And that's why Faye is so devastated by his departure, knowing full well that he won't be returning alive.
But crucially, Faye also knows how liberating it can be to let go of that pain, something which she herself only discovered just recently when her amnesiac storyline came to an end of sorts in 'Hard Luck Woman'.īefore Spike and Faye part ways for the last time, Spike opens up about the truth behind his eyes, bringing them closer than they've ever been before. It's a fair point, and Faye herself knows exactly how painful that can be. And while Jet, who's a bit emotionally stunted himself, fails to acknowledge this outright, Faye is more direct, accusing Spike of being stuck in the past. Not only was this a joke of sorts, but for Spike, the story also seems to confirm his own resignation to death. Related: Squid Game creator confirms "talk" for season 2 This cruel twist of fate sticks the knife in further for people watching back home when Spike realises that the only way out is a fight to the death with Vicious, one where his own survival no longer matters.
Reality is utterly meaningless without Julia, and life might as well be a dream. Just like Spike, she too has struggled to connect with the waking world since they were separated from one another.Īnd with that, Spike is untethered completely. "It's all a dream," says Julia as she falls slowly to the ground, almost as if she's floating, weightless.
That is, until a chance encounter with Faye reunites Spike with Julia, his lost love.Īt that point, it really does look like the pair might find a way to stop Vicious and finally be free to live out the rest of their lives in peace, perhaps aboard the Bebop with the rest of Spike's new "family".īut hope is fleeting, and soon after they're reunited, Julia dies in a shootout with the Syndicate. Jet, Faye, Ed, and even Ein create a chosen family together, one that has the potential to bring Spike back from the brink of emptiness.īut then Vicious tries to overthrow the Syndicate's leadership in part one of 'The Real Folk Blues', and suddenly, everything starts to spiral once again for Spike. But across 26 episodes, everyone's favourite Space Cowboy eventually starts to develop real connections with his fellow bounty hunters aboard Bebop. But of course, she was unable to do that, so instead, Julia went into hiding.įrom that point on, Spike seems to exist in a liminal state between life and death, between consciousness and unconsciousness. When they wanted to run away together, Vicious told Julia that she would have to kill Spike or he'd kill them both. During their time together, Spike fell in love with his partner's girlfriend, Julia, and the two had an affair. But as the story develops, we gradually learn that Spike is nursing a broken heart, one that has left him melancholic almost to the point of nihilism.īefore he became a bounty hunter, Spike worked for the Red Dragon Crime Syndicate alongside a man named Vicious. The Spike we meet in episode one seems easy-going, the very definition of carefree. At first, though, his backstory isn't apparent. To understand Spike's future or lack thereof, you must first understand his past. With the show's arrival on Netflix, not to mention the new live-action adaptation, now's the perfect time to head back and take a closer look at what became of these legendary space cowboys at the end of Cowboy Bebop. But by the end, each of our favourite bounty hunters finds a way to either push past this or eventually succumb to their individual trauma, consumed by the weight of what's come before. "You're gonna carry that weight." It's been 22 years since the original Cowboy Bebop ended with this now infamous line, and thanks to the ambiguity of the show's final shot, anime fans continue to carry the weight of it with them, even now.ĭid Spike survive to lift himself up and let go of his pain? Or was his fire extinguished like the star that fades out right above him in the night sky?įor a show about misfit drifters who physically drift through space, Shinichirō Watanabe's Cowboy Bebop is very much concerned with weight, specifically the weight of the past, and how it bears down on the four main characters. Cowboy Bebop anime spoilers follow, and maybe some for Netflix's live-action show too.