List of Cowboy Bebop episodes

The episode opens with a vague scene depicting short glimpses of a dark street, Spike smoking a cigarette with a bouquet of roses, and hectic gunfire. As Spike is shot multiple times, we see him smiling, clutching a detonator, and the scene transitions directly into the opening credits.

After the credits, Jet has cooked "bell peppers and beef" without the beef, blaming it on the fines and damage from the two's previous bounty hunt, and establishing their relative poverty, a continuing theme in the show. Jet informs Spike of a bounty, Asimov Solensan (worth 2.5 million woolongs) who is reportedly hiding on the Tijuana asteroid with his girlfriend.

Elsewhere, Asimov and his girlfriend Katerina (who appears to be near-term pregnant) enter a bar. Exchanging coded phrases with the bartender, Asimov follows him to the back room where he offers the sale of "Red Eye", a drug in the form of a red liquid in a small vial. Outside the bar, we find that a group of armed men, presumably bounty-hunters, have tracked Asimov and are beginning to surround the bar. The bartender requests a demonstration of the drug, after which Asimov sprays the liquid directly into his eye. From his demeanor, he is obviously a frequent user. Time slows down dramatically, and although the gunmen enter the bar, killing the bartender in attempting to apprehend Asimov, he is able to overtake them unarmed, dodging bullets with the help of the drug's effect.

Once on the planet, Spike visits Old Man Bull, a spiritual guru. With his cryptic guidance, "The Red Eyed Coyote will appear at the Zone' Norte at the far end of town", Spike locates Asimov's pregnant girlfriend, Katerina. After quickly befriending her, Spike discovers that the two plan to travel to Mars. Surprising him from behind, Asimov chokes Spike nearly to death before halting at Katerina's protest.

Spike wakes up on the spot sometime later to find Jet, who has given up on his search for the bountyhead. Spike reveals that he has lifted a vial of "Red Eye" off of Asimov during their meeting.

We next find Asimov meeting a prospective buyer at an outdoor cafe. The buyer reveals himself to be Spike, and the two begin to overturn the tables as they spar. This is the first moment that we find that Spike is a very confident martial artist, as he easily overcomes Asimov in spite of the opponent's drug enhancement. Interrupted by the rival bounty hunters, Asimov and Katerina manage to flee in their space craft. In the commotion, a bullet grazes Katerina's stomach, revealing it to be a belly-pack filled with vials of "Red Eye." Asimov, dosing himself again while making the getaway, reprimands her for losing the drug. Realizing the impossibility of their situation, Katerina kills Asimov moments before their ship is destroyed by police fire.

The episode ends in a parallel to the beginning, Jet cooking "bell peppers and beef", the two having gained nothing from the lost bounty.

References^[1]

Spike's poncho is a reference to the one worn by Clint Eastwood's character in such films as A Fistful of Dollars. Spike's fighting style and mannerisms during his fight with Asimov are imitations of Bruce Lee.

The episode starts in a dirty bathroom stall where Abdul Hakim is unwrapping several bandages from his head. A suitcase lies at his side shaking vigorously as he flushes the bandages down a toilet. Three armed men in white lab coats storm the bathroom, demanding that Hakim surrender. Hakim smiles, kicks down the bathroom stall door and dispatches the three men. Picking up the case, Hakim casually walks outside.

On-board the Bebop, Spike turns on the television to watch "Big Shot". The first bounty on the list is Abdul Hakim (worth 8 million woolongs), a serial pet thief who has stolen a "data dog" from a research facility. Soon after, a doctor who wants revenge on Hakim calls Spike with information on Hakim's post-plastic surgery appearance. Meanwhile, Hakim enters a local bar where his suitcase is stolen while he tortures a drunk.

The Bebop lands on Mars and Spike pursues Hakim, but even after receiving a tip, Spike only finds the man who stole Hakim's suitcase. This suitcase contains an apparently worthless Pembroke Welsh Corgi. Spike finds the dog, but not Hakim.

Spike walks the dog in public, knowing that Hakim will try to get the dog. The scientists trying to reclaim the dog are also becoming desperate, resorting to a dog whistle to attract it, however it attracts all the dogs in the city as well. In the resulting chase, Hakim and the scientists crash into the police station, and the Bebop receives no bounty.

The data dog, Ein, is now a part of the crew of the Bebop.

References^[2]

Numerous references are made to the Bruce Lee film Game of Death.

