Summary

The episode starts with social interaction between crew members. Jayne is cleaning his weapons, Inara and Kaylee are playing cards and Simon and River are about to eat. Simon puts some of the substance in a pot into a bowl but River doesn’t want to eat. Jayne thinks it smells “like crotch” which Kaylee finds to be an offensive thing to say.

Inara is going to Ariel for her annual Companion Physical. Wash looks forward to visiting the planet, but Zoe refuses to set foot on a core planet. The argument ends when Mal informs them that no one is getting off the ship. Book has already been dropped off at Bathgate Abbey. Jayne continues to disgust people by licking and spitting on his knives. As they talk, River takes a large kitchen knife and slashes Jayne across the chest, slicing right through the “Blue Sun” logo on his T-Shirt.

While Simon stitches Jayne’s chest, Jayne tries to talk Mal into leaving Simon and River on Ariel. Mal expresses concern to Simon that River is getting worse. When they arrive, Inara leaves for her appointment, while Mal, Jayne, Wash and Zoe play horseshoes in the cargo bay. The game is interrupted when Simon announces that he has a job for them.

Simon shows them drugs from his med-kit and tells them the street values. He tells them he can help them get into St. Lucy’s Hospital and steel as much as they can carry, but that is the payment for the real job. What Simon really wants is to get to a 3-D Neuro-Imager so he can try to figure out what the government did to River’s head.

Simon tells them that they need to get some items from off ship. Kaylee, Wash and Jayne quickly volunteer. Kaylee and Wash go through the hospital dump. Jayne gets uniforms and fake badges. Simon teaches Mal, Wash and Jayne how to talk like paramedics, while Kaylee and Wash work on transport. Finally, Kaylee shows Simon the completed Ambulance. Zoe, Mal and Jayne come out, looking like ambulance crew. Simon tells River that they will have to pretend to be dead. They take a drug that makes them appear dead, but River is scared.

En route to the hospital Mal asks Jayne if there will be any problems, “you got a little bit stabbed” he tells him. Jayne insists that as long as he gets paid he’s happy. At the hospital, they get in the front door okay, drop Simon and River off with Jayne while Mal & Zoe head off to the supply room. Once Mal leaves, Jayne goes to a vidphone and calls security, arranging to turn over River and Simon for the reward.

In a corridor, Mal and Zoe are stopped by a Doctor. Zoe takes the doctor out with a defibrillator. On their way to the diagnostic ward, River points out a man that is about to die. As they pass, the man goes into cardiac arrest and flat lines. Simon runs over, determines that the man’s doctor gave him medication that interacted with the prep medication for his surgery. Simon chews out the doctor for nearly killing the patient, leaving the man wondering who Simon is.

Mal & Zoe load drugs into the corpseboxes, while Simon scans River’s brain. Simon finds repeated surgical scars in River’s brain. He finds her amygdale is stripped. This, he points is the “filter in your brain that keeps your feelings in check.” Jayne wants to leave early. Simon downloads the scans onto a disk. On the way out, Feds arrest them. Jayne wants to know when he gets paid; the Alliance officer tells him he is arrested for aiding a fugitive. Simon thinks Jayne tried to help them get away.

When they are late coming out, Mal and Zoe prepare to go back to look for them. Simon tries to be tough; the Agent tells them they are being held until they can be transferred. Simon and Jayne fight with the guards while Wash directs Mal & Zoe through the building. Simon wants to go out the back; Jayne wants to take out the Feds. “It doesn’t matter,” River says, “They’re here.”

Two creepy looking men with blue gloves arrive at the security office. One of the Blue Hands gets out a stick that apparently turns the agent’s brain to mush and run out his ears or some other ungodly thing. As our people continue to look for a door, the Blues find an Alliance guard still alive and stop to kill him too. As the Blue Hands get closer, Mal shoots open the door and they escape in the nick of time.

Inara returns just before the Ambulance and Wash hurries to the bridge to take off. Simon again thanks Jayne for helping them to get away. Everyone leaves Mal and Jayne to secure the cargo as Serenity lifts off. Mal catches Jayne with a wrench upside the head knocking him out cold.

When Jayne comes to, he is in the airlock. Mal opens the outer door and tells him he knows Jayne called the feds. Mal points out that in the old days traitors were keel hauled, but since he has no keel, he will let Jayne get sucked out the opening in the airlock door. Jayne admits that the money was too good. Mal tells him anything done to any crewmember is done to him personally. As Mal is leaving, Jayne begs him to not tell the others what he did. Mal finally closes the outer door, telling Jayne, “The next time you decide to stab me in the back, have the guts to do it to my face.”

Simon brings a syringe to give River an injection.
“Is it time to go to sleep again?” she asks.
“No,” he tells her, “it’s time to wake up.”