Blog 39

So today I worked on a lot of stuff.  I did some chemistry, of course as you can see I am writing this blog.  I watched the Bengals lose again today.  It was quite pathetic.  Their season has really taken a turn for the worst and it doesn't seem as if they are going to be able to recover from the damage they have already done.  On a brighter note.  I also did some math and engineering work today.  It was a pretty typical average day.  This weekend was quite great though.  Halloween weekend was a lot of fun.  Got a lot of work done then then had fun later at night.  Right now I am watching Friends.  Its a pretty good episode.  Its season five and its the episode where the friends reminisce about all the previous Thanksgivings they have had.  It is one of those typical flashback episodes.  Another thing that I did today was assemble and place some nerf basketball hoops in my house.  It provides some very good entertainment whenever we need a break.  We get a little two on two game going for a few minutes.  Its a lot of fun.  I am really looking forward to this week in school  No midterms and only 2 quizzes.  Pretty laid back week if I must say so myself.  Anyways, it is about time for this blog post to be done and over with.  Its time for bed because I need to get up relatively early tomorrow.  Goodnight everyone.

Blog 38: English Class So Far

Okay, so I am a sophomore and I am a Mechanical Engineering and pre-med major.  Pretty amazingly busy right?  My classes are very, very difficult and time consuming and most people wouldn't even attempt to try to have this type of major and then continue onto medical school.  One of my easiest classes that I am supposed to ever have to take is freshmen year english right?  Well apparently not.  Apparently I  have A's in Junior level math, Chemistry, and Engineering classes but my lowest grade is by far in English.  I just can't understand how my lowest grade is English right now.  I just received my grade my ARP grade and apparently I barely passed?  I consider myself a rather intelligent person being in the honors program for a top 20 engineering school in the country while also taking pre-med classes.  I honestly just can't believe that Freshman English is going to bring down my GPA right now.  Hell, if I get a B+ in this class it brings my GPA down.   I understand English classes and writing skills are very important, however, it really pisses me off when my friends have to write 5 blogs per quarter and then write 10 pages worth of papers and they get an automatic A because they completed the work.  The English department needs to get its shit together and decide whether they are going to grade easy or difficult because it doesn't seem fair to me that grades can be so subjective during a freshman course.  Upper level courses I can understand that, but not freshman level courses.  It doesn't make sense to me when I read one of my friends papers from his English class and it is absolute shit and he gets an 88% on it.  He was laughing about the fact that he never did anything in his class and wrote his paper in an hour and a half and then gets an A in the class.  It looks like I have to take more time out of my already packed schedule and go to the writing center every flippin' day to try to make up for this.  I really don't know what else I can do.  I felt like a made an extremely compelling argument that made perfect sense.  No, I didn't explicitly write out every single detail.  That could take 20 pages.  Oh well.  Shit happens right?  Apparently we get to do a revision? I don't know.  I hope so because this grade needs to change.  Its time for me to get off my soap box now...

Blog 37

It is good to finally have the Analytic Research Paper done with.  The paper wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be though.  I found a topic that I found really interesting and it was something that i felt pretty strongly about and thought that I was able to make a pretty good argument.  As of this morning I still had about a page and a half left so I rounded off 1 paragraph then ended with my conclusion.  It was a good feeling finally submitting the report.  The commonplace paper shouldn't be nearly as bad either.  Only three pages.  It could be pretty interesting to figure out what I am going to write about as well as see what everyone else is going to write about for their papers.  To a totally different topic, I am very disappointed with the way the baseball postseason has turned out.  The Giants have a two games to zero lead over the Rangers in the World Series.  I didn't really want either of those teams in the World Series, especially the Giants.  Oh well, hopefully the Rangers can make a stunning comeback, that would really make it a good postseason finally.  Also, I really hope the Bengals start winning some football games.  I had such high expectations with all of the offseason transactions they made and the way their defense performed last year.  However, it isn't looking very promising for them so far this year.  In theory their team should be amazing but it hasn't panned out so far.

