Honky Tonk Women
From Cowboy Bebop Wiki
| Honky Tonk Women | |
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| Session 3 | |
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| Previous Session: | Stray Dog Strut |
| Next Session: | Gateway Shuffle |
Session 3 : Honky Tonk Women
Cast (in order of appearance): Faye Valentine, Gordon, Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, The Three Old Men, Ein, Punch and Judy.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Faye Valentine walks into a shop on Mars and is tracked down by a group of thugs. She shoots at them first with her Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine gun but they outnumber her and capture her. She is brought to the ship of Gordon, a criminal casino owner, who comments that Faye is the reincarnation of Poker Alice, a famous gambler from the Wild West.
Gordon recruits Faye to help him in an elaborately stage illegal business transaction that involves Faye's talent as a gambler and cheater. In return, Gordon will pay for Faye's accrued debts.
Spike and Jet enter Gordon's casino to get some quick cash since they are down to their last 5 thousand Woolongs. Jet comments that Spike's eyes are too good and he'll get thrown out if he wins too much.
Spike sits down at a blackjack table where Faye is the dealer. She is told that a man with Spike's appearance will sit down at her table, lose all of his money, and give his last chip to her as a tip. Gordon wants Faye to deliver the chip to him and her debt will go away.
But when Spike is down to his last chip he decides to keep it. On his way out he collides with his look-a-like and ends up with the other man's chip--the one that Gordon wanted. Faye catches up to Spike and demands the chip but runs off when a couple of casino thugs approach Spike and ask him to come with them. They start a fight with Spike and it takes a large group of men to take him down.
Meanwhile, Jet has hit a jackpot of playing slots with a total winning of over 200,000 Woolong. Faye uses her bracelet to remotely fly her zipcraft, The Redtail, to her for an escape. Spike and Jet escape from the casino thugs without Jet's winnings and catch Faye before she escapes the casino.
Back on the Bebop they learn from watching Big Shot that Faye is worth 6 million Woolong and they decide to turn her over to the police. Jet inspects the poker chip that Spike picked up and learns that there is a computer chip inside. Gordon calls them and asks for his chip back, but Jet knows its real worth:
- "3 years ago SIT developed a master decryption program called cryptbreaker. Rumor has it that shortly after its completion the programmer turned up dead and the program disappeared. A program with advanced artificial intelligence: tt can decrypt and unlock virtually any security code, but the catch is the program itself is encoded. So whoever has it needs the key to open it. The key to the key so to speak. They say the cops and the ISSP special forces have been searching every corner of the asteroids for it. Guess they never thought to look in a casino, or even if they did who’d suspect a humble poker chip?"
- ―Jet Black
Jet and Gordon arrange a trade of 30 million Woolong for the chip and Spike takes his space suit out for an old-fashioned standoff on the hull of Gordon's ship. Spike throws the chip at a thug and the thug releases a briefcase of money but also shoots a gun at Spike. Spike ducks behind a rotating turbine and sails into the air, knocking the thugs gun away and catching the chip he tossed.
Faye managed to escape her handcuffs using a hairpin, blast her zipcraft through the Bebop's hanger, and takeoff with the briefcase of money before Spike can reach it. Gordon's ship retaliates by firing gunshots and rockets at the Redtail, but Faye is able to reverse the polarity of the rockets and send them back to Gordon's ship, blasting the flight deck away.
Spike escapes with only the poker chip, but to him and Jet it's worthless so they spend it at another casino.
[edit] Memorable Quotes
- Main article: Memorable Quotes from Cowboy Bebop#Honky Tonk Women
[Faye talking to a shopkeeper in a shootout]
- Faye: You know the first rule of combat? Shoot them before they shoot you.
[After Faye is captured and handcuffed by the criminal casino owner, Gordon]
- Gordon: I had no idea the legendary lady luck was still alive—Poker Alice, Queen of Hearts. They tell tales of you on every asteroid from here to T.J.
- Faye: If Alice was still alive she’d be over 200 years old.
- Gordon: That’s true. Considering you’re looking pretty good—hottest granny in the star system. Poker Alice never lost a game, and she never cheated. She was just a born winner.
[Spike and Jet talking in a casino elevator]
- Jet: So Charlie says, “only hands can wash hands. If you want to receive, you have to give.” Something like that—wish I could remember the exact words—anyway, I think Charlie’s telling us to just do it. Ha. What do you make of it?
- Spike: Somehow I don’t think Charlie Parker would be quoting Goethe.
- Jet: Come one, it’s just a dream I had. Lighten up.
- Spike: I have a feeling that dream’s going to suck up our last 5 thousand Woolongs.
[After Faye is captured and handcuffed by Spike and Jet]
- Faye: I can’t be stuck in one place for long—it’ll kill me. My whole family’s like that.
- Spike: Yeah right.
- Faye: We’re Romani’s. For eons we’ve wandered the stars looking for love. It’s our way.
- Spike: Huh?
- Faye: You don’t know anything, do you? Romanies are gypsy’s. And you know what we call someone like you? A gaucho, that means a bumpkin that doesn’t know which way is up.
- Spike: Gaucho. I like that.
- Faye: [howls] The wilds are calling me! You can’t keep me locked up!
[Jet and Spike talking about the bounty on Faye]
- Jet: Spike my friend that girl is money in the bank.
- Spike: Yeah, no penalty for early withdraw.
- Jet: It’s just like Charlie said in my dream. If you want to receive you have to give. See Spike, you got to listen to your dreams, that’s how you find your dream girl.
[edit] Series Connections
- Cigarettes: During the elevator scene Spike attempts to smoke a cigarette but Jet points out that there is "No Smoking Allowed".
- Handcuffs: Twice in this episode Faye is handcuffed. First she is captured and handcuffed by the criminal casino owner, Gordon, and later on she is captured and handcuffed by Spike and Jet. She will be handcuffed once again in Gateway Shuffle.
- Three Old Men: Antonio, Carlos, and Jobim make another appearance in this episode. They are sitting at a blackjack[citation needed] table and Spike taps their facedown card for good luck. The card wins them a large pot and Spike helps himself to a few chips, but otherwise doesn't recognize the three old men from Asteroid Blues.
- Missed Bounty: Spike and Jet learn that Faye has a 6 million Woolong bounty on her head and attempt to collect by turning her over to the police. They fail to do so and throughout the series they are often unsuccessful at collecting on bounties.
[edit] Real World References
- Honky Tonk Woman is a 1969 hit song by the English rock band, The Rolling Stones. The song describes a "honky tonk woman" as a sort of exotic dancer or prostitute.
- A honky tonk is a name given to bars in the Southwest and Deep south as far back as 1894. They may feature piano or live band entertainment, typically cater to a rougher clientele, and may be centers of prostitution.
- Poker Alice was a 19th century professional gambler and card dealer that was skilled in counting cards. Her fame grew in Sturgis and Deadwood, South Dakota around the same time as notable Wild West figures as Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane. Like Faye, she smoked cigars, carried a gun and was a felon.
- Charlie Parker was a 20th century American jazz saxophonist and composer, and is considered one of the most influential jazz musicians. He is considered one of the primary musicians of the bebop form of jazz that is faster and relies more on improvisation with harmony.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was an 18th century German writer famous for writing the play, Faust, and was one of the key figures in the Weimar Classicism movement that spread across Europe and has influenced literature around the world.
[edit] Songs
"Spy"
"Piano Bar I"
"Piano Black"
"American Money"
"Rush"
