Cowboy Bebop Session 8: Waltz for Venus

I’d like to start this review with two quotes, one from the previous episode of Bebop and one from Firefly, a show seen by many as a live-action equivalent (or the nearest thing to a live-action equivalent) to Bebop.

“Bounty hunters must be the lowest form of life there is… human beings are just a price tag to them.” –VT, Cowboy Bebop Episode 7, “Heavy Metal Queen”

“Every planet that's been terraformed for human life has its own little quirks.” –Sheriff, Firefly Episode 3, “The Train Job”

These two quotes frame two overarching issues in Cowboy Bebop that are on full display in “Waltz for Venus”: (1) what kind of people make up the crew of the Bebop and (2) what kind of world(s) are they living in? Let’s start with number two.

The citizens of the solar system in the Cowboy Bebop universe tend to live in less-than-ideal conditions, and are forced to make the best of the situation. Most of what we’ve seen so far has been poverty, with many locations in poor upkeep and ridden with crime. “Waltz for Venus” introduces a new facet of the problem: some planets and moons didn’t turn out quite right when they were terraformed. For instance, when planetary settlers made Venus habitable, they used a species of floating plants to help stabilize the atmosphere. Unfortunately, the plants release spores which induce allergic reactions in some people. If the reactions go untreated, a condition known as “Venus sickness” results, which causes blindness and even death in those affected. From what we see of Venus, it looks like a beautiful enough planet, but I find it hard to believe that anyone would choose to live there knowing that they have a fairly strong chance of contracting a fatal disorder. Instead, most people living there probably settled there before people knew about Venus sickness, and have been unable to afford to leave.

At least that’s the case with Stella Bonnaro, a young woman living in a crashed spaceship in the Venusian desert. The girl is blind from the Venus sickness, but she could regain her sight with the right medicine. Unfortunately, the cost is exorbitant, and it’s unlikely that a person forced to live in an abandoned ship in the middle of the desert has much money (unless said person is extremely eccentric). Enter Stella’s brother Roco, one of the most sympathetic bounty-heads-of-the-week this show will ever use. He works for a small fry crime boss and helped steal a grey ash tree, a rare and valuable plant used to manufacture medicine that cures Venus sickness. So not only is Venus sickness a big risk to people living on Venus, but the medicine used to treat it is very expensive.

This brings us to point number one: when confronted with an opportunity for great profit, what will the Bebop crew do? The episode begins with them FINALLY turning in some bounty heads (named Huey, Dewey, and Louie) for a reward of 1.5 million wulongs. Roco witnessed Spike and Faye in action, and was impressed by Spike’s ability to take down two of the thugs without breaking a sweat. He tracks down Spike and asks him to teach him how to fight. Spike is put off by the request and tries to get rid of Roco, but the man is nothing if not persistent. He eventually gets Spike to relent; Spike explains the philosophy behind his style of combat, which requires being loose and relaxed, like flowing water. Spike remains relaxed against opponents, including Roco, who think that force alone is enough to win fights. However, the lesson is cut short when Roco spots his partners in crime. He gives Spike a package and tells him to meet him that night at a dilapidated cathedral.

Spike opens the package and learns that it’s the grey ash tree. He takes it back to the Bebop, where the crew learns that there is a bounty on Roco, his boss, and the other henchmen who helped steal the grey ash, and that the combined bounty on all seven criminals will be doubled if all are turned in simultaneously. So what kind of people are Spike, Jet, and Faye? They have received a plant of incredible value (tens of millions of wulongs) from a bounty head who has put his trust in Spike. Do they sell the plant and double cross Roco? Spike certainly felt no affection for him before, and they could definitely use the cash.

Of course, Faye is the first to suggest they sell the plant. As I’ve said, Faye is the most cynical and self-interested member of the crew. Jet, the closest the show comes to an honorable man, refuses, but only after hesitating briefly (a fact Faye gleefully points out). Jet clarifies that the plant is stolen, so fencing it will be a risk. Faye tells him that sometimes people need to take risks, but Jet quickly shuts her down, pointing out that she already lost all her money from their recent payday at a casino. Spike decides to investigate more, and this leads him to Stella.

Through her, Spike learns about Roco’s criminal activity. She tells him that Roco tends to get into trouble and hangs out with the wrong crowd. But he does it to earn money to buy medicine for her. Stella would prefer he stayed out of trouble, and has come to terms with her blindness, but Roco is obsessed. Roco’s obsession is dangerous, as it needlessly puts himself in danger, but his heart is clearly in the right place. Stella comments that Roco has a beauty within him, and senses that Spike does as well, despite Spike’s own hesitations about himself.

Stella also explains a little more about Venus sickness, and says that the plant spores responsible fall from the sky and look like snow. It is a beautiful display, but the results of it can be deadly. Nothing is as it seems. Before leaving, Spike finds a packet of grey ash seeds hidden in a music box given to Stella by Roco.

So now, the Bebop crew is in possession of a mature grey ash, worth more than nearly any of the bounty heads featured previously on the show, and multiple grey ash seeds, each worth 8 million wulongs. All the crew needs to do to maximize their profits is to capture Roco, Picaro, and the other gangsters, which shouldn’t be too hard, because Spike has a meeting set up with a trusting Roco. When they arrive, Spike tells Roco that he knows about the bounty and the grey ash plant, and Roco thinks that Spike is there to collect the bounty on him.

