Netflix’s ‘Cowboy Bebop’ Ending Explained: Is Julia Evil? Does Spike Die? Did Ed Show Up?

Cowboy Bebop on Netflix ends with a showdown that plays homage to the anime series, with a twist. As has been teased in trailers and promo stills, Spike Spiegel (John Cho) will get to face off with former friend-turned-nemesis Vicious (Alex Hassell) in a very “Ballad of Fallen Angels” like fight. What happens next, though, might surprise even the most obsessed Cowboy Bebop fans. Netflix’s new live action series turns a victim into a villain, a hero into an Easter egg, and a tight-knit chosen family into strangers. Let’s make sense of the Cowboy Bebop ending, fam!

Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop is a live action adaptation of the uber-popular Japanese animated series. Set in a future where the solar system has been colonized and crime runs rampant, it’s up to enterprising bounty hunters to help nab the most notorious criminals. Spike Spiegel is a former Syndicate gangster who has reinvented himself as one such “cowboy” after a love affair gone wrong ended with his apparent death. He zigzags around the solar system with partners Jet Black (Mustafa Shakir) and Faye Valentine (Daniella Pineda) on a ship called the Bebop. What Jet and Faye don’t know is that Spike’s past is destined to haunt them.

The Cowboy Bebop finale brings Spike’s past crashing into the Bebop‘s orbit. Spike has to battle for his life, but more importantly, reunited with the long-lost love of his life, Julia (Elena Satine). The ending of Cowboy Bebop Season 1 seemingly reinvents one of the most enigmatic characters from the cartoon as…a villain?

Let’s break it down. Here’s everything you need to know about the end of Cowboy Bebop on Netflix, from Julia’s heel turn to the arrival of Ed…

COWBOY BEBOP ON NETFLIX ENDING EXPLAINED: DOES SPIKE DIE? IS JULIA EVIL? WHAT IS GOING ON!?!

The Cowboy Bebop Season 1 finale takes a lot of notes from the fifth episode of the original anime series, “Ballad of Fallen Angels.” In that episode, Faye finds herself kidnapped by Vicious and his goons so Spike confronts his old syndicate buddy in an abandoned church. The two face off against a stained glass window and Spike is hurled through said rose window. He barely survives and comes to on the Bebop, where Faye has been nursing him.

Some of that stuff survives in the live action version of Cowboy Bebop, but mostly the aesthetics do. The Cowboy Bebop finale, “Supernova Symphony” kicks off with a harrowing hostage situation. Vicious uses the Syndicate to kidnap Jet’s daughter Kimmie (Molly Moriarty). It’s actually a trap for both Jet and Spike and they only make it out thanks to Faye’s interference. However Spike doesn’t want to leave with the gang as he has unfinished business with Vicious.

When Spike goes back into the church, the fight plays out pretty much like the animated version in “Ballad of Fallen Angels.” However at the end of the duel, Julia shoots Vicious. Spike declares his love for her, noting that he’s been dreaming of her. Julia, shockingly, turns on Spike for not coming to her rescue all those years. Spike attempts to atone for this by appealing to Julia that they can run away now. In a twist, Julia reveals that she does not want to leave her life of crime. Not when she’s so close to ruling the Syndicate! Julia asks Spike to kill Vicious for her so they can bring his head to the Temple and rule together. Spike is like, uh…I was serious when I said I no longer want to be a criminal.

This is the moment where Julia seemingly breaks bad, though she blames Spike for turning her into a villain. (That’s on you, lady.) So she shoots Spike. The shock of the wound pushes Spike back through the window and he plunges to the ground. Julia, we learn, keeps Vicious alive, but as a prisoner. She will rule the Syndicate in his place.

Spike somehow survives being shot and falling like 300 feet. He attempts to reunited with the Bebop crew, but Jet wants nothing to do with him now. Jet is a former cop, remember? Faye leaves the boys in pursuit of answers about her past. So the gang is scattered, which sucks.

The last scene of Cowboy Bebop follows Spike as he exits a dive bar and collapses on the ground….

IS ED IN COWBOY BEBOP ON NETFLIX? WHO IS RADICAL EDWARD?

Yes! Ed finally appears in the last moments of Cowboy Bebop Season 1. After Spike collapses, he is awakened by a very loud tween with Raggedy Ann hair and wild goggles. This, of course, is Radical Edward, the hacker extraordinaire.

“Ed” is the nickname of Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV, aka Radical Edward. She is an androgynous 13-year-old girl who falls in with the Cowboy Bebop crew in Episode 9. Ed is tight with Ein and great at digging up information. She is loosely based on the real-life personality of Cowboy Bebop Yoko Kanno.

If you haven’t seen the anime, the live action show first references Radical Edward in Episode 6. Spike and Jet follow a lead from the hacker that turns out to be bust.

Ed is played by newcomer Eden Perkins.

Watch Cowboy Bebop on Netflix