Warning: There are no honky tonks in this episode. Honky Tonk fans will not be dissapointed long - there is one in the episode 6.
So, this series now officially has no schedule. Being sick for a week made me realize that was gonna happen sooner rather than later. Deal with it.
For the first few episodes of Bebop, it's a much more ordinary show than the legendary series would become. I should say that it didn't seem that way at the time. Each episode seemed to be a revelation in new and different ways. But at first, every episode would have a bounty and Spike would be our unambiguous lead. This is the first episode to chafe at that structure. In addition, it is the first episode not to be hand unit directed/storyboarded by Watanabe himself - which means we're gonna finally see some off-model fun!
I wonder if this character will be important
Okay, so it's no spoiler to say today's bounty of the week is going to join the crew. She's in the damn opening credits! But it is interesting to note a few things about her intro. First off, we re-establish that Mars is the Chinese planet, as a mysterious femme fatale strolls into a traditional Chinese medicine curio. This character is Faye Valentine, today's bounty. Faye is introduced in a series of cuts that shows her body but not her face. The first time we see her face, she's turning around to fire a Heckler & Koch straight at where we were as the camera. Consider this scene from a storytelling/gaze point of view. Who are we? We aren't the Chinese medicine man, as we never have a shot from his perspective (behind the counter). We are always looking at him looking at Faye. We aren't the gangsters, as again we see them being shot at. The answer is that this scene is from Faye's perspective, just as in the last episode the opening was from Abdul Hakim's perspective. We saw in several scene's that Hakim's plans were crashing around him. We're gonna see a lot more of Faye's perspective than Hakim, and she is a much tougher nut to crack.
In the future, we will forget about overpenetration
Okay, after Faye is captured by gangsters, we meet the actual villain of the week, Gordon. Gordon is a phenomenally wealthy casino magnate/gangster/creep and he's got big plans...
Gordon's spaceship has a golden G on it. Like Trump's Ts.
Anyway, Faye is taken to Gordon's spaceship who has a cryptically threatening conversation with her. He calls her 'Poker Alice', after an Elizabeth Taylor movie (you aren't missing anything). Faye dismisses the insinuation, if Poker Alice were real she'd be more than 200 years old. First time viewers will fall for Faye's poker face - they don't know what Gordon does after all. Gordon reminds Fay of her reputation and debts stretching from Mars to Tijuana. Finally, Gordon threatens to take her to the police for her debts if she doesn't cooperate and promises to pay off her debts if she does. He makes these big promises while he gets grabby, and he's a cruel, greedy casino magnate/gangster, so maybe we have reasons to doubt his sincerity.
"Excuse me, but I'm still using that buttock."
Gordon's casino is called the Spiders From Mars, which makes more sense if you don't speak English. Spike and Jet are going to Spiders From Mars casino because Jet had a dream about Charlie Parker. Charlie said to Jet "Only hands can wash hands. If you want to receive you have to give.". Jet and Spike seem to deliberately ignore any idea that Bird thinks they should be more charitable, though I doubt charity toward Gordon or Faye would be a good idea, honestly. Maybe Parker was thinking of Ein.
Gordon is too rich to spell check the elevators.
This episode again establishes that Spike is a master of sleight of hand (or in this case, sleight of tongue) and a troll when bored. Jet doesn't let Spike gamble because ... I think a wise man once said "Spike is a master of slight of hand and a troll when bored.". So Spike wanders around the casino in hopes of finding a plot.
Odd, Jet doesn't seem the one-armed bandit type...
Are you aware that Cowboy Bebop is an amazing show? The sequence that follows is an amazingly packed smorgasbord of unique character designs and detailed backgrounds. This casino is amazingly well thought out, to the point that the slots have fully written instructions. Further, it's packed to the gills with unique characters designed to be from all over the world. It is really obvious that Spiders From Mars is a very successful casino. There are more detailed background characters in this scene than there are characters in most shows. My favorite is the German looking woman with the big nose, but pausing at any random scene here you will find fully realized characters all around you. It's amazing, but what's more astonishing is that this show keeps this up through the whole series. It's this kind of wordless storytelling, the true "show" in "show, don't tell", that keeps us coming back year after year.
In the future, we will use analog displays. Refresh rate for the win!
Okay, I've been playing good cop so far, but now I'm gonna come out and say it. Two major elements of the plot of today's episode are really weak. The plot at this point frankly hinges very heavily on Gordon just not providing a clear picture of the person who Faye is to collect this item from. There really should have been a reason Faye made this mistake beyond "Oops", but unfortunately that would have taken up precious run time. The episode is well-written enough that you might not notice this out of sheer momentum, and the mistaken identity thing doesn't last for more than a scene, but these weak spots make this episode not the series's strongest teleplay.
