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.”
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