Cowboy bebop the real folk blues part 1

Cowboy bebop the real folk blues part 1
Cowboy bebop the real folk blues part 1
Cowboy bebop the real folk blues part 1
Cowboy bebop the real folk blues part 1
Cowboy bebop the real folk blues part 1
Cowboy bebop the real folk blues part 1
Cowboy bebop the real folk blues part 1
Cowboy bebop the real folk blues part 1

notable songs:

  • Tank! (TV edit) - opener
  • Adieu - played at the beginning of the episode; sung by Emily Bindiger
  • Space Time [unreleased] - Vicious and the Elders.
  • Waltz for Zizi - nostalgic Jet tells Spike a story about a man who hurts his leg.
  • Road to the West - Spike leaves the Bebop/Vicious makes his move.
  • Memory - musicbox-like background music to the graveyard scene.
  • The Real Folk Blues - end credits, sung by Mai Yamane
  • Farewell Blues - appropriately named piece which plays during the preview for the next episode, as Spike, Jet and Faye make their farewells *sniff!*

Vicious makes his move against the elders of the Red Dragon Syndicate, but it fails and as such all who're associated with him are set to be killed. This ends up putting a target on Spike with Jet and he barely managing to get escape thanks to an old associate of Spike's. Meanwhile, Faye is left wandering after finding her home is no longer around anymore and has a chance encounter with Spike's old flame, Julia.

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Tropes:

  • Bond Villain Stupidity: The Elders keep Vicious alive to first torture and punish him rather than just executing him on the spot. It ultimately gets them killed, as Vicious correctly anticipated this would be their response if the initial coup failed and built it into his Xanatos Gambit.
  • Cliffhanger: Vicious manages to kill the elders and take over the Red Dragons and Spike meets with Julia in the rendezvous he had set years ago. But she ends up pointing a gun at him when he gets there.
  • The Coup: Vicious enacts his plans to take over the Syndicate. It seems to fail at first, but he eventually succeeds.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: The Elders' response to the failed coup. Eliminating Vicious' faction, while brutal, is at least justified to prevent them from trying to rescue their leader or launching another coup. But then they take it even further by targeting anybody with any kind of connection to Vicious, no matter how incidental or tangential. Even current enemies of Vicious (i.e. Spike) aren't safe, either.
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  • Foreshadowing: Vicious's ominous comment to the elders, "Don't forget, a serpent's venom poisons slowly after the bite," alludes to the fact that his real takeover plan has yet to transpire. Even before that, when the elders reveal themselves; unlike the four men accompanying him, Vicious doesn't flinch when the lights come on, or look surprised in any way.
  • Grand Finale: Part one of two.
  • Insane Troll Logic: Jet lampshades in-story to Bob just how stupid and insane the Elders' Disproportionate Retribution 'logic' is.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Bob calls Jet late in the episode, he's rattled and relieved Jet's still alive. It underscores how badly the Red Dragon's retaliation against Vicious' associates must be going if the Bebop's normally cynical ally is this close to outright panic.
  • Police Are Useless. Justified. Given how much power the Red Dragon Syndicate commands, Bob knows the ISSP can't stop them (and warns Jet to flee Mars while there's still time).
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  • The Purge: The Elders target all of Vicious' associates past and present after his capture. Of course, then Vicious turns the tables and does the same to them.
  • Xanatos Gambit: Vicious allows himself to be caught so that he can enact his real plan by having members of the syndicate loyal to him be within the firing squad. His bird explodes (it's unknown if that was deliberate or a robot) and provides a distraction while his men free him and kill two of the elders. He kills the third and completes his takeover.
  • You Can't Go Home Again: Not that Spike had any intention of returning to the Syndicate, but he remarks that when they start targeting you, it means you can never go back.

Welcome to the Cowboy Bebop episode guide! This time out, we’re looking at episode 25, “The Real Folk Blues, Part 1.”

Welp, we’ve said goodbye to Ein and Ed, and partially said goodbye to Faye, so it’s almost time to say goodbye to Cowboy Bebop entirely. Sad times, but there are few shows that have such a definite arc for all its characters, and this show does it better than just about anybody.

But anything with a beginning needs an end, and Bebop ends with a two-parter entitled “The Real Folk Blues,” which also happens to be the name of the end theme song. For 25 weeks, we’ve been getting little hints and clues surrounding Spike Spiegel’s history with Mars’ Red Dragon Syndicate, his arch-rival/former best friend Vicious, and the mysterious blonde named Julia around whom everything hinges. We now have the answers, we just don’t have a conclusion…yet.

Cowboy bebop the real folk blues part 1
Sunrise

The pre-credit sequence to the show’s very first episode, “ Asteroid Blues,” features black-and-white glimpses of a huge gun battle involving our hero Spike that resulted in the dropped rose, which became a recurrent image on the program. This was followed by episode 5, “ The Ballad of Fallen Angels,” where we first see Vicious and get the inklings about Spike’s troubled history as well as flashback images of Julia. This was followed by episodes 12 and 13, “ Jupiter Jazz part 1” and “ Jupiter Jazz part 2” in which Spike meets Vicious again, we learn of Vicious’ former military days with Gren, and Spike’s former friend Lin who lost his life remaining loyal to Vicious and the Syndicate.

For a full 12 episodes, we’ve had nothing else about Spike’s past, but these laid the groundwork for the finale. Did we want more? Yes. But did we need more? I don’t think so; Spike needs to remain a mystery, from his friends and from the audience.

