While Serenity is stopping by on the planet Ariel, Simon has his own mission: find out what the Academy did to River. He knows that the nearby Alliance-run hospital in the city could have some answers. To do this, he persuades his crewmates into another mission: loot some medicine, to sell off in the Border planets. There’s plenty of that at the hospital, too. For both goals, the crew of Serenity will have to go on a hospital heist.
The plot of “Ariel” is intricately written in a way that is smart, sharp, and flows nicely. The episode moves at such a brisk pace, as the characters are always on the move and do not have a second to breathe. After all, throughout the episode, there is an impending threat that they could get caught. Given how the stakes are so high, every scene has some level of tension. The entire sequence where the crew carries out their heist has a kinetic momentum, such when a disguised Mal and Zoe are almost caught by a doctor, or when Simon steps in to save a man in cardiac arrest. The episode reaches its peak during the last 20 minutes. Not only is the ending completely action-packed, but the stakes are at their absolute highest here because we all know the implications of what River could return to should she be captured by the Alliance.
Even through its fast-paced storyline, the episode still manages to reveal a lot more about the characters. As the driving force, Simon plays so much more of a leadership role here than in previous episodes that it’s actually kind of weird. More resourceful and brotherly here than ever before or since, he is the one who knows his way around not just the hospital but just around a Core planet in general. Moreover, what happened to River at the Academy is partly revealed for the first time, while still leaving more questions open as to what more secrets lie at the Academy. Still, with this new context, there is now a greater understanding to why River behaves the way she does. Every time she freaks out, psychically sensing that the Feds are close, is not just a typical episode of her symptoms—it’s real fear that she might go back to the very place that destroyed her life.
One very notable characterization in this episode is that of Jayne Cobb. After being shown as a guy who is bit hardheaded at times but pretty cool guy overall, he reveals a darker side in a way that comes as a surprise. He wants personal fortune, and he’s even willing to sell the Tam siblings out to the Alliance for it. This motive of greed is in line with his personality traits as established in past episodes such as “Jaynestown”, so this twist feels quite natural for his character. With this context, I must applaud Mal for still maintaining the discipline and foresight to be suspicious of Jayne at the end of the episode. Yeah—even after his change of loyalty at the end, this guy’s still got some serious questions that need to be answered.
“Ariel” is also the one episode where the Alliance is poses its greatest threat to the crew of Serenity. While Simon and River’s significance to the Alliance has been addressed in previous episodes, here it is fully addressed for the first time. Predictably, the Alliance is the exact kind of government that goes back on their promises with the people they work for. This is evidenced by how Jayne gets detained despite his initial deal with the Alliance, or how the “Hands of Blue” consider their subordinates completely expendable.
The “Hands of Blue,” as they’re called by River, are particularly interesting. The way they kill all potential witnesses at the hospital carries some horrifying implications. What about that doctor Zoe knocked out? What about the patient Simon saved? What about the doctor who was tending to him? Do they all have to die, too? Were all of Simon’s efforts for nothing? There are also so many questions regarding their allegiance and motives. Who do they serve? What do they want? And why are they specifically after River? These very mysterious new villains, first teased in “The Train Job”, are living up to their full potential so far.
In addition, this is the first proper appearance of a Core planet, so we actually get to see what a fully-fledged urban metropolis in the ‘Verse looks like. This has the most beautiful visuals of any Firefly episode. Ariel City has a cyberpunk aesthetic rendered in 2002 television-quality CGI that has aged surprisingly well. The sets, props, and costumes look low key and grounded enough to be relatable to contemporary times but also sleek and stylish just enough to be futuristic at the same time. The editing in this episode is astounding, too; for example, the intercut montage between making plans for the heist and the steps of the preparation for the actual heist give the pace a sense of speed and urgency. From a visual standpoint, all these elements alone bring the planet Ariel to life.
In my opinion, this is Firefly’s best episode. On its own, “Ariel” delivers a tense and adrenaline-pumping narrative that delivers strongly from beginning, to middle, to end. In the grander scale, it fleshes out the universe and the characters and is supposed to open its storyline to newer bolder territories. I say, supposed to, because this should have marked the point where Firefly finally started to find its voice and blossom into living up to its full potential. In hindsight, of course, it’s tragic how most of that potential was wasted by its early cancellation, even 18 years later. Still, for what we’ve got, “Ariel” is the epitome of how fantastic Firefly is as it exists today.
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