"Ariel" may be my favorite episode of Firefly. It's really the only time the series visits a core planet and a lot of its drama relies on previously established threads. In essence, it's the first real episode for devoted fans rather than newcomers to the show. Joss Whedon's work tends to be heavy on plot arc and none of his shows can really be fully enjoyed out of context after the first six or so episodes. "Ariel" marks the point when Whedon and his team of very talented writers decided to play to the viewers who were already hooked. We'd see a similar decision several years later with Dollhouse, except Firefly never got a second season to wrap up all of the plot established over the first.

I suppose the main reason I enjoy "Ariel" so much is that it's a fairly Tam-heavy episode. Of all the concurrent stories on Firefly, the fugitive mystery of Simon and River always resonated the most with me. The Tams (and to a lesser extent Kaylee) are the only people on Serenity who are primarily concerned with the future. Everyone else is really just carrying around a troubled, storied history that occasionally catches up with them. Simon and River aren't just fighting for their lives, their fighting for their lives to come. I also happen to think that Sean Maher is an under-used, underrated actor who was second only to Nathan Fillion in his ability to balance the dramatic and comedic aspects of his character on Firefly. "Ariel" puts Simon in his element when River's worsening mental state prompts a clandestine trip to the world's best hospital, both to use its diagnostics technology and to steal a small fortune in rare medicine.

Though a fair portion of "Ariel" is incredibly tense, it also has some fun, lighter moments. Wash and Kaylee scrounging for ship parts together is a nice interstitial, as is the medical jargon montage that ends up being entirely unnecessary. Scenes like these grant a necessary amount of levity to this otherwise suspenseful hour of television. Without them, the unsettling details of Simon and Jayne's fight with the police, and certainly the gory deaths brought on by the second and last appearance of the Hands of Blue, would be too much.

Speaking of the Hands of Blue, River's personal bogeymen, there wasn't time in either Firefly or Serenity to address them further. If you're interested in learning more about them, you'll have to dive into the comic book series Those Left Behind. Personally, I was never that fond of them so I didn't care that they were absent from the main plot. They always seemed too flat and contrived to exist in the otherwise deep, colorful Firefly universe. The Hands of Blue certainly add an intense sense of dread to "Ariel", but that's really just a case of a limited plot element being used to its optimal effect.

Best Moment: Simon reviewing River's brain scan. I'm a sucker for nifty sci-fi tech and it's really the only insight into River's condition we ever get in the series.

Notes: Jayne's botched treachery has been a long time coming. It's his ability to change course when things go belly-up that's impressive.

Episode Rating: 4.9/5- Firefly never did figure out how to use its entire cast in a single episode. It would have been nice to better integrate Inara and Book into the story instead of relegating them to the sidelines. It would have been at the risk of overcrowding "Ariel" but I think it also could have pushed an already excellent hour to perfection.