The beloved anime Cowboy Bebop ends on a seemingly macabre note, but Spike Spiegel’s rose hints that the ending might not be what it seems. Cowboy Bebop follows Spike and the rest of The Bebop’s motley crew of bounty hunters as they come to terms with their respective pasts and try to earn a living. Spike, once an enforcer in the Red Dragon Crime Syndicate, left the organization to become a bounty hunter, leading to the events of the anime. In the series finale, Spike appears to die in the process of killing his nemesis, Vicious, who usurped the syndicate’s leaders. One detail, however, implies that perhaps Spike survived.
In the Cowboy Bebop series finale, “The Real Folk Blues,” Spike is reunited with the woman he loves, Julia, only for her to die in a firefight with Vicious’ Red Dragon enforcers. Having reached the peak of despair and his feud with Vicious now at a boiling point, Spike goes on a seemingly suicidal mission to kill his rival and shut down the Red Dragon Syndicate. In Cowboy Bebop's finale, Spike succeeds in killing Vicious and wiping out most of his forces, but the fight leaves him gravely injured and he seemingly dies in the episode’s final moments.
Although it seems that Spike died of his wounds after killing Vicious and most of his enforcers, one reoccurring symbol may indicate that Spike survived the climactic fight. Cowboy Bebop often showed a red rose lying in a puddle, representing his doomed love for Julia, and the symbol appears again in the finale. Several petals blow across the ground in the wind shortly before Spike goes on his suicidal mission, but they’re in full color. Though Spike’s reason to live, Julia died, and the rose’s visual symbolism indicates that Spike may have survived, despite his injuries.
Part one of the series finale ends with lingering shots of Spike’s rose in full bloom and full color, further supporting this symbol of his survival. Spike Spiegel himself assures Faye that he wasn’t confronting Vicious intending to die, but to “find out if (he’s) really alive.” While cryptic, the line does lend weight to Spike’s survival. Throughout Cowboy Bebop, Spike has a fairly indifferent attitude towards his survival during his numerous dangerous missions, so Spike may have simply collapsed from exhaustion, rather than die of his injuries.
There’s an equal amount of evidence that Spike did die after finally killing Vicious. Spike no longer felt a need to live after losing Julia, and all that was left for him to do was avenge her by killing his rival. With Vicious dead, Spike finally came to terms with his past and could die in peace. Symbolically, the finale shows a bright star flickering before fading out at the end of its credits, coinciding with a prediction made by Spike’s ally, Laughing Bull.
Cowboy Bebop has an intentionally ambiguous ending, with creator Shinichirō Watanabe refusing to confirm either outcome and admitting that he doesn’t have a definitive answer for himself. The conflicting visual cues and the abrupt nature of the anime’s ending allow viewers to decide for themselves, but Spike’s character arc concludes beautifully either way. Whether or not the upcoming live-action reboot ends on a similarly ambiguous note remains to be seen. For those who wish for Spike to survive, however, the visual hint given by his rose may be sufficient for them to assume that he survives Cowboy Bebop’s ending.