"Big Shots" Re-Watch: "Jupiter Jazz" Parts 1 & 2

 Cowboy Bebop

With this two-parter we have reached the midway point of the series and honestly these episodes feel different. And with their placement, it makes sense that they would. Let's get to it.

Faye Valentine: "They say humans are social animals, they can't live alone. But you can live pretty well by yourself. I tell ya, instead of feeling alone in a group, it's better to have real solitude all by yourself."

Gren: "You're just afraid they'd abandon you, so you abandon them... You distance yourself from the whole thing."

Faye Valentine: "You're a strange one, aren't you?"

The Bebop crew is thrown for a loop when Faye drains the engine coolant and takes off with all the money in the safe. Spike's attention is focused on a signal Edwards finds codenamed Julia transmitting from Callisto. Jet and Spike butt heads and Spike leaves the crew. Faye is on Callisto, drunk and depressed with a cold but she manages to connect with an enigmatic saxophone player named Gren. Things take a turn when Spike's mortal enemy Vicious arrives on Callisto looking to make a Red Eye deal.

Interesting...

This episode starts with a Native American man, Laughing Bull and his son, watching a sunset. They see what looks like a star falling to Earth. Laughing Bull declares it is a great warrior who has died in battle and can't find the Great Spirit. This opening really sets the tone for two episodes that you know will be something that we haven't seen on the show so far. 

I love the transition from the beautiful sunset to space is great. Then, we get the shot of Spike snapping awake. We learn quickly that the Bebop is hot because Faye has drained all the coolant from the engines and absconded with the safe. Spike's initial happiness at Faye being gone quickly shifts when he learns what has happened. 

When Spike hears a transmission codenamed Julia, he is immediately unconcerned with Faye and immediately heads for Callisto. This leads to Spike and Jet really having their first fight. And here's the thing, Jet is completely in the right. For the two years that Spike and Jet have been partners, Jet has thought they were exactly that. But now Spike is ready to just take off and abandon Jet to figure things out on his own. Jet knows that Spike has some sort of background with a woman named Julia, but Spike refuses to open up. Spike really comes off as a callous dickhead in this scene. And let's be real, Spike has always came across that way a little, but there has always been a bit of charm, but this just feels very selfish.

I have to say, I really love the design of Callisto. When the camera pans back to show off the cityscape, it gives me big "Blade Runner" vibes, which is one of my favorite movies. The idea of Callisto is kind of cool. A city with no women, filled with fugitives. 

The no women thing raises some interesting questions. Was Julia really here? And what does it all mean for Faye. At first, it means nothing. Faye is at the Blue Crow, drowning her troubles and fighting off a cold. She catches the eye of saxophone player, Gren, and the two hit it off. Faye is initially uneasy of him, understandably so, but once he tells her that he's not interested in women the two have an easy rapport.

Vicious reappears for the first time since "Ballad of Fallen Angels" and he remains as enigmatic as ever. The scene with the Van, the ruling council of the Red Dragon Syndicate, is full of subtext. Vicious wants to go to Callisto handle the Red Eye deal personally. The Van chide him, implying he doesn't have the authority to do this independently but also letting him know that anyone who goes against the Van will be punished. They clearly suspect that Vicious murdered Mao, but he denies it. Vicious clearly has plans that involve challenging the leadership and the traditions of the Red Dragon Syndicate as he tells his overly loyal subordinate, Lin, that Lin may have to betray Vicious in order to survive.

This episode dives a bit deeper into Faye. Up to this point, Faye has been kind of a lark. She's a sassy annoyance to the boys. Getting in trouble. Needing to get bailed out. Available for a witty comeback, but we see more to her and how trauma we don't know about has informed her actions here and always. Faye gives Gren a speech about loneliness and how being alone is better than feeling lonely within a group. Faye has clearly started to feel a kinship with the Bebop crew and despite her speech to Gren, she engineered this whole thing to try to hurt them before they can hurt her, something that Gren immediately picks up on and calls out.

Speaking of, I love that whole scene with Gren and Faye. The camera work is amazing. The gauzy camera shots of various things in Gren's apartment. The slow pan up Faye's stockinged legs to her sullen, disheveled face. It's really just *chef's kiss.*

I know I'm buried the lede, but we have to talk a little about Gren here and the big reveal. As he showers, Faye sees a picture of him and what appears to be Vicious and then Vicious leaves a message on Gren's machine, revealing that Gren is Vicious' contact on Callisto. When Faye confronts Gren in the shower, she finds that Gren has breasts and womanly hips along with a penis. It's a reveal that you don't see coming and I have to say, having watched this episode a few times, it's played pretty well for a late '90's anime. It's not played for laughs and Faye is just surprised, as anyone would be, not disgusted. A far cry from Spike's reaction to the transgender sex workers he encounters earlier in the episode, which is the episode's one black mark.