Many bounty hunters probably would. The sombrero gang from “Heavy Metal Queen” would. Hell, Faye probably would if she weren’t with Jet and Spike; she already expressed an interest in selling the grey ash. And had Spike not learned about Stella and the devastating effects of Venus sickness, it’s likely he would as well. Roco was just some kid who pestered him into teaching him martial arts. But Stella was right, and Spike really does have something beautiful inside him, despite his unfeeling and distanced outward personality and career choice.

Of course, Spike’s sympathy doesn’t extend past Roco, and he and Faye attempt to bring in Picaro and the rest of the gang. (Is it just me, or does Picaro dress like a Marvel villain from the 70s?) In the ensuing firefight, Roco is struck by a bullet, and Spike tries to help him. He yells at Roco not to die, but unlike when he did the same to Giraffe in “Sympathy for the Devil,” the emotions in Spike’s voice are empathy and sadness rather than greed. The idea of losing someone he has only just met is devastating after learning who he truly was. As Roco dies, he peacefully and hopefully wonders whether he and Spike would have been friends had they met at a better time in Roco’s life.

The episode ends with Spike visiting Stella one more time, who is now in a hospital and receiving treatment. This time, she is much more dismissive of Roco’s criminal activities upon hearing that Roco won’t be coming to visit. Initially assuming that Roco is in jail because he was doing something bad, she begs Spike to tell her what kind of person he was when she learns he died. Spike confirms to her that he was a terrific guy. The episode ends with a beautiful shot of the dangerous spores falling from the sky as Spike and Stella look on from their different locations.

Up next: As synthesizer music plays, we hear a new voice, a young girl who introduces herself as Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV. She tells us that she will be showing up, as Spike playfully asks who she is and Faye does the same, but in a much more annoyed manner. Like the preview for “Honky Tonk Women,” this introduces Ed as much as it does “Jamming With Edward,” (or, in this case, even more so); we hear Ed’s distinct speech patterns and use of youthful idioms. Next time, the cast will be complete.

Cowboy Bebop Session 7: Heavy Metal Queen

The world of Cowboy Bebop isn’t just criminals and bounty hunters. Most of what we have seen so far has shown us just enough of the rest of the solar system so that we know it exists. People eat in restaurants, gamble in casinos, and attend the opera. But most of these settings exist to provide a cool, noirish or western background for our heroes to chase their prey. With very few exceptions, all POV is from the Bebop crew or the criminals they are chasing. One thing “Heavy Metal Queens” does very well is to give POV scenes to an interplanetary trucker, known only as VT. Through her, we see a completely different industry: shipping.

Of course other institutions still exist in 2071. But we’ve never seen any up close before. That’s probably because, aside from the trucks now being interplanetary spaceships, not much has changed in the shipping industry. Truckers communicate via CB radio using call signs (VT’s being “Heavy Metal Queen”) and eat at greasy spoon diners. And while stereotypes about groups of people exist, everyone still has their own personality, which is shown through images of different truckers’ cabs. Each one decorates it differently, with one covering all the walls with porn, and another with stuffed animals. Decker, this week’s bounty head, is a trucker who painted his rig with an image of Saraswati.

Speaking of stereotypes of groups, VT believes in some negative ones about bounty hunters, many of which are confirmed at a scene in a truck stop. She walks past a group of bounty hunters in sombreros and ponchos, talking about some famous bounty hunter. This group follow her in and begin harassing a waitress. As evidence of just how much of a crapsack world the Bebop characters inhabit is, the bounty hunters actually commit battery against the poor waitress, pulling her into their laps, and the only person who does anything about it is VT. As far as we know, no one, not even the waitress’ coworkers, call the police. If the bounty hunters are doing the jobs of the police, tracking down criminals, what happens when they get out of hand?

VT holds her own in the fight, but one against three is a hard ratio against which to maintain the upper hand. Fortunately, she gets help from a hungover Spike after one of the rambunctious bounty hunters causes him to drop an egg yolk in his lap. (He was going to make a mixed drink out of the yolk to cure his hangover.)

Spike was in the diner hunting for Decker, but was not doing well. In addition to his hangover, the information the Bebop crew received turned out to be paltry. All they knew was that he was in the area and he has a dragon tattoo. Faye scopes out a nearby kiddie ice cream parlor, and has finally become part of the team. There are still some kinks the team needs to work out (she says at one point that she has first dibs on Decker, and Jet still complains about her whining, but Spike refers to Faye as his friend and when Faye calls in to Jet with information about Decker, he is not unhappy to hear from her). Faye also uses her femininity to lure in the man she believes to be Decker; I guess the guys finally realized that Faye can bring things to the hunt that they can’t. As it turns out though, the big muscly guy she suspects to be her target is just a red herring; the real Decker is a scrawny, nervous, Woody Allen lookalike who overhears Faye’s plans to capture Decker. Faye realizes her mistakes and ID’s Decker, but not before he can escape and toss a powerful explosive at the Redtail, preventing Faye from pursuing.

