Short Summary
During some downtime, a package suddenly arrives for Faye who flees thinking it's something from the debt collectors. Spike and Jet take a look inside and find its a betamax tape. Curious of its content, the two set out to find a beta player which has long since gone obsolete in the future.Main Summary
A package is delivered for Faye, heavily franked and with an extortionate postage fee, which Jet is determined for her to pay. Faye runs away, feeling that something bad is connected to this parcel. Spike opens the package before Jet can return it, finding a strange item: a Betamax Videotape (along with a note saying that pre-cataclysm archives are scarce).Ed traces the history; it's been passed around the whole solar system until it reached Faye. Spike and Jet take the tape to sell to a collector of ancient technology. The man has a range of old video players and televisions, and he's thrilled with what they've brought him. He's not thrilled with Spike smoking, or stubbing his cigarette out on a player. Playing the tape, they see a young woman standing on a beach, but as she turns to face the camera, the image scrambles. Spike kicks the tape deck to try and get it to work, but ends up smashing it. The distraught antiquarian sends them away.
Ed locates an "Electric Museum" on Earth which might have a player. The Bebop travels to Earth: Meanwhile Faye calls from the dog track, and she's upset to learn from Ed that they left her behind. Jet and Spike make a treacherous journey deep underground until they find the museum. They bring a player and a TV back to the surface and back to the ship, but Ed tells them that they brought a VHS player, which is incompatible with their tape. Faye calls again, asking Ed if any "scary guys" turned up asking for her (no-one did). Ed says Spike and Jet are sad (over the player debacle). Faye misinterprets this as "they miss me" and decides to return to the Bebop.
A second parcel mysterious arrives, and this one contains a Betamax player. They set up the equipment again. Faye is banished from the room because she still hasn't paid Jet the postage bill, but she sneaks a look around the door frame as they play the tape. The video shows a few landmarks, and a jet plane. Then appears a teenage Faye with her friends, making a video time capsule. She talks to her future self and wonders about her life 10 years from "now", as well as performing a cheer to herself: "Don't lose me". Present-day Faye is transfixed, but she still can't remember.
See You Space Cowboy…
Ein narrates the next episode preview: He produces a series of barks and whines, ending with (surprisingly) the words "Wild Horses".
- Bittersweet Ending: The crew finally manage to get the equipment to play the tape and find it's a old home movie featuring Faye. But as she watches, Faye still can't recall her memory.
- Dramatic Irony: In-Universe, Spike and Jet are both clearly impacted by seeing a young Faye as a sweet schoolgirl wondering what her future would be like... in ten years time.Young Faye: Let's go me! Don't lose me! Do your best! Do your best! Don't lose me!
- Otaku: The old electronics store owner the two visit.
- Mood Whiplash: Most of the episode is fairly comedic then it gets to the end and changes to a more somber tone.
- Percussive Maintenance: Deconstructed. Spike destroys an ancient Betamax player by kicking it to get it to work.
- Ruins of the Modern Age: Once again explored as Spike and Jet head to Earth to plunder a long sunken department store. Amazingly despite being flooded and derelict, some of the electronics are still intact and functional.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Spike and Jet bust their rumps visiting the ruins of an old department store. Only when they finally reach their goal, for Ed to reveal they had grabbed a VHS player which of course won't play Beta. Luckily another package arrival fixes that problem (at the least they got a CRT TV to play it on at least).
- Titled After the Song: The episode name comes from the 1968 song and album by Herbie Hancock.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Our bitter, jaded, hard-gambling bounty hunter was a sweet girl from a good home wondering what her future would be like in ten years, little knowing she'd wake up more than a century later with no memory of who she is.
- What Are Records?: Lampshaded. Videotape has become an obsolete tech in that era, and they can't tell between VHS and Betamax.
