Line #10 Recap/CowboyBebopSession25TheRealFolkBluesPart1


1	!! Short summary
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3	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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5	!! Main summary
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7	It's a rainy day on Mars. A blonde woman arrives home and receives a message to flee, warning that she's in danger.
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9	Vicious goes to meet with the Red Dragon gang Elders. They declare him an arrogant and untrustworthy serpent, ineligible to succeed them for leadership. Suddenly the room erupts in gunfire as Vicious launches a coup: Unfortunately the coup fails. The Elders sentence Vicious to death. As he is taken away to be imprisoned, he warns them that "a snake's venom poisons slowly after the bite".
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11	Spike and Jet are drinking in a bar. They hear approaching footsteps and take cover as Red Dragon members shoot up the bar. Jet is shot in the leg. One gang member called Shin (Jin's brother) decides to help them: Spike warns him that if he does, he won't be able to return to the syndicate. Shin tells them about the failed coup and Vicious' imprisonment. He also tells them that both Spike and Julia are in danger, and to go to Tharsis city. Shin them gives them cover fire to escape. Spike takes Jet to a vet for bullet removal and treatment.
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13	In a flashback, Spike tells Julia that he will be leaving the syndicate after one last job. He tells her to meet him in a certain graveyard, and begs her to leave with him, which she refuses. Later, in the same room, Vicious is standing over Julia and holding a gun to her head. He orders Julia to kill Spike or both of them will be killed.
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15	Faye is waiting at a spaceport while her ship is unloaded. Spike calls her and asks they meet in Tharsis, ostensibly to help Jet while he recovers. Faye angrily declares she won't just come running back to them and hangs up. Just then a car chase rounds the corner, a red car being shot at by a black car. Faye shoots out the black car's tyre, causing it to crash. The driver of the red car, a blonde woman, picks Faye up as she passes, and Faye stops a second black car that pursues them. Catching their breath, the driver thanks Faye for the help. Faye reveals she is bounty hunter, and the driver states that she's looking for a (specific) bounty hunter. Dropping Faye off back at the spaceport, the driver introduces herself as Julia and says "if you see Spike, tell him I'll be waiting for him there."
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17	On the Bebop, Jet tells Spike a short story about a man rescued from the Savannah on the brink of death. Jet says he hates stories like that, where men only think about their past right before their death, as if searching for proof they're alive. He asks why Spike can't forget the past: Spike says he met a woman who made him feel truly alive. Faye boards the Bebop to relay her message. Jet expresses shock when she says the message is from Julia. An ISSP officer calls Jet and is relieved he's OK: He tells Jet about the failed coup, and that the Elders ordered that anyone associated with Vicious - no matter how tenuously, positively or negatively - is to be killed. This includes Spike. At that moment, the Bebop is set upon by a number of Red Dragon ships. Spike leaps into his ship, and freezes when Faye tells him Julia's name and message. However, he doesn't responds to Faye and takes off. Faye joins the fight too, both fending off the Red Dragon ships. Once they have been defeated, Jet tells Spike to go "find what you lost and get it back".
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19	Vicious is chained up in front of a firing squad. Vicious' bird flies down and causes a distraction, then the guards in the room who are secretly loyal to Vicious free him and kill the others. All three of the Elders are killed, and Vicious announces that he is now the leader of the Red Dragons.
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21	Spike meets Julia in a graveyard, picking up a red rose she left lying on the ground. Silently, she points a gun at him.
22	----
23	!! Tropes:
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25	* BondVillainStupidity: 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 XanatosGambit.
26	* {{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.
27	* TheCoup: Vicious enacts his plans to take over the Syndicate. It seems to fail at first, but he eventually succeeds.
28	* DisproportionateRetribution: 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.
29	* {{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.
30	* GrandFinale: Part one of two.
31	* InsaneTrollLogic: Jet lampshades in-story to Bob just how stupid and insane the Elders' DisproportionateRetribution 'logic' is.
32	* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: 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.
33	* PoliceAreUseless. 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).
34	* ThePurge: 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.
35	* XanatosGambit: 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.

Context Recap / CowboyBebopSession25TheRealFolkBluesPart1