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List of Cowboy Bebop episodes
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The following is an episode list of the Japanese anime series "Cowboy Bebop." The series consists of 26 regular episodes plus one full-length movie, "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" (released outside Japan as "Cowboy Bebop: The Movie").
Each episode is named after a musical concept of some sort, usually a broad genre (i.e. "Jupiter Jazz") or a specific song (i.e. Honky Tonk Women).
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
| Session # | Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Asteroid Blues" |
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| The episode opens with a scene from Spike's past. The setting is a dark cathedral in the evening after rain. Spike is smoking a cigarette with a bouquet of roses in his arms. One of the roses falls into a puddle as scenes of a gunfight flash onto the screen. Quiet music is played in the background as Spike is hit several times by gunfire and clutches a detonator. The scene ends as Spike smiles and it transitions directly to the title credits.
After the credits, Jet has cooked beef with bell peppers without beef because they have no money. Jet tells Spike about a bounty , Asimov Solensan (worth 2.5 million woolongs) who is hiding on the Tijuana asteroid with his girlfriend Katerina. Spike finds the duo after receiving guidance from Old Man Bull. Spike discovers that Katerina dreamed of one day traveling to Mars with Asimov, who has been illegally trading the reflex-enhancing drug "Red Eye" with her assistance. However, Asimov has lost sight of that goal, becoming dependent on Red Eye for everyday use. With Spike and the police in pursuit, and as Asimov physically breaks down (due to the Red Eye's effects) before Katerina's eyes, she kills Asimov and herself before they are captured. The episode ends as Jet starts cooking beef with bell peppers, without beef, again as Spike exercises in another secluded area of the Bebop because they received no bounties from the two dead bounty heads. |
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| 2 | "Stray Dog Strut" |
|
| The episode starts in a dirty bathroom stall where Abdul Hakim is unwrapping several bandages on his head. A suitcase lays to his side shaking vigorously as he flushes the bandages down a toilet. Three armed men in white lab coats storm the bathroom, demanding that Hakim surrender. Hakim smiles, kicks down the bathroom stall door and dispatches the three men. Picking up the case, Hakim casually walks outside.
On-board the Bebop, Spike turns on the television to watch "Big Shot". The first bounty on the list is Abdul Hakim (worth 8 million woolongs), a serial pet thief who has stolen a "data dog" from a research facility. Soon after, a doctor who wants revenge on Hakim calls Spike with information on Hakim's post-plastic surgery appearance. Meanwhile, Hakim enters a local bar; but has his suitcase stolen while he tortures a drunk. The Bebop lands on Mars and Spike pursues Hakim, but even after receiving a tip, Spike only finds the man who stole Hakim's suitcase. This suitcase contains an apparently worthless Pembroke Welsh Corgi. Spike finds the dog, but not Hakim. Spike walks the dog in public, knowing that Hakim will try to get the dog. The scientists trying to reclaim the dog are also becoming desperate, resorting to a dog whistle to attract it, however it attracts all the dogs in the city as well. In the resulting chase, Hakim and the scientists crash into the police station, and the Bebop receives no bounty. The data dog, Ein, is now a part of the crew of the Bebop. |
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| 3 | "Honky Tonk Women" |
|
| The episode opens as Faye Valentine is abducted at gunpoint to pay back part of her large debt, and is forced to act as a middleman for an illegal transaction at a casino. The deal fails when she mistakes Spike for a man with a similar appearance who has the special poker chip for the deal. When the man runs into Spike, they each drop their chips and Spike picks up the special chip. Because Faye has a bounty for all her debt, Spike brings her with him to the Bebop. Jet analyzes the chip and finds its purpose as a key to unlock a decoding program capable of de-encrypting anything. After they realize the casino wants it, they offer to sell it for 11 million woolongs to the casino owner. During the transaction, the casino owner tries to betray Spike as he completes the transaction outside the ship, but Spike escapes with both the chip and the money. In the ensuing battle, the casino is wrecked, but Faye escapes the Bebop with the 11 million woolongs. | ||
