Its notit is a flash back on how simon got river out of the facility at the begining of firefly, because in the first episode he tells the crew that he paid some people to smuggle River out of the facility and to deliver her to him, so I'm assuming that river somehow got captured and simon and the crew had to break her out, and that the beginning was a hologram that the assassin was watching, but it never explains how she got captured by the government. I read somewhere that there are serenity comics that kind of bridge the last episode of firefly andkey role in rescuing river from the movie together, but i have yet to read them.facility
