“I hate that colour on you. I always have.”

Kaylee

The Blue‑Gloved Men move through Whitefall like winter shadows, cold and quiet. They find the man they’re lookin’ for: Lawrence Dobson — once an Alliance agent, once shot in the head and left for dead by Malcolm Reynolds. Dobson ain’t pleased to see ’em. He raises his gun, jaw tight, eyes mean. But when they speak the word Serenity, somethin’ in him shifts. His hand lowers. His hate sharpens.

On Persephone, Mal orders Wash to fuel the ship, though they ain’t got two coins to rub together. Wash points this out. Mal don’t care. He’s got one priority: get Inara off his boat before she slips further under his skin.

Jayne, meanwhile, knocks a brute of a man flat onto the deck, just for the pleasure of it. And standin’ in the cargo bay door, hat tilted and grin sly, is Badger — flanked by his boys, claimin’ he’s got a proposition. Zoë don’t wait for the pitch. She draws, fires, and drops Badger’s men before they can blink. Badger, suddenly polite, is invited aboard.

Back on Whitefall, Dobson insists he don’t want Serenity. He wants Mal. His home is a shrine to obsession — walls plastered with plans, photos, scribbles of Reynolds in a dozen angry hands. He’s been nursin’ this grudge like a wounded animal. He says he’s got a plan to catch Mal, just needs authorisation. The Blue‑Gloved Men don’t care about his vendetta. They want the Tams — River and Simon — and they want them soon.

Aboard Serenity, Book voices his doubts about trustin’ Badger. Badger swears he didn’t tip off O.T.T. about Constance, but suggests Fanty and Mingo might’ve. Mal says he’ll look into it, and Badger had better have somethin’ worthwhile to say.

Badger brings up the Battle of Sturges — bloodiest fight of the War — and claims the money both sides died over is still sittin’ where it fell. Mal takes the intel, thanks him kindly, and kicks him off the ship.

Mal gathers the crew and announces they’re takin’ Badger’s job. Inara assumes she’ll be dropped off first. Mal corrects her. Book argues they should keep their word. Mal says words don’t mean much in the Black — in the end, you do what you must to survive. Same as Book did on Constance when he stole that vehicle to save their hides.

Book answers with a fist to Mal’s jaw.

On Whitefall, Dobson watches the Blue‑Gloved Men depart. He turns to his own men, eyes burnin’ with purpose, and says he alone kills Reynolds.

On Serenity, Wash tells Mal he’s done plenty of foolish things for the woman he loves. Says he don’t mind it. Says he knows Mal’s doin’ the same. Later, after a heated moment with Zoë, Wash calls the crew to the cockpit.

They look out over the wreckage of Sturges — twisted metal, broken ships, ghosts of the War still hangin’ in the air.

They don’t see the Blue‑Gloved Men hidden in the debris, waitin’ patient as death.