The episode begins with a spaceship freighter making its way to a satellite, heavy metal music blaring from it. The pilot, a husky woman named V.T. and her pet cat Zeros are coming off a shift. They meet up with another trucker, Auto, chit chat for a bit and start to part ways before Auto stops her and pulls out some money. This is a apparently an ongoing game in which people try to guess V.T.'s full name, in which she has earned a stack of money from it. The rules of the game are simple; they only get one guess and no clues. Auto has apparently been trying for a while, and this bout ends no differently. V.T. wishes him luck before heading off.
We then go to an eatery called Mac's Diner where an old man is outside talking with a couple of young punks, claiming to have been the mentor to a legendary bounty hunter called Terpsichore (though the punks don't believe him). V.T. heads into the diner, finding it filled with rough looking individuals. Talking to the bartender reveals they're all bounty hunters waiting for a bounty to show up, much to V.T.'s disgust. In the bathroom of said diner is Spike, nursing a hangover and complaining to Jet about the "exclusive information" on the bountyhead named Decker who has a tattoo shaped like a dragon. When he asks about Faye, it's revealed she's at a kiddy-themed restaurant called Woody's. A muscled individual walks in and Faye spots what looks like a dragon tattoo on his chest, thinking it's Decker. She holds him at gunpoint and calls him by name, which a rather wimpy bespectacled man at the next table suddenly panics upon hearing. He starts to slip away but Faye calls out to him to call the I.S.S.P. However as he's leaving, she spots the dragon tattoo on his shoulder and realizes she has the wrong guy. Uncovering the tattoo on the person she thought was Decker reveals it was actually an eel.
Back at Mac's, some Hispanic bounty hunters are hassling the waitress and try to have their way with her. V.T. attacks them in response leading to a fight. Spike shows no interest at first, trying to put an egg in his glass as part of a hangover cure. But one of the hunters bumps into him and causes the egg to break in his crotch. Angered, he joins in on the fight.
During this, Faye chases the real Decker through the parking lot in her ship. She nearly corners him as he's getting into an elevator, but he throws a vial that explodes and damages her ship, allowing him to get away. She phones Jet about what happened, much to his dismay.
Spike and V.T. make quick work of the thugs before Spike throws them out. He heads back inside where V.T. express her displeasure about bounty hunters before offering Spike a drink as thanks. Spike gets another egg and makes himself a Prairie Oyster
to help his hangover. V.T. notes he's the second person she knows to drink that cocktail, her husband being the first. Antonio, Carlos, and Jobim (i.e. the old men) arrive and challenge to guess V.T.'s name. They guess wrong (not even guessing in the right alphabetical group) and add more money to the pile.
Spike, interested, goes to try his luck, but Jet calls him to inform what happened, giving Spike away as a bounty hunter. V.T. rebuffs him calling him a liar (though really she never asked) and refuses to pay for his drink. He shrugs it off and pays his tab but upon heading for his ship, finds it busted and desecrated which the waitress, Murial, forgot to remind him that it was the same thugs from before who did it. Spike is forced to hitchhike, which V.T. comes across as she's leaving the diner. While she wants nothing to do with him, Zeros takes a liking to Spike and perches atop his head. V.T. caves and offers him a ride, picking up Faye in the process. Faye tries to tell Spike of Decker's description and ship, but V.T.'s rock music drowns her out.
Spike and Faye regroup on the Bebop, where Faye finally is able to give Spike the information. Meanwhile V.T. is making her way home when she's contacted by Auto, who's had hit and run with a trucker that damaged his own ship. He wishes to track them down for repairs: When given a description, V.T. realizes that the description fits Decker. She calls around to the other truckers to see if they've spotted Decker, eventually hitting upon where he was last located. V.T. manages to catch up and chases Decker toward an asteroid known as the Linus Mines. She contacts Spike, who tries to warn her about the explosives he's carrying, but the signal cuts out. Spike and Faye head out, although their ships have not been fully repaired or re-armed. Back at the chase, Decker tries to use one of his explosives on V.T. but it misses her ship: However it causes a chain reaction around the mines and a cave-in results. Decker tries to stop his ship while V.T. accelerates. Spike and Faye arrive, finding Decker's spaceship... and unfortunately his corpse, as the rocks cracked his cockpit and depressurized it, suffocating him in the vacuum.
V.T. and Zeroes are still alive, but they're not out of the woods yet as Decker was hauling nitro which has now become unstable. Whats more the asteroid's reactors are breaking up, making the place a literal ticking time bomb. The group make their way to an exit chute but just as they're in reach of it, an explosion causes rubble to block their way. Spike tries shooting it but his ship's machine guns aren't enough, and Faye only has her pincers. V.T. however hits upon a plan to use the nitro to blow their way out. They head back to Decker's freighter and have Faye open it and grab one. When asked what to do next, Spike tells her to put it into his cockpit pod while he "does his famous floating act". He detaches the pod from his ship, plugs his ears and takes a deep breath before opening the hatch. Spike floats to V.T.'s ship as Faye drops the nitro into the pod.
V.T. opens her hatch to let him in, but just as she's about to grab his hand an explosion knocks him away. Spike goes floating away from the ship until he uses his gun to recoil himself back to her. V.T. pulls him in as the computer on Spike's nitro-laden pod activates and flies into the rubble, blowing it clear and allowing the ships (with Faye grabbing the Swordfish) to reach the exit as the mines blow up. As Spike recovers in V.T.'s cockpit he spots her pocket watch and realizes who she is, thanking her as Victoria Terpsichore, the wife of the legendary bounty hunter mentioned before. V.T. mentions that her husband is "doing his bounty hunting in Heaven" now and offers Spike the cash stack, but he only takes a little and jokingly tells her to use the rest to treat her husband to a Prairie Oyster on Spike.
See You Space Cowboy
This episode has the following tropes:
- All There in the Manual: The first name of Terpsichore (Ural) and how he got his start as a bounty hunter was only touched on in a novel written by Watanabe... that only got one full chapter.
- Bar Brawl: Between V.T, the Hispanic bounty hunters, and Spike.
- Brawn Hilda: V.T fits this to a...tee.
- Dumb Blonde: Murial.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Upon learning that Spike is a bounty hunter, V.T starts treating him with hostility. However, after the two work together in taking Decker down, the two are on much better terms.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: VT is, as you might expect, a brawler. This contrasts Spike's martial arts.
- Karma Houdini: The Hispanic bounty hunters towards trashing Spike's ship.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Decker is obviously based on Woody Allen. Heck, the place where he hangs out is called Woody's for crying out loud!
- Only Known by Initials: V.T., though this is intentional as it's part of the guessing game she has going.
- Recoil Boost: When Spike makes a space-jump in the climax, he just misses and falls behind. Then he uses his pistol's recoil to push him toward something that he can push off off for a second try. We'll leave the physical practicality as an exercise for the reader.
- Scary Shiny Glasses: When Decker tries to use his explosives against V.T.
- Space Trucker: The space truckers - and their trucks - are clearly based on American trucker culture. With the odd shout out to Convoy, down to some of the radio handles. It may also have been influenced by Japanese dekotora trucker culture.
