Samurai Jack Season 5 Review: Episode 4 (XCV) (SPOILER ALERT)

BOI, ASHI BE HAVIN AN EXTRA THICC A-

AHEM! Please pardon my manners. Anyways, welcome again, fellow TopTenners and visitors! This is MSBS here with my review of the fourth episode of the fifth season of Samurai Jack. Now in case you've forgotten the basics of how I carry out my reviews for each episode of the fifth season of Samurai Jack, I basically go into detail about the events of each episode and give commentary on any details of the plot I find to be intriguing to talk about, where I then close it off with any final thoughts I have about the episode and sum up everything I said in each review. Now this review took longer than usual to be able to write since apparently, Adult Swim had the nerve to pull off an unfunny April Fools joke by airing the Season 3 premiere of Rick and Morty (not that I hate Rick and Morty. I just don't watch the series myself) back to back for SEVERAL HOURS on the Saturday night of April 1st, therefore taking up Samurai Jack's time slot. OH, YOU REALLY MADE ME FLIP THE BIRD NOW, ADULT SWIM! I KNOW 2 WEEKS AIN'T GONNA KILL ME, BUT COME ON! Now if you'll excuse me, before I start my review, I would like to recommend that anyone reading this review should be caught up with the last three episodes, as those three are essential plot points that connect to this episode in sequential order. Oh, and as always, this review WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS. Now onwards with the review, shall we?

So the fourth episode of the fifth season of Samurai Jack continues off from the previous episode where Jack had successfully defeated the Daughters of Aku once and for all, but had fallen off a cliff after taking out the last Daughter of Aku named Ashi, who, if you have seen all 3 episodes up to this point, was a pretty major character who got the most focus out of any Daughter of Aku. Anyways, Jack is seen falling down from the sky as he crashes through several branches of trees before plummeting into the snow. Fortunately, Jack is alive and well from the great fall, but not before having a nightmarish hallucination of Aku shaped like a Daughter of Aku popping up, which had quite a lot of shock value from what I personally experienced! Man, I was not expecting to see something like that in the morning while eating a pair of waffles and some leftover croissants with a glass of milk, so yeah. Now I know how Jack feels. That said, Jack then finds a trail of blood and begins to follow it, which leads him to the body of Ashi, seemingly dead from her defeat by Jack after falling to her apparent death. Then, Jack's mind begins to mess with him when a flock of crows crotched on the branches of barren trees suddenly start to shout out "MURDERER!" and "KILLER!" under Jack's impression that they're condemning him for killing a human. It was essentially like how Sinon from Sword Art Online II experienced trauma at the hands of having shot a robber as a child as kids muttered "murderer" in one of her flashbacks in the anime. Pretty much, if you turned those kids into crows and toned up their voices to maximum G-force, it perfectly sums up the intense scene that Jack had endured with the crows. Fortunately, Jack is able to snap out of it and shout at the top of his lungs to the crows that the Daughters of Aku had chosen their path to stay and kill Jack, therefore justifying their demises, silencing the crows. But suddenly, Ashi then launches her sickle chain at Jack, revealing that she had survived her fall and was not dead after all! However, Jack is quick to counter this and is able to subdue her by tying her up in her own chains while simultaneously leaving her hanging from a tree. As Ashi swings back and forth unable to escape, she repeatedly curses at Jack, claiming him to be evil while believing Aku to be the goodness and glory of the world as that was what she was taught since her birth. Jack is confused by this and tells her that it is Aku that is the evil one and not him. Unsurprisingly, Ashi refuses to believe this, leaving Jack to ponder as to why she would believe such things, commenting that Aku may have programmed machines to believe such hateful lies, but never a human being. Concluding that Ashi is misguided, Jack tries to reason with her and prove to her that he is not the enemy.

