Okay, 3-2-1, Let’s Jam: A Retrospective on Cowboy Bebop

by Brandon Hyde

Cowboy Bebop is the story of Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Faye Valentine, Ed, and their corgi, Ein. The setup for the show is simple enough with each episode being self-contained: This is a group of bounty hunters trying to make it on their own in a futuristic, Western inspired world. Each episode builds upon this premise by exploring each character and their backstory. The show gives the audience just enough backstory for each episode that by the end of the series, there’s a genuine sense of journey that has taken place with characters. The key to Cowboy Bebop is piecing together what the show provides to find closure for each character. Cowboy Bebop works because each character gets their own sense of closure by looking towards their own past and understanding how it affects their present and future. 

Jet’s set of episodes deal with the emotional scarring that your past can inflict on your present. “Ganymede Elegy”, the first episode in the series to focus on Jet, explores his own trauma when he visits an ex-girlfriend, Alisa. There’s a sense of melancholy with this episode, where Jet has to come to terms with his own guilt regarding how his relationship ended with Alisa. Over the course of the episode, Jet and Alisa express their frustration about their past until the truth is revealed: Alisa felt smothered by Jet’s protection and could never fully live her own life. The episode comes to an end with both Jet and Alisa having a renewed sense of love for each other but still going their separate ways. At first glance, it sounds pessimistic and that both characters are giving up on a possible future with each other. Instead, it shows the value in confronting your own past and how the people in your life can change you for the better. Jet is not relinquishing his chance at being happy but instead accepting this as a part of his own life. It’s one of the series’ best stories about a character closing a chapter in their life and in doing so, gives them a better perspective on who they are as people and where they belong.

In one of the best episodes of the series, “Hard Luck Woman”, both Faye and Ed gain their own closure by moving forward in two different paths. Up to this point in the series, Ed has been an enigma of a character: childlike, hyper intelligent, endlessly strange, and with her own manner of language. The series gives the audience enough information for Ed as a character but the questions remain: Where did she come from? Ed is used most frequently in the show as comic relief but in “Hard Luck Woman”, she is put center stage along with Faye. This spotlight on Ed is used in contrast to Faye’s personality and own journey as a character. Faye’s storyline has been focused on her discovering her own past and what that means for herself. The show uses bits and pieces of Faye’s past for episodes but there is never quite the full explanation of where she came from. Both characters follow a lead regarding Faye’s past, which leads them to an orphanage on Earth. This is where the show reveals that Ed was formerly a resident of this orphanage but left soon afterward. As the episode progresses, both characters talk about the sense of belonging that neither of them possess but hope to acquire one day. The episode reaches its third act with Spike and Jet following a lead regarding a particularly high reward bounty that is revealed to be Ed’s father. After a brief exchange between Ed and her father, he is quickly distracted and moves on as she watches him drive away. This moment comes in direct contrast to Faye’s actions in this episode, where she eventually finds her childhood home. Faye begins to have flashbacks to her childhood as she relives the act of running up the hill towards her childhood home. The flashback ends with Faye finding the ruins of her own home, with only an imprint of the house left behind. The episode closes out with Ed saying her own goodbyes to both Spike and Jet in her own way, before she finally starts her lone journey. Ein, the corgi, follows Ed, even after she explains that she won’t be coming back. The episode never explicitly says where Ed is going but the audience understands what the journey is for: finding a home. For Ed, this means venturing out on her own and leaving the Bebop behind. In contrast, the episode flashes back to Faye, who has fashioned an impression of her childhood home onto the ruins of her former house. Both Faye and Ed must confront their pasts to understand where they belong in the universe. 

Spike’s journey over the course of the series takes a different turn for his closure. The majority of the show sees Spike closing his emotions and true feelings off to others. The episodes that spotlight him as a character give him the chance to confront different aspects of his past, be it with people, places, or events that have shaped his personality. The finale of the show, “The Real Folk Blues”, illustrates the consequences of Spike closing off the people closest to him in his life. The finale focuses on Spike learning that a woman from his past, Julia, is still alive, much to his own shock. Over the course of the two part finale, Spike comes to the conclusion that the only way for him to truly live is to confront his own past or as he puts it to Faye, “I’m not going there to die. I’m going there to find out if I’m really alive.” It is in these two episodes we see Spike give his version of a farewell to the crew members of the Bebop, just as Ed did in the previous episode. Spike and Jet share a laugh over a fable about two cats, even though as Spike remarks, he hates those kinds of stories. There is a melancholic nature to this sequence, where Jet understands what Spike has chosen to do. Both characters are unable to fully articulate their true feelings of appreciation for each other but there is a sense of knowing. For Spike and Faye, there is a direct confrontation regarding the nature of confronting the past. Faye’s character arc is discovering her own past, while Spike is routinely running from or covering up his former life. After a brief exchange, Faye reveals her disappointment in Spike, not for choosing this time to confront his past but for never fully trusting her with any personal information about him. The cost of Spike confronting his own past and gaining closure is the people around him like Jet and Faye. Only at the end of the finale does Spike fully gain closure regarding his past by fighting against his nemesis, Vicious. This fight with Vicious is where the show truly tests Spike and his pursuit of closure. Instead of allowing Spike to be happy or even content, Vicious tries to destroy him in retaliation. Vicious is the physical manifestation of Spike’s past and he stands directly in his way of finding peace. The fight scene is incredible by itself but the themes of the show come to a head with Spike having to literally fight his own past. There is no closure without struggle and even though Spike eventually dies from his wounds, there is a sense of peace. Spike is so driven by his own past that even though it catches up to him, the ending gives both him and the audience the same sense of peaceful closure. 

Cowboy Bebop fleshes out the characters enough for the audience to understand where their character arcs are headed. Each character keeps changing and evolving as the show goes on, showing the personal growth that comes from accepting your past. The show goes to great lengths to show the spectrum of what this closure can give to a character, be it a good or bad ending. The closure that each character finds is not the point of the series but the struggle to find that closure is what makes the show so compelling. It serves as a reminder to never let go of your own past and see what comes from confronting those memories. In a show that concerns itself so much with the future, it only makes sense that moving forward can only happen from accepting the past.