Spike and VT get along well, bonding over fighting off the bounty hunters and “prairie oysters,” the egg yolk counter-hangover drink. VT says that she only ever knew one other person who drank them, her late husband. Unfortunately, their bonding is cut short when Faye calls in to say she found Decker. Unfortunately, the other bounty hunters vandalized Swordfish, disabling it, forcing both Spike and Faye to hitch a ride with VT. When they get back to the Bebop, Jet grumbles that Spike and Faye wrecked both ships on the same day and expect him to repair them. Earlier, he tried to assuage Ein’s whining about only getting bean sprouts for dinner, first telling him that bean sprouts are healthy before conceding that they are all the crew can afford. This week marks the seventh consecutive week without turning in a bounty head, so it’s a wonder how they can still afford food and parts with which to repair the Bebop and the three smaller ships. I think we are meant to assume that the adventures we don’t see are more successful, but even so, the crew is not doing too well.

Fortunately, they get a second chance at Decker when a trucker puts out a bulletin on a space truck with the image of Saraswati on it; Decker was in such a hurry that he cut off another trucker, nearly causing an accident. VT overhears this and realizes it is Decker, after overhearing Faye telling Spike about him. VT tracks down Decker and calls the Bebop, offering them the opportunity to capture him.

This sets up a great climax that shows us just how brave/crazy Spike can be. Decker flees into a mining asteroid and tries to get rid of his pursuers by releasing explosives to close off the shaft. He succeeds, but also kills himself in the process. Spike, Faye, and VT decide to use another explosive to reopen the shaft, but they have no way of positioning it without sacrificing one of themselves. Spike decides to program part of Swordfish to fly toward the end of the shaft with an explosive in it, but in order to get out alive, he has to jump from his ship to VT’s without a suit. At this point, the rule of cool takes over; it’s certainly awesome to see him risk his life in open space unprotected and use his pistol to propel himself in the right direction. It’s just a tad unbelievable, but the visuals more than make up for it.

We don’t learn much about the character’s pasts here, but the episode does a good job fleshing out the world and updating us on the team dynamic. It also shows us that Spike, Jet, and Faye are different from many other bounty hunters in the world. They may see other humans as price tags, in the words of VT, but they have an honor about them that not all bounty hunters possess, and VT accepts that Spike is in fact a good person.

Up next: Music box music plays as Jet explains that sometimes he does the preview alone. He introduces himself and gives his age – 36 – and says that not everyone thinks he looks 36. But not everything is as it seems. The next episode will embody that idea, and will be a different kind of story, but one worth telling…

Cowboy Bebop Session 6: Sympathy for the Devil

“The blues isn't about feeling better. It's about making other people feel worse, and making a few bucks while you're at it.” So says Bleeding Gums Murphy, Lisa Simpson’s saxophone mentor, and the first part of the quote certainly applies to “Sympathy for the Devil.” The episode revolves around a blues prodigy, who appears to be no older than 10 years old, and who certainly spends most of his time making other people feel worse. But Wen, the blues player, doesn’t solely rely on his music to do this.

After a creepy opening sequence taking place in a laboratory where Spike is being operated on (with lots of focus on his eye), Spike wakes up startled in a blues club where Wen is playing his harmonica for a captivated crowd. He and Jet are there to collect a 3 million wulong bounty on a man known only as “Giraffe.” Jet tells Spike about his love for the blues, but gets sidelined when he has to stall another bounty hunter, who is an old acquaintance. Giraffe leaves the club to pursue Wen when he leaves with a man in a wheelchair, and Spike pursues Giraffe. He tracks the three of them to a high rise, but before he can capture his prey, Giraffe is thrown through the window, and falls onto the nose of the Swordfish. Spike lands the ship and tries to keep Giraffe alive – he can’t collect the bounty if Giraffe is dead. More annoyed than anything, Spike yells at Giraffe to keep quiet so that he doesn’t waste what little strength he has left, but Giraffe insists on telling Spike to “help him” and warns him not to be “fooled by how he looks.” With his dying breath, he gives Spike a ring with a large pink stone.

Back on the Bebop, Faye opens the fridge to get some food, but is dismayed when she finds that it only contains a single can of dog food. Ein begs for it, but she eats it herself. She monologues to Ein, explaining more of her philosophy about how life is a game. To her, life is not just a game, but a rigged game in which the rules apply selectively and may be manipulated by those with power over others. She mocks Ein, telling him that he doesn’t eat if he doesn’t work, but this rule doesn’t apply to women, due to their nature as “delicate and refined.” (She then proceeds to shovel the dog food into her mouth.) When she sees the notice about the bounty on Giraffe, she smirks that she’ll have Spike and Jet capture him for her.

Based on that comment, it’s no surprise that her relationship with Spike and Jet has not improved. She tries to take the ring from Spike, but he angrily tells her that it will pay for food for him and Jet (and maybe Ein), but specifically not her, as she hasn’t been pulling her weight. Here, she passes on explaining the rules of the game to Spike, for he has the bargaining chip and more agency than a small dog. Jet also hands her a bill for all the expenses she has racked up since coming to the Bebop. Why Spike and Jet haven’t kicked her out yet is a bit of a mystery. It isn’t too hard to see a situation in which Faye could be a valuable asset to Spike and Jet; she clearly has skills as a pilot, card player, and gun fighter, and she could act as a distraction or bait for bounty heads. However, why she hasn’t left of her own accord is hinted at when Spike is about to leave for the episode’s climax.