I have to point out the action sequence in this episode when Spike is confronted by the people who think he's Vicious. It's been a minute since we've really seen Spike let go with fists and feet and it's a great reminder that you don't fuck with Spike Spiegel.

To be continued...

Grade: A-

Gren: "When I came home from the war they put me in prison. They thought I was a spy. I heard it was Vicious that testified against me, I started to go crazy. So they gave me some new drug they were testing on prisoners. It was highly addictive, and the side effects? Well, my hormones went out of balance and this is what happened."

Gren explains to Faye that he and Vicious were comrades during the war on Titan, but when he returned he was imprisoned as a spy partially due to testimony given by Vicious. Due to this information, he went crazy and the drug he was given is what caused his hermaphroditic condition. He plans to murder Vicious. Spike wakes up after being tranq'ed by Lin and continues his search for Vicious. Meanwhile, Jet learns that Gren has a high bounty on his head for escaping prison and tells Spike that if he returns with Gren then he's back on the team.

I love Callisto.

This episode, to me, solidifies the bond between the members of the Bebop. At their core, they are three (plus Ed) damaged people who are clinging to each other even when they push each other away. They would never want to admit but they have become family. This is really driven home when Jet finds Faye. He at first thinks that she is handcuffed due to some weird, kinky sex stuff, but once he talks with her, things soften and he sees the real reason she did what she did. It happens again later in the episode when Jet tells Spike that all will be forgiven if he returns to the Bebop with Gren. Even though Spike returns empty handed, he is still welcomed back home. Jet and Spike are partners and brothers. Brothers fight, but they don't abandon each other. Jet may not know everything about Spike's past with Julia, but he knows enough.

Gren is one of the more sympathetic "villains" in the run of "Cowboy Bebop." I love the flashbacks to his time fighting in the War on Titan alongside Vicious. I love how the flashback is grainy and in black and white. It reminds me of an old World War II newsreel. This small scene between Vicious and Gren in flashback does a lot. Gren is upset, of course, because Vicious betrayed him. But he will kill Vicious because they were comrades. They depended on each other to live while fighting in a war. Vicious killed a scorpion, saving Gren's life, to then just turn on him. It's impactful to hear Gren talk about this, but seeing this scene really drives it home in a much better way. Show don't tell.

I'm not sure how I feel about the explanation for Gren being a hermaphrodite. I think it would have been better for that just to be the way he was born. But having the condition be a side effect of drugs that he was given frames it as extra tragic, like its some sort of punishment, which it definitely is not. I really wish they had leaned away from that interpretation.

I love the flashbacks that we get as Spike is awaking from being tranquilized. We see scenes we've seen before but there are new ones and more dialogue. Spike talks about quitting the Syndicate. Vicious wonders if someone is going to betray him. Julia say someone is going to kill someone else. We see Spike in surgery getting fitted with a cybernetic left eye, which I believe is the first time this is revealed to us? Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong in the comments. We also see newer scenes like Faye by Spike's side after his fall from the cathedral. Spike seeing this just drives home the idea that whether he wants to admit it or not, Faye has become important to him.

It's no surprise that Gren's plan to take out Vicious fails and we are left with more tragedy. Lin is killed taking a bullet meant for Vicious. I wish we had learned more about Lin. He was clearly important to Spike when Spike was in the Syndicate and was much younger when Spike was a part of the Syndicate. This is meant to be heart wrenching moment but it falls a bit flat since we don't know enough about Lin and Spike's past relationship.

The moments with Gren are much more impactful. I mentioned in "Jupiter Jazz Part 1" that Spike comes off like a dick, but these moments with Gren remind us why we love Spike and root for him. He listens as Gren recounts his relationship with Julia when she was on Callisto. He wants to see Titan one last time before he dies and helps him onto his ship and pulls it into space with the Swordfish II. Spike shows compassion here, which he always does when confronted with situations like this. It's why he's the hero of the show. 

The episode ends returning to Laughing Bull and his son and it's clear that the shooting star they are seeing is Gren's ship. I always wonder if these two episodes were meant to be one hour long episode. Played back to back they are very cinematic, coupled with the beautiful longer credits that play before the general end sequence. This is a great way to launch us into the back half of the series.

Do you have a comrade?

Grade: A-

Next up, we learn more about the gate accident that devastated Earth and more about Faye's past.

What do you all think of these episodes? I think they are so interesting and I always seem to get more from them every time I watch. Let me know your thoughts in the comments.