (at least on River's part) he didn't just make it up out of the blue in his commentary for War Stories. It's all actually quite innocent, like a little girl playing at weddings and casting her father or brother as the groom. She accuses Saffron of being a thief, the crew think she means snaffling the food but she actually means more than that. Mal's speech to Saffron about standing up for herself shows his attitude towards women and gives her the idea of how to hoodwink him. This scene also explains why Summer Glau had no lines in the whole of Our Mrs Reynolds.

Inara announces she's leaving, excised because of the crazy order in which the show was shown so as to make more sense. Also reputedly Zoe and Wash asking Simon about starting a family

Questions and observations; I had thought it was stupid that Serenity had controls allowing someone to seal the crew into their cabins from the outside but it was pointed out if the ship was depressurised they would need to be able to seal off each compartment. Note Kayleigh is the only one not to have any hidden thoughts for River to read, she's totally open. Book's thoughts make you wonder if he was previously a cop or judge? As early observes, "That's not a Shepherd" Jayne appears to cook pancakes. Note when River has the gun it's Kaylee who backs away most having seen what she's capable off. The crew still don't know about Jayne's betrayal on Ariel. Mal sure does love his double negatives when talking. Wash seems to delight in teasing Jayne although you'd wonder if he'd be quite so brave without Zoe to back him up? He also thinks telepathy is science fiction even when he's on a spaceship, very postmodern. It appears people eat horses in the future. Early is the kind of interesting recurring villain the series sorely needs. Unfortunately this is the final ep. Marks out of 10; 9/10, nice to see the series go out on a high

A great episode – pity it was the last

[Tweekums · 10/10 · 27 January 2012]

It is sad that this brilliant series was killed off prematurely but at least it meant it never got stale and even the weaker episodes are better than the better episodes of most series. This however is one of the better episodes! The story begins with River walking around the ship overhearing conversations that she thinks are about her. Then on the main deck she bends over and picks up a stick... only it isn't; it is a loaded gun. Understandably the crew are more than a little disturbed about this. That is the least of their trouble though; a bounty hunter by the name of Jubal Early has boarded the ship while most of them are asleep; he seals them in their rooms and either knocks out or ties up those out of their rooms... with the exception of Simon; he needs him to find his bounty: River. Jubal is not the most rational man; much of what he says is stranger than what River says. As the search goes on he gets frustrated with his progress until River's voice comes out of the intercom saying some very strange things!

This was a great episode and unusually much of that is down to the guest star; Richard Brooks was great in the role of Jubal Early; making the character interestingly flawed yet very dangerous; in one particularly sinister moment he asked Kaylee if she had ever been raped and it was clearly a threat about what would happen if she didn't cooperate. The other standout performance came from Summer Glau who brings an otherworldliness to River's character. While the story had its dark moments it also had some laughs; as usual they were frequently at Jayne's expense. Over all this was a great episode and even though it is the last episode of Firefly fans of the series can enjoy seeing the crew again in the film 'Serenity' which is a slight consolation.

Confederate irony

[proeditprodesign · 9/10 · 5 February 2023]

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.

Wrong episode number

[call_dip · 9/10 · 25 July 2021]

This is episode 14. I think there has been a mistake.

A good episode ruined by River

[nicofreezer · 8/10 · 30 July 2022]

River is one of the most boring character ever put on TV . She is just boring, all about her is boring, the best thing is her relation to hier brother.

But Objet in Space was a good episode, until the last 10 Bad minutes.

An episode that was going for a 9/10 Turn out to be 8.25/10 " He is not a Priest ! " WTF, lets see in the movie now !