"You are gonna carry that weight" - 🤠 Cowboy Bebop

"Bang" gestures Spike and collapses in the staircase shortly after he kills vicious. A lone star falls somewhere in the universe. The tragedy is over. A hauntingly beautiful song about being free pleading not to awake from the dream goes on and on in the background.

Even after two decades that the final episode of cowboy bebop has aired there are speculations among the viewers if spike is really gone. After Julia is dead and spike returns to the bebop for his last meal he indulges Jet in a story about a cat who dies million times only to be revived million times again .but when the cat looses his mate he cries million times and dies to never reborn  again . One cannot help but compare this story as a symbol to spike's story when he himself evades death so many times in the series. So one cannot help but think if spike will never return again as the cat in the story.

However The beauty of the episode is not if spike lives or dies. The episode is as deep as poetry revealing itself only in metaphors and leaves plenty for the viewers to  contemplate long after it is over.

One such heart wrenching moment is when Faye tries to stop Spike in Faye style with a gun pointed to Spike as he is leaving. The emotions displayed in Faye's face is indeed a work of art .Faye asks Spike to relieve his past to which spike retorts that all this is just a dream. These are also the last words whispered by Julia as she is dying . What is a dream after all?

In the final episode all but spike has made peace with the past and moved on .  As each character in the series Spike must confront his past after all. This is his redemption. This is his beginning and his end .in the final scene only spike's right eye is shown open which by spike's revelation shows only the past . A closure to a tragedy ended with a tragedy itself. 

As spike leaves to Faye's bullets ringing there is also a ringing note in the air of spike's admitting " i am going there to see if i am really alive ." Does it mean he never truly considered himself alive all these years ? What happens to cowboy bebop after this? 

A not less than perfect ending for a brilliant series. The episode itself leaves more questions than the answers. And as viewers we are going to carry this weight.