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**[[Phil LaMarr]] as [[Samurai Jack (character)|Samurai Jack]] |
**[[Phil LaMarr]] as [[Samurai Jack (character)|Samurai Jack]] |
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**[[Greg Baldwin]] as [[Aku]] |
**[[Greg Baldwin]] as [[Aku]] |
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| − | **[[Grey DeLisle]] as [[The High Priestess |
+ | **[[Grey DeLisle]] as [[The High Priestess]] |
**[[Sab Shimono]] as [[The Emperor]] |
**[[Sab Shimono]] as [[The Emperor]] |
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**[[Lauren Tom]] as [[The Empress]] |
**[[Lauren Tom]] as [[The Empress]] |
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Revision as of 13:52, 22 March 2017
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Episode XCII is the first episode of the fifth season (the fifty-third episode overall) of Samurai Jack. This was the first episode after the cancellation of the series in 2004 and also the first episode that is being co-produced by Williams Street. It aired on March 11th, 2017 at 11:00 PM after an online marathon of every previous episode and a live Q&A session with creator Genndy Tartakovsky.
Premise
After 50 years in the future, Jack had lost hope and was tormented by hallucinations of his parents, his kingdom, and a mysterious figure on horseback, then, battled against Scaramouch. Meanwhile, seven young girls are raised and trained from birth to become the Daughters of Aku, a team of elite assassins with the sole purpose of killing Jack.
Plot
The episode begins as an army of Beetle Drones chasing down a family as they try to flee, eventually encircling the mother, daughter and baby. Just when all seems lost, a lone, heavily armored figure arrives on a weaponized motorbike. The young girl barely recognizes the figure to be none other than Samurai Jack himself, who dispatches the army of robots with his motorcycle weapons and handgun, saving the family before departing.
The scene then cuts to Jack's monologue. 50 years have passed since Episode LII, with Aku thwarting Jack at each and every attempt to return to the past. Meanwhile, Aku's tyranny and influence has ruined the past, present and future. Although Jack has not aged, having apparently become immune to the flow of time, he has begun to lose hope after years of fighting a futile battle. The only thing that keeps him going is a constant reminder to return to the past.
The scene cuts to a shrine, where a group of women wearing robes stylized with the crest of Aku bow before a statue of the demon. A series of cuts is shown of a woman giving birth to seven daughters, who are presented to the statue as the chosen ones who would kill Jack.
Having spotted a rising plume of smoke in the distance, Jack continues riding through the desert, eventually entering a forest. Stopping to drink from a river, Jack spots some falling leaves and begins seeing hallucinations of his father and mother, who bemoan that Jack has betrayed them due to his failure to return to the past and defeat Aku, leaving them to die. Jack desperately denies this, but becomes overwhelmed by more hallucinations of tormented souls in the form of skin and bones people, tormenting him over and over of his failure. Then, a shadowy figure of an armored samurai surrounded with green mist on horseback with antlered helmet wielding a very long spear and a katana sheathed on its back appears, staring at him. Horrified, Jack flees on his motorbike.
Meanwhile, the seven "daughters of Aku" undergo cruel, harsh training as children, including fighting a heavyweight bruiser acolyte and grueling obstacle courses. One of the daughters, Ashi, is briefly distracted by a vision of the beautiful outside world. At this, her mother, the High Priestess, indoctrinates her by telling Ashi that Jack will seek to destroy all the good Aku has created, unless she and her sisters kill him.
As he camps for the night, Jack cooks a rat by the campfire for a meal. Through the fire, he suffers another hallucination of his father, chained and in flames, who once again accuses him of abandoning his purpose and forsaking his people. The image of the dark rider then appears on a boulder. Frightened, Jack is forced to flee as the forest burns.
Samurai Jack season 5 episode XCII - How Samurai Jack Loses his sword
By the time Jack reaches the plume of smoke, he arrives at a ruined city, filled with rubble and the corpses of its dead citizens. Jack meets the robot assassin Scaramouch, who claims himself to be Aku's most favored assassin and remarks on Jack's nigh-unrecognizable appearance, including the loss of Jack's sword. In a flashback, Jack recalls his signature weapon falling down an abyss as he looks in horror. Laughing, Scaramouch declares that Jack is no threat without his sword, and calls Aku on his mobile phone to make a report, but Jack destroys the phone with a thrown kunai.
Satisfied with this turn of events, Scaramouch begins to fight Jack, first by playing a magical flute that forms a golem out of the city's rubble. Jack quickly discovers that Scaramouch can rebuild the golem easily by reanimating more rocks to replace any part he breaks off. Landing among a pile of rocks, Jack is once again swept up in another hallucination, this time seeing the rocks around him as the children of the city, begging him for help, and the dark rider is looking down on the scene. Jack pleads for their understanding, which made Scaramouch thinks Jack has gone "beaucoup cuckoo". Eventually Jack destroys the flute, but Scaramouch reveals that his voice was the true source of his magic, and the robot proves his point by scatting. This impromptu singing animates Scaramouche's sword to fight Jack with.
While Jack barely dodges the sword's attacks, Scaramouche brings out another blade which opens up like a tuning fork, demonstrating its ability to vibrate at a frequency powerful enough to shatter Jack's own swords. As Scaramouche fights Jack to a standstill, he gloats over his victory, but Jack throws his remaining sword at Scaramouche, still vibrating from clashing with the tuning fork sword. The sword explodes at the last second, severely damaging Scaramouche's vocal chord equivalent, leaving him unable to fight. Scaramouche admits defeat as Jack cleaves him in two with Scaramouche's first blade, after which Jack keeps the tuning fork sword for himself as he leaves.
A mysterious and ominous armored rider.
At the same time, the daughters of Aku have aged to adulthood and finished their final test. With their training complete, the High Priestess gives them masks of Aku, and orders them to seek out Jack and kill him.
Credits
- Written by
- Directed by
- Storyboards by
- Voices
- Casting by
- Karie Gima Pham
International broadcasts
In the United Kingdom, the season will air on FOX's Adult Swim block starting at 12am on March 16th.
Trivia
- In this episode, it is revealed that Jack has lost his sword. Jack has managed to keep this secret, however, as Scaramouch was unaware that Jack no longer had it.
- A mysterious and ominous armored samurai on horseback haunts Jack, causing him a severe fright every time he sees him.
- There are speculation that the dark rider is a manifestation of Jack's inner guilt.
- Jack's motorbike bares a strong resemblance to the design of bike used by a robotic biker gang in the episode Jack's Sandals.
- Aku does not appear in this episode, although he can briefly be heard on Scaramouch's phone.
- Goof: There are a couple of instances where the high priestess only has four horns on her costume instead of six.
- Interestingly, unlike the other episodes whose roman numerals correspond with the episode number, Episode XCII is the fifty third episode but XCII is roman numeral for 92.
- This is becuase Genndy decided to use the time gap difference (50 years), as if this episode would be named "LIII" it would've been considered as a continuation of Episode LII. The final episode will correspond to the year as "CI"
Gallery
- Main article: Episode XCII (Gallery)