Friday, March 23, 2018

Cowboy Bebop 1.06

Sympathy for the Devil

Spike and Jet go after a bounty who goes by the name of Giraffe or maybe that's his real name. Jet spots another bounty hunter also closing in on Giraffe. He engages Fatty (the other bounty hunter) in conversation while Spike goes after Giraffe who is on a quest of his own. Spike observes Giraffe following and Wen, a young musician, and Zebra, his older, crippled caretaker. He loses them momentarily but catches up to them in an apartment building, just as Giraffe is killed.

Before he dies, Giraffe gives Spike a ring. He says something cryptic about it. There's no bounty with Giraffe dead. Spike returns to the Bebop and confers with Jet. Faye is still hanging around, eating Ein's food when she can't find anything else, and freely sharing her thoughts which neither Jet nor Spike seem interested in hearing. Spike decides to try and finish what Giraffe started. He goes back to find Wen and free him from Zebra.

Spike catches up to Web and Zebra only to discover that all is not as it seems. It was Wen who killed Giraffe, not Zebra. Once upon a time Giraffe and Zebra were partners. One day they ran across Wen and everything changed after that. The boy explains to Spike, as he tries to kill him, that he is immortal and has been ever since there was a great explosion that killed all others around or near him. The boy vanishes without a trace.

Spike goes back to the Bebop once again. He brings Zebra with him. They hook up some device to Zebra, who can't talk, and get some more background info from some device that reads his thoughts and projects them on a screen. Jet digs up some information about the ring and the boy. The ring is made of some rare mineral. There is a scientific explanation which even Jet doesn't completely understand. The bottom line is that the stone on the ring has some magic powers. It should be able to cause the boy to start aging again.

This is the last episode on the first DVD in the set and my favorite. I love the mix of unexplained science fiction and the noir themed flavor of the story. The music as always is superb. I like the little touches. Faye doesn't have a big role in this episode but I like how her presence adds a flavor that neither Jet nor Spike bring to the show.

No comments:

Post a Comment