Firefly: Ranking Episodes From Worst To Best

12. Episode 12: The Message

Tracey: "When you can't run anymore, you crawl...and when you can't do that-"

Zoe: "You find someone to carry you."

The beginning of the episode involves two packages. The first is the ugly orange knit hat Jayne receives from his mother, which has become an icon of the show for Browncoats everywhere - a hat so ugly that Wash quips, "A man walks down the street in that hat, people know he's not afraid of anything." The second package is a coffin addressed to Zoe and Mal that contains the dead body of Tracey Smith, one of their fellow soldiers and friends from the war between the Independents and the Alliance. Shenanigans ensue when Tracey turns out not to be dead after all; in fact, he wants to ask Mal and Zoe for help in getting out of a deal gone wrong.

The episode is weakened a bit by a twist that can be seen coming - what better way to increase the dramatic tension than have Tracey turn against Mal and Zoe? What makes the episode, though, is how Tracey's return represents how Mal and Zoe are still haunted by the war. Even though it's years past, Mal is still known as a sergeant of the Independent army by many of the criminals he makes deals with, he gets into fights with people who insult the Independents, and, on top of it all, he named his ship "Serenity," which shows just how much the Battle of Serenity Valley still means to him.