Since there were no post on this board I'll just copy what I put in the movie board about this ep, because it wasn't up at the time:

I finally bought the series and watched Bushwhacked, and a few others again. Bushwhacked was a good ep, but when taking the movie into account it kinda takes away from the whole thing. It was a good idea to put Simon and River in space suits and have them wait outside the ship but I find it hard to believe that nobody saw them considering they were in an indented section and there were ships flying around all the time. I was kinda hoping that River was going to take care of that reaver wanna-be, but it had to be Mal so the Alliance would let Serenity go. There were a few good cleavage shots in the teaser

Well this episode was written by Tim Minear, who had just as big a hand in the series and IIRC was completely uninvolved with the movie. Personally I prefer the Reavers having the vaguely Lovecraftian vibe (in fact, their basic concept is highly reminiscent of the Rapine Storm from CthulhuTech) rather than as a Prozac regimen gone wrong.

It's been a while Gordon but could you, or somebody, possibly elaborate on the Lovecraftian vibe? I agree Gordon that the way Reavers were depicted here were scarier than in the movie. Has there been some sort of retconn for this ep to explain it? I suppose it could be just as simple as the kid was exposed to the PAX, which is why he wasn't killed and was made to watch, but I'm just curious if there is anything 'official.'

If Mal's ship was sold to pay for his defense and he was found innocent, would the Alliance have to give him another ship?