| 4 | "Gateway Shuffle" |
|
| Though she left the prior episode with 11 million woolongs, she is stranded in Jupiter's orbit, without gas or food. She sees another ship nearby, but its only occupant, an ISSP police officer, is dying. He gives her a suitcase, telling her to bring it to the ISSP, and warning her not to open it. In the meantime, Spike and Jet pursue members of the "Space Warriors", a group of eco-terrorists, to Jupiter. Though they capture the leader, the group coerces the police to remove the bounty on her. When Spike and Jet find Faye, they take all her belongings. Looking through her things, Spike breaks open the container inside the suitcase, but, unable to find its purpose, seemingly forgets about it as they return the terrorist leader to her group. Though the group promised not to use their chemical weapons if the leader were returned, they release the chemicals when their leader returns. The virus, which de-evolves humans to primates, is launched through hyperspace, but is stopped by Spike and Faye, who narrowly escape a closing hyperspace gateway. Faye joins the crew of the Bebop. | ||
| 5 | "Ballad of Fallen Angels" |
|
| On Mars, a meeting takes place between the Red Dragon Syndicate and the White Tiger Syndicate. Mao Yenrai, an executive of the Red Dragon, is signing a contract in blood. The two factions part peacefully, but the White Tiger executive's transport is destroyed directly after they leave. Mao Yenrai is captured by men who are seemingly a part of the Red Dragon. A katana is placed to Mao's neck as a man in dark clothes with a large black bird on his shoulder enters the room. As Mao tries to reason with him, Mao's throat is slit. As he dies, Mao whispers, "If Spike were here, you would never have done this..."
On the Bebop, Spike and Jet are unsure of whether or not they ought to collect the bounty on Mao Yenrai. However, Faye thinks only of the reward and goes to collect the bounty. Ave Maria begins in the background as Faye enters a theater and goes to find Mao. She finds his theater box and sits in a seat next to the obviously dead Mao, and meets the dark man, who introduces himself as Vicious. Meanwhile, Spike visits an old friend, Annie, who is seemingly related to Mao and knows the news of the world of organized crime. After his visit, Spike returns to the Bebop to arm himself, when Faye calls to give the location for a meeting as she is held hostage. Spike enters a large, dark cathedral where Vicious and his gunmen wait for Spike. A gunfight erupts as Spike shoots his way to Vicious. Faye manages to escape outside and calls Jet as Spike ascends a staircase, killing more gunmen before being shot twice in the abdomen. Next to a large tracery, Spike is surprised by Vicious, who quickly knocks Spike's gun from his hand and knocks him to the ground. The two come to a stalemate, but Vicious throws Spike through the tracery as Spike covertly drops a grenade as he is thrown. As Spike falls, time slows as he sees images of the past, as well as the memory of a blond woman, softly humming. When Spike awakens, completely wrapped in bandages, on the Bebop, he finds Faye watching over him, humming the same tune as the woman in his memory. Spike gestures for Faye to come closer, and when she bends over to listen, he whispers, "You sing off key." Enraged, Faye slams Spike with a pillow and a deck of cards. On his forehead, Spike finds the Ace of Spades. |
||
| 6 | "Sympathy For The Devil" |
|
| Spike and Jet chase a bounty named "Giraffe", who is after Wen, a harmonica prodigy, and his bodyguard, "Zebra". Wen turns out to be orchestrating the entire affair: a victim of the bizarre energies associated with the "Gate Incident" on Earth, he is actually eighty years old but cursed never to age. Spike shoots him in the head with an artifact from the same incident, aging him to death. | ||
| 7 | "Heavy Metal Queen" |
|
| The crew of the Bebop chases a bounty named Decker, who is running a load of high explosives. A hungover Spike meets a truck driver named V.T., who hates bounty hunters, but grudgingly helps him out when his ship is damaged. Decker is also a truck driver, so her assistance proves invaluable. Her respect for and resentment of Spike is the focus of the episode. | ||
| 8 | "Waltz For Venus" |
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| The hijacking of a commercial spaceliner en route to Venus is foiled by Faye and Spike's timely intervention. A fellow passenger, Roco Bonnaro, is impressed with Spike's aplomb and begs Spike to take him in as a student. Roco turns out to be a bounty on the run from his gang for having stolen a rare and costly plant in order to fund his sister's eyesight-restoring surgery. Spike finds himself caught in the middle, shepherding his wayward but promising student. | ||
