This episode’s preview is narrated by the whole Bebop crew. Faye and Spike talk about the differences between men and women and how femininity and masculinity can vary. Spike says he likes women who aren’t always feminine but let that side of themselves show from time to time. Faye implies he’s talking about her, but obviously he’s talking about Julia, once more intertwining Faye and Julia. Ed and Jet both chime in at the end to suggest that Spike might be talking about them.
Session #13: Jupiter Jazz (Part 2)
Original Airdate: January 16, 1999
Written by: Keiko Nobumoto
Title Card Song: “Space Lion” – An unreleased sax solo plays over the title card. This song also plays on the music box that Gren and Vicious play on Titan. At a little over seven minutes throughout the episode, this episode uses the song for the longest single musical cue in the series. Within the narrative, “Space Lion” is called “Julia.”
While Spike is laid out in the snow, Gren tells Faye his story. Gren fought on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, and he dearly valued the camaraderie of his fellow soldiers, especially Vicious. It’s implied that Gren might have even had romantic feelings for Vicious.
We see Vicious introduce the song “Julia” to Gren and give him the music box that played it while also saving him from a scorpion. Gren says that Vicious didn’t believe he needed comrades. After the war, Gren is framed for espionage and spends three years in prison. He’s told that Vicious is the one who testified against him. Heartbroken by betrayal, his mental state begins to deteriorate, and he’s given experimental drugs that cause hormonal changes.
When Gren makes it clear that he’s going to see Vicious, even knowing his life is at risk, Faye leads the audience to a subtle comparison with Spike. While she never says it directly, she complains that he saved her selfishly and now he’s just going to walk off and die. This is pretty much Spike’s M.O.
Meanwhile, Spike is dreaming about Julia and Vicious. We get snippets of dialogue, mostly centered around the end of Spike’s time in the Syndicate. Spike talks about how his left eye sees the past, and Julia asks him what his right eye sees. We don’t hear an answer, but Spike’s right eye is his cybernetic eye. At this point, between the encounters with Spike and Vicious, Gren’s flashback and Spike’s flashback, we can clearly see the outline of Spike, Vicious and Julia’s love triangle. We also hear Vicious telling Spike not to trust Julia, and Julia begging someone not to do something.
Gren’s confrontation reveals a number of things. Of course Vicious planned to double cross Gren, trading him an active bomb for the Red Eye. Gren reveals that Julia helped him find a transmitter hidden in the music box, and that Julia was immediately suspicious as soon as he told her the music box was a gift from Vicious.
As Spike and Gren talk, Gren realizes that he’s the Spike that Julia talked about because of his eyes being different colors. Spike’s eyes are both brown, but the artificial eye is a very slightly different shade.
When Spike returns to the Bebop, Jet asks him what he’s bringing aboard. Spike answers nothing, and Jet tells him to hurry up so they can take off. Earlier in the episode, Jet told Spike that he could come back if he caught Gren. As usual, Jet was bluffing and trying to convince himself that he was really angry.
Ed paints Faye’s toenails and asks what happened on Callisto. Faye says she’ll tell her later, but she asks Ed to use anything but blue. Ed paints her big toenail the same shade of blue as Gren’s eyes.
I want to jump back to the Titan War for just a bit. We see in flashbacks that Titan is a desert planet, and the war was fought from trenches like World War I. What we have to interpret, though, is when the war takes place. This starts to put together some more of Spike, Vicious and Julia’s story. Gren was imprisoned after the war. He served three years in prison, and then he was in hiding for three years. The episode takes place in 2071, putting the war ending around 2065. Gren is also 29 as of 2071, meaning he would be about 18 in 2060, so the war can likely be narrowed down to between 2060 and 2065. We know that Spike joined up with Jet in 2068, which I think places most of Spike’s backstory between 2065 and 2068.
As the episode closes, we come back to Laughing Bull and his son. Laughing Bull’s musings on the warrior who cannot reach the Great Spirit apply to both Gren and Lin. Spike says that Lin’s soul is lost because he died defending Vicious. Gren wanted to die on Titan, but he and his ship weren’t strong enough to make it that far.
Rather than the traditional closing sequence, we pan out into the stars to “Space Lion,” and the credits roll. After the credits, we get a unique card: “DO YOU HAVE A COMRADE?”.
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