The story opens near Seven Pines Pass on the planet Shadow.
Seven Pines Pass is the town where Mal grew up, as revealed in
Big Damn Hero.
The transport truck on page 1 has the flag of the Union of
Allied Planets on it (one version of the flag, anyway).
On page 9, the Alliance officer threatens to send Mal to the
gulag on Trakis Seven for weapon pilfering and war profiteering.
This appears to be the first mention of Trakis Seven in the 'Verse.
It seems likely the Monty Clearwater seen as an Alliance, and
later a Browncoat, cohort of Mal's here is the same Monty who
appears as a friend of Mal's in "Trash".
On page 12, Mal writes to his mother as an Alliance recruit and
tells her he hopes his commanding officer gets damplung.
Damplung is a disease that has been mentioned many times in
previously-written Firefly stories, and may be a slang
term for tuberculosis, a bacterial infection largely of the
lungs.
Some of Mal's cohorts in the Alliance military are from the
worlds of Santo, Bellerophon, St. Albans, Whitefall, and Kerry.
These worlds have all been mentioned previously in past
Firefly material.
On page 24, the Independent reporter
Ally Bally broadcasts from the jungle moon of Chuntao.
This appears to be the first mention Chuntao in the 'Verse.
The reporter's name,
Ally Bally, is probably derived from the Scottish folk song
"Coulter's Candy" which mentions the name as that of a little
girl on her mammie's knee.
On page 24, a Browncoat exclaims, "Bien joué!" This is
French for "Well played!"
In this story, Alliance troops are often referred to by the
slang term "blue bellies", but in the episode
"Bushwhacked", Kaylee referred to
them as "purple bellies", for the purplish body armor worn by
them. Maybe during the Unification War, the Alliance armor was
more blue-tinted?
On page 26, Mal tells Zoe that the Kittrick ranch was near the
one run by Mal and his mom in Seven Pines Pass.
Mal tells Zoe that when the war's over, she should come by his
mom's ranch and they'll ride Silverhold thoroughbreds around the
hills. Silverhold is a planet previously mentioned in
"The Message".
On page 27, Monty tells Zoe his name is Montgomery Moses, but
page 11 listed him as
Montgomery Clearwater.
Page 28 reveals that Zoe is a member of Sparrowhawk Squad in the
Independents military.
Captain Zhu refers to Mal and Monty as "Frick and Frack". Frick
and Frack were a Swiss comedy ice skating duo (Werner Groebli
and Hans Rudolf Mauch) who achieved fame in the United States in
the Ice Follies travelling ice skating show in the 1930s-50s.
The pair's performing name became English slang for any two
people so closely associated with each other that it was
virtually impossible to think of one without the other.
On page 31, the Sparrowhawk's vehicle is blown up by what Monty
identifies as an Alliance Stingray missile.
After Moose's death, the Sparrowhawks toast to him, with Amber
saying, "Adieu, élan." Adieu is French for
"goodbye". Élan is a French term for someone who has
particular panache in their role.
On page 33, Roanoke remarks that he and the Sparrowhawks are
down to their last six grenades and comments, "In other words,
we're stone cold rucked." Presumably "rucked" is another 'Verse
term for "fucked". "Rutt" and "rutting" are also used in the
'Verse to denote variations of the f-word.
| Page 37 introduces an Alliance super citadel, a gigantic
tank. |
 |
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Episode Studies