However, things don't go Jack's way when the ground suddenly starts to shake and break up around them, which then reveals a giant creature with a giant mouth that proceeds to eat Jack and Ashi along with everything around them! THAT, WAS UNEXPECTED. Sure, I may have read the short plot synopsis to this episode about Jack and Ashi having to escape the belly of a giant creature, but I would have never expected it to pop out of nowhere like that! Anyways, as Jack and Ashi are falling down into the mouth of the giant creature, Ashi, while still chained up, attempts to assault Jack again by bouncing off one of the trees and slicing Jack with her sickle, with Jack barely surviving her attacks when he then saves Ashi in spite of her assault and proceeds to break their fall as they land into the bowels of the giant creature. However, despite having been saved by Jack, rather than thanking him for saving her, Ashi is more thankful of having been trapped inside the belly of the giant creature while praising Aku, as she believes that Jack will eventually die within the confines of said belly. But as for Jack, he isn't fazed by this newfound dilemma as he states that he has been inside giant creatures before and that he will find a way out in this one like he did with previous creatures. Keep in mind that this is true, as he indeed did explore giant creatures before in the original series. Jack proceeds to lecture to Ashi again about how Aku is the true enemy when a horde of several blue-green hermit-like creatures gather to feast on them. Now one thing I would REALLY love to praise is how the inside of the giant creature isn't just flesh and blood, but rather an entire body home to so many diverse ecosystems within it and how many vibrant and colorful creatures exist within those ecosystems. And I'm not talking bacteria-like organisms. I'm talking about ACTUAL multi-cellular creatures, people. And those blue-green hermit-like creatures are just a prime example of said actual multi-cellular creatures. Moving on, Ashi then attempts to kill Jack again by kicking him towards the horde of the hermit-like creatures. Thankfully, after seeing one of the creatures accidentally cut off one of another creature's legs with their leg, Jack uses the dissected leg as a makeshift sword to fend off the hermit-like creatures and defend himself and Ashi. He kills several, but not all of the creatures while attaching Ashi to his back to keep her from getting eaten by the creatures. But to Jack's dismay, Ashi intentionally butts her head against Jack as she is not fond of Jack or his help at all. However, she is shortly knocked out and rendered unconscious after being hit on the head by one of the creatures, allowing Jack to fight his way through the creatures and escape to a cave where he and Ashi can rest in.

Having escaped the horde of hermit-like creatures, the episode then cuts to a pitch black screen as Ashi still remains unconscious, dreaming as she can hear her mother's voice mutter about her command to kill Jack, slowly growing louder until her mother's voice reaches its loudest as Ashi's mother manifests into a being with a more demonic face than usual. This wakes Ashi up, to which she then sees Jack resting nearby in the distance. Jack's rest is then interrupted by a small puffball-like creature that tells Jack that he should escape without Ashi, since it detects her to be nothing but pure evil. Jack, not having the intent of abandoning Ashi, refuses to listen to the puffball-like creature and then blows it away. However, Jack's self-consciousness then appears, having slimmed down back to a more sane figure in comparison to his last appearance from the third episode, where he was clearly shown in a more jagged and corrupt form. To me, this shift from Jack's sanity going from bad to worse to back to normal (at least for now) kind of gives me hope that Jack has overcome his internal struggles and will be able to keep his head in the game for the rest of the series. Not to mention that since that mysterious shadow warrior that had appeared in all three previous episodes doesn't appear in this one, it could symbolize that Jack seems to have found who he is again for good and that now all he has to do is find his sword and defeat Aku once and for all and set things right in his past. But hey, it's too early tell as of the time I write this post, so we just have to wait and see for ourselves towards the end of the series. That said, Jack begins to argue with his own self-consciousness as he claims that it was all his fault Ashi was here with him in the first place and that he needs to escape along with her to make up for such events. All of this can be seen happening as Ashi simply sees Jack as basically arguing with himself since she cannot see his self-consciousness. But then out of nowhere, a red crab-like creature snatches her with its claw and takes her up a stalagmite, with Jack's self-consciousness quick to notice the kidnapping. However, in spite of Jack's self-consciousness believing that now that Ashi is gone that Jack can now leave without her, Jack objects and goes against his self-consciousness's wishes as he finds a makeshift mace from the creature's body and then climbs up to where he confronts the red crab-like creature and makes short work of it off-screen, sending it plummeting down below with the mace stuck on its body in defeat. Not surprisingly, Ashi is not grateful of Jack rescuing her, even going as far as to say she'd rather be eaten and turned into excrement than be saved by the likes of Jack. Things aren't any better for Jack as the puffball-like creature from before appears again to add insult to injury by teasing to Jack if he was expecting a hug or kiss from Ashi, much to his chagrin.

