After learning that Cowboy Bebop is getting a live-action remake, I decided to revisit the much-beloved anime series from the 90s (although not aired in the U.S. until the early 2000s). Many people think of it as the best anime series ever, and with good reason. My episode reviews will contain spoilers, so be sure to watch the series before you read this.

Session 23: Brain Scratch

We open on a television announcement from a group called Scratch who believe the body is evil. The way forward is to abandon the body and upload your consciousness to a computer using a gaming console. All the TV channels are talking about Scratch whose members are killing themselves. ISSP is searching for the leader, Dr. Londes.

Spike, watching TV, sees Faye who has apparently decided to join the movement. While Jet is giving the backstory of Dr. Londes, Ed pours milk on her cereal and Spike pours beer onto his! Spike and Jet decide to search for Dr. Londes separately while Ed searches the web. We learn that Punch and Judy’s Big Shot bounty hunter show has been cancelled due to low ratings. When Judy learns this, she lets her ditzy façade slip and angrily shouts that her agent will hear about this.

The crew get a message from Faye saying she can finally forget about her debts before she disconnects. So yeah, Faye needs to be rescued yet again. Spike goes to rescue her while Jet and Ed try to hack into the organization by seeing how uploading your soul works. Ein barks and growls at the computer. Jet passes out, but is saved by Ein biting him. Jet then puts the brain scanner on Ein who hacks in, although Jet thinks Ed’s doing it. As we’ve come to expect, things aren’t what they seem. It turns out Dr. Londes never existed and everything points to a hospice. Jet and Ed go there, Ed posing as Jet’s daughter. Jet tells the receptionist a sob story about Ed’s twin brother to get in.

Spike finds Faye unconscious. A voice from the TV tells him he put the other bounty hunters to sleep until they died. Londes claims TV has become the new religion, making people lose their sense of reality. Spike is about to pass out, but Ed and Jet have found the patient controlling everything and they shut off his interface. Faye wakes up. Jet puts handcuffs on the vegetable behind it all.

Session 24: Hard Luck Woman

Faye is watching the video tape of her younger self in her room. Ed is suddenly next to her and seems to know where it was filmed. However she won’t tell Faye, because she’s sleep walking. Faye then kisses Ed to make her wake up. What?

Jet and Spike find themselves on earth even though they were headed for Mars. Ed and Faye are gone. Faye has tied Ed up to the outside of her ship! She promises her something good if she’ll lead her to the waterfall. Ed leads her to a dump and calls a watering can a waterfall.

Several children who know Ed pop out of the junk. A nun sprays at the children with a hose, soaking Faye. The nun explains Ed wandered in there five years ago then wandered away again a couple years after that, like a cat. Ed reveals that she does know where Faye’s waterfall is, she just wanted to come here first for the good food. Her bowl has a frog leg sticking out of it, while Faye’s bowl has a fish with its head still attached. Good food, huh?

The nun tells them Ed’s father forgot he put her in daycare and has been looking for her for the past 7 years. Ed takes Faye to the water fountain (based on one in Singapore) where she meets an elderly lady who went to high school with her. Spike and Jet see a bounty for Ed’s father Appledelhi Siniz Hesap Lufen (his name is a Turkish phrase which translates to “Excuse me, check please”) and capture him. He explains that he’s busy making maps of Earth’s constantly changing landscape due to the frequent meteor impacts.

He throws eggs at Spike and Jet’s guns and when Spike starts fighting him, he dodges every blow, so Ed’s dad is apparently an even better fighter than Spike. Ed shows up, nearly running over her father with the ship. Her birth name was Francoise. He doesn’t remember her gender. He asks if she’ll stay with him, but then runs away after another meteor strike. Faye remembers where her home is, but it’s now a hole in the ground. Ed and Ein decide to stay on Earth. This is the last we’ll see of them until the movie.