Cowboy Bebop's Faye Valentine is an iconic anime femme fatale who has been stealing fans' hearts since 1998. Originally a gambler and a con artist, Faye wasn't initially a member of the Bebop until after she's had a few run-ins with bounty hunters Spike Spiegel and Jet Black and realized she works well with them as a team...sort of. While Faye doesn't always get along with her male comrades (especially where money is concerned), she nonetheless still earns her place alongside them as a valuable member of the Bebop.
With the Netflix live-action adaptation of Cowboy Bebop just weeks away with actress Daniella Pineda set to bring Faye to life on the screen, now is the perfect time for fans to get reacquainted with her original anime incarnation. Luckily for new and old fans alike, Netflix is now streaming all 26 episodes of the anime ahead of the live-action series. With that, fans absolutely need to check out these five episodes for getting to know Faye Valentine as a character!
'Honky Tonk Women' Introduces Faye
Faye is introduced in the third episode of the anime series, "Honky Tonk Women." In just the first few seconds, viewers get a clear understanding of who she is the moment she walks into a herbal medicine shop and is being stalked by some shady-looking men in black. In fact, her entire character is easily summed up in a line she utters in the opening sequence of the English dubbed version, "you know the first rule of combat? Shoot them before they shoot you." Indeed, that's how Faye plays her cards throughout the episode of her introduction.
Originally indebted to a casino owner and crime boss named Gordon, Faye is blackmailed into working at his casino as Poker Alice as part of facilitating an illegal transaction for him. It is at this casino that Faye meets Spike and Jet, who are both completely unaware of the illegal activities taking place within its walls. Spike unwittingly sabotages Gordon's game plan after he is mistaken for another man who is supposed to hand over a chip containing illegal data to Faye. This causes problems for everyone involved with Gordon eventually putting a bounty on Faye, which Spike and Jet are eager to collect.
After Spike and Jet realize they're being played by Gordon, Faye offers to help them in exchange for collecting her own bounty. They are successful at stopping Gordon, but Spike and Jet end up with no money, and Faye flies off for parts unknown. She doesn't encounter Spike and Jet again until Episode 4, "Gateway Shuffle," where she also officially joins the Bebop.
'Jupiter Jazz Parts 1 & 2' Explore Faye's Feelings About Relationships
After working with Spike and Jet for some time, Faye starts to feel as though her presence isn't really valued by her comrades and decides to leave them. She even leaves them a note stating that after taking all of the money left in their safe. Upon arriving on Callisto, Faye meets a non-binary saxophone player named Gren in a bar whom she also befriends.
At Gren's apartment, Faye discloses her reason for leaving Spike and Jet as feeling alone in their company. She, therefore, felt it was better to be alone on her own than in a crowd since the latter felt worse for her than the former. Gren thinks the real reason she left was that she actually feared abandonment and decided it would be less painful for her to abandon her comrades first.
Faye more or less confirms Gren's suspicions when she later asks Jet why he came back to get her. At first, Jet seems to validate her reason for leaving when he states he only wants the money back that she took. After she confirms the safe didn't really have much money left, the fact Jet didn't just abandon her right then and there seems to confirm to Faye that she is valued by Jet and possibly Spike on some level. This is enough to persuade her to stay with them.
'My Funny Valentine' Gives Faye An Origin Story
Faye's past is explored for the first time in Episode 15, "My Funny Valentine." Mostly depicted as a flashback, it is learned for the first time Faye is a lot older than she looks as she was cryogenically preserved for 54 years following an accident that left her critically injured. She is successfully revived by a doctor and his nurse, though she is unable to remember anything about herself, including her own real name. This leaves her at the mercy of the people who revived her and a lawyer named Whitney Haggis Matsumoto.
The Faye that appears in the flashback is very different from the one in the present. The newly revived Faye is more trusting and more receptive to love from others, especially Whitney. When her trust is betrayed and learns she was scammed by the very people who were supposed to be helping her, this paves the road for the person Faye becomes in the present. Saddled with both her own debt from her cryogenic preservation and Whitney's, this experience set Faye on the path of gambling and conning people as a way of surviving.
When Faye is briefly reunited with Whitney, the doctor, and nurse who revived her, she gets her payback on them when she sabotages their latest scam. The doctor and nurse end their own lives to escape arrest and Whitney ends up in prison. Following this, she once again seeks reassurance from Spike that she is valued by him.
'Speak Like a Child' Reveals Faye's Past
Episode 18 of the anime, "Speak Like A Child," is a follow-up to "My Funny Valentine" in that it fleshes out more of Faye's past. In the episode, Faye receives a mysterious Beta tape that she's afraid to open fearing it may be from a debt collector. Once Spike and Jet find out what the tape is, they become curious to learn the tape's contents, sending them on a quest to find a Beta player. They, unfortunately, end up with a VHS player, but luckily for them a Beta player is shipped to them, and are able to watch the tape.
Though Faye doesn't watch the tape with Spike and Jet, she still views it from the corridor of the Bebop. She learns she made the tape herself when she was a kid, who -- at the time -- wanted to send a message to her adult self. Once again, the young Faye is depicted as happy and outgoing, which is different from her adult self. Though Faye cannot remember making the tape, it does make her happy to know something about her past but is also saddened by what she lost.
'Hard Luck Woman' Puts All The Pieces Back Together
To complete what is essentially the Faye Valentine trilogy, Episode 24 of the anime, "Hard Luck Woman," brings Faye's story full circle. After studying the Beta tape from her childhood to identify landmarks and other important details from her life on Earth, Faye enlists Ed's help to piece together her own past. While she is not successful at first, after meeting with her classmate, Sally Yung, for the first time in 54 years, Faye's memory finally returns.
After remembering who she is and where she comes from, Faye attempts to return to her own family. Unfortunately, however, Faye comes to learn her family members have long passed and she is once again without a home. With nowhere else left to go, Faye returns to the Bebop deciding that Spike and Jet are her family now, and possibly Ed as well despite her having reunited with her father. Since family is important to Faye, when Spike seemingly goes to his death in "The Real Folk Blues" Parts 1 and 2, it bothers her a great deal.