Blog 36

Personal Anecdote:

One day my friend, who is Indian, and I were walking through the oval at Ohio State University on our way from a class.  A preacher that was there speaking while students were walking past suddenly called out to my friend.  He said things to him such as: “You! Indian! You hate America! Go back to where you came from!”  He continued to call my friend a terrorist and tell him he was going to hell.  You may think I am exaggerating or making this story up but it truly did happen.  We were completely outraged.  My friend has lived in America his entire life and doesn’t know how to speak his native language at all.  The only tie he has to India is that his parents were born there but moved to the United States shortly after they were born too. 

            The whole situation was outrageous.  People we didn’t even know instantly came to my friend’s aid as did I.  Many people began yelling at the preacher asking him how he could say such things when he doesn’t even know this person.  The preacher especially seemed surprised when my friend replied to him in perfect English, English that was much more grammatically correct than anything the preacher had to say.  This story just makes me wonder how truly ignorant people can be and how prejudice and discriminatory the world can truly be sometimes. 

Hypothetical Scenario:

            What if you had lived in a foreign country your entire life, well it wouldn’t be foreign to you exactly.  One day you were walking through a crowded area and people started yelling things at you and calling you out on the most ridiculous charges.  You couldn’t understand why these people would say these things and the only reason could possibly be because you are different.  The people clearly know nothing about you.  You have never even met them in your entire life.  How would you react?  Would you keep walking or would you stop to defend yourself?  It would bring up a very interesting thought.  The majority of us never really stop to realize what it is like to be a foreign person living in a new country.  Imagine how difficult it must be for them to start a new life.  They would have to be very courageous.  Maybe people should think of that before they start to make unfounded accusations or heckle people that are different than themselves.  

Blog 33

Another day, another new blog post that needs to be written.  So once again, with nothing new to write about, I am deciding to write about my day today.  So this morning I woke up and took a shower.  I then brushed my teeth and got dressed.  After that, I ate a bowl of frosted flakes with two percent milk, the usual.  I then worked on some math homework and chemistry.  Then I went to my chemistry lab.  There I did this really stupid lab.  It wasn't very much fun and it took up a crap ton of time.  After that I came back and ate dinner.  I had a cheeseburger and some oreos and milk.  It was quite good and nutritious.  After dinner I worked on philosophy and even more chemistry.  I did all this because I have two midterms tomorrow in philosophy and chemistry.  They should both be pretty easy so I am not really worried about them that much.  Also tomorrow we have English class and we were supposed to have read something in commonplace.  I haven't done that yet so I should probably get on that.  Anyways, I am about to fall asleep after this monday night football game.  Right now the Giants are beating the Cowboys.  I am glad because I hate the Cowboys and I am especially glad that they are sucking it up this year and totally underachieving so it is good to watch this game.  Alright I am about to fall asleep.  Good night

Blog 32

So yet another day of writing my blog where I really don't know what to write about on this blog.  I think I will continue the pattern of writing about what I did today.  So, today I woke up and ate some honey nut cheerios.  I had them with two percent milk, in a bowl.  After that I worked on some chemistry.  It was a ton of fun.  After that I went over to my grandparents house because I was still at my house for the weekend.  There I watched the first half of the Bengal's game and worked on more chemistry.  From there I went to my Aunt and Uncle's house where I watched the second half of the Bengal's game.  Well, the Bengals lost.  Carson Palmer did quite well though, contrary to what he has been doing previously this season.  Today, it was the defense that lost the game against the Falcons.  Anyways, after the football game was over I had dinner.  I had grilled chicken, green beans, potatoes, and a butter roll.  It was quite good, and healthy.  After dinner I said goodbye to my family and made the strenuous hour and a half drive back to Columbus from Cincinnati.  Once I got back to my house here at college I did more chemistry work.  Once I finally finished my chemistry I put away my clean laundry and watched some Friends episodes before writing this blog and finally about to go to bed.

