Cowboy Bebop/Session 20 Pierrot Le Fou/Recap

The episode begins on an dark night as a shadowy figure is somehow able to fly into the air over a city. Down below on a certain street, a car pulls up loaded with bodyguards. A rather important looking official is brought out from a building. However a portly man suddenly lands in front of them. The guards arm themselves as he greets them, stating that he journeyed there to take their lives.

We go to Spike whose at a pool hall playing against one of the patrons. He makes the winning shot and salutes his opponent who heads off. After which he heads outside for a smoke and presumably back to the Bebop when he comes across the portly man massacring the guards one by one before eliminating the official in the car. Once done, he greet Spike before opening firing on him. Spike dodges behind a trash can and returns fire but his bullets are stopped by a force field around the man before they can even reach him. The lunatic floats over to Spike engaging in close range combat but he matches Spike blow for blow and even shooting point blank doesn't work. Spike takes a beating as the portly man juggles him in the air with kicks before letting him land. He then points his gun cane at Spike preparing to finish him off but the sound of a cat meowing interrupts the man and drive him into a frenzy to kill the cat who gets away.

Spike uses the distraction to run to a conveniently placed gas canister and shove it toward the man before shooting it. It explodes, throwing Spike into a wall bruised but still going. However a knife is thrown at him and hits his arm. The man emerges from the flames unharmed and opens his coat to reveal an army surplus worth of weaponry on him. Spike makes a run for it as the man picks a grenade launcher and fires it toward Spike. It barely misses him and throws Spike into a nearby river. However before the man can continue his pursuit, he hears police sirens in the distance and disappears from the scene.

The next day, Jet meets up with his police contact, Bob, to discuss the event. Bob tries dissuade him from looking further into it but Jet persists. Bob eventually reveals that the man who attacked Spike is named Mad Pierrot. Meanwhile on the Bebop, Spike has been patched up and resting on the couch. Faye taunts him over his recklessness (which in this case wasn't his fault) before leaving him be. Back with Bob and Jet, Bob reveals that Pierrot has been targeting I.S.S.P directors, the current victim from before being the seventh one. All of Pierrot's targets have never escaped him alive up till Spike and he won't quit till their dead. As all this goes on, Pierrot goes after another I.S.S.P director who has bodyguards flanking him. Pierrot dispatches them with ease before leaving the director's body embedded in a chain link fence.

Sometime later that night, Ed gets a message sent for Spike. She shows it to Faye who tries to keep her from telling him but Spike, surprisingly back on his feet catches them. He decides to head to the destination listed, a amusement park named Space Land. As its nightfall, the park is abandoned and all the attractions are shut down. However no sooner then Spike sets foot in it, the lights turn on and everything springs to life. Pierrot greets Spike before opening fire on him. Spike manages to duck into sled ride (with a annoying hologram of a cherub trying to usher him back out). Pierrot finds him easily forcing Spike to dodge the rides and then grenades shot at him, blowing the attraction sky high.

Meanwhile Jet contacts Ed and has her hack into the I.S.S.P database to get info in Pierrot. We cut back and forth between her hacking and Spike trying his best to fight off Pierrot. The fight leads into a roller coaster which ends with Spike being blown into a waterway below. Ed, after several dead ends, manages to find the file; Section 13. Through a flashback, we see the man who would become Pierrot going through experimentation. However overtime his mind began to regress until he can barely think. The scientists cancel the experiment and put Pierrot on quarantine. As he was being lead to his cell however, he attacked and killed everyone in the facility before escaping. Jet, reading the file, notes that Pierrot's mind is still regressing and he's more like a child now then a man.

Spike manages to crawl his way out of the waterway but is instantly bombarded by explosives. Faye however comes to the rescue in her ship (to Spike's chagrin) but is quickly knocked out of the sky when Pierrot fires a missile at her and it hits a statue causing debris to fall on her ship (though she lands unscathed). Spike, leaping out of the way of the statue, is thrown into a souvenir shop. Pierrot lands in front of him laughing, but that changes when one of the toy cats falls from the store and triggers Pierrot's memories of his experimentation. Cats especially being traumatizing as there apparently was one watching during those days. Pierrot shoots at the toy to shut it up as Spike gets to his feet and returns fire. Pierrot is unaffected and floats in front of Spike shooting away the gun from his hand.

The two stare down one another as the park's robotic parade makes its way near them. For a few tense seconds, neither side takes their eyes off one another. Spike silently reaching for the knife he was hit with earlier hidden in his belt. Just as Pierrot looks to shoot, a light reflects off Spike's prosthetic eye which in Pierrot's mind, makes him look like the cat from the experiment. He hesitates allowing Spike to pull out the knife and throw it. Pierrot fires catching Spike in the arm, however Pierrot notices the knife has hit his right leg. He suddenly breaks down in tears and crumbles to the ground, calling for his mother. Spike can only watch, not sure what to make of it as the parade passes around Pierrot. However one of the giant robotics crushes Pierrot under it's foot, killing him.

As Spike recovers, Jet calls him with the info. But Spike tells him he doesn't need it anymore and closes the episode stating how he hates amusement parks.

See You Space Cowboy...

This episode had the following tropes:


 * Amusement Park of Doom: Under Pierrot's control, it quickly becomes this.
 * Beard of Evil: Pierrot
 * Evil Laugh/Laughing Mad: Pierrot has these in spades.
 * Gone Horribly Right: Pierrot was made to be the perfect killing machine, they succeeded a little too well.
 * Hollywood Healing: Subverted in this case as Spike is still clearly wounded when he arrives at the park.
 * I Am Not Shazam: The titular psychopath of the episode is actually named Tongpu, alias Mad Pierrot. He is never referred to as Pierrot Le Fou.
 * Kids Are Cruel: As Jet notes of the regressed Pierrot is like a child "And there's nothing more cruel and pure than a child".
 * Nightmare Fuel: This episode is rife with it.
 * Slasher Smile: Take a wild guess who.
 * Villainous Breakdown: Pierrot spends his last moments crying for his mother after being stabbed in the leg.