Wow. What an opener. Unlike other television series, which start at the beginning of a story, the viewer is thrust into the middle of Spike and Jet's lives. This session sets up the basic characters of Spike and Jet, but also contains foreshadowing of Spike's fate. The old fortuneteller tells Spike he is supposed to be killed by a woman. He said he already was. Considering a woman never killed Spike, the audience should realize that the fortuneteller is not always right. Keep this in mind for, oh, say the last episode.
Katerina may represent a part of Spike. All she wishes to do is to escape to Mars with Asimov. She wants to run away. It ultimately leads to her downfall, as she realizes that Asimov is not the same. She shoots him, and is then killed by the police. Spike wanted to run away with Julia to find a better life. This episode was a warning to Spike that there is no running away: all it leads to is death and destruction.
The moral of the story? Don't get involved in syndicates! And this is a theme throughout the whole series.
Comment by Eric on 11:42 am 12 May 2009:
Going with your analysis that Katerina and Gren have parallels with Spike. The show also has the number of 3 littered throughout the series. So I would rationalize that Gren is the middle part of the Show, being "Jupiter Jazz" with Katerina at the beginning of "Asteroid Blues" and Spike being the end with "Real Folk Blues".
Also, Katerina being the female, Gren being half male/female, and Spike being male.