Shortly after a commercial break, Jack is seen navigating through the insides of the giant creature as Ashi endlessly rants about Jack's inevitable demise and praises Aku. You can basically compare this as the equivalent of a toddler whining on and on while being carried by one of their parent's backs. While I was quite aggravated at Ashi's constant nagging as much as Jack was, I did find it to be understandable too given that it's not easy for her to just suddenly believe Jack is the good guy since all her life she was taught that he was the bad guy instead. Anyways, having finally been fed up with Ashi, Jack throws her down and once again tries to tell her that it is not him, but Aku that is the evil one. Of course, Ashi stands her ground and still refuses to believe what Jack is saying. Suddenly, it then begins to rain needles in Jack and Ashi's location, prompting Jack to take him and Ashi to safe shelter so as to wait for the storm to subside. During the storm, Jack pulls off the needles from both him and Ashi as he tries to make small talk of their current situation by explaining what acupuncture is to Ashi, though Ashi isn't interested in anything Jack has to say in the slightest. Cutting to another scene, the storm has finally stopped and now Jack and Ashi continue their escape, but not before having to hide from a centipede-like creature. After said creature passes, Jack spots some pieces of its discarded exoskeleton and puts it on to use as makeshift body armor.

"I like the back fur." - Samurai Jack

EXTRA THICC, MAH BOY!

Ashi then replies in disgust that Jack looks hideous in the armor, to which Jack then takes it as a compliment from a person like her. Afterwards, Jack is then seen climbing a higher area with Ashi on his back, shortly determining that there's a way out close up. However, not wanting to let Jack escape alive, Ashi tries to jerk her body downward and sends both her and Jack falling down a bit. Thankfully, Jack is not deterred by this as he then makes a makeshift vine to attach to the top of the higher area, along with making Ashi's chain longer and hanging from Jack instead so as to keep Ashi from interfering with Jack again. Eventually, Jack finally reaches the top, and he and Ashi then stumble upon an array of various colorful flying creatures in a pitch black environment, with Jack and even Ashi being shown in complete astonishment at the wonderful sights of nature within the insides of the giant creature. Things get even better when Jack sees what appears to be the blowhole of the giant creature open up, revealing a way to finally escape the giant creature. However, the way out is shown to be over a pool of acid, making things a bit difficult for Jack and Ashi's escape. Luckily, Jack thinks fast and decides to use the flying creatures to help them fly out of the giant creature's body. Jack then proceeds to latch onto one of the flying creatures with Ashi, only for a fish-like predator structured like a fish bone to spot and pursuit them. Utilizing each and every flying creature to help hide and evade from the predator, Jack and Ashi finally reach some jellyfish-like creatures that they take cover in as they float to the top of the exit. The two are miraculously able to escape as the jellyfish-like creatures they were in explode due to fear from the predator chasing them, giving the two some launch power to jump out of the giant creature's blowhole, having finally escaped both the fish-like predator and the giant creature as the two then fall into an ocean in the middle of nowhere. Jack then saves Ashi from drowning into the water as he swims to a nearby desert-like island for them to rest at. Eventually, Ashi regains consciousness and sees Jack exhausted and resting. Simultaneously, she then spots her sickle and takes hold of it and prepares to kill Jack once and for all, having been finally released from her chains in the process of escaping the giant creature from earlier. However, then a ladybug flies right by her, taking her to a flashback from her childhood where she had once interacted with a ladybug that she had encountered while training with one of her sisters. But during this flashback, Ashi's mother then appears, seeing the ladybug as nothing more than a distraction to Ashi's training, who then proceeds to crush the ladybug with her own fingers when the ladybug flies onto her hand, claiming that it was not part of Aku's order. When it cuts back to the present, the ladybug Ashi had seen on the island then flies onto Jack's hand, with Jack fully embracing its presence, showing no fear or intent to harm it, letting it fly away in peace. Seeing this and remembering her mother's words, Ashi then drops her sickle and is finally convinced that Jack is not the enemy, ending the episode as she sits down and meditates with Jack from a distance.

