It isn’t unexpected when Julia shows up and shoots Vicious.

Pretty much every detail - the song “Rain,” much of the dialogue, the specific camera angles, the extremely memorable shot when Spike and Vicious freeze right in front of a giant stained-glass window - are pulled directly from the original series.īut having paid such a painstaking tribute to the original, Cowboy Bebop follows up the long-awaited Spike-Vicious battle - which ends in a stalemate - with the interesting decision to spin its plot into a direction all its own. But inches away from yet another lucky getaway, Spike says he’s not finished yet and heads back into the church, resolved to either kill Vicious or die trying.Īll of this is a riff on a particularly iconic sequence from the anime, and Cowboy Bebop really wants to get this moment right. It’s a chance for a clean break with no further bloodshed, and Jet takes it.

But that would be a pretty grim way to end a TV season, so it’s not exactly a shock when Faye saves the day by showing up in a ship and taking out the Syndicate minions with machine-gun spray. You were supposed to love me!” screams Vicious before telling Jet and Kimmie that he’ll kill them just to increase Spike’s pain. As far as gestures go, that’s not as nice.

He still intends to bury him there - he just wants to bury him alive this time. And the path soon leads them to a place Cowboy Bebop has been teasing in the opening credits since the very first episode.Īfter capturing Spike and Jet with yet another sneaky hologram trick, Vicious drags them to an old church for a very specific reason: It’s the location of their family plot where he once intended to bury Spike, in tribute to his conviction that Spike was a true brother. So unhappy as Jet is, the two partners have no choice to go on one last job together. But in this case, he actually does have some legitimate beef: The Syndicate has kidnapped Kimmie, and because Spike didn’t tell him the truth, he had no idea it was coming. I’m still unclear why this would make Jet - a character we have seen kill people for money! - so angry. Given how much those two know about “Fearless” and what Spike knows he must do next, the moment forces a long-dreaded confession about his previous life as a Syndicate hitman. As he recovers at Ana’s bar following his battle with Mad Pierrot, Jet and Faye run in with their guns drawn, ready to rescue their friend from Ana and Gren. At long last, Spike’s past and present have collided.

Cowboy bebop series ending song