Faye narrates the preview for the third episode. Unlike the preview for “Stray Dog Strut,” this one takes on a more poetic and contemplative tone.
Session #3: Honky Tonk Women
Original Airdate: November 7, 1998
Written by: Ryota Yamaguchi
Title Card Song: “Spy” – “Spy” was one of the eight tracks included on Cowboy Bebop Vitaminless, the first mini-album released by Yoko Kanno and The Seatbelts.
This episode takes its title from the 1969 The Rolling Stones song. After the credits roll, we’re introduced to then-nameless Faye as she saunters into a herbal medicine shop, flirts with the owner for a cigar and then tries to take out the thugs pursuing her only to wreck the shop and get herself captured. I appreciate that this sequence begins by showing us the dragon gate from last episode and the red surface of Mars. Bebop uses some pretty quickly glossed over queues to keep us oriented.
Gordon, the chief villain of this episode, seems to believe that Faye is Poker Alice. Poker Alice was a real life cigar-chomping, gun-totting Wild West legend. The real Poker Alice was a professional gambler, liked by saloon owners for having a strict code of personal conduct, including refusing to play on Sundays. At various times, Poker Alice was a madam, bootlegger and saloon owner herself. Faye’s comment that Poker Alice would be over 200-years-old is a nice bit of foreshadowing for Faye’s backstory.
There may be a bit more to the Poker Alice and Queen of Hearts nicknames than just the gambling references. You could argue that Faye herself plays both Wonderland characters at various points in her story.
Gordon says that the legend of Poker Alice is pretty prominent in the world of Bebop, and his version of the legend is that she never lost and never cheated. When Gordon fondles Faye’s leg, he reveals a playing card hidden up her shorts, revealing he knows she’s a cheater.
I love the design of the space station that houses the casino. We’ve seen a model of it and of Gordon’s personal ship in his office. The floor numbers on the elevator that Spike and Jet start the episode in indicate that there are over 110 floors, but careful transition shots show us that one of the habitat rings is designed like a city street, complete with high rise buildings. There’s even a train that travels along the external surface of the ring.
Jet says he dreamed that Charlie Parker, a famous jazz musician, spoke to him and that he needs to go gamble. Jet says that Charlie Parker told him “only hands can wash hands” and “if you want to receive, you have to give.” Spike doubts that Parker would quote Goethe, and I checked, yes those really are Goethe references.
The casino is called Spiders from Mars, a reference to David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust character. There are a few spider logos hidden around. The name could be to clue us in that Jet and Spike are walking into a spider’s web. The flashy lights and advertisements and the numerous security efforts shown in the intro montage scream “trap” to me.
Spike tells Jet to be careful because his eyes are too sharp for this place. There’s been quite a bit of focus on Spike’s eyes already, and this is a nice bit of foreshadowing.
Spike meets the three old men, and I believe this is the first time a member of the Bebop crew directly interacts with them. Spike also walks through a cinema showing an old silent samurai movie. As Spike turns to the screen, the dialogue pops up saying something to the effect of “only a samurai could kill him.” This is another nice bit of foreshadowing.
Usually, I’d gloss over the mistaken identity and the accidental chip switch. These aren’t new plot devices, but in an episode that’s already stacked with art and history references, this feels like a deliberate homage to Shakespeare’s comedies.
Before exiting the elevator, Jet points out that Spike is smoking when there is a no smoking sign. This isn’t unusual for the duo, but Spike swallows the cigarette and spits it out into a trashcan later. For an odd but not outrageous ability, this is awfully good plot work. Later Spike swallows the chip at the center of the episode’s story and spits it back out when safely on the Bebop.
If, like me, you’re an aspiring writer of fiction, this is an important trick to learn. Spike’s ability to swallow and spit out objects isn’t exactly a super power, but if it was only introduced when it was needed, it would fall into the territory of Deus ex Machina. Granted, I doubt audiences would be outraged or confused by such a simple act, but it’s still a handy illustration of the need to properly set up events that will shape your story.
Between her bracelet that serves as a remote control for her ship, and her video-chat lipstick device, it seems like every trinket Faye has is a Bond device. Her chat with Gordon is the first time we here the Bebop referred to as a fishing ship, explaining its ability to land on water. I can’t help wondering why a fishing ship would need to travel from one planet to the next.
In his negotiations with Gordon, Jet reveals that he used to be part of the interplanetary police force. Jet refers to that time as if it were a past life, and I think that’s pretty apt for the three adult bounty hunters.
The chip is essential to using a decryption program that is essentially a digital skeleton key. There is something deeply ironic about the owner of a casino, usually the heist movie’s answer to a dragon sitting atop a mountain of gold, seeking the ultimate thief’s tool. Also, if we weren’t sure that Gordon was a bad guy, he makes sure to telegraph it by setting up his flight deck like the Emperor’s throne room in Return of the Jedi except with more colors than black and gray.
Gordon’s betrayal in the hand-off scene is inevitable, but what’s really on display is Spike’s perception. He knows the betrayal is coming, and he controls the countdown so that the moving portion of the ship is blocking him when the goon starts firing.
Spike’s spacesuit is reminiscent of a lot of spacesuits in sci-fi anime, but it also resembles the protagonist’s suit in 2001: A Space Odyssey. The showdown and the travel between ships reinforces that directions like up and down are meaningless in space. The shots of the casino earlier, like a lot of Bebop’s big infrastructure shots, also reminded us of this.
Faye ends her first episode by killing Gordon, stealing the money meant for Spike and Jet and flying off. In the elevator, Spike predicted that this casino trip would leave the duo worse off than they started. Between whatever Jet lost in the casino leading up to the jackpot he left behind, the food Faye took from their fridge and the hangar door she blew to pieces, it looks like Spike was right.
This episode ends with a different card. This time the final note of the episode is “EASY COME, EASY GO.”
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