The episode opens where the previous one left off with Spike and Julia standing in a graveyard. Julia tells Spike she would have been free that day if she had killed him. She is still in love with him. The two of them decide to start a new life together. Spike goes to visit Annie, but she was also a target. Annie sees him reunited with Julia before she dies. Either because of Annie's death, or because Spike had unfinished business, he got some firepower. He was going to stay and fight - with or without Julia.
Julia's death scene is very touching, even though I personally thought it was stupid of her to get up and walk in gunfire. There are white doves flying in the background, which could symbolize her spirit being carried to the afterlife. It also began to rain again. It seems to rain during important moments in Spike's life, which is weird, because the atmosphere is being controlled.
Jet visits the old fortune teller to find out where Spike is, even though he told Faye he didn't give a damn if Spike was already dead. Obviously, he does. The fortune teller tells Jet that every life force has a star, and before someone dies, the star is about to fall.
Spike returns to the Bebop and Jet is surprised to see him. He cooks a last meal for Spike, again, showing his affection through food. Spike tells Jet the story of a tiger-striped cat that lived many lives until he was reborn as a stray cat. He met a white cat and they were very happy together until the white cat died. The tiger-striped cat cried a million times, and then died, but wasn't reborn. "I hate that story. I hate cats," Spike says, before he and Jet burst into laughter. The story is supposed to represent Spike and Julia, but you figured that out already.
Faye confronts Spike before he leaves. She says, "You told me to forget the past because it doesn't matter." Spike tells her that he is always seeing the past in one eye and the present in another and that he feels like he's only been watching a dream. Faye tells him that she got her memories back but nothing good came of it. She had no where else to go. She is very angry at him for leaving her and her place of belonging. But like the man in Jet's story, Spike has to go find out if he is really alive.
Spike goes to the syndicate to take down Vicious. Shin dies in gunfire protecting Spike. He is a contrast to his brother who died protecting Vicious. Each brother wanted the person they died for to take over. Shin had been waiting those three years for Spike to come back.
Spike kills Vicious, who wasn't expecting to be killed by Spike. He was shocked. Spike goes out with a bang. White doves are flying up in the background during the credits. This again is a symbol that his spirit is being carried to the afterlife. That, or Mars has a problem with dove overpopulation.
Spike's star fades out. A picture of his dead face is shown, then the caption YOU'RE GONNA CARRY THAT WEIGHT.
My personal belief is that Spike died. For more reading about that, see the Spike section of the website. Thank you for reading! Please let me know what you think.
Side note: Since stars exist for a very long time, maybe the star burning out has to do with a person's soul opposed to lifespan. Maybe it means that when your star dies out, you are no longer reincarnated but go to some sort of afterlife that doesn't exist in the universe. I'm not quite sure, but it always bothered me since stars exist longer than the human lifespan. Also the cat in Spike's story wasn't reincarnated again. What do you think about it?
Comment by Katt on 7:20 pm 24 Aug 2008:
I actually have to say, by this time in the series... I really think Spike was going to see if he was 'really alive.' I think he wanted to put things to rest in his past with Julia. He had hinted to Faye in an earlier episode that she may not have a past but she had a future, and everyone around him was 'healing' except him. Maybe it wwas a wake up call that he could as well.
Also, I think something inside of him realized that even if Julia and him had always been running, they could've been running together from the start. So really... she was always just manipulating him to get away from Vicious and the syndicate.
When they are fighting the syndicate together, Julia seems more set on staying with Spike for protection than Spike wanting her to come along, at this point it was all about settling things with Vicious (his dark half). Of course what is Spike gonna do, say no? Of course not, he still cares for her even though he has realized she never loved him the way he loved her. After all, all women are liars... as she said in a previous episode.
Also the fact that Spike says he hates that story about the cats may say that he hates the fact that maybe he's wasted so much of his life on someone he thought was his white cat.
Where as stars do have long life spans and that one going out could resemble him not being reincarnated... well new stars are being born all the time as well. ;)
Anyways - that's just my take on beloved Bebop. I'm sure everyone's go their own variation. Good observations though. ^^