Chronologically speaking, "Heart of Gold" was the last episode of Firefly ever aired. It premiered on August 18th, 2003, the last of three episodes relegated to three distant summer slots after the show was canceled. Of all the summer episodes, or really of any episode in the series, "Heart of Gold" is the one that really should have been swept under the rug. Though it's the weakest hour of Firefly by far, I'm still glad it exists. From the removed, academic perspective of the series in retrospect, it's important to see what Firefly could have been, what it was arguably perceived to be by many of its initial viewers: A campy, hokey pulp show as forgettable as any other cut-rate action series.

"Heart of Gold" is one of those mostly stand-alone episodes that, but for a line or two, could really take place anywhere in the episode order. Inara gets a distress signal from an old friend, a madame who runs a whore house on one of Firefly's endless supply of dusty, backwater moons. It seems that a cartoonishly evil man has decided to wage war on the whore house because one of its workers is pregnant with his child. Enter Mal and the crew to play mercenaries and save a widdle baby from the big, bad symbol of misogyny.

The reason "Heart of Gold" is such a predictable, lackluster hour is because of who's behind the camera. The episode was scripted by Brett Matthews, Joss Whedon's long-time assistant who had no other writing credits prior to this and went on to apply most of his talents to traditional comic books after Firefly went off the air. His dialogue in this episode doesn't have much of the pop that characterizes the rest of the series. It does, understandably, have the utility and stilted melodrama of the average super hero story. The rest of the blame goes to director Thomas J. Wright, a TV industry lifer who has contributed a significant chunk of the middling genre fare of American television produced since the mid 1980's. "Heart of Gold" is an episode of pure workmanship, an adventure by numbers that could have been plopped down into any series with few changes beyond basic aesthetics.

This is what Firefly could have been in different hands. The show was ambitious precisely because it had all the trappings of a basic cable genre series but it had the heart of a subtle, superbly acted network dramedy. Put a show like Firefly on a station like The WB or TNT and it becomes a syndication magnet like Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. It's possible that Fox executives wanted that kind of show and were disappointed when they got something with less mass appeal, or perhaps Firefly was always precariously balanced between pulp and respectability. If the latter was true, then "Heart of Gold" is an instance of the series tipping to the campy side of that equation.

Best Moment: Jayne giving a pep talk to his favorite whore, Lucy (played by Australian pop singer Angie Hart). It was one of the few moments that really felt like Firefly.

Notes: This episode spends a lot of time on the romantic tension between Mal and Inara, though it feels a little too weighty. The series never really had time to deepen this thread.

Episode Rating: 2.5/5- "Heart of Gold" is the alternate reality version of Firefly that never had Joss Whedon, Tim Minear, Jane Espenson, Ben Edlund, Jose Molina or Cheryl Cain in the writer's room. It's a predictable hour of action TV with no subtlety or insight.