Episode CI

Episode CI

Well, this is it, everyone. The true series finale to Samurai Jack. No scowling babies this time. Let’s ROCK!

The episode begins with a worldwide broadcast by Aku, where people that Jack came across at some point were watching.

The Scotsman’s ghost and his daughters

Olivia and her group of raving teenager

The Triseraquins from Episodes IX: Jack Under the Sea

The Woolies

An older version of the Monkey Man from Episode XIV: Jack Learns to Jump Good

The archers and their tribesmen

Sir Rothchild (the anthropomorphic lead archaeologist dog from Episode II: The Samurai Called Jack ) and his grandchildren

) and his grandchildren Max and the robotic residents of Andromeda from Episode XLI: Robo-Samurai versus Mondo Bot

We get a surreal scene where we watch the original OPENING CREDITS that was used in past Samurai Jack seasons, with Aku’s little twist to it. The world watches in horror as Aku shows off his new prisoner to the world and slowly decides on how to publicly execute Jack. Jack pleads to the corrupted Ashi to fight off Aku’s influence, seemingly to no avail. After some time, Aku decides to give the corrupted Ashi the honor of killing Jack. As Ashi is ready to land the killing blow to Jack, Aku’s lair falls under attack.

I scream for

Jack’s allies arrive as a massive army, meant to distract Aku (we even get to see the 300 Spartans from Episode XXV: Jack and the Spartans). Jack manages to break free from his bonds and tries to take his sword, but is stopped by the corrupted Ashi. But things take a turn for the worse as Aku manages to kill some people and transform them into likenesses of himself. The tide seemingly turns as the Scotsman makes one of his most epic entrances yet, leading his daughters into battle… on an energy path he erected. While his daughters are riding giant deer as steeds.

No, I am fucking serious! This is the most awesome image of the season ever!

Ya still a wee laddie!

The Scotsman’s bagpipes are so powerful that it hurts Aku’s hearing and even disrupts Ashi’s attack. Jack and the Scotsman finally meet in this brief, amusing scene. And then we get the funniest part of the episode: the Robo-Samurai, piloted by Max, beating the living shit out of Aku. It’s like when the Hulk smacked the shit out of Loki in The Avengers. However, the corrupted Ashi engulfs Jack into herself (giggity…), but Jack manages to hear the real Ashi somewhere in the darkness.

A wrathful Aku summons a storm of giant needles, killing off some of Jack’s allies. The Scotsman uses the soundwaves of his bagpipes to deflect the needles (sadly, that’s the last of what we see of him for the rest of the episode). Jack eventually reaches out to Ashi, having her revert back to her human form. But this time, she now inherits the shapeshifting powers of Aku, allowing her to take Jack’s sword back. Ashi even uses Aku’s time-traveling ability to send them both back to the past.

…….How would she know how to do that?

Jack and Ashi arrive at the exact moment after Aku sent the past Jack into the future. From there on, Jack finishes what he started: killing off the confused Aku for good, while he’s not as powerful and wily in the future. Jack destroys Aku’s lair, and the deed is finally done.

The world of the past celebrates Jack’s victory over Aku, and Jack’s home is restored back to its former glory. Jack and Ashi intend to wed, as Jack’s parents proudly look on (oddly enough, they seem perfectly healthy despite looking haggardly before). On the day of the wedding, Ashi falls ill and explains that she can only exist with Aku around. Ashi fades away from existence and Jack grieves for her death, à la Gurren Lagann.

In the final scene, a crestfallen Jack travels through a misty forest and sits alone. A ladybug gently lands on him, reminding him of Ashi, and flies away. Jack smiles as his home glows a radiant color, standing at the same tree that he once showed Ashi in the future.

Alright. Wow. That’s a bittersweet ending if I’ve seen one, in more ways than one. I mean, that is seriously depressing. Not to mention there are some issues to discuss here. So, let’s review.

The main issue with this episode is its rushed pacing, without a doubt. To further support that, there are some continuity errors to take note of (such as the Emperor and Empress retaining their youthful appearances, despite looking haggardly before). The final episode has the same length as a regular episode of the series, which is part of the problem. There are some past episodes of Samurai Jack that follow a specific episodic plot, leading to two-parters like The Birth of Evil and Scotsman Saves Jack. In fact, the series premiere of Samurai Jack was actually the first three episodes stringed together to make a feature-length movie. My point is that the series finale should have finished in a similar way: being an extended episode that will help tie up loose ends. I know the production staff are only contracted to produce 10 episodes, but I seriously wouldn’t mind waiting another week or two if it means a better episode (not like the shit that [adult swim] pulled on April Fool’s Day). I’m sure a lot of fans would feel the same as well. If I’m feeling ever so bold, I would like to see a director’s cut version of the season so that it could fill the missing gaps. Not as episodes premiering for [adult swim], but for DVD/BluRay releases of Season 5.