The trio begins looking into Wen and the man in the wheelchair, who turns out to be an old friend of Giraffe’s, and goes by the name “Zebra.” Stories suggest the pair had a falling out when Zebra turned on Giraffe for money. While investigating Zebra and Wen from the Bebop, Faye accepts this story as likely being true, but Jet scoffs that betrayal comes easy only to women, while men live according to “iron codes of honor.” This is a bit strange coming from a man who uses a dirty ex-colleague as a source within the police station. We have seen Jet act pretty honorably throughout the series to date, but he and Spike are pretty much the only honorable men who have received extensive screen time… and Spike used to be a ruthless gangster. Even Jet admits as much when Faye asks him if he truly believes in his statement, and he replies that he is trying to. The comment is probably more of a statement about how Jet feels about women than he does about men; he would rather tell himself a lie about the goodness of men than let himself believe that women are humans capable of mistakes.

Spike meanwhile tracks down Wen and Zebra, and Wen reveals himself to be a creepy little sadist. He speaks very articulately, enunciating every syllable and using no slang words, and uses a cold monotone. He casually shoots at Spike, grazing his arm, and when he talks about the world around him, his voice drips with contempt. When he needs to escape, he pushes Zebra’s wheelchair, with Zebra still in it, down the flight of stairs separating him from Spike.

A flashback reveals that he used to be a happy child who lived on the terraformed Moon of Earth before a hyperspace gate explosion blew apart half of it. Nearly everyone living there died except for Wen, who awoke with a look of pure anger on his face. He has lived for decades in the body of a child, “recruiting” people to serve the role of his parent. If his behavior towards Spike and a cab driver, whom he shoots in cold blood immediately upon entering the taxi, are any indication, he has no qualms about killing people who get in his way. And his definition of “in his way” is disturbingly broad.

Spike brings Zebra’s barely living body back to the Bebop, and through a machine that translates memories into screen images, the Bebop crew learn that the stone will render Wen mortal again. The stone was created by the same gate explosion that made Wen immortal, but the contact between the two anomalies may release enough energy to cause a massive explosion. As Spike leaves to confront Wen, having carved the stone into the point of a rifle round, Faye is clearly upset as she says goodbye to him for what could be the last time. Spike, as usual, is very blasé about the prospect of dying, which only upsets Faye more. Is it possible that the overly cynical Faye, who doesn’t need anyone’s help with anything, has found a reason to stay in the form of another human?

As Spike and Wen meet for their showdown, Spike forces Wen’s cab off the road, and it crashes into a gas station. The resulting explosion creates a beautiful but haunting image of Wen in front of a wall of flames, with his green eyes shining against the red, yellow, and orange behind him. When they fight this time, Wen can’t seem to land a bullet on Spike, but he gets the stone right between Wen’s eyes, causing a transformation similar to the corrupt American at the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: his body immediately ages decades before our eyes, going from a child to a shrunken, gray, skeletal dwarf. As his harmonica falls out of his pocket, Wen is finally put at peace, and changes from a rage-filled immortal to an old man at the end of his life, claiming to understand everything now. With his mortality has come his humanity and appreciation for life. For without death, why would we appreciate life?

Up next: Very loud heavy metal music plays while Spike tries to yell to Jet and Faye. Faye can’t hear anything, and continually asks Spike to repeat himself, while Jet begs Spike to turn the music down, before grudgingly deciding that he’ll try to sit out next episode…

Cowboy Bebop Session 5: Ballad of Fallen Angels

Who is Spike Spiegel? Over four episodes, we’ve gotten almost no information about who he was before he came to the Bebop, aside from a cryptic statement about being killed by a woman in the past and images of him in a firefight with a wide grin on his face. We know that not only is he an extremely competent fighter, but he also enjoys the act. Multiple times, we’ve seen his mood turn from annoyed or blasé to ecstatic when someone throws a punch at him. He is good at improvising in tough situations, and he tends to take indirect routes to his goals. He has well-developed senses and a sharp mind. And we know that for all his efforts to pass himself off as calm and collected, he can quickly lose his cool when taken out of a narrow comfort zone. A cheating blackjack dealer does nothing to remove the grin from his face, but a dog annoys him to no end. Who is this man?

“Ballad of Fallen Angels” begins with members of rival crime syndicates, the Red Dragons and the White Tigers, signing an alliance agreement with their blood. They comment on how things are different from how they were, and that, although they never thought they would be shaking hands with each other, they are both happy to put aside the cycle of endless violence that once dominated their lives. Unfortunately, this alliance isn’t to be, and the White Tigers’ plane explodes minutes after taking off from the Red Dragon headquarters. The Red Dragons’ leader, Mao Yenrai, looks on in horror before his bodyguards are brutally slaughtered. A man with flowing white hair and a pet raven draws a katana and slashes his throat. Mao’s dying words are “If Spike were here, you would never have done this,” and a smile draws across the white-haired man’s face, in a fashion identical to Spike’s in “Asteroid Blues.”

On the Bebop, Jet tries to talk Spike out of going after a 28 million wulong bounty. The target: Mao Yenrai. Jet quickly deduces that Spike knows Mao and other gangsters involved in putting up the bounty, but Spike doesn’t want to talk about his past. How much Jet knows about Spike’s life with the Red Dragons is unclear, but it seems like he knows little more than the fact that Spike was, at some time in his life, a criminal. With Jet being an ex-cop who maintains quid pro quo relationships with his former comrades, having as little knowledge as possible is probably for the best, and Spike isn’t forthcoming with information anyway. Nor is Jet too willing to talk about his own life, as Spike turns around his questions by asking Jet how he lost his arm. Their partnership is based on working together to catch bounty heads, and all that matters is what they bring to the table now. We learn here, and will learn again, that anything that disrupts this dynamic is unwelcome, and the past is extremely disruptive.