The title is a reference to the song Stray Cat Strut by The Stray Cats.

The episode opens as Faye Valentine is abducted at gunpoint to pay back part of her large debt, and is forced to act as a middleman for an illegal transaction at a casino. The deal fails when she mistakes Spike for a man with a similar appearance who has the special poker chip for the deal. When the man runs into Spike, they each drop their chips and Spike picks up the special chip. Because Faye has a bounty for all her debt, Spike brings her with him to the Bebop. Jet analyzes the chip and finds its purpose as a key to unlock a decoding program capable of decrypting anything. After they realize the casino wants it, they offer to sell it for 30 million woolongs to the casino owner.

During the transaction, the casino owner tries to betray Spike as he completes the transaction outside the ship, but Spike escapes with both the chip and the money. In the ensuing battle, the casino is wrecked, but Faye escapes the Bebop with the 30 million woolongs.

References^[3]

The episode title is from the Rolling Stones' song of the same name.

Faye uses the alias "Poker Alice," the name of a famous Black Hills gambler.

The casino in this episode is called "Spiders From Mars," a reference to the David Bowie album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars.

This episode opens with Faye stranded in Jupiter's orbit, without gas or food. The woolongs she stole in the previous episode were likely already lost due to Faye's prevalent gambling problems. She comes within range of a passing ship whom she signals for help, but upon receiving no response she sets out to investigate. She discovers the ship's only occupant, an ISSP police officer, severely injured and minutes from death. He gives her a suitcase, telling her to bring it to the ISSP, and warning her not to open it. In the meantime, Spike and Jet pursue members of the "Space Warriors", a group of eco-terrorists, to Jupiter. Though they capture the leader, the group coerces the police to remove the bounty on her.

On Mars, a meeting takes place between the Red Dragon Syndicate and the White Tiger Syndicate. Mao Yenrai, an executive of the Red Dragon, is signing a contract in blood. The two factions part peacefully, but the White Tiger executive's transport is destroyed directly after they leave. Mao Yenrai is captured by men who are seemingly a part of the Red Dragon. A katana is placed to Mao's neck as a man in dark clothes with a large black bird on his shoulder enters the room. As Mao tries to reason with him, Mao's throat is slit. As he dies, Mao whispers, "If Spike were here, you would never have done this…"

On the Bebop, Spike and Jet are unsure of whether or not they ought to collect the bounty on Mao Yenrai. However, Faye thinks only of the reward and goes to collect the bounty. Ave Maria begins in the background as Faye enters a theater and goes to find Mao. She finds his theater box and sits in a seat next to the obviously dead Mao, and meets the dark man, who introduces himself as Vicious.

Meanwhile, Spike visits an old friend, Annie, who is seemingly related to Mao and knows the news of the world of organized crime. After his visit, Spike returns to the Bebop to arm himself, when Faye calls to give the location for a meeting as she is held hostage. Spike enters a large, dark cathedral where Vicious and his gunmen wait for Spike. A gunfight erupts as Spike shoots his way to Vicious.

Faye manages to escape outside and calls Jet as Spike ascends a staircase, killing more gunmen before being shot twice in the abdomen. Next to a large tracery, Spike is surprised by Vicious, who quickly knocks Spike's gun from his hand and knocks him to the ground. The two come to a stalemate, but Vicious throws Spike through the tracery as Spike covertly drops a grenade as he is thrown. As Spike falls, time slows as he sees images of the past, as well as the memory of a blond woman, softly humming.

When Spike awakens, completely wrapped in bandages, on the Bebop, he finds Faye watching over him, humming the same tune as the woman in his memory. Spike gestures for Faye to come closer, and when she bends over to listen, he whispers, "you sing off key." Enraged, Faye slams Spike with a pillow and a deck of cards. On his forehead, Spike finds the Ace of Spades.

References^[4]

The climactic fight scene is based on the John Woo film The Killer.

Spike and Jet chase a bounty named "Giraffe", who is after Wen, a harmonica prodigy, and his bodyguard, "Zebra". Wen turns out to be orchestrating the entire affair: a victim of the bizarre energies associated with the "Gate Incident" on Earth, he is actually eighty years old but never ages because his body continually produces something similar to melatonin which broke his circadian rhythm.

