[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

I would actually guess that most of what happened in the movie would have happened by the end of the second season, if the show hadn't been canceled.

I'm not so sure about that. I think that (unable to be spoiler-free, so highlight) the whole Miranda thing could have been a season finale, but both main character deaths would have taken longer than a season, if they happened at all. Perhaps Book's mysterious backstory and exiting the ship to make a new life for himself could all have been sufficiently filled out within a season, but even then I think he would have stuck around as a ground ally for awhile longer. And IMO, the only reason Wash died at all was to make the final firefight truly gripping--Joss Whedon had just proven that he could and would kill off major characters. I totally believed that Kaylee, Jayne, Simon, Zoe, and Mal were going to die at one point or another from their injuries. At any rate, I admit that I teared up multiple times.