Whitney, the woman who claimed herself to be Faye's mother, stops by the Bebop for a visit requesting Faye's help. While dubious, Faye gets the Bebop crew to agree, least until it's revealed that Whitney is on the run from a notorious arms dealer. Meanwhile Vicious meets with Syndicate head Santiago along with Mao to get him on board with his coup plan. But Julia likewise had a secret deal of her own.
Tropes
- Arson, Murder, and Admiration: Whitney's response to seeing Faye stealing her personal spacecraft while Flipping the Bird at her is "That's my girl."
- Aww Look They Really Do Love Each Other: Faye is understandably antagonistic to Whitney for scamming her after coming out of cryo-sleep and obviously just using her for her own end in the episode. But at the end of the day, the two are shown to truly care for the other.
- Bad Boss: Iron Mink kills his mook because he heard the Safe Word he uses with his wife. Whitney points out he could have just chosen a new one.
- Beneath the Mask: Faye's perky façade gives way to tears when she watches the video of her younger self, and hears the voice of her real mother.
- Continuity Nod: Spike still has a headache from what LONDES did to him, and Faye recommends an orgasm to fix the problem due to her more pleasant experience in the same episode.
- Dispense with the Pleasantries: Hearing Mao praise Santiago's wine, Vicious gets annoyed and says, "Shall I come back after the mincing and preening part is over?" So they get down to business and after they've finished Santiago suggests they now "mince and preen" to celebrate their new partnership.
- Facial Recognition Software: Jet is suspicious of Faye's "mother", scans her face and runs it through the computer which produces a vast amount of fake identities, telling him she's a con artist.
- Family of Choice: Invoked when Whitney suggests to Faye they work together as wife and daughter for real. If she's tempted by this offer, realising how crazy Mink and Whitney are puts her off and she flies off to her True Companions.
- Funny Background Event: While Jet is enjoying the recital, we see Spike in the background fighting off the Minks men.
- Go Through Me: Played for Laughs. When Iron Mink demands they hand over his wife, Whitney says he'll have to go through her friends. Our heroes vigorously deny this and proceed to hand her over in handcuffs until Whitney blackmails them into letting her go.
- I Kiss Your Hand: Spike to Whitney after discovering what a great cook she is.
- Implied Death Threat: Santiago uses his knife to dine on juicy tomatoes. Small red ones the size of human testicles, like he famously ate.
- One-Man Army: Spike allows Jet to find a signal and hologram himself so he won't miss Kimmie's recital while he deals with the Minks goons.
- Oh, Crap!: The crew when they find out the person Whitney's running from is the Iron Mink, a very notorious arms dealer. But even moreso when they likewise learn he's her husband.
- Mistaken for Gay: When the boys split up from Faye and Whitney to lure away the Mink's men. They take a bus through town only for it to get stuck in traffic causing Jet and Spike to squabble. One of the passengers sees this and assumes they're a couple. Spike plays along just to annoy Jet.
- Mythology Gag:
- Surprisingly one to the manga tie-in from the original series. Whitney's personality here is based on Faye's mentor, Linda Wise, from manga story "Great Deceiver" who taught her everything she knew and likewise has a complicated relationship with.
- Faye commanders a new ship for herself which is the one she originally uses in the anime, the Red Tail.
- Pet the Dog:
- Once Jet holograms himself to Kimmie's recital, Chalmers reveals to Alisa that the flowers he got for Kimmie were from Jet. Likewise Alisa is very cordial with him, agreeing to send some pictures of the play to Jet and understanding when he has to cut off to get back to work.
- Even though she lied about everything else, Whitney does lead Faye to the identity box like she promised.
- Race Lift: Whitney appears white despite her anime counterpart having darkish skin and a clearly Black uncle.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After seeing Whitney and the Mink make some kinky talk, Faye doesn't bother to hear anymore and takes the Red Tail out of the building.
- Talk to the Fist: Unsurprisingly Faye's first response to seeing Whitney is to slug her.
- Tracking Device: Jet rips off Whitney's wedding ring and removes the diamond to reveal a flashing red light.Faye: Is that a tracker?Whitney: No, Minkie would never... Our relationship is based on trust!Spike: Said the scorpion...
- What the Hell, Hero?: Spike and Jet are not pleased when they find out Faye never revealed everything about herself concerning Whitney and her amnesia.
- You Need to Get Laid: Faye tells Spike he'd be less frustrated if he got the "Big O", citing her own experience from the previous episode and how much better she feels now.
- Zero-G Spot: After experiencing her first orgasm, Faye is eagerly doing research on the subject of sex (though Spike points out the mens' magazine she's reading is not exactly an authoritative source). He leaves her reading up on the art of "pontooning in zero-gravity".