After Spike tracks "Giraffe" down at a jazz club, he follows him while he is following Wen but loses the bounty when Giraffe is shot and knocked out the window of a hotel room. With his dying breath, Giraffe gives Spike his ring and asks him to "help him". Jet determines the ring is actually crystallized energy from the gate accident as well as that Wen is far older than he seems.

After an encounter with Wen, Spike brings Zebra back to the Bebop and they attach a machine called an "alfa catch" that allows them to see his memories of Giraffe's death. This knowledge leads Spike to create a bullet out of the ring Giraffe gave him and hunt Wen down. Spike then shoots Wen with it, causing Wen to age rapidly and ultimately die.

References^[5]

"Sympathy for the Devil" is a song by The Rolling Stones.

The crew of the Bebop chases a bounty named Decker, who is running a load of high explosives. A hungover Spike meets a truck driver named V.T., who comments on Spikes drink of choice, a prairie oyster. She hates bounty hunters, but grudgingly helps him out when his ship is damaged. Decker is also a truck driver, so her assistance proves invaluable. Her respect for and resentment of Spike is the focus of the episode.

References

The hijacking of a commercial spaceliner en route to Venus is foiled by Faye and Spike's timely intervention. A fellow passenger, Roco Bonnaro, is impressed with Spike's aplomb and begs Spike to take him in as a student, but Spike denies his request at first. However, after a good deal of begging and pleading on Roco's part, Spike relents and teaches Roco the theory of his fighting style, Jeet Kune Do, as well as a few moves.

As Spike is training Roco, though, a group of men come walking down the street prompting Roco to give Spike a parcel he was carrying and take off running. The package ends up containing an extremely rare plant called "Gray Ash", which is used to treat a disease called "Venus Sickness". After some more digging, Spike learns not only that Roco has a bounty on his head, but also that Roco's sister Stella has Venus Sickness and will not regain her sight until she is treated with the Gray Ash.

Meanwhile, Roco is caught by the men chasing him and taken to a mob boss that he double crossed when he stole the plant. The boss then orders Roco to get the plant back by luring whoever has it into a trap, which he eventually does after some not so gentle persuasion.

When Spike arrives at what he knows is a trap, a fight breaks out during which Roco shows the skills that he learned from Spike and the Gray Ash plant is destroyed. Unfortunately, Roco is cut down by a bullet shortly after he repels an attacker with just one arm.

At the end of the episode, Roco's sister gets her treatment because Roco sent her some Gray Ash seeds hidden in a music box, but it is a bittersweet victory as he lost his life in the process.

References

Laser satellites in Earth orbit begin carving pictures onto the planet's surface, in the style of the Nazca Lines. Jet, Spike, and Faye try to find the person thought to be responsible, a hacker known as Radical Edward, but don't find anything useful. Unbeknownst to them, Ed herself (a brilliant but eccentric thirteen-year-old girl) is a huge fan of the Bebop, and assists them in their search for the culprit. The responsible party turns out to be an AI on one of the satellites, which Ed turns over to the Bebop crew in exchange for the chance to join them in their travels. Unfortunately for the crew, since the AI isn't a living thing they could not collect the bounty.

References

Jet is even more taciturn than usual as the Bebop lands on Ganymede, his last post before leaving the ISSP, and the home of his ex-girlfriend Alisa, whom he has never quite left behind. Spike, in the meantime, pursues bounty Rhint Celonias, whom Alisa has some connection with.

This session is a simultaneous homage to and spoof of space-going horror movies, and takes place entirely on the Bebop. During the long journey between planets, Jet discovers a fridge in a back corner that no one knew was there. Shortly after, the crew is terrorized by a bizarre blob of black slime with a poisonous bite that was spawned when Spike accidentally left a Ganymede rock lobster in said fridge…for a year. After the blob attacks Jet, Faye, and Ein, a heavily armed Spike decides to take action. After temporarily neutralising the blob, he releases the fridge into space, but is also attacked in the process. In a comical, anticlimactic ending, we see Ed wake from her habitual napping long enough to eat the blob, which her half-asleep mind mistakes for a Manjū bun (translated as "pudding" in the English language dub). The fate of the crew is unknown (although we know they must survive otherwise future episodes would not have been possible); it is possible that this Session takes place outside of the series' continuity, although, before venturing to locate the blob, Spike sets a course for Mars, implying the crew may receive medical attention there. The ending scene of this session may be considered a reference to "2001: A Space Odyssey". During the episode preview for episode 12 Ed jokingly states that the entire crew died, that this was the final episode and thanks the audience for their support during the short series. She then plugs another series called Cowgirl Ed, before the rest of the crew assure the viewer that a new episode will air.

