Firefly: Ranking Episodes From Worst To Best

8. Episode 3: Bushwhacked

Zoe: "Proximity alert. Must be coming up on something."

Wash: "Oh, my god. What can it be? We're all doomed! Who's flying this thing??!...Oh, right, that would be me. Back to work."

"Bushwhacked" is our first real introduction to the Reavers. They're mentioned in "Serenity" when Serenity has to fly past a Reaver ship, and Zoe explains to Simon the danger they're in at that moment: "If take the ship, they will rape us to death, eat our flesh, and sew our skins into their clothing, and if we're very, very lucky, they'll do it in that order." Fortunately, Serenity makes it past the Reavers, but in "Bushwhacked" Mal and his crew come face to face with a survivor gone mad from witnessing a Reaver attack.

The survivor mutilates his own body, twists wire and metal into the wounds in his face, and kills anyone in his path, becoming a Reaver himself. Part of what makes the Reavers so frightening is no one knows their true origin; until the film 'Serenity' and its reveal of the Reavers' creation, they are simply men who have become murderous creatures for no clear reason, showing the horrible potential for murder and madness of anyone out in the black. Perhaps that's the reason Jayne, out of all the crew members, is most afraid of the Reavers. He bases all of his identity in his masculinity, but Reavers are no longer men; for reasons unknown, they have become monsters, and there's no knowing what could cause any member of the crew to follow suit.