Jet previews this episode. He talks about how ends are inevitable, even ones we don’t want.
Session #25: The Real Folks Blues (Part 1)
Original Airdate: April 17, 1999
Written by: Keiko Nobumoto
Title Card Song: “Adieu” – We’ve heard this one before back in “Speak Like a Child.”
Enjoy “Tank!” at the start of this episode. This is the last time it plays.
This episode and the closing song are both named for a series of compilation albums produced by Chess Records and distributed by MCA in the ’60s. Each album focused on a specific Chess Records artist. This episode is also the last time that “The Real Folk Blues” closes the show.
I don’t want to over explain the plot here. As the show comes to a close, the trivia tightens up, and it’s time to focus on how the show delivers its meaning, not what it means.
We learn the specifics of Spike and Julia’s past. Spike wanted to fake his death and runaway together, and Vicious wanted Julia to kill Spike. In the present, the syndicate is planning to execute Vicious for trying to lead a coup, and they’ve sent hit teams after Julia and Spike as well. Shin, brother of Lin who died defending Vicious back in “Jupiter Jazz,” warns Julia, and he manages to find Spike in time to cover him while he gets a wounded Jet to safety. When it’s all said and done, the episode ends with Julia pointing a gun at Spike in a cemetery.
There’s a lot I want to say, but I think some of it is better left saved for the final episode. I love the callbacks in this episode. Bob, Jet’s ISSP buddy, calls just to tell them to get off Mars, and I think audience and Jet all wish it was that easy. The doctor who refers to pulling the bullet from Jet’s leg as “feeding some stray cats” is the same doctor from “Stray Dog Strut.”
Punch shows up at the spaceport to pick up his mother. Turns out his real name is Alfredo, and he’s planning to take care of his mother in her old age. Before he arrives, Faye hears her fretting about not having a place and just being in the way, but he comforts her. This comforts Faye and settles her on heading back to the Bebop where she has a place.
And of course Faye would be the first member of the Bebop crew to interact with Julia in the present. And of course it would involve a gunfight and car chase in Julia’s convertible variation of the very sweet 1948 Tucker Torpedo. In an alternate reality, there’s a version of Bebop where Faye and Julia are the bounty hunters who pick up a stray Jet and the series ends after Julia finds Spike again, and I bet that’s a really cool show, too.
There’s some weird narrative alchemy at play with the syndicate plot in this episode. We know Vicious is a bad, bad dude. We know he’ll live, and we know that Spike will fight him again. But the Van are portrayed with just the right level of malice and hubris that, for the 15 minutes it matters, we want to see Vicious win.
Now there’s just one more episode.
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