And at the end of the episode they return, as if to say “Hohoho, we won!” The song is not happy or uplifting, neither is the scenery, the only interpretation of this episode that I can see as plausible is a kind of warning to Spike about his own problems. Keep in mind, those spores were the cause of all of Rocco’s problems because it was because of those that his sister went blind. This kind of bittersweet ending seems even more intentional to me especially when we take into consideration the true ending of the episode, which includes that really eerie music box music and the haunting white spores that fall from the sky.

Even though Rocco has finally learned, he still has to die because he didn’t learn earlier. And then when we finally get to the end, Rocco finally figures out how to fight in a way that doesn’t include running, but actually faces his problems and uses them to his advantage and this is Rocco’s shining moment, but alas I would argue that this is one of those too late too bad moments. Now of course with different situations and circumstances this assertion stretches to different lengths, but I think in the end Rocco was running too because all he was focused on was getting the stuff for his sister and to do that he had to run like a coward throughout the entire show. Running away from a syndicate, for example, will haunt someone for their entire life, but just facing their syndicate will clean things up in maybe only a couple of hours. In my opinion, it takes a lot more work to constantly be running away and hiding from things, than to just face things head on. To me this relates to running from one’s past. I think the answer lies in the philosophy behind Spike’s fighting style, especially because that same philosophy goes along with one of the major themes that runs through Cowboy Bebop, a theme that I seem to talk about too much, but hey it’s interesting! Spike explains to Rocco that if you tense up during fighting you’ll get beaten, but being like water, by going with the flow and then controlling other people’s force, you can be pretty formidable. One thing that has always stuck out to me in this episode is why does Rocco die at the end? Why does he have to die, after having finally learned how to fight and defend himself? Cowboy Bebop Session #8 “Waltz for Venus” Analysis

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