After Spike fails to convince Jet to help him with the Mao bounty by playing up the money aspect, Spike leaves to do the job himself, despite knowing he’ll be on his own. Spike pursues a lead by tracking down a woman who works at a convenience store. On his way, he displays more of his sleight of hand skills when he walks into a kid fleeing from the woman after stealing a dirty magazine. When the kid looks up, he sees the magazine in Spike’s hand, barely even realizing it was gone. The woman, Annie, expresses thanks to Spike until she sees to whom she’s talking. Seeing Spike gives her the clichéd “you look like you’ve seen a ghost” look, and she even comments that he’s come back from the dead. The two of them discuss the past, and Annie gets visibly shaken when talking about Mao. She begs Spike not to seek out Vicious, but sighs, knowing that Spike listens to no one when he has already made up his mind.

Faye seeks out Mao as well, thinking that she’ll get an easy payday. She needles Jet for info, then follows up on a lead meant for him after he storms out, still angry about Spike not listening to him. This brings us to one of two absolutely amazing scenes in this episode. Faye gets a tip on Mao and follows up on it at a beautiful opera house. Throughout the series so far, most of the locations we’ve seen have been in decay to some degree. But in this episode, we see places that look absolutely out of place in the Bebop universe. The Red Dragon’s tower was immaculate with a modern design, with lots of stainless steel and large windows, while the opera house is built to resemble an ornate European palace. We see a few interior shots of large chandeliers, lush carpets, and wooden staircases in which nothing happens. The show is merely lettings us drink in the beauty of the location. In addition, as the scene plays, an opera singer performs Ave Maria in an enormous hall. Faye herself is a sight to see in this scene, having put on a stunning evening dress. Unfortunately for her, things take a bad turn when Red Dragon goons take her hostage and force her to sit next to Mao’s corpse. The white-haired man appears and introduces himself, speaking in a raspy monotone. His name is Vicious.

Meanwhile, Jet complains about Faye and Spike doing whatever they want, then displays that he is a pretty competent hacker when he decrypts a file about Mao’s death. (Once again, this will be relevant to my feelings about a yet-to-be-introduced character.) When Spike returns to gather arms and explosives, Jet chastises him for not letting the past be. He tells Spike that his arm is a reminder of why you shouldn’t go rushing into situations without thinking them through. But he still doesn’t explain what exactly happened. Spike claims he has a debt to pay. The pair also discuss Faye. Spike simply refers to her as “the girl” and Jet dismisses her as having had a “lapse in sanity” upon seeing the bounty on Mao’s head, and is sure she is screwing up and getting in trouble. They still do not think very much of Faye and barely tolerate her presence. This scene, coupled with Jet’s interaction with her earlier makes one wonder why they simply haven’t kicked her out yet. We haven’t been led to believe she has anything to offer that they didn’t have before, except maybe repaying her debt to them. But if that’s all, they are at the back of a long line.

As if on cue, Faye calls asking for help, telling them to come to an old cathedral. She’s oddly calm about the whole ordeal, explaining that her life is in danger in a tone of voice that most people would use to ask their friends for a ride home. When Jet tells her to deal with it herself, she just whines that they are supposed to be partners, and this is the kind of thing partners do for each other. It’s not until Jet is about to hang up that she actually gets scared. Faye is certainly a tough woman, who can take most things in stride, but she certainly has limits. Fortunately for her, Spike agrees to come find her. He tells her that rescuing her won’t be his primary objective, but if he can find the time, he’ll help her out.

And so begins the second incredible sequence in the episode: the climax at the cathedral. It begins with Spike walking against a purple-hued city and sky in the background while a song heavily featuring a pipe organ begins. Like with the opera house, the cathedral is very ornate and we are shown numerous still images of the details, including the enormous rose window and statues of saints. The show lets Spike take his time to get to the cathedral, in order to eliminate dialogue and allow us to hear the lyrics of the song playing, which speak of not feeling a thing, not remembering, and wishing that life were a dream.

Eventually Spike arrives, and we are shown numerous long shots of Spike and close-ups of Vicious’ face. Spike is all alone, while Vicious has a small host of lieutenants with him, and has Faye as a hostage. The pair begin a battle of words, each using florid language. Spike refers to being stuck in a dream he can’t wake up from, and taunts his rival that it was he, Spike, that took in Vicious and made him the man he is today. Vicious responds, saying that man is dead and that the Spike we know now must die. To think that Spike was once as vicious as Vicious is disturbing, but it is not far-fetched. When one of Vicious’ goons appears with a gun at Faye’s head, demanding Spike throw away his pistol, Spike shoots the goon, even though he was much more likely to shoot Faye than her captor. Spike is a great shot, but it takes a kind of disconnect from empathy to take such a shot, knowing there is a large chance you’ll end up shooting an innocent.

Killing the mook begins a breathtaking firefight between Spike and Vicious’ men, and then a duel between Spike, with a pistol, and Vicious, with his katana. Spike is extremely nimble, and is able to shake off getting shot as if it were nothing. Spike and Vicious continue to speak about their past through their fighting, and Spike manages to get Vicious to raise his voice and add some emotion. They eventually get to a stalemate in front of the rose window, when they each have the other at gun/swordpoint, but both decide to attack at the exact same time. Spike gets thrown out the window, but throws a grenade back in the church, quickly removing the sick grin from Vicious’ face.