Blog 31

Alright, so tonight I just got done watching the Giants and Phillies game 6 of the baseball postseason.  This was for the NLCS or the National League Pennant if you will.  Yesterday, the Rangers clinched against the Yankees to go to the World Series.  Having gone to Yankee Stadium this past summer and having always been a moderate Yankees fan (I'm a die hard Reds fan no matter what) I was slightly disappointed to see the Yankees lose and not make it to the World Series.  Anyways, the Giants also clinched a trip to the World Series against the Phillies tonight in six games.  I was disappointed about this too.  I predicted in a previous blog that both the Yankees and the Phillies would make it to the World Series with the Phillies winning.  However, upsets do happen in sports and both the Rangers and Giants winning were upsets.  Oh well, I was looking forward to a rematch of last year's World Series against the Phillies and Yankees but its not going to happen.  My new prediction would have to be the Rangers over the Giants simply because of Cliff Lee.  He is the Rangers ace starting pitcher who has been lights out this postseason.  You could make an argument that he has been lights out his whole life, literally, his whole life, he is that good.  Also the Rangers have Josh Hamilton ( an ex Cincinnati Red and an ex cocaine addict).  He has been amazing too this entire season and has been great after returning to baseball about four years ago after his many addiction problems.

Blog 30

So I really don't know what to write about for this blog so I think I am just going to give a little summary of what I did for the day.  Today I woke up, had a glass of chocolate milk and 2 waffles, with syrup of course.  This is all after I came home for the weekend 2 days ago.  So after I ate breakfast, I cut the grass and then raked up all the remaining leaves that I didn't catch with the lawn mower.  After that I went to my two cousin's soccer game.  They played a very good team apparently and got beat seven to zero.  After that I went back to my Grandma's house with my entire family where we had dinner.  There I had fried chicken (from kroger, not homemade) and with the fried chicken I had cole slaw and a roll, with butter.   After that I had some carrot cake and a cookie for desert.  It was a sugar cookie.  After that I played this game with my family called "catch phrase."  It was fun.  We did guys vs. girls and the guys still won even though there were eight girls to only five guys, pretty typical.  After we got bored of that game we got some really sick games of uno going.  Pretty crazy right?  I won 2 of the 4 games, pretty proud of myself.  Anyways, I thought it would be good to share with all you guys what I did on my saturday night.  And oh yeah how could I forget, before I went to my cousins soccer game I watched the Buckeyes kill purdue 49-0.  Terrelle Pryor could have made a few less stupid passes, but oh well it can be expected of him on few occasions.  

Blog 29

So this is the section of my paper that is describing the scene of the episode and then leading into my argument.  I know I need to rewrite my argument to fit the the episode a little better, but this is what I have so far.  Let me know what else I need to work on.

In the 5^th episode of Firefly, titled “Safe,” a doctor and his sister are taken captive by a very remote and impoverished community of people.  It is a very desolate and barren area on this planet.  The people live in houses made of a type of stick and mud.  Their clothes are raggedy and every one walks around very downtrodden.  Some of the citizen’s spirits seem to rise when they discover they now have a doctor.  Simon, the doctor, had been looking over his mentally ill sister, River, until he and River were abducted by the people of this community.  River has previously had her mind tampered with by people with intentions of turning her into a psychic/assassin, which is why she has required extensive medical attending.  While being held hostage in this community, one of the citizens notices Rivers rare powers of deduction and mind-reading.  This community happens to be an extremely fundamentalist society, meaning, that they follow the very, very strict guidelines of their religion, Christianity.  The citizens of this town recognize River as a witch, and as the bible states: witches are meant to be terminated, usually by a burning at the cross. 

