Serenity encounters Jubal Early, a ruthless professional bounty hunter who will stop at nothing to retrieve River. But River, feeling unwelcome on the ship, takes a novel approach to escaping from the long arm of the Alliance.
The inspiration for this episode came from Tim Minear, who gave Whedon the idea by merely mentioning Boba Fett. Whedon expanded upon the suggestion and extrapolated it into the villain of this episode, the “preternaturally cool, nearly psychotic bounty hunter” Jubal Early. Whedon has said that if he were forced to pick one piece of work to represent his entire body of work, he would pick this episode.

River’s and Early’s tactile and spiritual connection with physical objects reflects an existential experience in Whedon’s youth and his subsequent study of Jean-Paul Sartre’s existential novel Nausea.

Despite being placed as the final episode on the home video releases, it was the tenth episode produced and was intended to take place before “Trash” and “The Message”.

As Serenity flies by a planet, River lies in bed. She arises and takes a walk through the ship’s rooms and corridors, encountering her shipmates in varied conversations with each other.

Simon is relaxing with Kaylee in the common room, telling her an amusing anecdote about medical school. River suddenly “sees” them looking at her, with Simon telling her that he’d “be there right now”, implying she is responsible for taking him away from his successful medical career. She then finds Jayne and Shepherd Book in the kitchen, where she “hears” Jayne repeat his confession to Mal about selling out the Tams on Ariel, and Book mutters an angry but cryptic statement hinting at his less wholesome past. River continues to wander the ship and is moved by the sound of ocean waves as Zoe and Wash passionately kiss on the nearby bridge. Above the cargo bay, as Mal and Inara discuss her impending departure, River sees their unspoken frustrations over their unrealized relationship. None of the people she encounters are aware of her presence - except when speaking directly to her - making it clear that this is River’s mind “walking” telepathically through the ship.

Fleeing the intense emotions, River runs down to the unoccupied cargo bay, where she spots a tree branch and picks it up. Suddenly, the real world returns, and she finds that she is holding one of Jayne’s pistols while the crew surrounds her in a panic. Mal takes the gun from her and discovers it is loaded with the safety off. He orders her not to touch a weapon ever again, and River runs off, crying.

Meanwhile, a small vessel silently hovers above Serenity. The crew discusses what to do with River. When Zoe muses whether River has ever handled a gun, Kaylee reluctantly tells everyone about her experience during their assault on Adelei Niska’s skyplex, when River killed three men with her eyes closed. The crew begins to speculate that River may be a “reader”, having psychic powers, and though Simon objects, they question whether she might be dangerous. Both River and a man in a red spacesuit listen in. Once the crew goes to sleep, the man boards Serenity. He runs into Mal, subdues him, and locks the crew in their cabins. He surprises Kaylee in the engine room, ties her up, and threatens to rape her unless she keeps quiet. When Book hears him moving downstairs, the man disables him with a blow to the head. Simon hears a noise and rises to check on his sister, only to be attacked by the stranger, who addresses him by name. The man, Jubal Early, reveals that he is a bounty hunter pursuing River. As he waxes poetic and shares his opinions about various topics, he tells Simon that Kaylee will suffer unless he helps him find his sister.

Simon and Early search the ship, and run into Inara; Early pistol-whips her when she tries to appeal to his emotional side. The two men eventually reach the bridge, and Early, impatient and annoyed, threatens to shoot Simon if River doesn’t give herself up. River then responds over the ship’s intercom, explaining that because no one wanted her on Serenity but she didn’t want to leave, she “melted away” and merged with the ship itself. River contacts Kaylee, telling her to cut herself free. As River reveals dark secrets about Early’s past, unnerving and distracting him, Kaylee frees the crew, and River tells Mal she has a plan to deal with their assailant.

Early becomes suspicious when River mentions “how shiny it looks”, and realizes that she isn’t part of Serenity, but rather broadcasting from his own ship. He suddenly becomes frantic and tries to bargain with her, but River reassures him that she’s ready to surrender as she cares for her shipmates and thinks leaving them is for the best. Simon attacks Early, but the hunter shoots him in the leg and knocks him flat on his back before donning his helmet and exiting Serenity. Once he’s free of the ship’s artificial gravity, Mal suddenly appears and shoves him off the ship into the deep of space, while River puts Early’s ship on a preprogrammed course to nowhere and happily returns to Mal.

Later, in the infirmary, Simon carefully guides Zoe and Wash as they treat his bullet wound. Inara walks away from Mal as he tries to examine her cut lip. In the cargo bay, Jayne mocks Book’s failure to defeat Early, despite “all them years of priest trainin’”, and Book implies that he fought Early and only succumbed after a prolonged fight. Their friendship restored, Kaylee and River play jacks while Kaylee relates a racy anecdote from her past. River picks up and examines the bouncing ball, with its swirling, multicolored surface, as she drops it on the floor. Early, quietly floating through space as his oxygen supply slowly runs out, mutters to himself “Well, here I am.”