In Session 1, Laughing Bull foretells of Spike's death being brought on by a woman.
Laughing Bull: Swimming bird will meet a woman. The bird will be hunted by this woman. And then death.
Spike: One more time.
Laughing Bull: What's that?
Spike: I was killed once before by a woman.
Spike is speaking of Julia. Losing her love was so painful as to be considered a form of death. He was left in a detached dream-like purgatory from that day on.
In Session 26, Julia is shot in front of Spike. White doves fly by in slow motion. Horror, shock, and agony are expressed in Spike's left eye. He screams her name, drops his weapon, and runs to her. He takes her in his arms. Hears her last words, which are inaudible to the audience.
Spike looks down at his lost love and then up to the sky. The camera is now focused on Spike's right eye, which is shaking in a disturbing manner. The camera zooms into Spike's pupil and everything fades to black.
The next scene is of Laughing Bull predicting Spike's imminent death.
Holding Julia's coat, Vicious speaks of Spike.
Vicious: A beast that has lost his place. He has nowhere to return to now. He will come.
Vicious is both right and wrong. Spike will come, but he does have somewhere to return to one last time.
Two rose petals are shown blowing away in the wind.
Spike returns to the Bebop and tells Jet an allegory about his life, which he uses to explain why he will never return.
Spike: There once was a tiger striped cat. This cat died a million deaths, revived and lived a million lives, and he was owned by various people who he didn't really care for. The cat wasn't afraid to die. Then one day the cat became a stray cat, which meant he was free. He met a white female cat, and the two of them spent their days together happily. Well, years passed, and the white cat grew weak and died of old age. The tiger striped cat cried a million times, and then he died too. Except this time, he didn't come back to life.
If there is any doubt that Spike was speaking of himself and Julia, the movie further emphasizes the parallels.
Spike: Years ago, back when I was much younger, I was afraid of nothing. I had not the slightest fear of death. I was ready to die anytime. But then I met a special woman. She made me want to go on living. For the first time, I was afraid of death. A feeling I’d never had before.
Elektra: Where is she now?
Spike: She went away.
While Spike tells this tale, Jet is keenly aware that Spike's death looms in the horizon. He is wary of the tale's implications.
When Spike gets up to leave, Jet asks him one last question.
Jet: Is it for the girl?
Spike: [beat] She's dead. There's nothing I can do for her now.
This is true. Julia is dead. There is nothing Spike can do for her. This does not lessen the impact she has on the events that are about to unfold. Jet understands this. Upon hearing of Julia's death, Jet has a resigned if devastated reaction. He knows exactly what this means for Spike.
Faye confronts Spike while holding him at gunpoint. She knows that he is marching towards his death.
Faye: Where are you going? Why, are you going? You told me once, to forget the past, ‘cause it doesn’t matter, but you’re the one still tied to the past, Spike!
Spike does not deny this. Instead, he explains the truth about his eyes. The camera spans from his left eye to his right eye.
Spike: Look at my eyes, Faye. One of them is a fake because I lost it in an accident. Since then, I've been seeing the past in one eye and the present in the other. So, I thought I could only see patches of reality, never the whole picture.
Faye: Don’t tell me things like that; you’ve never told me anything about yourself, so don’t tell me now!
Spike: I felt like I was watching a dream I could never wake up from. Before I knew it, the dream was all over.
This is not the first time Spike has expressed this sentiment. One of his most revelatory quotes was said in the teaser for Ballad of Fallen Angels.
Spike: The music box is broken, or is it? It starts to play, and a haunting tune fills the air. I wake suddenly from my dream. There is no music box! And yet there it is. A tiny one nestled in my hand. And I awaken from my dream again. As if I were peeling an onion. It’s a dream no matter how far I go. I can never reach reality. Trapped in an endless nightmare.
Spike is so affected by the loss of the woman he loves that even an item she once possessed haunts him. It is her death that has finally woken him from his detached dream-like state.
Faye shares with Spike that her memory has returned. She explains that there was nowhere for her to go back to. She pleads with him to stay.
Spike leaves Faye with these parting words.
Spike: I’m not going there to die; I’m going to find out if I’m really alive. I have to do it, Faye.
Faye is not comforted by this statement. Spike's words eerily echo what Jet said to him in session 25.
Jet: Men only think about the past right before their death, as if they were searching frantically for proof that they were alive.
Faye cries and shoots off her gun.