| 9 | "Jamming With Edward" |
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| Laser satellites in Earth orbit begin carving pictures onto the planet's surface, in the style of the Nazca Lines. Jet, Spike, and Faye try to find the person thought to be responsible, a hacker known as Radical Edward, but don't find anything useful. Unbeknownst to them, Ed herself is a huge fan of the Bebop, and assists them in their search for the culprit. The responsible party turns out to be an AI on one of the satellites, which Ed turns over to the Bebop crew in exchange for the chance to join them in their travels. | ||
| 10 | "Ganymede Elegy" |
|
| Jet is even more taciturn than usual as the Bebop lands on Ganymede, his last post before leaving the ISSP, and the home of his ex-girlfriend Alisa, whom he has never quite left behind. Spike, in the meantime, pursues bounty Rhint Celonias, whom Alisa has some connection with. The Japanese title of this session, ガニメデ慕情 (Ganimede Bojō), literally means "Ganymede Longing". | ||
| 11 | "Toys in the Attic" |
|
| This session is a simultaneous homage to and spoof of space-going horror movies, and takes place entirely on the Bebop. During the long journey between planets, Jet discovers a fridge in a back corner that no one knew was there. Shortly after, the crew is terrorized by a bizarre blob of black slime with a poisonous bite that was spawned when Spike accidentally left a Ganymede rock lobster in said fridge...for a year. After the blob attacks Jet, Faye and Ein, a heavily armed Spike decides to take action. After temporarily neutralising the blob, he releases the fridge into space, but is also attacked in the process. In a comical, unclimactic ending, we see Ed eat the blob in a half-asleep daze. The fate of the crew is unknown; it is possible that this Session was completely staged, although, before venturing to locate the blob, Spike sets a course for Mars, implying the crew may receive medical attention there. The ending scene of this session may be considered a reference to "2001: A Space Odyssey". The Japanese title of this session, 闇夜のヘヴィ・ロック (Yamiyo no Hevi Rokku), literally means "Dark Night of Heavy Rock". | ||
| 12 | "Jupiter Jazz (Part 1)" |
|
| Faye cleans out the safe and leaves the Bebop, evidently for good. Ed, searching the 'net for signs of her, comes up with the name "Julia" instead. Spike wants to pursue this Julia (the blonde woman from Session 5) immediately, while Jet intends to look for Faye; the two part on bad terms. Faye, in the meantime, has found her way to the town of Blue Crow on Callisto, a snowbound colony populated entirely by men. Spike follows a trail of clues to find Julia to the same place, seeking a saxophone player named Gren. The same Gren rescues Faye from a roving band of lascivious men. He takes her back to his place...where she overhears an answering machine message from Vicious, who is on-planet to broker a deal for Red Eye. Spike confronts Vicious over his use of Julia's name as a code word, and is shot by Vicious' attendant Lin. | ||
| 13 | "Jupiter Jazz (Part 2)" |
|
| After a short recap bringing the audience up-to-date, Gren explains his relationship with Vicious: they were comrades-in-arms in the wars on Titan. Vicious betrayed him, and now he wants to see the man with his own eyes. He leaves Faye imprisoned at the apartment and goes to the meeting spot. Jet, now chasing the bounty on Gren, rescues her. Meanwhile, Spike, whom we discover was shot with a tranquilizer dart, forces himself to get up and continues his quest. He reaches the meeting place at the same time Gren and Vicious do. Lin sacrifices himself to save Vicious from Gren's gunshot, and the three begin a free-for-all airborne mêlée. Gren's case of Red Eye, now in Vicious' possession, turns out to contain a bomb, and Vicious retreats when his mono-racer is compromised. Gren's fighter, damaged, crashes to the snowy ground, and Spike, honoring Gren's last wishes, slingshots the ship back to Titan before returning to the Bebop. | ||
| 14 | "Bohemian Rhapsody" |
|
| In another non-serious episode, the Bebop gang hunts down a bizarre series of Hyperspace Gate Tollbooth robberies, each executed by a different party, and the mastermind that orchestrated the entire thing: Chessmaster Hex. Meanwhile, Ed plays a match of computer chess against Hex for over a week. Along with Brain Scratch, this is the only episode where all five members of Bebop play an equal role in the episode. The rest either focus primarily on one or two characters, or do not have the entire cast of characters at the time. | ||
| 15 | "My Funny Valentine" |
