Cowboy Bebop/Recap/Session 3 Honky Tonk Woman

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


The episode begins on Mars in one of the terraformed cities. At a curio shop, a purple haired woman enters and talks with the owner, who offers her a cigar and a job. Before anything can be said, the woman notices she's begin tracked. She reaches into the paper bag and pulls out a machine gun, opening fire on her pursuers. They manage to get out of the way in time and the woman starts to head out to fight in the streets when a car pull up with a man wielding a Gatling gun. He fires, tearing up the store (though the owner manages to get down in time). When the gunfire stops, the woman is surround by armed figures. She promptly surrenders.

The woman is taken to a ship and handcuffed where she meets the boss who calls her "Poker Alice". He mentions the debt she's in and offers her a chance to work for him. Meanwhile on a casino satellite, Spike and Jet have arrived and ready to hit the tables, with Jet having a good feeling after having a dream involving Charlie Parker. The two split off with Jet playing the slots while Spike mills around the tables, gaining some chips after helping three old men win a card game. Eventually he settles on a Blackjack table where Alice is dealing. She spots him and looks at a monitor under the table, mistaking him for a figure with a similar design.

In a flashback, the boss, apparently the casino owner, lays out a plan to Alice that a person will come to her table, play and lose (with some help from her skills) in which he will give Alice a poker chip to give to the casino owner. Once she does, he'll clear her debts in return. Back in the present, the game goes on with it only down to Spike and Alice. Spike catches on she's counting cards but flirts with her rather then saying anything. Eventually Alice wins the final hand and clears him out save for his last chip. However Spike holds onto it rather then give it to her much to her confusion. As Spike's walking away he bumps into the person who was really suppose to be in his place. Their poker chips fall from their hands and get mixed up. The Spike look alike grabs what he thinks is his chip and runs off while Alice finds Spike and demands the poker chip.

Spike calls her out on her cheating which stirs the crowd and gets the attention of security. When she asks again, Spike swallows it. Alice runs off while the security confront Spike, starting a fight. Alice calls her ship to her and jumps in while Spike finds Jet among the crowd and the two have to run for it (to Jet's dismay as he didn't cash his winnings in). Alice blows her way out and flies off only to find two stowaways have jumped on, Spike and Jet. Meanwhile, the Spike-look alike has been found, beaten and taken to the casino owner who finds he doesn't have the poker chip he was looking for. When told Alice is missing, the owner orders a bounty on her head while he kills the look alike.

Meanwhile at the spaceship port, Alice has brought the bounty hunting duo back to the Bebop. But they promptly throw her into restroom and handcuff her to the stall, blaming her for losing their winnings. When she brings up the chip and that her boss, Gordan, will pay to have it back. Spike hocks up the chip and gives it to Jet to analyze. While waiting for the results, Spike turns on Big Shot and finds the bounty of the day is Alice or rather her real name, Faye Valentine with her bounty being six million wulongs. Faye meanwhile pulls out a lipstick shaped device which doubles as a communicator and contacts Gordan. She only reveals her location before Spike and Jet visit again, telling her they intend to hand her over to the police. She pleas with them not to, explaining she part Romanian and she has to travel while calling Spike a Gaojo, someone who doesn't know up from down. The two don't buy it and leave her, though not before Jet frees one of her arms when she complains she can't even use the restroom.

The Bebop starts to head off to go cash in the bounty, but are intercepted by Gordan who demands the chip, claiming its worthless. Jet however reveals that the chip is part of encoding program need to unlock an encryption file to launder stolen money and the I.S.S.P have been looking for it. They threaten to turn it over to the police when Gordan offers to pay for it. Jet asks for thirty million wulong for it with Gordan agreeing to their demands. Meanwhile Faye has managed to pick the lock of her handcuff and starts making her way around the ship, eating the boys' food and coming across Ein (the Welsh Corgi from the previous episode, now named here) before making her way to her ship.

Outside the ships, the exchange commences with Spike donning a space suit and making his way to Gordan's ship where one of his men likewise meets him outside the ship with a case full of wulongs. Both parties agree to swap on the count of three. However Gordan quietly orders the Bebop destroyed once they have the chip. The count is made but Gordan's man pulls out a gun and tries to shoot Spike. However Spike times it some a rotating ring on the ship would block the shot. He leaps toward the man, demagnetizes his suit and sends him flying into space while catching the chip. However Faye has managed to break out of the Bebop at that time and grabs hold of the money case before flying off. Spike makes his way to the Bebop while Gordan orders his men to attack. They try shooting missiles at Faye but she send out decoys to keep them from hitting her. One of the missiles is deflected and goes flying right into the cockpit of Gordan's ship, killing him and his crew.

Spike makes it safely back to the Bebop but laments that Faye beat him again. With nothing but a now useless poker chip. The boys return back to the casinos in hopes of getting lucky again. As they head in, Spike hears someone yell that the dealer's a cheater and see a dot zoom off into the sky. Spike just lets off a smirks upon seeing this.

Easy Come, Easy Go...

This episode has the following tropes:

  • A Twinkle in the Sky: Done twice and both involve Faye's ship
  • Brick Joke: When Faye explains that being a Gaojo is a person who doesn't know which was is up. Later when Spike has to make the deal he has to space walk while the Bebop and Gordan's ships are horizontal to each other. Which the camera has to flip from his point of view, indeed making it hard to tell up from down.
  • The Casino: The focus of this episode
  • Contrived Coincidence: Spike running into his look-alike and winding up with the Poker chip Gordan wanted.
  • Macross Missile Massacre
  • MacGuffin: The poker chip
  • Mistaken for An Imposter: Amusingly its the other way around as Faye mistakes Spike for another man.
  • Oh Crap: Gordan, when Faye redirects one of his missiles. And it heads straight at him...
  • Reverse Polarity: When Faye manages to deflect one of Gordan's missiles
  • Villainous Breakdown: Gordan
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