EPISODE 4: LOVE AND PEACE

    The final episode on the first tape! I kinda liked this episode too, but not as much as the last one. We get to hear Vash's trademark line for the first time too. In fact, I do believe it's the last line of the episode. Not only that, but we also get to see what happens when both sides are semi-evil, and neither are striving for love OR peace. But first, to refresh your memories, a summary.
    Let's see... *I have a terrible memory* the Grim Reaper Bowstock episode... Ah, yes! I remember now! At the beginning we get a mysterious scene with Vash stopping just outside of a town in the middle of a dust storm at a graveyard. Then it flashes to a bar where there's a woman kicking all the cowboy's asses at poker (sorry, it's late, this one might be a little vulgar). When she finishes a game, she asks Milly and Meryl (who are stuck in the bar and are STILL looking for the "real" Vash the Stampede) to play her, and when they decline, a bandit steps in and holds the girl, her servant, Milly, and Meryl hostage. It goes to a group of law enforcement officials outside and the woman's father, whom they've demanded a ransom off of. While they're trying to figure out how to outsmart the outlaws, Vash walks up with a walkman and dances his way into the bar, all the while dodging the bullets that are being fired at him. Those who watch call it dumb luck ^_^ Once he's in, he gets tied up too. Eventually he goes for Bowstock's daughter, but she screams and it causes a confrontation between her and one of the bandits... the bandit was gonna shoot her, but Vash defused the situation. Eventually, the Sheriff and Bowstock send in an escape vehicle and money like the bandits had asked, but the vehicle is filled with merceneries who are very unpleasant people; the only person they WON'T kill is Bowstock's daughter. Well, these mercenaries take out all but the head bandit, and Vash, Meryl, and Milly (along with the head bandit, I suppose) take out the mercenaries. When Vash finds out what the bandit was REALLY after, he went out and negotiated with the Sheriff and Bowstock. Apparently, Bowstock had been known as "Grim Reaper Bowstock" and had killed a lot of innocent townspeople and took over in their place. So the bandit and Bowstock have a shootout, Vash sheds a tear after the shots are fired because he believes he will witness a death, but the bandit only shoots Bowstock in the shoulder. Vash starts crying harder then ^_^ The Sheriff has other plans for the happy scene though, he tries to shoot Bowstock and all the rest, then blame their deaths on Bowstock and take the credit for killing Bowstock himself, but instead Meryl and Vash show him who's boss.
    This one ends the first tape, and thus is the first tape that made me want more (I bought the first and second tapes together, but I decided I'd take a long break between them because the series was so good I wanted to be left with the feeling I wanted more and HAD it. At this point I'm waiting for my _released_ Angel Arms to come, and that's a different feeling entirely... *growls*. Anyway, back to the episode. This was another extremely cool episode, with a gunfight, a corrupted sheriff, and bandits who weren't really the bad guys ^^. As for Vash, we get to see more of the bullet-dodging stunt. This time, it's passed off as dumb luck by the onlookers because he's listening to a walkman with Carot and Stick cranked up really loud (correct me on this if I'm wrong, it's been about a month since I watched this tape) and can't POSSIBLY know that he's being shot at, plus the fact they think noone can dodge bullets consciously like that ^_^. Once he gets to the doors, he pulls another Vash stunt and blows a bubble with his gun. We don't see anything other than the fact that it pops, but a little later when Gene is about to shoot Bowstock's daughter, the gum is found in his gun, which would've prevented it from firing. Another nifty little Vash trick in this episode is during the tense scene just before the one I already mentioned when Gene actually has his gun barrel in Bowstock's Daughter's mouth. Noone was moving at all, and in all likeliness he would've pulled the trigger. But Vash knocked over some of the tables in the bar, thereby taking the attention off Gene for a brief moment and letting the Bandit leader intervene. There's plenty more Vash coolness in this one, like the fact he baffles the bandits by being able to untie his ropes. More lechery is seen when he openly persues Bowstock's daughter (you KNOW I haven't seen this episode in awhile... Bowstock's daughter had a name... was it Jessica? I think it was, but for now we'll continue to go on the present name). The way he does it is creepy too... he crawls across the floor like a worm while tied up, then kinda streches his open mouth up to her dangling feet o_O; Of course there's the fine art of the gunfight too... we get to see for the first time what Vash does when there's people's lives at stake and he has someone at gunpoint. Of course he just wants to scare the mercenaries, but of course, when everyone starts cheering for him to kill the one at the end of his gun, he can't do it. He mumbles "Rem..." and puts his gun down. We also have the first utterance of Rem's name too ^_^ Last but not least, the second gunfight at the end. This was mainly dominated by Meryl (who STILL doesn't know that the man in the red coat is Vash the Stampede), but once she's humbled the sheriff, he makes the sheriff repeat after him. "This world is made of LOVE AND PEACE!" And so Vash's mission in life is summed up in this episode. Good stuff.

There wasn't too much indepth character analysis in this summary, just a lot of oohing and aahing at Vash's actions. Any episode containing Vash, a bar, and one or more gunfights is a GOOD episode. Of course, that's about 3/4 of the episodes in the series... but you know. All that stuff I mentioned up there helps reinforce Vash's character even harder in our minds, and plus we hear Rem's name for the first time. Yes yes yes!