The world of Cowboy Bebop is incredible. Taking place in 2071, things are both similar and different at the same time. Like Firefly, space travel is common, other planets and moons have been "terraformed" for human life, and Earth is pretty much gone. But nearly every problem that exists today is still around for the crew of the Bebop; crime and poverty is rampant (the rich-poor divide is even worse than it is today), there are environmental concerns, and the government is almost powerless to help (sounds almost exactly like Firefly).The solar system is a harsh place to live, and Spike, Jet, Faye, and Ed are on the edge of society. They live off of the bounty heads they turn in (I am convinced that they do a lot of hunting off screen because I can only think of one time in the entire show when they successfully turn in a bounty head). Ed and Jet usually stay on the ship and act as hacker and coordinator, respectively, but Jet did his share of adventuring. However, with Spike and Faye usually out making the capture, things often go wrong and the bounty head ends up dead, causing them to lose the reward. The two of them work separately towards the same goal as often as they work together, but both scenarios tend to cause one of them to "improvise" the situation and cause a situation leading to their prey's death.
But as I said, the show isn't about the individual adventures the crew has trying to capture bounty heads. It is about the little things revealed along the way that are part of the grander storyline. Many details are revealed at times when they seemingly have nothing to do with what's going on. For example, in "Sympathy For The Devil", the episode begins with visions of someone being experimented on by doctors. The person turns out to be Spike, and we get a close up shot of one of his eyes. Once the sequence is over, we never get any explanation about it again throughout the rest of the episode. It ties in with the episode's villain, but its real meaning doesn't become apparent until the final few episodes. The very first thing that happens in the series is a quick montage of events from Spike's life before he met Jet. His cryptic comment later in the first episode about being killed once before, by a woman, further adds to the mystery.
That comment, as well as a few other made by Spike throughout the series, heavily imply that the entire series is nothing more than a dream that Spike is having. Personally, I think that the meaning refers to the idea that Spike lost his purpose after his first "death" and wanders through life in a dream-like trance. I'd be interested to see a full flashback from Spike's life before Jet, to see if he was more tense or angry or anything. In the series, he sleeps a lot, is extremely laid back (which annoys Jet and Faye) and only truly gets angry about two things: the lack of "real food" on the Bebop, and Vicious, a man from his past.
Like Spike, Jet left his old life completely behind.
In their old lives, Spike and Jet would have been enemies, but now they are partners. The two of them can work together well as long as their pasts aren't brought up. It's not that there are old wounds between them, but rather, their old lives are too painful to themselves. Spike lost his soul, while Jet lost his faith in humanity. But unlike Spike, Jet is trying to start over. He takes a liking to Ein, a dog they "rescue" in the second episode, and can tolerate the young Ed. Two important things happened to him; one had to do with why he now has a cybernetic arm. The other involves his ability to relate to people, and while he at times thinks only the worst of people, he also wishes that he could relate to them better. Although, I think that isolation wins with him, since he is one of the crew members who usually stays behind, even though he is a force to be reckoned with. Spike is extremely skilled at fighting, but Jet has brute strength on his side as well as rational thought processes (something both Spike and Faye often lack).Faye also has a mysterious and painful past, but she chooses to cover it up with a brash exterior. Faye Valentine is introduced as a spoiled and selfish woman who will lie, steal, and cheat to make sure that things turn out her way. She is a compulsive gambler, which we are led to believe is the cause of her massive debt (that may not be the case, though). The first two times she is aboard the Bebop, she is there as a prisoner, and even when she is there by choice, she almost never gets along with Spike and Jet. Her partnership with them is through necessity; she can act as bait for them (most of the bounty heads are men, and Faye can lure them in), while they provide living arrangements for her (before them, all she had was her little fighter ship, which was full of garbage).
However, all of this is an act. As for what Faye is covering up, it is a twist that seem to come from out of nowhere, yet makes perfect sense when going back and looking at earlier episodes (rewatch "Honky Tonk Women"). Once her past is revealed, we begin to see a change in her. With her armor gone, we see her for who she is, a scared and lonely woman who longs for things to go back to the way they were.
Edward is kind of the odd duck in the equation; she is a goofy kid who doesn't really have a "hidden" past. Her origin story, as revealed in "Hard Luck Woman", is sad, but hardly mysterious.
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