Cowboy Bebop Session #2: Stray Dog Strut

Session #2: Stray Dog Strut

A guy in a bathroom stall is unwrapping bandages that were over his face. He's sporting a big afro and some gawdy jewelry. Three guys with guns position themselves in front of the stall door and tell "Abdul-Hakim" to come out. Almost in one fluid motion, Abdul-Hakim knocks all three of them out and calmly walks away carrying a briefcase. Seeing as he's a tall black guy who knows martial arts, I think Abdul-Hakim may be a nod to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who studied martial arts, and was the veritable "final boss" at the end of the pagoda that Bruce Lee was fighting his way through in Game of Death, the movie he was filming when he died. Also he was a vampire. Seriously, its sort of awesome. And actually, going to the IMDB page, his character's name was Hakim, so that would seem to increase the chance that I actually know what I'm talking about. We get our title screen--"Stray Dog Strut"--and then see the Bebop cruising through the gates on its way to Mars.

Aboard the Bebop, Spike kicks the TV, which is coming in as white noise--weirdly still a problem in the future--and gets it to work, and we get our first glimpse at Big Shots: The Bounty Hunters. I'm convinced that this needs to be made into an actual show. I never make a point to watch "America's Most Wanted" with John Walsh, though I do hear that that show has had a lot of success over the years in terms of getting people to give valuable information to the police that eventually lead to the capture of some high profile suspects. Now, if it was a black guy and a ditsy blonde girl inexplicably wearing cheesy cowboy outfits and telling me how to "wrassle up some criminals" I know I'd totally watch that show. I think the execs at Fox have some retooling to do. Anyway, the Big Shots hosts tell us that Abdul Hakim is a notorious criminal and in his latest caper he stole an experimental lab animal. Conveniently, as the show's ending, Spike gets a videophone call from "Doc", who had his lab busted up by Hakim, and who has a description of his face post-plastic surgery (hence the bandages). The game is afoot.

Back on Mars, Hakim ducks into a little hole-in-the-wall Chinese bar (literally ducks in, as he's taller than door) and asks for some lao chu. The drink is red, maybe fitting in with the whole red motif I mentioned in the previous Bebop post, or maybe just coincidentally. A scruffy looking guy runs into him at the far and tries to apologize, and is somewhat miffed when his apology is met with silence. Abdul-Hakim grabs a cockroach crawling across the table, drops it in his drink, and shoves it down the guy's throat. During the tussle, a man with glasses manages to sneak in, grab the briefcase, and run off with it. He hops on the back of the trunk, opens up the case, and is surprisingly met with a growling noise. Elsewhere, two guys in white coats are driving another truck, discussing how Hakim took out three of their associates and how Hakim has no idea how much "that thing" he's carrying is worth. Spike talks to the proprietor of a weapon's shop who talks like he should be in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, and who tells him he'll find what he's looking for at a pet store. The spectacled man is trying to sell whatever's in the briefcase to the somewhat eccentric pet store owner, when he sees Spike, in an amusing moment, watching him through the other side of a fish tank. Spike takes him to be Abdul-Hakim with another new face. The store owner opens the case and produces... a pembroke welsh corgi! Spike leaves as the guy attempts to talk the pet store owner into giving him more than the 2 wulongs she says the dog is worth. Abdul-Hakim shows up and puts a gun to his back and asks for it back. Quite a commotion breaks out, and Spike sees Hakim come running out as he's walking away dejected. Suddenly he's interested again. The two guys in white coats follow in their truck as well.

Hakim runs after the dog while Spike runs after Hakim. In a great rule of threes bit, the chase brings them in the path of a crowd of people watching two guys play a game of Go. The corgi ducks under the table on which they're playing, Hakim swiftly jumps over it, and Spike, uncaring, just crashing through it, sending pieces flying. Then the two guys in white coats show up and stop in their tracks as the Go crowd just scowl at them, crouched over the ruins of their board. Spike catches up with Hakim and they have themselves a bit of a spar, seemingly being roughly equal in skill. The corgi thinks, "to hell with this" and jumps down onto a passing barge. Spike and Hakim both jump down after it. Spike ends up falling in the river, but comes up with the dog. Spike brings the dog back to Jet, who confirms that its just a regular corgi and nothing else, but seems to take a liking to it--moreso than Spike, who is just annoyed by the whole concept of pets. The dog's owner, however, is worth a fortune, says Jet, and he has a plan.

The two guys in white coats, meanwhile, are back in the truck, with some of their also white coat-wearing brethren, still trying to track down what they now describe as a "data dog." Spike takes Ein for a stroll down the street, as Hakim tries unsuccessfully to postpone a meeting with the guy he's supposed to meet up with when he has the dog. Hakim gets stopped by an old man sitting on the sidewalk who says he can tell that he's looking for something, and insists that Pico, his tiny little bird, can help him find it. Begrudgingly, Hakim hears what he has to say. The men in white coats decide they need to turn on the dog whistle, which Ein (they haven't named him in the epsiode yet, but I'm just going to say it. Tired of writing "the corgi") and about a hundred other dogs hear, causing them to start yapping and following the truck. The fortune teller tells Hakim that Pico has picked the moving card and that what he's looking for is about to move, and then says its here just as the big cluster of dogs run down the street being Hakim. This is the second time in as many episodes that a character has gone to a sort of mystic or a spiritual guide for answers and they've pointed them in the correct direction (in "Asteroid Blues", the old Native American mystic tells Spike where to find the "red-eyed coyote). Of course, in Hakim's case, he likely would've figured it out anyway when he heard a cacophony of yapping dogs, but I find it interesting nevertheless. The dog catchers try and launch a net to catch Ein and manage to catch every dog except him. Hakim steals a car from a newly wedded couple, almost runs down Spike, and picks up Ein. Spike gets into his red ship (pretty sure it has a name that I can't recall right now) and pursues Hakim. Ein bites Hakim and jumps out of his car, causing Hakim to lose control. Spike goes after the tumbling Ein ("this is why I hate pets!") and manages to catch him safely on the wing of the ship. Hakim and the dog catchers both go spilling off the side of the road and into the water. Spike brings back Ein to the Bebop and still hasn't warmed up to him, suggesting, maybe only half jokingly, that they just salt him and eat him.

This is more of a lighthearted, comedy-of-errors sort of episode, and there's not that much to discuss in terms of the overarching themes of the show. Its one of my favorite episodes though, with a bunch of genuinely funny bits and an amusing story that manages to throw in a pretty bulky cast of characters and still come to a resolution in just over 20 minutes. Except for maybe "Venture Bros." (new episodes start up again Sunday!), I'm not sure if I know of another half hour show that does that as well as "Bebop." Up next, we meet Faye in what she describes in the episode preview as "a stardust session played in an off-key melody."