Back with the hicks on the hill, Simon and River are escorted into some building. Captioning reveals that Alpha Hick's name is Stark. If they were going to do a Farscape shout-out, couldn't they have at least given him an eye-patch? Stark snarks that the accommodations probably aren't as good as they're used to, but it's what they've got. Simon looks over to see sick people lying about here and there. There's also a woman there by the absolutely ridiculous name of Doralee, attending to them. She's dressed up like one of the slaves from Gone With The Wind. Butterfly McHillWoman (tm justjoan) greets them, but is confused about who River is. River goggles at all the sick people and Simon has to get her to sit down before she goes and hugs all the lepers. After he gets River calmed down, Simon asks Butterfly if there's been some sort of outbreak. Nope. People just get sick a lot or fall down the hill, breaking their crowns, or whatever. Sometimes they heal on their own, but sometimes they need medical help. Simon rolls up his sleeves and asks Butterfly to bring him some light and any medical supplies they've got.

Back on Serenity, Zoe asks Mal if he's "sanguine" about docking with the Alliance ship as they all gather in the cargo bay, with Book on a stretcher yet again. This prompts a lengthy discussion about what "sanguine" means. It means "hopeful," but it also means "bloody." I've had nearly this exact conversation with somebody before. I'd claim it as a shout-out, but unless Drew Z. Greenberg is psychic, I'm sure that's not the case. Zoe opens the door to the cargo bay. Several Alliance soldiers point their guns at them menacingly.

The men all load onto the ship, along with the requisite Officious Alliance Bellboy. Zoe offers to show them papers "proving" that they're legit. Bellboy asks what sort of ship they run. Mal says they're a supply ship. Bellboy looks over their paperwork as Zoe explains that they need medical assistance. No response. Mal points out that "it has to be better than slow." Bellboy officiously points out that their official seal is out of date. Then he calls Mal "Captain Harbatkin" to telegraph to us that the papers are fake. Unless Mal has been lying to us all along. Mal claims that they haven't been through a checkpoint in quite some time. Officious Bellboy asks what happened to Book. Zoe starts to make up a lie, but then Mal just decides to blurt out the truth, specifying that they were in no way involved with the shoot-out. Officious Bellboy doesn't really care, though. He was just asking, because he's officious that way. He tells them that they're not an emergency facility and that they don't just allow anybody access to their services. Book, however, has suddenly regained consciousness and rasps over to the Bellboy to check his "ident card." They take some card from Book and scan it into some handheld device. Bellboy reads something for a moment, then orders the men to take Book to the infirmary immediately. Oh, the mystery that is Book. If only I cared, or thought that we'd actually find out what the mystery is before the show disappeared from the airwaves without a trace.