The Japanese title of this session, 闇夜のヘヴィ・ロック (Yamiyo no Hevi Rokku), literally means "Dark Night of Heavy Rock".

References

Faye cleans out the safe and leaves the Bebop, evidently for good. Ed, searching the 'net for signs of her, comes up with the name "Julia" instead. Spike wants to pursue this Julia (the blonde woman from Session 5) immediately, while Jet intends to look for Faye, and the money she took. In leaving, Jet tells Spike not to return because he does not understand why he is trying to hunt down Julia instead of Faye. Faye, in the meantime, has found her way to the town of Blue Crow on Callisto, a snowbound colony populated entirely by men, many of whom have a bounty on their head. Spike follows a trail of clues to find Julia to the same place, seeking a saxophone player named Gren. The same Gren rescues Faye from a roving band of lascivious men. He takes her back to his place, where she overhears an answering machine message from Vicious, who is on-planet to broker a deal for Red Eye. Meanwhile, Spike is mistaken for Vicious and, enraged by it, he beats his would be muggers until he gains some information about the drug deal. Spike then intercepts and decodes a transmission sent by Vicious and learns where the transaction is to take place. Spike then confronts Vicious over his use of Julia's name as a code word, and is shot by Vicious' attendant Lin.

References^[6]

In another non-serious episode, the Bebop gang hunts down a bizarre series of Hyperspace Gate Tollbooth robberies, each executed by a different party, and the mastermind that orchestrated the entire thing: Chessmaster Hex. Meanwhile, Ed plays a match of computer chess against Hex for over a week.

Along with Brain Scratch, this is the only episode where all five members of Bebop play an equal role in the episode. The rest either focus primarily on one or two characters, or do not have the entire cast of characters at the time.

References

The first half of the episode involves Faye telling Ein (and Spike, who pops out of the bathroom complaining about the length of her soliloquy) about her past. Three years ago, she woke up from a cryogenic sleep now that doctors had finally found a way to cure her wounds from a horrible accident she was in at age 20, after 54 years. She was totally lost in a new world of technology, gates and interplanetary space travel, and had no idea who she was, where she had come from, or even what her name was. A kind lawyer, Whitney Hagas Matsumoto, helped get her back on her feet, and then was tragically killed, leaving his personal estate to her…which consisted mostly of debt. The second half involves the bounty Jet has just captured — Whitney Hagas Matsumoto, very fat and very much alive — and Faye's quest to reclaim her past.

References

An ISSP prison ship has undergone a mechanical malfunction, and has been taken over by the prisoners it was transporting led by Udai Taxim, the assassin who took the arm of the most dangerous opponent the syndicate had ever known: Jet Black, the Black Dog. With this in mind, Jet's former partner, Fad, enlists him for the retrieval operation. The two infiltrate the prison ship, and Jet confronts Udai…only to be told that Fad, long since sold out to the syndicate, was the one who betrayed him that night on Ganymede. Fad, shooting Udai in the head, does not deny it, but allows Jet to win the resulting shoot-out.

References

The Bebop, out of food and fuel, is sideswiped in a hit-and-run off of Europa and crash-lands on Io. Ed, with Ein by her side, is sent out to procure food, and trips over Domino Walker, a bounty head, who is smuggling psychedelic mushrooms. While Jet, Faye and Spike fall victim to the hallucinogenic effects of the mushroom (a result of Ed's less-than-scientific test of the mushrooms' effects), Ed and Ein neutralize other bounty hunters and restrain Domino — though she lets him go in exchange for his "bad" mushrooms (i.e., edible shiitake mushrooms), hoping to sell them and unaware that they are worthless.

References

Faye wastes money betting on horse racing, while a package arrives on the Bebop addressed to her. It contains an old Betamax video cassette, and Spike and Jet raid an abandoned museum on Earth for an appropriate VCR (they end up with a VHS set instead). Eventually a package containing a Betamax player arrives, allowing them to view the tape. The tape turns out to be made by Faye at the age of thirteen and is addressed to herself; the contents provide tantalizing clues to her missing past.

Reference

Speak Like a Child is a song/album by Herbie Hancock. It was released in 1968. It is also a film directed by John Akomfrah released in 1998.