In today’s society, this would be viewed as a very irrational claim for two reasons: first, witches are not really thought to exist in this world, at least in Christian views, and second, even if someone was thought to be a witch, they wouldn’t automatically be burned on the spot.  Over the years Religion has morphed to keep up with this postmodern day and age.  You wouldn’t see a witch burning, per say, but you do see people of followings constantly arguing over which religion is right or better.  People of different faiths are constantly being hounded or attacked by others because of their beliefs; is it rational or ethical for these people to act in this way towards River because it is what they believe is right?  Is it right for someone to impose their beliefs on another human being, even if they believe this act will help this person?

blog 28

As a follow up for my previous blog.  Blog 26 I think.  For any of you people following the baseball postseason it isn't looking very good for the Phillies.  I picked them to win the world series but right now they are in a 3 games to 1 deficit in a series against the Giants just to make the world series.  Luckily for the Phillies, the have their 3 best pitchers coming back to the mound in Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt, and Cole Hamels (if you have ever heard of them).  These are the 3 pitchers that beat my beloved Reds in three straight games.  They could very well be the best pitching trio that I have ever seen and maybe of all time, its hard to say.  Anyways, chances aren't looking good for the Phillies, however, my other world series pick, the Yankees, won their game today against the Rangers which brought them only down 3 games to 2 against the Rangers.  Chances don't really look very good for the Yankees either.  In my opinion a world series against the Rangers and Giants would be kind of boring.  It would be much more exciting if it were between the Yankees and the Phillies in a rematch of last years world series.  Anyways, i haven't been as excited for the playoffs this year with a lot of things going on with school and other stuff.  That is about all for this blog post, but I will be back soon...don't worry.  Very soon actually, like tomorrow.

Blog 27

So lately I have been watching two shows on television.  I have been watching House and Friends.  I have watched Friends pretty much for forever.  I have always enjoyed that show and I am sure that I have seen every episode of all 10 seasons.  My family and I have always watched it together whenever it is on television.  I have also watched House ever since it came onto television in 2004.  I have always loved that show.  Dr. House is pretty freakin hilarious all the time.  He is very arrogant and quite a jerk to his coworkers and employees which adds a lot to the show.  He is also a genius doctor.  Obviously it isn't very realistic some of the things he does, but it is still quite cool the way some things turn out on his shows.  I have always been fascinated with anything to do with medicine.  That is one of the main reasons that I am pre-med right now.  My undergrad major is mechanical engineering and after I get my undergrad degree I want to go to medical school.  Medical school requires a lot of classes on top of already being in the strenuous honors engineering program.  Needless to say it gets quite stressful at points but it should be worth it in the end.  Its going to be a lot of crazy hard work and medical school is very, very hard to get into but its something I really want to do and always have wanted to do so I am sure I will be able to make it work out in the end.

Blog 26

So I have been watching a lot of the baseball postseason playoffs.  Growing up I played baseball from when I was 4 all the way up through high school until I was 18.  I was actually on a state championship baseball team when I went to Lakota West High School.  But anyways, back to the major league post season.  I am a huge Reds fan.  So for anyone who has followed sports at all within the past month or so, you should know that the Reds recently made the playoffs.  Unfortunately, they were swept out of the first round by the Phillies.  I hate to admit it but the Phillies were just outright better than the Reds.  The Reds were a better hitting team, but good pitching always beats good hitting and the Phillies have an amazing pitching staff.  As of right now, the playoff picture looks like this:  the Phillies and the Giants are in a series for the National League Pennant and the Rangers and the Yankee are in a series for the American League Pennant.  My prediction is that the Phillies and Yankees will make it to the World Series and the Phillies will win it all.  Hopefully the Reds will be back to the postseason next year, which I think they will so I can't wait for April to roll around next year.  All in all it was an exciting year because the Reds made it back to the postseason for the first time since 1995.