Cowboy bebop the real folk blues part 1
Sunrise

We begin by learning that Vicious has attempted (yet again) to take control of the Red Dragon Syndicate and has been turned down by the Elders. This leads him and his followers to attempt a coup that is ultimately foiled. Vicious is taken prisoner. Despite his request to just be killed, the Elders wish to make him suffer first. Julia gets a message on her answering machine telling her of Vicious’ capture and warns her that Syndicate people will be after her soon too.

In a seedy bar on Mars, Spike and Jet drink away their sorrows after their whole crew up and left them. Jet laments that he now understands why Spike was always so against women, children, and animals, but it’s clear, despite Spike’s constant nihilism, that he probably liked having Ein, Ed, and Faye around. Just then, Syndicate thugs raid the bar and begin firing, killing the bartender. Spike and Jet take cover and return fire with Jet catching a slug in the leg. They’re soon joined by Shin, the brother of Spike’s former friend Lin, who was working with Vicious to overthrow the Elders. He warns Spike that the Syndicate is trying to wipe out anyone who has ever been associated with Vicious, and that includes Spike and Julia.

Cowboy bebop the real folk blues part 1
Sunrise

Shin helps Spike drag Jet out and to a local clinic to patch up his leg, and Spike then starts to tell Jet about Julia and Vicious, names that always sound like “doom” to Jet’s ears. Spike has a flashback to his final night working with the Syndicate, where he asks Julia to come with him and start a new life. She says she can’t, and that the Red Dragons will kill him if he tries to leave. Spike, though, has a plan to fake his own death and wants Julia to meet him at a graveyard. We then cut to Julia driving on the highway and she has a flashback of her own, with Vicious holding a gun to her head and telling her he won’t kill her if she kills Spike, but if she doesn’t, both of them will be targets.

Cowboy bebop the real folk blues part 1
Sunrise

Faye also happens to be on Tharsis where Julia is and doesn’t have much of a plan. She sees a man come to meet his mother at a spaceport and she thinks he looks familiar. Of course, we know that he’s actually the host of “Big Shot,” minus the ridiculous cowboy outfit and silly accent. She goes out to her Red Tail ship and gets a call from Spike who yells at her to come back and look after the wounded Jet. Naturally, this isn’t the kind of talk to which Faye responds, so she hangs up, just in time to see a black car chasing Julia’s red convertible down the street, firing at her. Faye, for seemingly no reason other than women sticking together, uses her amazing aiming skills to shoot out the black car’s tire. Julia stops near her and she gets in, firing on the other car that has materialized. She gets that one too and the two ladies drive off, looking supremely badass.

They talk in the car and Faye reveals that she’s a bounty hunter, or at least used to be but is taking a break. Julia then asks if she can get word to a fellow bounty hunter, and that her name is Julia. Faye wonders if it’s the same Julia Spike has mentioned but somehow Julia knows Faye knows Spike and just says “Tell Spike to meet me at ‘the place.’ He’ll know where.” Julia then drives off and Faye decides to go find the Bebop.

Cowboy bebop the real folk blues part 1
Sunrise

Back on the Bebop, Faye lands and Spike starts to chide her about leaving in the first place, but she tells him about Julia and the request to meet. He gets angry and hops in his Swordfish and takes off. Jet comes out and yells at Faye also, but she tells him about Julia as well. Before Spike can leave, the Bebop is attacked by Syndicate fighters and Spike is the only fighter that can help, since Faye’s ship has been badly damaged. Spike fights off some of the Syndicate, but Jet eventually tells him to go meet Julia and to end what’s been troubling him for so long.

Meanwhile, Vicious is about to be put to death, but just as the firing squad is about to shoot, Vicious’ black stork flies in and explodes, and several of the firing squad members begin firing on their own guys. Vicious, now free, grabs his katana and cuts down several of the Elders. He announces that the Red Dragon is under new leadership.

At the cemetery, Spike waits in the rain. He spots a rose on the ground and looks up to see Julia, who pulls out the pistol Vicious gave her and points it at Spike. TO BE CONTINUED.

Cowboy bebop the real folk blues part 1
Sunrise

Oh my GOSH what a great cliffhanger. Vicious looks like he’s got the upper hand, the Bebop and Jet specifically are crippled, and Spike’s finally reunited with the woman he loves only to have her pull a gun on him. He doesn’t even look like he cares if she shoots or not. It’s such a perfect set up to the finale. If you thought there would be anything like a happy ending here, you were sorely mistaken, folks.

Are there two versions of Cowboy Bebop?

Two Cowboy Bebop manga series adaptations have been released, both published by Kadokawa Shoten and serialized in Asuka Fantasy DX.

What song is in Cowboy Bebop Episode 24?

Hard Luck Woman is a 1976 lead single by American hard rock band KISS from their album Rock and Roll Over.

Which episode of Cowboy Bebop is best?

Top 10 Cowboy Bebop Episodes, Ranked.
8/10 Ballad Of Fallen Angels..
7/10 Sympathy For The Devil..
6/10 Toys In The Attic..
5/10 Cowboy Funk..
4/10 Waltz For Venus..
3/10 Ganymede Elegy..
2/10 Speak Like A Child..
1/10 The Real Folk Blues (Parts 1 & 2).

Where can I watch OG Cowboy Bebop?

Watch Cowboy Bebop | Netflix.