Spike walks away from Faye and the Bebop without looking back.
The song "See You Space Cowboy" plays as Spike leaves the Bebop.
"Everything is already over",
You say with closed ears
The words only flow
Towards a tomorrow without peace
"There's nothing that won't change"
Even if my life ends
This love will not disappear
It's something that will live forever
Even if dreams are hidden in darkness
I got a rainbow Rainbow in your hands...
The camera zooms in on Spike's left eye. The eye that sees Spike's past. The lyrics begin as Spike is recalling romantic memories of Julia. He thinks of the first time he saw Julia and was captivated by her beauty. He thinks of a time when he made love to Julia and she cradled him in her arms.
Given that Spike confided to Jet just the previous session that Julia was a part of him, the image shows a moment in Spike's life when he felt whole.
Spike: She was a piece of me I had lost. She is my other half that I had longed for.
The song continues to play as Spike attacks the syndicate. It is a ballad of undying love alluding to lovers being reunited in the afterlife.
When Spike faces off against his hated rival, Vicious makes a proclamation.
Vicious: So, you're finally awake. I told you before, Spike. I'm the only one who can kill you and set you free.
Spike does not deny this. But makes a proclamation of his own.
Spike: Those words apply to you as well, Vicious.
During their fight, there comes a moment where the two disarm each other by swapping weapons. Vicious getting Spike's gun and Spike getting Vicious's katana. It is at this moment that Spike makes a statement of great significance to both men.
Spike: Julia passed away. Let's end it all.
Vicious: If that's your wish.
The rivals return their weapons. Spike shoots Vicious but gets sliced across the abdomen. Vicious's death comes quickly, while Spike lingers as was foreshadowed.
Vicious: Don't forget, a snake's venom poisons slowly after the bite.
Spike watches Vicious's body fall to the ground, spends but a few seconds looking at him, then looks up to the night's sky. The camera is focused on Spike's right eye. Now calm.
Spike sees Julia. This is the first time in the entire series that Spike is shown seeing Julia with his right eye.
In session 13, during an auditory flashback, Spike and Julia discuss his eyes.
Spike: My left eye sees the past.
Julia: What about your right eye?
[We do not hear his response.]
In the penultimate scene of the series, we are specifically shown what Spike sees with his eye that sees his present. He sees her.
In Spike's vision, Julia is cast in a white light. She says her last words to Spike, this time they are audible to the audience. Spike is shown reflected back in Julia's eye. He glumly concurs with her. Spike is then completely engulfed by a blinding white light. The scene fades to white.
This light is reminiscent of the divine light that is cast upon a soul that is ready to ascend to heaven.
Julia: It's all a dream.
Spike: Yeah. Just a bad dream.
From white we transition to the final scene of the series. It is now day. A white light is now cast over the entire syndicate.
Spike smiles, points a finger gun at the remaining syndicate goons and says "bang".
This is a callback to Wen from session 6. As Wen was dying he asked Spike if he understood the relief that came with one's own death. In response, Spike threw Wen's harmonica up in the air, pretended to shoot it while saying "bang". When Spike says "bang" this time he is acknowledging that he now understands that relief.
Spike falls to the ground. He is never shown moving again. White doves are shown flying over Spike's body. White doves also flew by Julia when she died.
The camera follows an ascension into the heavens, while the song "Blue" plays. The song's lyrics allude to a soul ascending to heaven.
Free
Wanna be free
Gonna be free
And move among the stars
You know, they really aren't so far
Feels so free
Gotta know free
Please
Don't wake me from the dream
It's really everything it seems
I'm so free
No black and white in the blue
Everything is clearer now
Life is just a dream, you know
That's never-ending
I'm ascending
At the end of the credits a star goes out but never falls.
In session 13, Laughing Bull informs the audience to what a falling star truly is.
Child: A star just fell from the sky.
Laughing Bull: That is not an ordinary star, my son. That star is the tear of a warrior. A lost soul who has finished his battles somewhere on this planet.
Child: What warrior is it?
Laughing Bull: A pitiful soul who could not find his way to the lofty realm. Where the great spirit awaits us all.
Given that the star we are shown does not fall, it is reasonable to infer that the soul the star belonged to did make its way to the great spirit that awaits us all.
That soul has broken away from the cycle of death and rebirth and is never coming back. As was foreshadowed to happen to Spike in the fable of the tiger striped cat, who followed his love into death and never returned.