|
| The first half of the episode involves Faye telling Ein (and Spike, who pops out of the bathroom complaining about the length of her soliloquy) about her past. Three years ago, she woke up from a cryogenic sleep now that doctors had finally found a way to cure her wounds from a horrible accident she was in at age 20, after 54 years. She was totally lost in a new world of technology, gates and intrasystem travel, and had no idea who she was, where she had come from, or even what her name was. A kind lawyer, Whitney Hagas Matsumoto, helped get her back on her feet, and then was tragically killed, leaving his personal estate to her...which consisted mostly of debt. The second half involves the bounty Jet has just captured — Whitney Hagas Matsumoto, very fat and very much alive — and Faye's quest to reclaim her past. | ||
| 16 | "Black Dog Serenade" |
|
| An ISSP prison ship has undergone a mechanical malfunction, and has been taken over by the prisoners it was transporting led by Udai Taxim, the assassin who took the arm of the most dangerous opponent the syndicate had ever known: Jet Black, the Black Dog. With this in mind, Jet's former partner, Fad, enlists him for the retrieval operation. The two infiltrate the prison ship, and Jet confronts Udai...only to be told that Fad, long since sold out to the syndicate, was the one who betrayed him that night on Ganymede. Fad, shooting Udai in the head, does not deny it, but allows Jet to win the resulting shoot-out. | ||
| 17 | "Mushroom Samba" |
|
| The Bebop, out of food and fuel, is sideswiped in a hit-and-run off of Europa and crash-lands on Io. Ed, with Ein by her side, is sent out to procure food, and trips over Domino Walker, a bounty head, who is smuggling poisonous mushrooms. While Jet, Faye and Spike fall victim to the narcotic effects of the mushroom (a result of Ed's less-than-scientific test of the mushrooms' effects), Ed and Ein neutralize other bounty hunters and restrain Domino — though she lets him go in exchange for his "bad" mushrooms (i.e., edible shiitake mushrooms), hoping to sell them and unaware that they are worthless. | ||
| 18 | "Speak Like a Child" |
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| Faye wastes money betting on horse racing, while a package arrives on the Bebop addressed to her. It contains an old Betamax video cassette, and Spike and Jet raid an abandoned museum on Earth for an appropriate VCR (they end up with a VHS set instead). The tape turns out to be made by Faye at the age of thirteen, addressed to herself; the contents provide tantalizing clues on her missing past... See Also: Tamatebako | ||
| 19 | "Wild Horses" |
|
| Spike, flying his Swordfish II mono-racer in for maintenance, runs out of gas not far from the garage. Doohan, owner of the garage and former owner of the Swordfish, berates him for not respecting it. In the meantime, Jet and Faye take on a group of bounty hunters who use computer viruses to terrorize intrasystem shipping, and when Spike runs into trouble helping them, Doohan and his assistant Miles take to the skies in a refurbished Space Shuttle Columbia to rescue him. There are several references to Star Trek: Doohan is the name of the actor that played "Scotty", Miles refers to Chief Miles O'Brien, and there's a character named Reggie, a reference to Lieutenant Barclay of Star Trek: The Next Generation. This episode was temporarily removed from airplay in the United States after the 2003 Columbia disaster. | ||
| 20 | "Pierrot le Fou" |
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| Spike faces off against Mad Pierrot, a bizarre killing machine loosely based off The Penguin and The Joker; the episode is an admitted homage to the Bruce Timm Batman animated series. The Japanese title for this episode, 道化師の鎮魂歌 (Dōkeshi no Chinkonka), literally means "Clown's Requiem". Additionally, "Pierrot Le Fou" is an actual French movie directed by Jean-Luc Godard. | ||
| 21 | "Boogie Woogie Feng Shui" |
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| Jet, spurred on by a cryptic e-mail, tries to find an old acquaintance but discovers only his grave — he disappeared under mysterious circumstances — and his daughter, Mei-Fa. She is an expert in feng shui and is being chased by pair of gangsters for her supposed knowledge of the location of the "sun stone", a moon rock from the Gate Incident of 2021 that will help her find her father. Jet attempts to protect her while she follows her father's e-mail instructions. | ||
| 22 | "Cowboy Funk" |
