Ask John: Are Faye and Spike a Couple?

Question:
Even though you are left to decide what happens to Spike the end of Cowboy Bebop, I always thought he had a thing for Faye. Did Spike really fall in love with Faye? Did Faye fall in love with Spike? Does that mean Spike has a reason to live?

Answer:
(Warning: Contains spoilers)

I think the relationship between Spike and Faye in the Cowboy Bebop animation is intentionally ambiguous; however, my personal interpretation is that there was no romantic link between Spike and Faye. Throughout the series Spike cherishes his memory of Julia, and remains passionately in love with her. When she is killed, Spike suicidally charges into the enemy lair as though he has no reason left to live. In other words, if Spike felt an attraction toward Faye, he would have to compromise his singular devotion to Julia. The Spike I know was too single minded and too utterly devoted to his one true love to spare any of his heart on Faye.

With the exception of only one instance at the end of the series, Faye never expresses any personal concern for Spike. It may be argued that she’s simply very good at hiding her true feelings, but it can also be argued that her attraction to Spike is familial instead of romantic. Faye is a woman with no past, no family, and no close friends. It’s natural to think that during her time on the Bebop, she developed a closeness with Spike, Ed and Jet. The fact that whenever she leaves, she always comes back seems to me to suggest more that she sees Spike, Ed and Jet as family. I think her concern with Spike’s fate is a compassion from one human to another, or like a sister to an older brother more so than as a lover. Faye never outright says that Spike should fight to stay alive in order to come back to her side. She argues that Spike should stay alive because he’s a living person, and a part of her life. I’ve always had the impression that Faye was urging Spike not to throw away his life needlessly, and trying desperately to cling to the small amount of human companionship she had.

All of the characters in Cowboy Bebop live in their own, private worlds. Spike is fully in love with Julia and obsessed with his past. Jet Black, as well, longs for the nostalgic “old days” when he was still a cop and things were more “right.” Ed lives in a personal world of computers, her only constant companion a “data dog.” Faye is a left-over from another time, awoken from cryogenic sleep to find that she has no family, no friends, and no past. She’s an isolated stranger in a strange time. While it may be romantic to envision romance blossoming amidst all this bleak existentialism, such romance would undermine the principles and fundamental characteristics of the show. Cowboy Bebop uses a lot of comic relief to disguise the fact that it’s a melancholy and hard boiled story. Spike and Faye are ships that pass in the night. For them to be anything more than that would alter their courses, and in fact compromise their very personalities.