And once she meets the rest of the Bebop’s crew — despite Whitney’s efforts to manipulate them with a sad story, amateur chiropracty, and a bowl of homemade dumplings — there’s certainly no reason that Spike and Jet should fall for the con she is obviously pulling.
From the start, Faye only agrees to help Whitney because Whitney vows to finally give Faye her Identikit — the box containing whatever information has survived from the life Faye had before she emerged from cryo-sleep with amnesia.
Spike and Jet are another matter entirely.
At this point, the episode is no longer about whether Whitney can pull off a galactic version of The Sting; it’s whether or not Spike and Jet, having felt the sting of yet another betrayal, will rally around Faye when she needs them most.
Both ends of the story end up being extremely satisfying.
Meanwhile, Faye and Whitney resume their mother-and-daughter scam routine, successfully stealing a car from a flustered valet and zipping off to a warehouse that purportedly contains Faye’s Identikit.
Which is why the cleverest twist in “Galileo Hustle” is that — at least as far as Whitney and Faye are concerned — there really isn’t another layer to the con.
I’ve complained in these very recaps that this show can be too predictable, but I have to admit: I definitely did not expect that Whitney’s actual motivation in this con was an extremely elaborate sex game.
As the happy couple keeps doing their very weird thing, Faye finds one more way to prove herself Whitney’s daughter, spiritually if not literally.
But while Whitney is, and will always be, some kind of mother to her, Faye once had a birth mother too.
In the video, the adolescent Faye — anticipating the cryo-sleep to come — cheers for her future self while standing in front of a childhood home Faye can no longer remember.
But watching alongside Jet and Spike, it’s also a reminder of everything she has gained — not the family she’s been seeking all along, but a family just the same.
We’ll see how it plays out — if the opening credits are any clue, there’s at least one confrontation between Spike and Vicious in front of a big stained-glass window left before the season’s end.