There’s been a string of thefts on the astrogates across the system. The culprits are easily apprehended, but turns out, they’re little more than ordinary thugs, associated only by little chess piece. There’s another mastermind at work here, someone literally moving pieces around a board and it’s up to our Bebop crew to figure everything out. Partly out of curiosity, partly because they want to get paid.
As always, spoilers for this session, “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and potentially for the previous sessions as well.
1. It’s Complicated to Be an Outlaw Nowadays
Cowboy Bebop has never glamorized the outlaw lifestyle. Think about how many scenes we’ve seen in this series so far where Spike, Jet, Faye, Ed, and Ein are hanging around the Bebop, drifting through space and wondering when they’re going to get their next meal. So, the idea of a downloadable manual introduced in “Bohemian Rhapsody” to help low-level crooks get into the biz strikes me as particularly funny. Despite all the evidence otherwise, regardless of the turmoil and uncertainty the Bebop crew faces, there’s still a romanticization of this life.
Even with a guide, none of these would-be crooks get anywhere. In fact, they just become pawns in a larger scheme. After their robberies, Jet tells us they’ve all been captured and none of them received a single woolong.
2. Small Competition Between Rivalries can be Healthy
Watching this again, I’m struck by how human this show is. Sure, we have this set of characters who are essentially all loners, but, as I’ve mentioned before, they’re starting to come together and trust each other. Yeah, all right, they might not be coming together for the most honorable goals, but the show frequently points out how much better they function and accomplish together.
Not just them, but even the guy moving all the pieces. Without these strangers helping him out, he’d never have been able to expose the astrogate corporation’s wrongdoings. And without the Bebop crew, he never would have found security (or entertainment) in the end.
Also, Watanabe and crew realize how much more interesting group dynamics are. Consider the scene where Ed figures out the chess piece and connects to the late-’90s version of the internet. I sort of love the shot where the whole crew hovers around her, clearly not understanding this e-chess thing.
3. It’s as if They Knew What was Going On but Didn’t Want to Talk About It
For most of the previous sessions, Cowboy Bebop has been giving us crime syndicates and petty crooks. For “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Watanabe and crew turn their attention to the biggest crooks of all: corporations. As the Bebop crew go deeper and deeper into their investigation, they discover this attack on the gates was orchestrated in part to help reveal elements and factors the gate companies swept under the rug. In their desperate attempt to launch their product and rake in unfathomable amounts of cash, they purposefully ignored some safety precautions. This, of course, led the the astrogate over Earth exploding and nearly killing the planet.
Even when all this comes to light, when the Bebop crew is ready to bring attention toward it, the company makes all these deals to make the problem go away. We’re given a temporary solution, but there’s no promise there won’t be other problems.
4. The Old Duffer’s Out of Touch
What’s striking about this session is there isn’t a lot of action going on. While Cowboy Bebop is patient, generally ending on one big set piece, this one ends with a couple explosions as a rival bounty hunter loses his mind. He’s quickly dispatched as Spike and Faye try to figure out what to do next. The mystery is undercut by reality, leaving us with pretty much the same expression as Spike and Faye.
5. Maybe This Whole Thing with the Astrogate is Just a Big Game
The big reveal of the session is that the guy responsible for the astrogate attacks is a senile kook who wrote a script into the data ages ago. The Bebop crew converge on him and . . . it turns out all he wants to do now is play chess.
Cowboy Bebop has always loved its cosmic jokes and there probably wasn’t a better way for “Bohemian Rhapsody” to end. The solar system continues moving and our crew loses another bounty.
That’s all space cowboys! Stick around next week as we finally dive into Faye’s past with “My Funny Valentine.”
