"Toys In The Attic" is the eleventh session, or episode, of Cowboy Bebop.
Cast
In order of appearance:
Plot
Something is crawling around the ship. While Ein and Edward are sleeping, Jet and Faye are gambling and Spike is using a welder to cook a shish kabob. Jet has lost most of his things, including all his clothes except his underwear, to Faye in a dice game. He challenges her again but loses when Faye cheats using a device disguised as a bracelet around her leg. Spike enters the room with a shish kabob as Jet takes off the last thing he has - his underwear. Spike tells Jet that's why he never plays against her. Spike eats the shish kabob and seems not to like it.
The creature sees a rat and attacks it. The noise wakes Ein, who looks up at a vent and makes a worrisome noise. Jet, now cold and naked, enters the attic to get a blanket and sees a fridge in the back. He doesn't remember the fridge being back there. While he is looking at the fridge the strange creature is zooming around. Faye is sitting on the couch with all the stuff she won from Jet when Spike walks into the room brushing his teeth. Spike touches the device on her leg with his foot and says that she is lucky Jet didn't know about that. Spike asks her to return Jet's clothes. Faye says she will rent them to him. The alarm goes off and Spike, Faye and Ein rush over to the attic where Jet says he has been bitten by something. Ein starts to growl and a rat runs away. Jet says it wasn't a rat because there is a strange mark on his neck. Faye walks away saying its a waste of time. Jet says that it happened near the fridge. Spike pauses in thought for a moment, then claims he doesn't remember a fridge. He dismisses Jet's claims and leaves.
Spike and Jet are back in the main room looking through medicine to use for Jet's bite mark. Spike holds out a dead lizard and says that if you smash it, boil it, then drink it the wound should be gone. Jet asks if there is another option. Spike holds up a dead scorpion. Jet says he prefers the lizard. Spike gives Jet a glass filled with the medicine and Faye enters. She asks what the terrible smell is. Spike tells her it's the medicine Jet has to take. Spike and Faye discuss the awful things that it smells like. Jet becomes annoyed and tells them to stop because he has to drink it. He drinks it then passes out. While he is passed out a large purple mark is visible on the back of his neck. Jet, still unconscious, is put on a couch where Spike uses a computer to find out what is happening to him. It is revealed that Jet has some kind of unidentifiable poison in his body. Jet, who is awake again, is laying down with nervous looks on his face while Spike tries to compare it to other types of poisons, bacteria and viruses. It matches none of them. Spike and Faye hear Ein barking and tell him to keep quiet. Ed jumps out and claims Jet's injury might be a bite from an alien. Spike dismisses Ed's theory. He theorizes that it might have been a rat that went through a mutation. Faye tells them both that their theories are ridiculous and walks off.
The creature is crawling through the vents above the bathroom. Faye is sitting in a bubble bath reading a book when the blob falls from the vent to the floor. Faye reacts as if she may have seen or heard something, but ignores it and continues reading. One of her legs dangles over the edge of the tub, leaving her vulnerable to the creature. Spike dons heat-sensing goggles and tells Ed to stay still. She puts on goggles of her own and runs away with Ein. While Spike is looking through the goggles he sees a blob dash across the floor. Faye comes out in a bathrobe and asks Spike what he thinks would happen if the mutant creature were to bite anyone. Spike says he don't know and Faye assumes it is death. She behaves melodramatically and drops to the floor. Spike sees a purple mark on her leg similar to the one on Jet's neck.
Ed and Ein are exploring deep in the ship. Spike is behind looking for them. Ein separates from Ed and is attacked by the creature. Spike hears Ein's cry and runs him. He finds Ein passed out with the purple mark on his side. Spike, still wearing heat vision goggles, sees the creature slither across the hallway and then toward him. He grabs Ein and manages to escape it by climbing down a ladder. Spike then lays Ein down in the main room with Faye and Jet. He decides he has no choice and has to go after the creature. He arms himself and deactivates the artificial gravity. While searching the ship, he finds the heat vision goggles Ed had been wearing and assumes the creature got her as well. As Spike creeps down a hall he sees oil leaking from a pipe on the ceiling and is startled. Realizing it is simply oil, he relaxes and starts to light a cigarette. Meanwhile, the real creature drops behind him and attacks him. Spike throws gas grenades at it and quickly runs out and seals the room.
Spike then opens the door again and the creature flies out. Spike shoots at it with a gun but isn't able to hit it. He switches to the flamethrower and manages to scorch the creature. Spike then realizes it smells familiar. The scorched creature reminds him of the smell of food. He then remembers the fridge that Jet mentioned. He goes into the attic and remembers that a year ago he got a hold of a rare lobster and stored it in the fridge in the back of the attic so nobody could eat it. He had forgotten it was there. Spike opens the fridge to see what the thing looks like and is disturbed, as the entire fridge is filled with what looks like mutant fungal growth. He opens the air hatch and pushes the fridge into open space. The creature that had been burned managed to move away and bite Spike on the arm just as he shut the hatch. As the fridge drifts in space, it rotates, leaving a bright, sparkling trail behind it as a section of Tchaikovsky's "Waltz of the Flowers" plays.
Later, Ed is sleeping and wakes up briefly. The creature is moving down a passageway towards her. She refers to the creature as a "red bean pastry", or "pudding" in the American dub, grabs it, and eats it. She then goes back to sleep.
Quotes
- “Humans were meant to work and sweat to earn a living. Those that try to get rich quick, or live at the expense of others, all get divine retribution somewhere along the line. That's the lesson. Unfortunately we quickly forget the lessons we've learned. And then we have to learn them. All over again.”
- — Jet Black
- “'Survival of the fittest' is the laws of nature. We deceive. Or we are deceived. Thus, we flourish. Or, perish. Nothing good ever happened to me when I trusted others. That, is the lesson.”
- — Faye Valentine
- “Lesson, lesson... if you see a stranger, follow him.”
- — Edward
- “And what was the real lesson? Don't leave things in the fridge.”
- — Spike Spiegel
Homages and References
- The plot structure and atmosphere of this session, with an unseen alien monster attacking the crew, is an homage to the 1979 movie Alien.
- This session also bears resemblance to the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "The Alternate".
- The jettisoning of a container, the use of "Waltz of the Flowers", and the autopilot flying the ship while all of the passengers are incapacitated could be in homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey
- The session's fridge monster might be a reference to the blob creature in John Carpenter's first film "Dark Star".
- The session's English title is a reference to the Aerosmith album of the same name.
- Route 66 is one of the first interstate roads to stretch the majority of the continental United States.
- Spike gearing up to fight the creature is similar to a scene from Arnold Schwarzenegger in "Commando".
Trivia
- The entire Bebop crew is completely fine the next episode with no symptoms, and while it is never explained how they all got better, mid-way through, Spike is seen setting the ship to "full autopilot" mode en route to Mars, so it can be presumed that Ed summoned help after landing. Ed states in the preview of the next episode that everyone died and she is now the star of the show called "Cowgirl Edward".
- In another Watanabe anime, Space Dandy, an appearance by the fridge monster is made towards the beginning of episode 8.
Gallery