Most of the off-model is minor stuff like this, but there is one instance at the end of the episode that's funny
Anyway, based on the scrambled image, Faye assumes Spike is going to hand her the episode's MacGuffin. Spike, obviously, doesn't/can't play along, so he's confused when Faye confronts him. This is strange enough, but when casino security comes in, they clearly have no idea who they're messing with. Needless to say, Spike wipes the floor with the goons and all parties decide it is time to get out of dodge. Spike and Jet run right, Faye runs left. This visual language sets up the twist that
Surprise! Spike actually planned to use Faye's escape to get out clean!
Also, Casino Spiders From Mars has a big spider on it. That's pretty cool.
So, the bad guys are really mad about this deal going south, going as far to beat and murder their courier. And somehow, I don't know how, in the negative space of offscreen time, Spike and Jet managed to talk Faye into taking them to their ship, subdue her and handcuff her to the toilet. This is the other major plot point that the show just tries to slip past you. I really don't know how Spike and Jet managed to do this. Faye may not be the physical powerhouse that Spike is, but she isn't exactly a cream puff. Again, the show relies on the emotional momentum that you believe that the characters will fall into the right place, and because Bebop is so well written in general, the strategy mostly works. I've literally never seen anyone else point this out even in critical reviews. I don't want to be too hard on the episode, which is a lot of fun. These aren't plot holes or contradictions. Obviously a 30 minute with commercials show can't be expected to show every single hoofbeat from every single angle. These are just weak points in the episode's narrative that it would be dishonest to ignore.
In Futurama, Zapp Brannigan uses the laundry room as impromptu brig. Spike & Jet use the toilet. For your next assignment, write about the strengths and weaknesses of each choice.
Faye obviously wants to be let out of the bathroom and is happy to blather anything to see what gets a reaction from Spike & Jet. She spills the beans about the chip being important. Not being born yesterday, they feed her nothing. At one point, Faye even claims to be Roma, and lets out a freedom howl and Ein joins in because that's what dogs do. It's such a real dog moment. Faye's ancestry claims are somewhat contradicted by the slightly more reliable Big Shot, which lists her date and location of birth as unknown. Finding out she has a bounty (placed by Gordon himself) relaxes the crew. Jet recalls his dream "Follow your dreams and you'll find your dream girl, Spike.". Like much of Bebop, this sentence is loaded with many layers of irony.
I will point out every time the Universal Analyzer is used, which is a lot.
Her other claim about the chip proves more reliable, when Jet pulls out the old Universal Analyzer to do the science.
"It's a chip!" he says.
"We know it's a chip." says Spike.
It's little moments like this and Ein's howl that bring humanity to the series. A baby can be loud all the time, it's dynamics that matter. Good writing is similar. Faye manages to get a communique to Gordon. She's slippery. Gordon tracks down the Bebop and crashes into it, which causes Faye to bump her head. This will become a running gag.
It's almost like she's not familiar with spaceships or something... naaaaah
Jet negotiates a transfer of the chip back to Gordon. Obviously Gordon tries to betray them immediately. The space scenes in Bebop are always great. They convey weightlessness with real grace and use good direction to keep the general 3Dness of space in mind. I don't think I'm giving away much when I say Faye manages to slip her cuffs and escape on her own, or that Spike and Jet don't get the millions they negotiated for.
In my notes, I call this Spike's "Ted Danson Face". I loved Becker.
In the final account, Spike have nothing but the poker chip from earlier and they decide to gamble it away. A fitting in to a good episode.
And this is a genuinely good episode, despite it's flaws. Sure, it might have a bit of a complex plot for its run time, but not so much so that it rips itself to shreds or can't find time to breathe. Faye Valentine is our first bounty to not be tragic (Katerina) or desperate (Asimov and Abdul Hakim). Whereas Asimov and Abdul Hakim couldn't think of a way out of a situation not involving violence, Faye has an entire arsenal of tricks up her sleeve. Whereas Katerina had to rely on others to make her dreams come true, Faye is self-reliant and seems to have no dreams. Though devilishly clever, she often found herself in situations she couldn't bluff her way out of. Yeah, she has the luck of a Bebop crew member alright. As we will see, the many invisible hints and innuendos in this episode will pay off as we see Ms Valentine and the rest of the Bebop crew more often.
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