premiere air date: October 21, 2001
summary: Another episode that deals with Jet's past, "Black Dog Serenade"
begins with Faye's complaints about Bebop's shower. Her nagging of Jet leads to
a question about his arm; why doesn't he get reconstructive surgery? I love Jet's
line here, "This ship is my ship. This arm is my arm. I don't need instructions."
Around this point, an old partner of Jet's during his days with the ISSP, Fad,
calls up wanting to team up with Jet one last time. Fad wants to catch a runaway
prison ship that happens to be carrying an old enemy of Jet's, Udai, a member
of the syndicate. Apparently, Udai had something to do with Jet loosing his arm.
Jet at first refuses, but finally decides that this is something he must do. The
climax occurs inside the prison ship, with some interesting twists. The gritty
noirishness of this episode is really slick, I love it. Admittedly, at first I
thought this episode was boring, but -- well, repeated viewings of the series
cause me to feel more and more warmth and sympathy toward Jet. He's just the Man.
Besides, he looks great in a suit. The sparseness of the soundtrack here is also
quite interesting. It's "Cosmos" for 75 percent of the episode, then after the
dénouement it becomes "Farewell Blues." Even though both songs are based on the
same tune, "Cosmos" is a colder, lonelier piece, while "Farewell Blues" has a
more resolved feel to it. Tasty. At any rate, my feeling is that if you like the
film noir of the 40's, you'll love this episode.
rating: B