History Recap / CowboyBebopSession14BohemianRhapsody

* SurpriseCheckMate: Hex and Ed surprise one another through their chess match with unpredictable moves. So much so that the game goes on for about a week. Ultimately Hex wins [[{{Tearjerker}} before passing on.]]

Spike and Faye find old man Hex first, shortly followed by Jonathan, who wildly demands back the money that he lost as a victim of this scheme. Ignoring them all, Hex discusses chess strategies and lunch with other [=OAPs=] who enter the room. Jonathan cracks, shooting the place up while laughing manically until Spike punches him out.

Ed shows them that each chess piece is a digital token to enter an online chess game. They let Ed play some cyber chess against someone while Jet goes to question the CEOs who run the hyperspace gates. He greets another bounty hunter, Jonathan, leaving as Jet enters: Jonathan says this case is "not as easy as it looks". Jet gets no answers directly, but he plants a bug in their office and they soon begin talking among themselves once he leaves, about a cover-up involving a former employee: Chessmaster Hex.

Spike and Faye find old man Hex first, shortly followed by Jonathan, who wildly demands back the money that he lost as a victim of this scheme. Ignoring them all, Hex discusses chess strategies and lunch with other OAPs who enter the room. Jonathan cracks, shooting the place up while laughing manically until Spike punches him out.

Jet summarizes what has transpired in one more meeting with the CEOs: After being fired, Hex set his trap to kick off at the next automatic tech upgrade. That took 50 years, and now Hex is senile and doesn't even remember his own plan. So, now the only ones who could expose the CEOs for their criminal negligence are the Bebop crew. Jet blackmails them into calling off the old man's bounty, to leave him in peace.

* TalkingThroughTechnique: Subverted in this case, the crew of the Bebop thought that the chess pieces they found on apprehended thieves might hold some secret message, but they were merely a signal from Hex to his former employers that he was the one pulling the jobs. He had a reputation as a chess lover.

* AllForNothing: Jet waives any reward/blackmail money for uncovering Hex and the Gate Corporation in exchange for leaving Hex in peace so he and Ed can keep playing chess. Then the old guy wins their week-long match and proceeds to kick the bucket.

* AllForNothing: Jet waives any reward/blackmail money for uncovering Hex and the Gate Corporation in exchange for leaving Hex in peace so Ed and he can keep playing chess. Then the old guy wins their week-long match and proceeds to kick the bucket.
* BoomTown: Sorta, Spike and Faye investigate an old satellite where Hex may be only to find it houses many homeless people who have made the place their own.

* CrazyPeoplePlayChess: He isn't called Chessmaster Hex for nothing. And [[{{CloudcuckooLander}} Ed]] is his opponent. She ''could'' have gone for the checkmate and knows it but instead wants to keep playing, astounding Hex.
* DarkSecret: The Gate Corporation drummed out Hex rather than address his concerns that there were defects in the hypergate technology, leading to the catastrophe which necessitated space colonization. Hex enacts a plan to expose them scheduled to go into effect fifty years later, but grows senile beforehand.
* DespairEventHorizon: Jonathan, a bounty hunter who lost all his money due to collateral damage from Hex's revenge scheme, hunts Hex down to get it back only to find a senile old man. After a brief despair-fueled FreakOut, he ultimately settles down to the local bohemian lifestyle.

* {{Revenge}}: Hex's motive with good reason as he was in charge of making the warp gate that would allow space travel but was kicked off the team before the kinks could be ironed out, leading to the gate explosion. His revenge was meant to coincide with the gate's anniversary, but it wound up being a long waiting time before his plan came to fruition. By the time it did, he had grown old and senile ultimately forgetting about the plan he had put into place.

* TheStoner: While exploring the satellite shanty town, Fae finds herself floating through some conspicuous smoke. That's when she runs into a couple of hippie-looking types:

* TalkingThroughTechnique: Subverted in this case, The crew of the Bebop thought that the chess pieces they found on apprehended thieves might hold some secret message, but they were merely a signal from Hex to his former employers that it was he who was pulling the jobs. He had a reputation as a chess lover.

* DespairEventHorizon: Jonathan, after losing all his money due to Hex's revenge scheme, hunts Hex down to get it back only to find a senile old man. After a brief despair-fueled FreakOut, he ultimately settles down to the local bohemian lifestyle.

* KeepTheReward: Having solved the mystery of Hex's scheme, the Bebop crew are in a position where they can get anything from the gate corporation in exchange for their silence about what really happened about the warp gate. Jet only requests they cancel the bounty on Hex so he may continue his chess match with Ed.

** '''Male hippie''': ''Hi! Peace to the whole galaxy, and to my bank account, love love!''
** '''Female hippie''': ''*holding out what looks very much like a joint* Want one?''

** '''Male hippie''': ''Hi! Peace to the whole galaxy, and to my bank account, love love!

* CrazyPeoplePlayChess: He isn't called Chessmaster Hex for nothing. And [[{{CloudcuckooLander}} Ed]] is his opponent.

The Bebop crew bust their butts taking down bounties, but unless they catch the mastermind behind a money laundering scheme, they can't collect the reward. The only clue they have to go on is a chess piece they got of their perps.

* TalkingThroughTechnique: Subverted in this case, The crew of the Bebop thought that the chess pieces they found on apprehended thieves might hold some secret message, but they were merely a signal from Hex to his former employers that it was he who was pulling the jobs. He had a reputation as a chess lover.

* CrazyPeoplePlayChess: He isn't called Chessmaster Hex for nothing.