The preview for this episode is narrated by Faye. It’s a poem, and I can’t tell if it was written for the show or if it was pre-existing but fitting. I’ve hunted for it, but I can’t find any other references online so if it’s pre-existing, this is the only popular translation from the Japanese.
Session #10: Ganymede Elegy
Original Airdate: December 26, 1998
Written by: Akihiko Inari
Title Card Song: “The Singing Sea” – A piano version of this tune is used here. It was also used as the music box tune back in “Waltz for Venus.” The version featured on Cowboy Bebop No Disc features vocals by Tulivu-Donna Cumberbatch.
The episode opens with Ed and Ein messing with a bounty head tied up on the Bebop. The bounty head’s name is Baker Panchorero, a reference to Baker and Poncherello, the protagonists of the crime drama CHiPs. Panchorero’s character design also looks like a wilder, darker take on Jet, but maybe that’s just me.
This is a Jet episode, and we get a little glimpse of his backstory right at the top. The pocket watch and flashback sequence is simple but effective. The lack of background music and dialogue forces our attention to what we’re being shown, not told.
We get a lot of nice worldbuilding here. This is the first time we’ve seen someone flying the Bebop, and once they land, we get lots of nice shots of life on Ganymede. The police station has a sign that says Theriot Police. I assume that’s a reference to German composer Ferdinand Thieriot, but I’m just guessing.
Alisa’s bar is called La Fin. A protagonist’s ex-girlfriend running a bar called “The End” is a wonderful, almost obnoxiously film noir choice.
I love how sensitive Spike gets when Faye says Jet is stupid for thinking his old girlfriend might still be carrying a torch for him. We’ve still only seen glimpses of Spike’s relationship with Julia, but of course Spike would be touchy on that subject.
When Jet first talks to Alisa at the bar, we keep flashing to his perspective of her talking. I think this is supposed to clue us in that there’s something off about what she’s telling Jet, but it’s been so many years since I watched this episode the first time, I could just be reading into this with my existing knowledge.
I really like the sequence where Rhint is struggling to light a cigarette and flashing back to the moment he killed the loan shark. It’s one of the moments in the series where I think they really achieved the effect of putting us in someone else’s head for a few seconds.
Maybe I’m alone in this reading, but my take on Alisa is that she is a hypocrite. Jet has been clinging to that pocket watch for a long time, but, while his relationship with her and the way it ended certainly haunt him, he’s been moving forward for a long time.
Alisa has, too, but so much of her current predicament exists because she chose to lash out at who she was when she was with Jet. Alisa felt she was too dependent on Jet, and, in trying to be totally independent, she made herself dependent on someone much worse. Alisa wants to prove she doesn’t need anyone, and one of Bebop’s quieter tenets is that no man is an island. Even our heroes, especially our heroes, need each other.
When Alisa says that her reliance on Jet made her like a child, it puts the situation in a different light for me. Alisa and Rhint are both behaving like frightened children. Alisa realizes she put Rhint in the position that led to him shooting the loan shark and getting the bounty on his head, and their response to this situation is to run away from the consequences.
When Jet catches them, Alisa and Rhint are both drawn as much smaller and weaker than Jet. They look like children, and it really does seem that Jet has outgrown his history on Ganymede in the end.
When Jet talks to Donnelly, Donnelly refers to him as Rip Van Winkle and says not to judge other people by his own accounting of time. There’s a little irony to this. Jet is surprised that Donnelly is still a working police officer, but Rip Van Winkle woke up to a world where he was surprised by change, not the lack thereof.
Jet had to find closure and move on from his relationship with Alisa, this much is true, but I think Jet is more surprised by how little has changed, not how much. In the end, he parrots Alisa’s reminder that time marches on, and before she can turn to reply, he really is moving forward. I could be wrong, but it seems to me in this episode Jet is delivering the lesson, not learning it. And when it’s over, he’s ready to let go.
SEE YOU SPACE COWBOY.
chasetriesagain.com 