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.
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