Spike, flying his Swordfish II mono-racer in for maintenance, runs out of gas not far from the garage. Doohan, owner of the garage and the man who originally designed and built the Swordfish, berates him for not respecting it. In the meantime, Jet and Faye take on a group of pirates who use computer viruses to terrorize interplanetary shipping, and when Spike runs into trouble helping them, Doohan and his assistant Miles take to the skies in a refurbished Space Shuttle Columbia to rescue him. There are several references to Star Trek: Doohan is the name of the actor that played "Scotty", Miles refers to Chief Miles O'Brien, and there's a character named Reggie, a reference to Lieutenant Barclay of Star Trek: The Next Generation. The three pirates are named George, Harman, and Ruth. George Herman Ruth is none other then Babe Ruth, one of the greatest American Baseball Players.

This episode was temporarily removed from airplay in the United States after the 2003 Columbia disaster. With the destruction of Columbia in 2003, this episode became an anachronism.

References

Spike faces off against Mad Pierrot, a bizarre, government-created and insanely cheerful assassin loosely based on The Penguin, The Joker and the classic pantomime clown, Pierrot; the episode is an admitted homage to the Bruce Timm Batman animated series. Spike witnesses Mad Pierrot assassinating a prominent ISSP chief - the seventh out of a total eight - and Pierrot hunts him down to protect his identity. It is revealed that Pierrot's abilities are the result of highly unethical ISSP genetic experiments, reducing Mad Pierrot's mind to that of a child and instiling an absurd fear of cats. Curiously, Mad Pierrot possesses a force field and is able to fly; both abilities are seemingly incongruous in the Bebop series, which features mostly mundane antagonists.

The Japanese title for this episode, 道化師の鎮魂歌 (Dōkeshi no Chinkonka), literally means "Clown's Requiem". Additionally, "Pierrot Le Fou" is an actual French movie directed by Jean-Luc Godard.

A terrorist, "Teddy Bomber", has been using explosives in teddy bears to bring down high-rise buildings in protest of humanity's excesses. Spike attempts to stop him, but constantly runs afoul of "Cowboy Andy", a fellow bounty hunter who is far more similar to Spike than either would care to admit. Totally ignoring Teddy Bomber (who is captured by Jet and Faye), the pair have it out.

Faye decides to investigate her past by using the visible landmarks depicted in the video she recorded as a child, such as a very prominent fountain, to track down further clues to her past. Hoping to use Ed's knowledge of Earth, Fay straps her onto her ship and takes off. After a brief side trip to an orphanage where Ed spent several years (Ed says they only came for lunch), Ed finally leads Faye to her childhood home. Faye is staring out over the same ocean that she played at so many years ago when suddenly somebody calls her name. It is one of Faye's childhood friends, now a grandmother, who still remembers Faye after all this time. Nonplussed by the encounter, Faye excuses herself and returns with Ed to the Bebop.

Meanwhile, Jet discovers a bounty by the name of Appledehli, an eccentric researcher who is determined to map every meteor that falls to earth, despite the fact that on the post-Gate Disaster Earth, this happens on the order of once every few minutes. Spike and Jet corner Appledelhi, only to be stymied when Ed, having returned from her trip with Faye, flies the Bebop right up to where they are standing. Appledelhi, as it turns out, is her father, and the bounty on Appledelhi was placed there by Ed herself. Overjoyed at their reunion, Appledehli invites his daughter to join him on his never-ending survey of the planet. However, with the next impact, his offer is totally forgotten in his excitement to document the latest meteorite.

Faye's visit to her childhood home brings on a torrent of flashbacks from her past, leading her to decide to return once more to see if she can pick up the pieces of her life left behind so long ago. She returns to the location of her family's home, only to find that mere traces of the foundation remain. Finally, Ed and Ein decide to leave the Bebop for good to search for Ed's father; the episode closes with the last words, "See you cowgirl, someday, somewhere!" (This is also the name of a song by Kiss.)

References

Spike and Julia pick up where they left off in their plans to escape Red Dragon, enlisting Annie's help — only to find that Vicious' goons have gotten there already. After laying Annie to rest, they fight their way out, but Julia is shot and killed. Spike returns to the Bebop for one last meal with his family, and then storms Red Dragon's headquarters; with a bit of assistance from Shin, he makes it to the top floor, scathed, where he and Vicious confront each other for a final time.