Friday 11 June 2021

Cowboy Bebop Marathon - Session 8: Waltz for Venus

That might be the first time I've seen the Bebop crew successfully bring in a target alive.

Spike and Faye apprehend a gang of notorious hijackers on a space liner to Venus. After collecting the bounty, Spike is approached by Rocco Bonnaro, who had witnessed him dispatch the hijackers and wishes to learn Spike's technique. Eventually giving into Rocco's pestering, Spike gives him a brief lesson. Rocco promptly flees when he notices a group of thugs, but leaves Spike with a package in his possession. Back at the Bebop, Jet suggests they go after the minor crime boss Picarro Calvino and his gang, who had stolen a prized "grey ash" plant used to treat a local malady. When Spike discovers that Rocco is one of the wanted gang members, he opens the package and finds it contains a grey ash plant. Digging deeper, he learns that Rocco has a sister, Stella, who has been left blind due to the malady.

This is one of the more poignant episodes. While Rocco is seemingly built up to be an annoying sidekick, he does get some interesting depth, looking after a sister but trying to conceal his criminal endeavours from her. We also get a chance to see Spike having a caring side beneath his bitter exterior when he meets Stella and learns that she idolises her brother.

We also get to see a moral debate when the Bebop crew discover the stolen grey ash. Faye is adamant on selling it on the black market, Jet is hesitant due to the risk, while Spike realises it's bait to draw out the rest of the gang.

There's a bit of humour too. Especially Spike getting a high-pitched voice from a minute level of helium in Venus' atmosphere. Rocco offers him a pill to counter-act the effects if Spike teaches him. Spike immediately takes the pill and leaves, but it doesn't work and turns out to just be a throat sweet.

End the ending is a pretty sad one. I won't reveal the details here though.

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