This is another one that starts with a bar fight. Sometime between when this show aired and when I’m watching it now I decided that I considered bar fights a hackneyed way to introduce characters. I haven’t held that against this show yet, but if it happens again I may reconsider. Another recurring element is how this one has a lot of Mal being rude to his friends. That guy needs therapy. At least this is an episode about how he’s rude to them, I guess, instead of him just being rude in an episode about something else.

We get a lot of planetside scenes here. The ones that are on a busy street, I liked. It’s clearly not a spectacularly huge set, but I think the design (and all the extras they cram into it) make it look like a busy, too-small street. It works for me. The set of the supposedly fancy ballroom is less impressive, but I bet I’d actually also be unimpressed with most real fancy ballrooms. But I can say this: Mal wonders why the rich people would have something as dumb as a hovering chandelier. I don’t disagree that that is extravagant, but, hey, Mal. Earlier in the episode you were playing pool on a table where instead of just having balls they have hologram balls that can malfunction. That is just as dumb, if not more so, you idiot.

Something show clearly understands is how Kaylee is so sweet that having anyone be rude to her will make us sad and having her achieve a victory will make us happy. I’m not saying this as a criticism. The show clearly knows what it has with her and is using it to their advantage. It’s also why she was the one in the pilot who got shot. She’s just inherently care-aboutable.

Final note: the line “That there, exactly the kind of diversion we coulda used.” made me laugh.