Blog 20: Quote Integration

Religion has many great qualities that it bestows upon its followers.  It can teach morals and ethics that are socially acceptable that a person might not otherwise learn elsewhere.  However, Religion also causes many rifts between cultures.  A great many of wars within the past two thousand years may never have occurred had there not been disagreements between two differing theologies.  Mark Twain may sum it up best when he states:"Man is a Religious Animal. He is the only Religious Animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion—several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat if his theology isn’t straight."(Twain).  Look no further than the Israelis and Palestinians.  The two countries have been waging an unstoppable war with each other for years, all centered around their different religions and in turn, their different cultures.  These two countries have no other reason to be fighting other than whose God is better than whose.  Also, another example, the Spanish Inquisition, how many innocent Spanish women were executed simply because they were a suspected "witch."  This would have no basis in any court of law, however, under a misguided follower of a religion, it had a disastrous effect.  So yes, while a religion gives many, many great things to this world, it can also do a lot of harm when it's acts are carried out by its misguided constituents.   

Blog 18

The article that I read for this blog discussion was "An Elephant in the Room: Historical-Critical and Postmodern Interpretations of the Bible."  This article was very interesting because it deals with the fact that nobody ever likes to talk about religion.  People are constantly worried about getting into a big argument with people they know over small issues or little interpretations over the bible.  Also, people are even more concerned about getting into an argument over an issue that is a much larger problem.  The author discusses the fact that nothing can bring problems to any type of relationship between two people, whether they are family or friends, like a disagreement in religion.  He draws comparisons between abortion and topics such as this as other things people are against ever mentioning.  Even families never discuss these types of issues.  I have never spoken about any of these topics with my family.  Throughout society in America it is kind of an unwritten law to not really talk about these types of things without a solid reason, such as a protest of some sort.  Another reason people do not like talking about it is because they like to leave it up to the government.  They know they have their own opinions but in the end the government decides controversial topics.  People also realize that they are not going to be able to convert someone's religion just by arguing which is right.  In general, people are just very uncomfortable with all these situations and in the end, like to keep their ideas to themselves.  

Blog 17: Second Article

My second article that I have read for our analytical research paper was "Resurrecting Christianities: Critical Theories and Constructive Postcolonial, Postmodern Christianities."  This article talks about bringing back the old christian values to this postmodern day and age.  It deals with the fact that christianity is in a very large transition point where a lot of the old values are not as respected or closely followed as they once were in the past.  The author understands why the transition has occurred but wishes it could get back to the strong  core values that made it so strong in previous centuries.  Another thing that the author focuses on is that there has been good come out of this transition.  More people are also being drawn into Christianity that would have not previously been attracted to what it has to offer.  The modern churches use new types of worship, such as Christian rock, to draw in a younger crowd that hasn't been exposed to the religion as much.  These churches also preach what a younger generation wants to hear, that these people can still find heaven even though it isn't like Christianity was in previous years.  Overall, the author wishes that Christianity could return to its previous "glory years" but respects the fact that as times change, people and religions change and adapt to stay current.  The author knows this new regime is obviously here to stay and is going to have to adapt to it himself, the best way he can.  

Blog 15: Paper Topic

After watching many episodes of Firefly, I have chosen to write my paper on episode 5 titled "Safe."
I found this article extremely intriguing because of what happens to the Tamms.  Simon and River are kidnapped by a small community of poverty stricken fundamentalists because they need a doctor.  Simon agrees to help these people for a short time, but doesn't like the idea of staying there at all.  What else is more, the community has recognized River as a "witch" because they misinterpret her psychic powers, and therefore plan to burn her on the cross.  This is what leads me to my topic and these for my paper.  Over the years Religion has morphed to keep up with this postmodern day and age, is it rational or ethical for these people to act in this way towards River because it is what they believe is right?  Also, how can a religion that has such strict guidelines change to seem to include/forgive morals and behaviors of its constituents in a post-modern world that would have previously been unforgivable?  


Stuvland, Aaron. "The Emerging Church and Global Civil Society: Postmodern Christianity as a Source for Global Values." Journal of Church & State 52.2 (2010): 203-31. Web.


