If you remember the casino scene from an earlier episode there's a moment where spike is standing in front of a black and white television monitor showing a movie. The subtitles at that moment say "Only a samurai could kill him like this." It was pointing towards this episode. The series is full of these clues. The ace of spades is known as the "death card".
One of my favorite episodes featuring one of my favorite songs Greenbird from the sound track. The song that played when Spike was falling that sounds like a choir is actually Yoko Kanno, the composure of every track on there. Every episode title is a reference to music in some way for instance the next episode Sympathy For The Devil is the name of a dope Rolling Stones song.
Just so you understand a bit more context Mao was attempting to set up a truce between his mafia and their main competitor (whom they had been beefing with for years) and Vicious blew up the Helicopter earlier in this episode that was supposed to broker the peace deal lol. That's also why Vicious called him a "beast who lost his fangs" 8:30 So Vicious wants all the mafias to continue warring with each other as that benefits his own personal ends. Spike quit that mafia years ago due to (spoilers) and is now on the bebop which is where we see him in this series.
This is the single greatest episode of anime ever produced. Especially when you go back and watch it again with more context. Here’s a little fun fact, the bird on the shoulder of vicious is a cormorant , the same bird the devil takes the shape of while he spies on Adam and Eve while he’s on top of the tree of life. You also see vicious standing on top of a stairway while spike and Julia come back at the bottom during the ending song . Now what “sin” could spike and Julia be guilty of that vicious was spying on them for. Notice how at certain points Julia is lying in bed with spike on top of her and at other points it’s vicious lying next to her sitting up while she looks away. What is it that spike and Julia could have done to him? This is all very important.
Yea its never confirmed but Mao was friends with Anna and her husband (the other guy in the picture) and some people (i am one of those people) think that Anna is Spike's mom, since he looks pretty much like her husband but with darker, fluffy hair.
Interesting, been watching this show countless times since 2001 and never thought of that. I always thought of her like an “aunt” to spike and that he was an orphan brought in around the same time as vicious
