This initially teases an Alien vibe, but it ends up quite hilarious. The real lesson: don't leave things in the fridge!
this one was so fucked up
This should be episode 11
Episode 15
(Episodes all out of order)
[7.6/10] This one feels pretty plainly like a rip-off of Ridley Scott’s Alien. But you know what? I really like Alien. There are worse plots and atmospheres for a science-fiction story to borrow, I tell you. Which is a long walk to say that I enjoyed this one.
We’ve seen Cowboy Bebop adopt several moods and tones to this point, but I don’t think we’ve seen straight horror like this before. Some difficult-to-see goop monster, marauding through the ship and inflicting its venomous bite on the crew one at a time ratchets up the tension with each victim who falls to it. Watching it strike slowly and steadily, as we see from the creature’s perspective, until Spike realizes what’s up and starts hunting the thing, gives you that slasher movie vibe that Ridley Scott’s 1979 classic had.
The philosophical double-speak from Jet and Faye doesn’t do much for me, but the escalating number of victims of the little blob creature does. (Plus poor Ein! Saddest moment in the episode!)
Spike’s crusade to get it makes for some of the cooler sequences in the show. Again, there’s plenty of Alien homages between the flamethrower and the airlock sequence. But I’m particularly impressed at how the show manages to make the forgone conclusion of him blasting the offending source of the goop off the ship into a suspenseful race against time and will as Spike tries to complete the process before he passes out. The cuts and direction really sell the tenuousness of his position here.
Plus this may be the funniest conclusion to any Cowboy Bebop episode. The fact that this whole rigamarole started because Jet left something in the fridge for too long is low key hilarious. Hell, even Annoying Ed inadvertently saving the day with her sleep eating, by mistaking the little blog for pudding, makes for an amusing capper.
But the piece de resistance here is the closing ballet number. Something about watching the dilapidated fridge spewing sparkles as it spins through the cosmos, with cuts to the balletic grace of the goop ball’s weightless victims left in their element is one of the most striking bits of imagery we’ve seen so far. I hope it’s one of the more iconic parts of this show’s long tail.
Overall, if you’re going to steal, steal from the best and put your own spin on it. “Toys in the Attic” does that and more.
Shout by FLYVIP 2BlockedParent2022-01-07T22:10:36Z
15.My Funny Valentine (in case order changes again)
At last a Faye episode, with the surprising reveal of where her huge debt comes from, and the totally different person she was. It is quite an interesting idea, and we get sweet, sad and funny moments mixed together. The fact that she tells her tragic life story to the dog while Spike is on the toilet, hearing it all is the kind of little detail that makes it even better.
A thing that always seemed strange to me though,why does she really have that debt ? Isn't the doctor just a con artist ? Wasn't it all as scam to dump all of Whitney's debt ? Or was the doctor really working for the cryo company in the beginning ?
A bit sad that we never get to see how she becomes what she is now, like when and how did she train to be a bounty hunter, and a bit of a con artist ? That would be a great side story.
Noteworthy; they DO get the bounty, however small it is.