Watkins, Derrel R. "Spiritual Formation of Older Persons in a Postmodern Context." Journal of Religion, Spirituality, & Aging 22.1/2 (2010): 1-11. Web.


Blanton, Gregg P. "Integrating Postmodern and Christian Contemplative Thought Building a Theoretical Framework." Journal of Psychology & Christianity 27.1 (2008): 73-84. Web.


Aichele, George, Peter Miscall, and Richard Walsh. "An Elephant in the Room: Historical-Critical and Postmodern Interpretations of the Bible." Journal of Biblical Literature 128.2 (2009): 383-404. Web.


Betcher, Sharon V. "Resurrecting Christianities: Critical Theories and Constructive Postcolonial, Postmodern Christianities." Anglican Theological Review 87.2 (2005): 319-28. Web.

Blog 14: Firefly Episode 14

Today I watched the 14th and final episode of Firefly.  In this episode it is easy to see that the show was cancelled since it didn't really tie up any loose ends.  The episode in general was good in itself though.  In this episode River has some hallucination type things and somehow picks up a gun.  The crew has a discussion wondering whether or not she is to dangerous to be let to run around the ship unwatched.  Little does the crew know, a bounty hunter by the name of Early is making his way onto the ship as the crew begins to go to sleep.  He is obviously very skilled seeing as how he knocks Mal and Shepherd on concious, ties Kaylee up, and has Simon as a type of hostage.  He also locks the rest of the crew in their sleeping quarters.  The bounty hunter is on the ship looking for River.  River is quite a few steps ahead of him though.  She gets onto his ship somehow and broadcasts her voice acting as if she is the ship talking to the bounty hunter.  In the end, Simon ends up shot in the leg but is alright and Mal sends the bounty hunter flying into space, literally.  It is decided that River is to stay on the ship and everyone seems to live happily ever after.  With this ending, I do plan on watching the movie Serenity with the same cast and crew who filmed Firefly.  It should be interesting.

Blog 13: Firefly episode 13

Alright, I have been saying this often but I have to say it again.  This was one of my more favorite of the Firefly episodes.  In this episode, Inara receives a distress signal from one of her old companion friends.  It turns out that her friend is the head of a whore house that is being terrorized by a local man and his men because the man has a child with one of the whores.  The man wants his child and is willing to do whatever it takes to get it.  This is where Mal and his crew come into play.  The whore house hires them to set up a defense of the house and fight off the attack.  A really large battle ensues and in the end the crew obviously saves the whore house and kills the men.  On a different plot line, Mal sleeps with Inara's friend and Mal and Inara's true feelings for each other are finally kind of revealed.  Inara is hurt that Mal slept with her but then Inara's friend dies.  In the end Mal is being truthful and confessing his feelings to Inara and it really seems like she is going to confess hers too.  Then, however, she drops a bombshell and says she is leaving the ship.  To me this is very cowardly and bitchy.  It makes me angry that a man who is as stubborn as Mal finally comes out and says what needs to be said and confesses his feelings and she automatically turns and runs away.  I am anxious to see how this turns out in the 14th and final episode.

Firefly Episode 12

This episode was alright compared to the previous episodes.  This episode shows us a little bit about what life was like for Mal and Zoe when they were fighting for the brown coats in the civil war that was held against the Alliance.  Anyways, the crew is mailed a body of a dead man named Chase who they used to fight with back during the previously mentioned war.  Chase was a private who served under Mal and Zoe and from what I could gather he wasn't a very good soldier.  Smuggling a dead corpse is a felony under the Alliance control and soon after bringing the dead body onto the ship, Federal marshals show up to take the body back and take the crew into custody.  Little does the crew know that the Federal marshals are actually crooked cops who are smuggling organs as a side job.  Also, Chase isn't actually dead.  He was given a sedative that made him sleep for over a week.  Why the crew wouldn't just check his pulse is beyond me but they didn't, and Chase decides to turn on the crew when they decide they are going to let the Feds come on board and search for the body the crew says they don't have.  Chase ends up being shot by the crew and the shepherd saves the day when he realizes the Feds are actually crooked cops and shouldn't be there in the first place.  The Feds leave and Chase dies (again) and then the crew takes his body back to his family like they were supposed to do in the first place.

