A massive haul of bounties are announced on Big Shot due to a prison transport crashing and letting loose dangerous criminals. One of them, a fellow named Udai Taxim, triggers Jet as he was the criminal who cost him his arm during his police days, was framed and ended up in prison for eight years. Wanting to settle the score, Jet links up with his old partner Fad and heads out after Udai. He orders Spike and Faye to team up and score some bounties, but the two squabble on which ones to go after. Meanwhile Vicious meets with Mao and tries to gain her allegiance in taking over the Syndicate.
Tropes
- Adaptational Villainy:
- Fad in the anime actually showed remorse for what he did to Jet so that when the truth was revealed, he let Jet kill him in atonement. Here, he shows no such scruples and doesn't hesitate in trying to kill Jet when he finds him out.
- Mao in the anime was a Syndicate member but was willing to break bread with the other Syndicate bosses to avoid any more bloodshed, only being stopped by Vicious. Here, she considers Vicious' plan to overthrow the elders.
- Adaptational Wimp: Udai isn't much of a killer in this one, surrendering and more then willing to talk when he was cornered. It's only something happening that he was prevented (Fad shooting Jet in the past and Fad shooting him in the present).
- Bittersweet Ending: Jet kills Fad (largely out of self defense) for his actions in the past but it's clearly not a happy victory for him since he thought Fad was a friend. Also, since Fad killed Udai, no one can clear Jet's name on who the real corrupt cop was. Chalmers, a fellow member of the ISSP who has in fact been trying to get this testimony from Udai, lampshades this after he and his partner arrive on the scene after everything is said and done.Chalmers: Shit Jet, you got the worst luck I've ever seen.Jet: Yeah... I'm aware of that.
- Blinded by the Light: In the flashback, Jet is holding Udai at gunpoint and demands to know the identity of the Dirty Cop he's working with. Then he's blinded by the headlights of a parked car and someone shoots him with a police-issue revolver. As he never saw his assailant, he has no idea which one of his fellow officers set him up to be killed.
- Continuity Nod: Gunther, the assassin that tried to killed Spike in the second episode, is brought up between Mao and Vicious, revealing that he was one of Mao's top men that she had loaned to Vicious. Naturally she wasn't happy to have him returned in a box.
- Corrupt Cop: Fad is revealed to be one, stating he threw in with the Syndicate to cover his everyday expenses.
- Decade-Themed Filter: There's a sepia-tinted flashback to Jet Black's days as a detective in the ISSP, which has a 1950's style clothing and vehicles. This continues even in contemporary scenes where Jet works with his ex-partner to find out who framed him back then.
- Dramatic Irony: If Jet had just let Chalmers do his job, he'd be in the clear. Of course, Chalmers is also Jet's top suspect for being the crooked cop — possibly related to the fact that Alicia divorced Jet while he was in jail and re-married Chalmers.
- Dramatic Shattering: Julia at the end of the episode drops her glass when she comes to realize that Fearless aka Spike is still alive.
- Every Scar Has a Story: While bragging about their previous bounty hunts, Spike and Faye show off the scars they got from them.
- Extended Disarming: Faye Valentine demonstrates (while holding Ein as a dance partner) how she took down a notoriously well-armed bounty by dancing the tango with him, and surreptitiously removing various guns, knives and a knuckle duster—which she then used to knock him unconscious. Even Spike is moved to applaud.
- Flashback:
- The episode begins with one showing Jet working on the case that ended with him losing an arm.
- When Mao discusses the the third boss, Santiago, we see a brief glimpse of why he's so feared.
- When Faye recounts to Spike how she captured a bounty via a dance, we get a brief snippet of it as she dances with Ein.
- Friendship Moment:
- Before Fad's betrayal, Jet and he are shown to get along well, working in tandem and joking back and fourth.
- Spike and Faye bond a bit while taking about their previous bounty hunts.
- Gender Flip: Mao in the anime was middle-age man. Here, she's a middle-aged woman.
- Groin Attack: Turns out The Eunuch isn't called that for lack of balls, but for cutting off someone else's balls and eating them!
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Fad was the reason Jet lost an arm in the past, having shot him back then. When he tries to kill Jet in the present, Jet blocks the bullet with his prosthetic arm allowing him to return fire and kill Fad.
- Interrogation by Vandalism: Jet and Fad go visit a criminal who lost his teeth falling down the stairs during their last encounter. This time they remove his expensive false teeth and start pulling the teeth out one at a time until he talks. They then hold the teeth hostage as insurance he won't tip off the man they're looking for.
- Mundane Luxury: Faye convinces Spike to try her shower-bath-shower bathing technique (not to mention the Joy of the Loofah). Apparently onsens are unknown in the future, or Spike just isn't familiar with them.
- Pride: Vicious angrily refuses to let his wife sing for Mao, and tries to storm off until Julia starts singing on the spot.
- Rock–Paper–Scissors: Spike and Faye do this trope to decide which bounty they're going after. Faye suggests they do "Ninja-Bear-Hunter" instead (Hunter kills bear, Bear eats Ninja, Ninja kills Hunter) and when Spike doesn't recognise it suggests "Foot-Cockroach-Atomic Bomb" (Atomic Bomb kills the human foot, the foot steps on cockroach, cockroach outlives the Bomb). Spike then insists they do the old fashioned Rock-Paper-Scissors and correctly works out that Faye always goes for the third option.
- Skewed Priorities: There's a massive breakout from a crashed prison ship, leading to any number of lucrative potential bounties. Spike and Faye spend the entire episode engaging in Snark-to-Snark Combat and arguing over which bounty to choose, so they never even leave the ship. Fortunately it's not a complete waste of time, as the experience enables them to bond. (They also turn out to have reasonable concerns about most of the bounties, given that one or the other of them is who brought a lot of them in to start with.)
- Smoke Out: Made more effective when Fad smashes the hookah in the opium den, not only covering their escape but also knocking out everyone in the building. Unfortunately, this includes the man who was supposed to lead them to Udai.
- Suspicious Spending: Fad suspects Duero as the Dirty Cop due to her lakeside house. Subverted as he is the corrupt one. The reason Fad doesn't spend the money in suspicious ways is because he puts it down into debts.
