The Edit List Cowboy Bebop - unaired ep. 6
by Kyle Pope, Nov 8th 2001
Since it seems unlikely that CN will be airing the skipped episodes of Cowboy Bebop anytime soon, if at all, I've decided to add a summary of each of the deleted episodes to the edit lists for the benefit of those who do not have access to the DVDs of the series. If you do have plans for picking up the series then be aware that major spoilers lie within.
Episode Summary: Sympathy for the Devil, episode 6
Spike awakes from a flashback of a very elaborate surgery involving his right eye while sitting in a jazz club listening to a kid named Wen blowing the blues harp (harmonica to the uninitiated). He and Jet are in pursuit of their latest bounty, a man known as Giraffe. They are about to move in when a rival bounty hunter shows up. In the meantime the kid leaves with a man in a wheelchair with Giraffe in close pursuit. While Jet runs interference on the interloper Spike heads out after Giraffe. He follows him in the Swordfish and arrives at a hotel just in time to catch Giraffe as he is thrown through a window. On a nearby rooftop the dying Giraffe gives Spike a jeweled ring and the cryptic admonition to "help him". Spike meets Wen and is shot in the arm for his trouble with Wen demanding the ring. It seems that when Wen was a kid he was playing the harmonica for his parents in a park when the gate accident occured. A massive explosion on the Moon destroyed part of that satellite and left the Earth devastated. Unfortunately for Wen the twists in space-time generated by the explosion stripped him of his ability to age or die. He's been living as a child for more than thirty years and is thoroughly twisted as a result. In the running gunfight with Spike Wen kicks his wheelchaired guardian down a flight of stairs to distract Spike and make his getaway, catching one of Spike's bullets in his head in the attempt. Nonetheless he escapes. Subsequent analysis of the jewel in the ring reveals that it holds an elaborate twist in space-time that if introduced to Wen's body might restore the flow of time to him. The jewel is fashioned into a bullet and Spike heads out to "help" Wen. Wen hails a cab and then steals it by murdering the driver and casting his body aside. Spike, following in the Swordfish, puts a few rounds through Wen's engine sending him careening into a gas station fueling pump. Wen walks out of the resulting explosion and fire with barely a scratch to find Spike waiting for him. Wen toys with Spike by firing a few rounds at him without killing him. Spike then takes aim with his weapon and drives his unique bullet into the center of Wen's forehead. Within seconds Wen goes from a cute kid to a withered old man. Wen accepts his imminent death with relief asking Spike if he can understand. Spike doesn't. And tosses Wen's harmonica into the river.