Firefly Episode 11

In this episode of Firefly Mal and the crew again have the fortune of meeting Mals "Wife" from a previous episode.  This time, however, the crew is brought in on her plan to swindle and old husband of hers.  There is this really rare artifact, an antique laser where there are only two in the world, that the crew and their new partner in crime are going to try to steal.  At first it seems that the wife is going to be trustworthy somewhat,  but it becomes apparent that she is still the untrustworthy, scheming lady that tried to kill the whole crew in the first place.  However, this is the first episode where everything seems to go to plan for the crew.  The crew seemed to be ready for her trickery and sent Inara ahead to catch her in the act.  All in all the plan worked perfectly for the crew.  Also, not on the main plot line of the episode, Simon discovers that Jayne is the one that betrayed him and River by selling them out to the Feds.  River did some crazy thing where she was able to read Jayne and how he was acting towards them and said that Jayne didn't want her and Simon to find out what he did.  Its quite bizarre.  One thing I do have a problem with in this series is the weird languages they speak in whenever they want to cuss.  It didn't bother me at first but now it is to the point where it seems really corny and it really hasn't ever been funny.  I guess if that it my only complaint that it must be a good series then....

Firefly Episode 10

So I have to admit that I am starting to like this series more and more.  This was probably the best episode that I have seen so far.  It starts out by seeing the crew after their previous job where Jayne betrayed them and they made a lot of money.  However, in this episode it appears as though Jayne bought a full crate of apples for the crew (a delicacy it seems) and it doesn't seem as though the crew ever even found out about Jayne stabbing them in the back, except for Mal.  Then, Wash has a bit of a breakdown because he is tired of Zoe constantly obeying Mal no matter what he tells her to do.  Wash thinks that there is maybe something going on between the captain and Zoe or that there was in the past.  In the end it turns out he was just being paranoid.  After Zoe and Wash have a shouting match, Nishka has found the Firefly and captures Mal and Wash.  Contradicting Wash's beliefs, Zoe buys Wash back from Nishka.  At this point the whole crew becomes involved and decides to take on Nishka's entire space station by themselves.  This is the really exciting part just because of the way the whole crew fights together as one.  Also, we see what the Alliance may have been doing with River, turning her into some kind of ultimate killing machine.  She takes out 3 men with 3 shots not even looking at them, it was quite impressive.  In the end, as you probably could have predicted, the crew rescues Mal and all is well back on the ship.

Firefly Episode 9

In this episode Jayne turns on the crew.  It could be argued that this was foreseeable when thinking about the types of things Jayne has already done.  He always has these comments that make it seem like he is untrustworthy.  Anyways, in this episode, Jayne discovers that the Alliance has a bounty out for Simon and River.  Obviously, the rest of the crew doesn't even think twice about the bounty, however, Jayne decides to turn them over to the Alliance.  His plan goes wrong when he is also captured by the Alliance and he along with Simon and River are taken prisoner.  Mal and Zoe have a plan to get them back but the plan goes wrong.  In the end Mal is the only one who knows what Jane does and keeps him trapped.  He then has this meeting with the crew in front of Jayne where he forces Jayne to tell the rest of the crew what he said.  All in all this event really shows just how much Mal cares for his crew.  It seems that he and Jayne have been through a lot but what Jayne has done is almost unforgivable for putting the rest of his crew in danger.  Mal once again shows just how high his moral is when its not related to stealing or thieving.  I am anxious to see, however, what ends up playing out with Jayne and what the crew decides to end up doing with him in terms of him staying or going.