Alright, before anything else, let me acknowledge the recent news: Cowboy Bebop has not been renewed for a second season. Whether you think that’s good or bad news is up to you, although personally I feel that a second season would have done the show some good to really fix the weak spots of this season and do more with what worked. It definitely has its flaws, but it would have been nice to get them fixed instead of throwing out everything.
The show also had an uphill battle, with fans of the anime ready to complain about any change or inaccuracy (see: Faye’s outfit) and Netflix’s less than stellar track record with live action anime adaptations. But such is the nature of the business.
Anyways, that’s not what you’re here for, so let’s focus on this episode!
1. Jet’s Backstory
This episode is primarily focused on Jet, which is great. We’ve already seen plenty with Spike and his backstory (maybe even too much) and while Jet’s backstory hasn’t exactly been kept secret, we learn more about it now. We see how he was set up, betrayed, and framed as a crooked cop, including the loss of his arm.
We’ve all heard this story before. Good cop on the force gets set up by a crooked cop. But it does help build on what we know of his character, and creates the plot for this episode as he teams up with his old partner to chase down the escaped criminal who cost him everything. So hey, character work is usually a good thing.
2. Spike and Faye on the Bebop
On the other hand, we have the other side of this episode. While Jet is off chasing down his backstory-relevant bounty, Spike and Faye are tasked with working together to bring in another one. Considering an entire ship full of convicts escaped, there’s no shortage of choices… so they spend the entire episode arguing over who to hunt down.
This requires a lot of padding. Like, a lot. They start off by arguing over the high risk, high reward or the safer but cheaper bounties, but the longer they wait, the more get snatched up. Whenever they do decide on one, the bounty gets claimed or called off. And apparently Faye knows every variation of “rock, paper, scissors” except the actual “rock, paper, scissors.”
Then they get into an argument over their respective bounty hunting experience, including sharing scars and comparing their biggest hauls. Now, I did enjoy the flashback where we see Faye bring in a big bounty by using the tango to get close and disarm him – that’s the kind of clever Faye thinking I like to see. And the way she danced with Ein to illustrate between flashback clips was enjoyable too.
So in the end, those scenes served their purpose of getting the two to respect each other more and keep them out of the way while Jet could focus on his plot. But still, it was just getting frustrating seeing them continue to waste time when they could have at least picked up a single bounty. Did they forget that they’re broke?
3. A Little Less Vicious, Please
And speaking of frustrating parts of the series: more Vicious and Julia. Yes, Vicious continues to slowly set up his plan to overthrow the Syndicate’s Elders, as he goes into a meeting with Mao. And she makes a fool of him.
Also, there’s a flashback to Santiago, another high-ranking member of the Syndicate, talking about eating his enemy’s testicles. Now that was unnecessary.
Even though it’s incredibly easy for her to wind Vicious up and make him loose his cool, Mao still says she’ll agree on the condition that Julia sings for her. Apparently that’s enough of a blow to his pride to make Vicious call the whole thing off, which continues to not reflect well on him. But Julia sings anyways, so the coup is still on for now.
And I really, really don’t care how it goes. As stated before, the subplot with Vicious continues to be the weakest part of the series, and the more we see of him, the less impressive he becomes.
Continued belowOh, and Vicious’ reaction to being taunted about Fearless being better than him is what tips Julia off to Spike/Fearless still being alive. So that’s going to affect things moving forward.
4. Obvious Betrayal
Okay, back to Jet’s story. So he’s teamed up with his old partner, Fad, and they chase down leads to catch Udai. But between some suspicious missteps, Udai remains ahead of them. Then, in the most predictable twist of the episode, Fad was the dirty cop all along.
The other cops that Jet suspected, Chalmers and Duero? They were building a case against Fad, even though Jet spent years thinking Chalmers set him up and stole his life along with his wife. (C’mon, space travel and data dogs I can accept, but a police force only having one dirty cop that the rest were trying to bring down? Now that stretches my suspension of disbelief a bit too much, especially after we saw how the cops would rather shoot a perp than let a bounty hunter bring them in just two episodes ago.)
But Jet still gets closure to his story in the most tragic of ways. He got revenge he never wanted against someone he didn’t think it should have been against, and as Chalmers pointed out, in doing so “killed the only man who could clear his name.” It’s particularly poignant because Jet said a few episodes earlier that, had he the choice, he wouldn’t have killed the man who betrayed him (though he would break his face). Yet that’s still what he ended up doing. It’s an unsatisfying vengeance that left him emptier than before.
So even though it was incredibly predictable, it still works well for Jet’s own ongoing storyline and ties up some backstory beats nicely.
5. Musical Motif
Once again, the music in Cowboy Bebop remains iconic, and this episode puts a focus on it.
We see Jet and Fad discussing jazz multiple times: first in the flashback, where Fad doesn’t get it and Jet’s trying to explain what makes its improvised nature so compelling. Then when they reunite, and Fad now has an appreciation for the genre, although they disagree on which of the performers in the group they’re listening to is the best. Finally, after Jet has to shoot his old partner, he gets the last word in on their debate.
It also comes up while Jet is on the Bebop, talking about jazz and bebop music to Faye. She’s less than interested, but it helps demonstrate that Jet is trying to build a similar sense of camaraderie with her (and presumably he’s already had this conversation with Spike). It’s a nice touch that adds to Jet’s personality and makes him more endearing to us as viewers, when we see his passion for an art he enjoys.
Faye’s tango flashback counts as well, even if it was more about the dance than the music. But once more, it illustrates the power of music.
Finally, we get the opposite side: Mao using music as a symbol of power when she has Julia sing for her in exchange for agreeing to help Vicious. It’s less poignant, since it’s mostly to humiliate Vicious (again, it shouldn’t be such a big deal, but it is because he treated it as such), but it still continues on with the use of music throughout the series.
And let’s face it, Cowboy Bebop just wouldn’t be Cowboy Bebop without its soundtrack.
So, we have another episode with more than a few ups and downs. We get some great character moments, some frustrating ones, and some that would have been best left on the cutting room floor. That’s been pretty par for the course so far, so let’s keep going and see how things change. See you, space cowboy.
