In the dungeon, Mal starts going after Niska, who is crawling across the floor. This time it's his turn to get ambushed from behind by the skinhead assistant, who, by the by, looks sort of like Colin Farrell when he shaved his head for the Daredevil movie. So, unlike Niska, he's a sexy sort of evil, and it's fun watching these two go at it. So to speak. I'm just saying. I'll be in my bunk. Skinhead tries to strangle Mal, and the two of them wrestle as Niska slowly crawls out of the frame and out of the episode. I suppose one bright side to this show's likely cancellation is that I won't have to endure his nonsense in yet another episode. Mal and Skinhead's wrestling crashes them through a window onto a balcony which overlooks the giant chasm we saw earlier.

Zoe, Mal, and Wash make their way into the torture chamber and see Mal and Skinhead fighting. Skinhead is trying to push Mal into the chasm. Jayne starts to aim his gun at the guy, but Zoe stops him, telling him, "This is something the captain has to do for himself." Mal, however, has had enough character building from Niska and his crew, and shouts back, "No! No it's not!" Zoe responds, "Oh!" and all three of them open fire on skinhead. Funny. Pointless, but funny. Normally, I get annoyed when characters on a show make a big deal out of subverting the viewers' expectations, but this worked. The skinhead falls over the edge of the balcony, suddenly transforming into a CGI rendition of himself just as he hits some machinery and bounces down the hole.

It's time for the conclusion on Serenity. Everybody appears to be dressed differently, and Simon is back in a familiar vest, hanging out in the cargo bay with Inara and Book. Mal walks in and asks Simon if he's sure the ear is going to stay on. Simon assures him that it will, but warns him against jiggling it. I have this image in my head of Mal, Zoe, and Jayne having some sort of tense stand-off with some criminals. Mal delivers one of his quips, and then suddenly his ear falls off. What would the bad guys do -- open fire or start laughing? Mal tells Inara to thank Councilor Sappho, who apparently lent them some ambiguous equipment, including the device that reattached Mal's ear. See, it wasn't exploitive GIRL-ON-GIRL ACTION at all! She had a purpose to the plot! She lent them all devices! One of which was actually used! Off-camera! Unlike the lesbian sex, which was on-camera! But that wasn't pandering at all! Inara says that she wishes Mal had managed to kill Niska. God, me too. Mal mentions to Simon and Book that he heard the two of them took up arms on his behalf. He asks Simon how he felt about the shooting. Homoeroticism jokes aside, I do wonder about this connection between Simon and Mal. I feel as though Mal is definitely grooming Simon and feeling him out for something, but I don't know what. Simon responds that he had never shot anybody before. Book snarks, "I was there, son. I'm fairly sure you haven't shot anybody yet." Heh. Okay, Book said something funny. Now shut up, Book. Mal laughs as he limps off.