As Spike falls, a children’s choir begins singing, and we are shown close-ups of his eye interspersed with flashbacks of his time in the syndicate. He and Vicious fight back to back, and turn to smile at each other. Images from the prologue appear. We see Vicious in bed with someone, but don’t really see who. The back of a blonde woman’s head appears, then turns to face the camera for a brief moment, only to cut away to another shot of the back of her head, with a gun pointed at it. The song ends, and we hear a music box playing over a POV shot of someone stumbling and seeing a figure in the distance. As the ground starts to come up to meet the camera, we switch to third person and see that it’s Spike. He opens his eyes again to see himself in bandages and the blonde humming, then fades out again.

Back in the present, Spike is covered in bandages again and hears a woman humming. This time it’s Faye, showing a very motherly side to her personality that hasn’t even been hinted at before. She expresses worry for him, then tells him he should thank her. After he killed her captor, she was able to call Jet and get him to help them. Jet was at first reluctant, and angrily told Faye that Spike could go to hell, but he quickly, grudgingly, changed his mind. They might have very different philosophies on life and how to deal with their pasts, but deep down, Jet and Spike have some sparks of friendship. (We also saw Jet tending a bonsai tree… poorly. The man has refined tastes and a gentle soul, but sadly lacks a gentle touch.) Of course, Spike being Spike, he can’t help but kill the moment by pointing out that Faye is singing off-key, causing all her maternal feelings (or maybe even feelings of affection) to evaporate.

This is probably my favorite episode of Bebop. It contains two of my favorite sequences from the series and clues us in to the fact that there is a deeper story going on than just a weekly adventure to catch a new bounty head. (Five weeks without turning anybody in.) This show is very much about the characters. We learn about them principally through their present adventures, watching how they react to situations. But every now and then, the past catches up with them in unexpected ways. “Ballad of Fallen Angels” showed us just the tip of the iceberg in terms of Spike’s past and how Bebop would deal with the characters’ pasts. But what a tip it was.

Up next: Spike and Jet discuss the state of the world, while harmonica music plays. Spike complains that the world has lost its integrity, and begins speaking about the world the way a conspiracy theorist would. Jet is bewildered by Spike’s view, and tries to convince him that things aren’t so bad…

Cowboy Bebop Session 4: Gateway Shuffle

It seems fitting that, in an episode featuring eco-terrorists as the bounty-heads-of-the-week, “Gateway Shuffle” begins with a shot of Faye in her ship, the Redtail, out of gas, and surrounded by floating litter. When she tries to hail a passing ship and ask for help with her plight, she gets ignored, left to orbit Jupiter alone. But when all seems lost, she sees a ship float by, nearly destroyed.

“Gateway Shuffle” provides us a window into the social workings of the Bebop universe, which are not too far off from how things work in our world. Special interests groups sometimes use ads to sway public opinion or lobby the government to pass laws that advance their agendas. People use leverage over others to get what they want. And cultures develop around local necessities. I should mention that one of the “special interest groups” in this episode was a terrorist organization, a fact the government is none too fond of, but if someone has enough leverage over you, you may find yourself compromising a bit.

After the brief Faye prologue, the episode cuts to Spike and Jet on the hunt, ready to bag a fugitive at a restaurant orbiting Ganymede, one of Jupiter’s moons. As they confirm they’ve found their target, Jet explains the origins of a “delicacy” known as the Ganymede Sea Rat. When humans were colonizing the moons and planets of this solar system, conditions were tough, and people had to resort to eating whatever they could find. The founders of Ganymede, for example, were forced to eat rodent that came to be known as the sea rat. When things stabilized, people stopped eating it out of necessity, so the groups who harvested the sea rat funded an ad campaign proclaiming it to be a fancy delicacy, and now people eat it because it’s “in.” Spike scoffs and asks whether it’s good, and Jet responds that it’s terrible. But people eat it anyway, and pay a high price to do so. Get enough of the “right” people to do something, and others will follow suit, and pay for the “privilege” of doing so. Of course, after Spike proclaims that he won’t be suckered into the sea rat farce, he proceeds to order the most expensive thing on the menu: lobster. (Don’t get me wrong, lobster tastes great, but it wouldn’t surprise me if a lot of marketing was used to get people interested in something that looks like an underwater insect.)

Before Spike and Jet can nab their man, a group calling themselves the Space Warriors step in and riddle him with holes for having the gall to order a sea rat. The group takes out the target and his companions as their leader sings an aria and twirls in ecstasy. The disconnect between the statements and actions of the Space Warriors would be hilarious if they were not so violent: They refer to themselves as a peaceful organization serving as the voice and defenders of nature, but their tactics are, according to Jet, more violent than some crime syndicates. And when they are at their most violent, their leader sings and twirls with a look of pure, horrific glee on her face. The organization is a thinly veiled stand-in for PETA, which has had its share of overreactions, both violent and non-violent.