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| A terrorist, "Teddy Bomber", has been using explosives in teddy bears to bring down high-rise buildings in protest of humanity's excesses. Spike attempts to stop him, but constantly runs afoul of "Cowboy Andy", a fellow bounty hunter who is far more similar to Spike than either would care to admit. Totally ignoring Teddy Bomber (who is captured by Jet and Faye), the pair have it out. This episode was temporarily removed from airplay on Cartoon Network after the September 11, 2001 attacks, but has since entered normal rotation. | ||
| 23 | "Brain Scratch" |
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| Faye goes undercover in SCRATCH, a cult that believes in digitizing the soul and uploading it into the internet; its leader, Londes, has a whopping 38 million woolongs on his head. | ||
| 24 | "Hard Luck Woman" |
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| A bounty is placed on a crazy man named Applederry, who is mapping the geography of the planet Earth despite it being altered every few minutes by meteor impacts. In the meantime, Faye investigates her past via the Betamax cassette, particularly a very prominent fountain. She takes Ed along for the ride, and Ed discovers the orphanage where she grew up. Spike and Jet chase Applederry, only to be stymied when Ed sails the Bebop right up to them — Applederry, as it turns out, is her father. In fact, the bounty on Applederry was placed by Ed herself. His offer for her to come with him is totally forgotten when new craters demand his attention. Faye, suddenly remembering all or most of her past, leaves the ship to return to her family's home, now a forgotten wreckage; Ed and Ein leave the series to find Applederry (with the last words, "See you cowgirl, someday, somewhere!"). | ||
| 25 | "The Real Folk Blues (Part 1)" |
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| Spike and Jet, now a duo again for the first time since the second episode, are ambushed by members of the Red Dragon syndicate, but saved by Lin's brother Shin, who explains that Vicious has tried to seize power and been deposed. He will be executed soon, after which anyone associated with him will be hunted down — including Spike and Julia. Most of the episode is devoted to flashbacks that finally explain the past: how Spike and Vicious were comrades in Red Dragon, how Julia came between them, how Spike tired of the syndicate and planned to run away with her, and how Julia betrayed him (due to Vicious' coercion). Faye, in the meantime, almost trips over Julia, who is running from Red Dragon's enforcers; Julia sends her back to the Bebop to tell Spike that, this time, she will make their rendezvous. The Red Dragon come for the Bebop, and Spike and Faye take to their fighters to defend their home; simultaneously, Vicious' execution turns into his real coup d'état, and Red Dragon's elders are killed. The episode ends with Spike in a graveyard, face to face with Julia. | ||
| 26 | "The Real Folk Blues (Part 2)" |
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| Spike and Julia pick up where they left off in their plans to escape Red Dragon, enlisting Annie's help — only to find that Vicious' goons have gotten there already. After laying Annie to rest, they fight their way out, but Julia is shot and killed. Spike returns to the Bebop for one last meal with his family, and then storms Red Dragon's headquarters; with a bit of assistance from Shin, he makes it to the top floor, scathed, where he and Vicious confront each other for a final time. Spike and Vicious duel. In the heat of their brawl, both weapons are simultaneosly knocked out of each others hands. Spike with Vicious's katana in hand and Vicious cluthing Spike's Jericho 941, Spike saying, "Julia is dead... Let's finish this!" and Vicious retorts "As you wish." Both slide their respected weapons back to one another, and as Spike shoots, Vicious runs his blade across his abdomen. Vicious falls dead. Spike stumbles out of Vicious' chamber, clutching his side and bleeding profusely, and begins to descend a long staircase as several gangsters stare in awe and a bright light fills the room. Spike then raises his right hand, positioning his fingers to resemble a gun, says "Bang" and collapses. Then the credits begin to roll with the stars as a background. Nearing the end of the credits a bright red star on the horizon fades out, symbolizing that a warrior has lost his life. | ||
- Cowboy Bebop Screenshots Gallery Of each episode.
| Characters | Episodes | Cowboy Bebop: The Movie | Manga | Bountyheads
Music: The Seatbelts | Yoko Kanno | Cowboy Bebop (album) | Vitaminless | No Disc | Blue | music for freelance | Ask DNA | Future Blues | Cowgirl Ed | Box Set | Tank! THE! BEST! Misc: Red Eye | Woolong | Cowboy Bebop (PlayStation game) | Cowboy Bebop (PlayStation 2 game) |
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