Ask John: How Does Cowboy Bebop End?

Question:
WARNING: The following article contains detailed information about the finale of the Cowboy Bebop TV series that some readers may not want to know in advance of watching the episodes.

A friend of mine and I saw all 26 Bebop episodes. Well, now he’s hooked. I am here to straighten out for him. Did Spike die in the the final Cowboy Bebop episode? At the end, it says you will carry this burden on your shoulders forever. My friend says that shows Spike lived. But, the episode is called Farewell Blues. Doesn’t that mean Spike dies? Please clear this up for me.

Answer:
I’m asked this question more frequently than many people would probably expect, so it’s worth the time for me to provide my response publicly. It seems clear that director Shinichiro Watanabe intended the conclusion of the Cowboy Bebop TV animation to be ambiguous for viewers to decide Spike’s fate for themselves. However, there are a number of subtle clues hidden within the final two episodes of the series that provide clear suggestion that Spike is to be considered deceased at the conclusion of the series. In the beginning of episode 25 the Indian shaman Old Man Bull explains that a star fading out of existence signifies the death of a warrior. He later informs Jet Black that Spike’s star is about to fall. The final image glimpsed in the series, as the camera pans up into the sky, is a star fading out of existance. Possibly a coincidence, but more likely a symbolic representation of the death of a hero. Another symbolic sign of the death of the hero is the final quote of the series, “You’re going to carry that weight,” taken from the Beatles’ song “Carry That Weight/The End.”

And in a more thematic sense, Cowboy Bebop virtually demands the life of its main character at the conclusion of the series in order not to betray the characterizations and ideals established throughout the entire series. Beginning with the very first episode, Spike is presented as a man haunted by and obsessed with his past. In a way, even in the first episode he’s already a dead man walking. No one escapes The Syndicate alive, yet Spike managed to do so. In a figurative sense, since he left The Syndicate, he’s a dead man. In a more literal sense, Spike lives with only one purpose- to avenge his youth. He wants back the woman that was taken from him, and he wants revenge on the man that took that woman from him. Spike’s casual, happy-go-lucky personality is an expression of his lack of concern with his future. He’s concerned with his past, but not what may happen to him in the future or where his life will take him. Like a restless spirit, he exists only to conclude the business of his former life. Nothing after that matters. Spike himself in the final episode tells Faye that he always has one eye on the past and one on the present, implying that he never considers his future.

If Spike lives to get his girl and get revenge against Vicious, when Julia is killed, Spike looses half of his reason for living, and even half of himself. “She is my other half that I had longed for.” In the final episode he is left with only one goal, only one purpose for staying alive. When Spike marches in to face Vicious, he goes against suicidal odds. When he emerges victorious, he has overcome superhuman odds and is at the pinnacle of his glory. When the battle is over, Spike has achieved his goal, has surmounted impossible odds. He dies gloriously on the battlefield as a victorious warrior martyr. At the conclusion of the series Spike has accomplished his purpose for living; there’s no longer any purpose to his life so it’s better to die in battle as a hero than continue living a life devoid of purpose, merely a lingering shadow of his former accomplishment. Put simply, “It’s better to burn out than fade away.”