So... what does this episode mean for the future of Jack and Ashi's relationship with each other? Will it be a mentor to pupil one? A father-daughter relationship? Maybe even a romance? Hmm... too early to tell. Though, I have to admit that while I kind of ship Jack and Ashi together, I don't think that's the right move for a TV revival like Samurai Jack. Plus, this season is only 10 episodes, so in order to properly develop a romantic relationship, you'd need another season in a series like this. We're not talking about anime, people. We're talking about Samurai Jack. As in, WHIP IT OUT, SAMMY BABY! Anyways, I think we'll just have to wait and see what Genndy Tartakovsky has in store for us. Whatever happens at the end of the series, I hope it's executed well and done right. But for now, I'd say this episode is great nonetheless like the previous three episodes, though I don't think this episode is as action-packed or intense as those three. But hey, it did provide quite a few laughs and moments of comic relief, proving that the revival of Samurai Jack still has the same light-hearted tone it had in the original with its elements of comedy. Take for example, Jack's fashion sense. Oh, and Ashi's EXTRA THICC- erm, I don't want admin to take down this post, so I won't say what it is. Besides, you probably know what I mean by now. That said, I was also quite pleased with the artistry of the various environments within the giant creature's belly. But what I'm most fond of is the major turning point in the series for Ashi when she finally became convinced Jack was not the enemy. Saving her may not have convinced her, but a ladybug sure did. Her finally seeing the contradictions of her own mother's words and goals was what made the episode such a major plot point. But all in all, it was pretty much worth waiting for this episode since it's one of the most pivotal ones in the series. So here's my final rating for the fourth episode of the fifth season of Samurai Jack:

9.0 out of 10.0 stars

Expect me to either give an episode a 9 or a 10 in each review. If I were to rate it something differently, I'd probably rate it at a maximum of 7 or 8 and nothing else. That said, thanks for reading and be sure to check out episode 5 of the fifth season of Samurai Jack after doing so. Until then, peace!

P.S. THIS POST WAS EXTRA THICC!!!

Comments

Is samurai jack good or bad? I never watched it. - Frodomar49 (4/15/2017)

It's good. Both the original 4 seasons and the ongoing fifth season are phenomenal. Samurai Jack has been critically acclaimed by many, so that right there shows Samurai Jack is an outstanding animated series. - visitor (4/15/2017)

Also, I'm Gamecubesarecool193. - Frodomar49 (4/15/2017)

Samurai Jack is tremendously epic, if you get the chance start from scratch before diving into season 5, and not knowing what your getting into. - visitor (4/16/2017)

What is this show about - HollowArrow (4/29/2017)

Here's the show's synopsis:

In the distant past, a Japanese samurai embarks on a mission to defeat the evil shape-shifting wizard Aku. Before he can complete his task, though, he is catapulted thousands of years into the future. He finds himself in a world where Aku now enjoys complete power over every living thing. Dubbing himself "Jack," he sets out on a new quest--to right the wrongs that have been done by his enemy and to find a way back to his own time so he can destroy the evil for good. - visitor (4/29/2017)