Jet remembers that the leader, “Twinkle” Maria Murdoch, known to her men as “Mother,” has a 25 million wulong bounty on her head, so they move in to take her. Spike gets her at gunpoint and angrily tells her that she made him lose out on a reward, only to immediately shift to a cheerful tone when he tells her that she is worth so much more. Murdoch’s men are almost childish in their response, whining about Spike and Jet taking their “mother” away and almost tearfully demanding her release. Murdoch is much more pragmatic and is clearly the brains of the operation. She states, without a hint of emotion, that it is pointless for the men to resist. She also says that one of her soldiers who disappointed her will be receiving his “punishment” later, speaking as if she were scolding a misbehaving child. In addition to riffing on PETA, the show seems to be likening the group to a cult, putting a charismatic leader at the center of a group surrounded by people who can barely function without her. While Murdoch is imprisoned on the Bebop, the men’s priority is getting her back. They threaten the Ganymede government with a “plan” they will carry out if Murdoch isn’t returned, but all the evidence suggests that this plan was in place long before Murdoch was nabbed.

The beaten up ship Faye found belonged to a mole in the group who smuggled out an ampule of a virus that the Space Warriors engineered to only affect humans, and is instrumental to the aforementioned plan. While the mole escaped with a sample, the group still has plenty left. A Ganymede politician tries to reason with them, saying that he’s already met their demands of changing legislation about sea rat harvesting, but their new demand for Murdoch’s return is non-negotiable.

While she’s on the Bebop, Murdoch acts very calm, knowing that her soldiers will use this leverage to get the bounty taken off her head. Her demeanor changes when the Bebop comes across Faye and brings her aboard, once again making her a prisoner, because she notices that Faye has brought the ampule aboard. Spike does everything he can think of to find out what’s inside the ampule, even shooting it. Murdoch is visibly distressed by this, but she never tells Spike to stop. Meanwhile, the viewer is introduced to Bob, an old I.S.S.P. colleague of Jet’s and one of the Bebop crew’s most important sources. He tells Jet, and the audience, about the virus, and his interaction with Jet tells us about their relationship. Turns out Bob had a problem with evidence theft, taking valuable property seized from criminals. Jet uses this to encourage him to continue giving classified information. Jet, like the Space Warriors, isn’t above using a little blackmail to get what he wants. However, it should be stated that Jet’s blackmail doesn’t involve putting an entire moon’s population at risk.

Unfortunately, Bob informs Jet that Ganymede has withdrawn the bounty on Murdoch, and even though Spike and Jet are holding the leader of a notorious terrorist group, the government has caved to the demands of the Space Warriors. Seemingly without any more leverage, the crew lets Murdoch go. As she leaves, her smugness returns and she seems to float when she walks. The show is almost painting her as inhuman, which might suggest how she can so easily threaten so many and justify her actions so easily. She trumpets the importance of nature and animal rights, but conveniently forgets that humans are part of nature and are, technically, “animals” with rights of their own.

Things aren’t over, though. The Space Warriors go ahead with their plan when they learn that the new legislation limits sea rat harvesting, rather than prohibits it. The cops are sent in to stop them, but the ship they are chasing proves to be a decoy. (Also, is it just me, or does one cop’s line reading of “Is that all they were planning?” sound like something taken from the dialogue of Star Fox 64?) Bob calls back and desperately asks for the Bebop’s help in stopping the terrorists.

The climax scene, which gives the episode its title, takes place in the hyperspace gate system. As Spike prepares to take the Swordfish through a gate to put a stop to the plan, the music swells and the space in the gate swirls into yellow lines. This is our first extended glimpse of the system that makes interplanetary travel practical. Like other elements of the show, the characters take for granted the existence of faster-than-light travel, and we learn about it piecemeal throughout the series. At the beginning of the episode, Jet made the comment about the gate stabilization ending the food shortage. At the end, we see the Ganymede government decide to stop the terrorists by closing the exit gate, which has startling consequences for the objects caught inside. So not only will the government cave to terrorist demands when the terrorists have the upper hand, it also isn’t above trapping innocent people inside if it serves “the greater good.”

The already exciting climax, involving Spike, an escaped Faye, and the Space Warriors, gets an extra shot of adrenaline as they all try to make it out in time. One last bit of information comes after Spike and Faye make it out: Faye expresses surprise and horror at the effects of being stuck in hyperspace, and Jet delivers a seemingly “as you know” (or “as you should know”) explanation. Supposedly, anyone with a high school education should be familiar with gate physics. Maybe Faye wasn’t there the day they taught that.

The episode ends with a cheerful Faye telling the depressed Spike and Jet that the three of them will get the reward next time. (Four weeks without turning in a bounty head.) Spike and Jet are obviously a little reticent about having Faye join them. This is the woman who stole 30 million wulongs from them then lost it all gambling. A woman who used the fact that Spike couldn’t stop the Space Warriors on his own as a bargaining chip to secure more than half of the bounty for herself. Jet is upset, but would rather not fight her on it, while Spike is clearly uncomfortable with the thought of sharing the ship with Faye. This makes sense based on what she’s done to them already, but his discomfort seems to be based on something more. He complains that she’s “taking a shower! In OUR shower!” So how will Faye counter his argument to leave? By shooting at him when he tries to kick her out of the shower. Girl knows how to assert herself.

Up next: Spike makes cryptic narration over images both serene and violent. We see an opera and Faye in an evening dress, before the image transitions to an intense shootout featuring Spike in a cathedral. A slow music box melody plays, as Spike refers to waking from a dream. Then he gets the name of the episode wrong, calling it “Ballad for Fallen Angels,” rather than “Ballad of Fallen Angels.”

