The Message (28 Jul. 2003)

A dying request from an old army buddy turns treacherous for Mal, Zoë, and the rest of the crew.

Director:

Tim Minear

Writers:

Joss Whedon (creator), Joss Whedon,

Stars:

Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk

Cast

Episode cast overview:
Nathan Fillion	...	Captain Malcolm 'Mal' Reynolds
Gina Torres	...	Zoë Washburne
Alan Tudyk	...	Hoban 'Wash' Washburne
Morena Baccarin	...	Inara Serra
Adam Baldwin	...	Jayne Cobb
Jewel Staite	...	Kaylee Frye
Sean Maher	...	Dr. Simon Tam
Summer Glau	...	River Tam
Ron Glass	...	Shepherd Book
Jonathan M. Woodward	...	Tracey
Richard Burgi	...	Lieutenant Womack
Al Pugliese	...	Amnon Duul
Tod Nakamura	...	Fendris
Craig Vincent	...	Skunk
Morgan Rusler	...	Barker

Storyline

A pleasant day out at a space station turns sour when Mal and Zoe receive the dead body of one of their old army buddy's in the post office. Their old friend is named Tracey who fought with them during the Battle of Du-Khang during the Alliance-Independence Civil War six years earlier. Along with Tracey's body is an audio message, asking them to take him to his home planet to be buried by his parents. However, Mal begins to suspect something might be wrong when Alliance agents, led by the relentless Lt. Womack, start chasing Serenity, demanding return of their property: the body. It soon turns out that Tracey is actually alive and reveals the real reason why he faked his death, and why he's going to die soon.

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Plot Keywords:

old friend | death | hat | tape recording | back from the dead | 

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Mandarin

Release Date:

28 July 2003 (UK)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mutant Enemy

Technical Specs

Runtime:

44 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

The hat Jayne's mother made for her son became a fan favorite, with people creating their own knit and crochet versions and one fan even writing a song about it ("Jayne's Hat" by Stan Peal).

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Goofs

While listening to Tracey's recorded message, Jayne removes the hat he received from his mother, but in the next shot he is seen in the background wearing the hat once again.

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Quotes

[Simon is standing in front of a jar carrying a mutated cow fetus]
Hoban 'Wash' Washburne: Oh my God! It's grotesque! Oh, and there's something in a jar.

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Connections

References Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

User Reviews

One of my favorite episodes, and possibly the best one.

Watching this episode actually got me choked up. Seriously, there could have been tears. (Ah, Serenity joke).

This episode was a beautiful goodbye to the series, and I loved the plot line. "When you can't run, you crawl, and when you can't do that..." is one of my favorite quotes. Being in the military, I fully understand a saying like that.

It really was a great episode, and I thought the acting as well as the directing was purely amazing.

I will continue to watch this episode over and over, and hope they make another movie/TV series.

Jayne is just gorram funny.