It’s nice to see more of Jack’s allies show up for a short time, not to mention the Scotsman made one hell of a final appearance. Though it’s sad to see some of them go, the fate of everyone else is unknown. But due to Jack slaying Aku in the past, it’s highly possible that Jack erased these people out of existence for good. So technically, all those side characters we’ve come to know and love throughout the series have never existed at all. It’s subtle, but honestly depressing. And maybe even heavy-handed. We don’t even get a final scene of these people in the future, perhaps living alternate lives. They got no closure whatsoever. Now they’re just distant memories for Jack.

Ashi’s time portal ability happened so fast that Jack never got to say goodbye to any one of his friends, which would go against his character. It contradicts the ending of Episode XXXVI: Jack, the Monks, and the Ancient Master’s Son, where Jack did not use a time portal within his reach in order to save two allied monks that probably would have met certain doom had he not intervened. It’s nice to see Jack’s allies banding together against a common enemy, but their resolution was left in suspension. We can presume that they’re all gone for good.

I know I’m harping a lot on these other characters despite their minimal roles in the past seasons, but we really got to like these characters. The Scotsman was always awesome. Spartok and his spartan army were noble warriors (even though Spartok should be OLD at this point, so this is probably a continuity error). The Monkey Man was affable. Even just a TINY peek at an alternate future featuring these characters would be enough to do them justice.

Jack managed to snap the corrupted Ashi out of her hypnosis by telling her that he loves her, which is cliché. And she even gained Aku’s powers, controlling them like no problem. Yeah, the power of love saved the day this time. And that’s honestly kinda lame. That is a deus ex machina if I’ve seen one. It all happened way too quickly and perfectly.

A lot of these problems seem to happen because this is a 20-minute episode trying to tie the loose ends of the whole series, albeit sloppily. As soon as Jack defeated Aku, the transition to the wedding day of Jack and Ashi happened so quickly that it was like they were going to get married IMMEDIATELY after Jack’s return. You know, a big event that takes TIME to set up.

I also feel like Ashi’s death scene happened too briefly. And also a bit inconsistent with timing, since it took some time for her to die after Aku was gone. She collapsed, said a line of exposition and faded away. If she said something along the lines of, “I love you, Jack. Please don’t forget about me,” I think it would’ve been a much stronger scene. I think Ashi telling us that her existence being tied to Aku was unnecessary, since we can figure that out just from context alone.

However, the final scene is touching and poignant, as Jack looks on his saved kingdom. He had gone through a long, LONG journey. But he returned, keeping his youthful appearance and his years of fighting experience. He accomplished his original goal, saving the world from Aku’s evil. And by extension, he saved the FUTURE and the universe from Aku’s tyranny as well. Unfortunately, he is the only one in this era to know this. He sacrificed everything in the future to save his own present. No matter how he looks at it, his situation was a catch-22. Whether he remained in the future or returned to the past would make little difference, as it’s almost like he had never been to the future at all. Relatively to him, he may have been gone for over 50 years. But for his time period, he was only gone for 10 seconds. It only shows how fleeting these precious moments easily become.

Anyways, I’m taking a lot of time with this episode review, so let’s wrap this up. The series finale is a decent episode, but filled with untapped potential. I think it did well in concluding Jack’s storyline (as well as Ashi’s), but the lack of resolution for the residents of the future bothered me immensely. The rushed pacing also hurt some key scenes, like Ashi’s death (I seriously think her line needs to be changed into something more meaningful). Despite those problems, I am thankful towards Genndy Tartakovsky (one of the animation giants of my childhood) and the rest of the Samurai Jack production team for making this season happen. Samurai Jack was one of those shows that I felt deserving of a proper conclusion for a LONG time, and I was upset that Cartoon Network cancelled it before such a thing could happen. This was one of the TV shows that highlighted my late childhood, so of course I wanted to see it until the end. Now that it’s happened, I can happily conclude my thoughts with this season and the whole series.

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