Cowboy Bebop Session 3: Honky Tonk Women

For a man with a robotic arm who lives in a rundown fishing ship converted to fly through space, going from planet to decaying planet hunting down the dregs of society, Jet can be a pretty optimistic guy. When he and Spike go to a casino, he talks about a dream he had telling him that he would have a big payday soon. Later, when things are going their way, he tries to convince Spike that following your dreams will always lead good things. In between, Jet is content to enjoy a day off gambling and watch a fight in progress (until he learns Spike is a participant).

Spike may not exactly share Jet’s optimism, chuckling at Jet’s faith in his dream, but he is himself an easygoing guy (usually). A fight is an opportunity to have fun, and a day at the casino affords him a chance to work on his observation skills. Even though his “sharp eyes” allow him to take the casino for all it’s worth until he gets caught, he lets the pretty blackjack dealer cheat him out of his whole stack of chips, save one. But when the dealer demands that Spike give her that last chip, things go to hell, and the Bebop crew become entangled with the woman who will become their ship’s resident cynic.

Faye Valentine. As stated in the review for “Stray Dog Strut,” Faye gives the “On the next” narration, and introduces herself as much as she does this episode. Life is a game to her, but it’s a game where nearly anything goes, and no one should be trusted but yourself. The first rule of combat is to “shoot them before they shoot you,” and she carries an automatic rifle with her to make sure she heeds this rule. But when she fails to take out some assailants and is taken to see the owner of the casino that serves as the episode’s setting, she doesn’t bat an eye when the owner feels her up. She’s an attractive woman; putting up with perverts is part of the game.

“Honky Tonk Women” opens with an extended introduction to Faye, showing us most of her body before we ever see her face. She allows a shopkeeper to flirt with her, knowing that she is about to be attacked by the casino owner’s mooks. She’s dressed in a top that covers only enough to keep her “decent” – and barely succeeds at that – tiny shorts, and stockings. So the exact location from which she pulls her automatic rifle to fire at her assailants is a mystery to me.

So what was Faye doing as a dealer in the casino? She apparently owes a substantial debt to Gordon, the owner, and he is willing to forgive it if she acts as dealer and procures a specific poker chip. He knows that she is a skilled enough gambler to pull this off, despite the unspoken idea that she probably can’t be that good, what with all her debts and such. Gordon even alludes to the possibility of her being a legendary poker player, known for being a born winner who never cheated. This doesn’t sound much like someone in so much debt she needs to resort to a deal with a devil to get out of it. Especially because the legend is supposedly 200 years old.

So far this episode, there hasn’t been a bounty of the week. That changes when Spike and Jet inadvertently get their hands on the desired poker chip and escape from the casino with Faye. While they have her on the Bebop, Gordon decides the best way to get his chip back is to put a bounty on Faye. Suddenly, it looks like Jet’s dream was true, because all he and Spike have to do to get a big payday is to take Faye to the police. This could be the first time we see them actually collect a bounty.

Before they can turn her in, they receive a better offer from Gordon: turn Faye and the chip over to him, and he’ll reward them handsomely. This wasn’t his idea, though. Jet shows us a little bit more about himself, as he analyzes the poker chip at the center of the episode’s plot. He discovers that the chip houses microchip with the key to an advanced code breaker program. It turns out that Jet is pretty good with machines (which will become relevant to my feelings toward a yet-to-be-introduced character) and that he worked for the Intra Solar System Police, or I.S.S.P. for short, in its special forces division.

However, his police days are clearly behind him, and he offers to sell the program back to (the fairly obviously evil) Gordon rather than turn it over to the police. Despite having some fairly optimistic tendencies, Jet is clearly motivated by self-interest rather than a sense of justice or law and order. What separates him from Faye – and Gordon – is that he is straight-forward about these aspects, and believes that life is governed by some rules, one of which is that a deal is a deal. Unfortunately for Jet and Spike, Gordon doesn’t agree, and violence ensues when Gordon instructs his henchman to eliminate Spike after he turns over the chip. Fortunately, said henchman doesn’t have much intelligence, because he shoots at Spike right as a large rotating blade obscures his line of sight, giving Spike plenty of time to dodge and counterattack.

At the same time, Faye escapes from the Bebop, causing damage to the hangar as she leaves. Who is this woman that the episode spent so much time on? She’s not like previous bounty-heads-of-the-week; she survives with her freedom (three weeks without a payday for our crew), and for as much as we learned about her personality, we have no idea who she is. Asimov was a gangster and drug dealer, and Hakim was a serial pet thief. We didn’t need to know anything else about them. But Faye? Why does she have all these debts? Is she somehow related to Poker Alice, the legend of old? Or is she a Roma, as she explains to Spike and Jet? Her story is as much a mystery as those of our leads, and it wouldn’t be too big of a leap for a first-time viewer to assume that she’ll show up again. (Also, close watchers will recognize her from the opening credits.)

Before I conclude this review, I have a quick note about music. My music knowledge is extremely limited, and writing about the music has been extremely challenging for me. Therefore, despite music being a big part of this show, I will only comment on it when it is either plot relevant or extremely noticeable. Finally, on the foreshadowing front, Spike walks past a movie screen in the casino playing a silent film. As he looks at the screen, an interesting title card appears.

Up next: Jet drops some of his optimism as he complains about the world’s problems. When Spike points out that the Bebop has more than enough problems for the pair to worry about, Jet points out that the environment is in trouble, but even more pressing is a group of eco-terrorists.