The Omen

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The Omen
Information
Gender	Male ♂
Species	Unknown (humanoid)
Enemies	Samurai Jack
Voiced Actor	Unknown

The Omen is a mysterious figure who haunts Jack's mind. It's not clear what are his motives and identity. He resembles a ghostly black silhouette of an armored samurai with glowing eyes riding a horse, surrounded by an ominous green fog. He has a deep, dark voice.

Background

Very little is known about the mysterious Horseman, except that he stalks Jack at various points; it can be noted that he always appears whenever Jack has feelings of intense guilt or doubt in himself.

The Horseman first appears on the other side of a stream, after Jack hallucinates seeing his parents and multiple corpse-like people. The area becomes black and the rider appears with a ghastly green background, shocking Jack as he glares menacingly at him. The Horseman appears again that night, as Jack is tormented by a hallucination of his Father in flames, after which his signature horse whinny alerts Jack to turn around and see the Horseman again, imprinted on a rock. The next day, in the middle of Jack's battle with the assassin Scaramouch, the Horseman appears on a nearby hill, watching Jack's hallucination of the city's slain children.

Later, the Horseman appears a fourth time as Jack hides inside the parts of a previously destroyed Beetle Drone. As one of Jack's hallucinations of himself pleads with him to "join his ancestors", Jack turns to look through the crack of the Beetle Drone's shell, only to see green mist surrounding the area and the Horseman staring at him. Jack manages to see past the Horseman and his misty fog, therefore finding a temple to seek refuge in.

After being grievously wounded and narrowly escaping from the Daughters of Aku, Jack tries to find shelter in a forest, only to turn around and notice the Horseman waiting for him. Jack tries to ignore the spectre, but discovers that its mount can move. As Jack continues his search for shelter, the Horseman refuses to be ignored and continues to stalk Jack while still on horseback, never taking his eyes off him.

Inside one of Aku's factories, The Horseman seemingly claims victory as he notices Jack's grief over the unconscious kidnapped children (who Jack believes to be dead) and speaks to him for the first time, telling Jack "It is time". A broken Jack simply answers "yes" and follows the Horseman out of the factory, leaving Ashi and the children alone.

In Episode XCVII, The Horseman is discovered by Ashi encouraging Jack to commit suicide with his ancestors watching. He attacks Ashi when she tries to stop him, but Jack intervenes and duels the Horseman. After a brief fight, Jack vanquishes him and his dissapointed ancestors return to their graves.

Theories

There are several theories as to who The Horseman is, including...

• Death: The Horseman resembles a mysterious and frightening entity, which is how most people see death, as something too powerful no one can escape from. He also appears whenever death is mentioned or there is a chance of dying.
  • In Episode XCII, he is seen twice right after Jack hallucinates about all the people who died because of Aku and Jack's failure. The third time he appears, he is standing behind a group of children who were recently killed by Scaramouch.
• In Episode XCIII, Jack sees him right before attempting to run to the temple, possibly foreshadowing the death of the first Daughter of Aku and Jack's first "murder" there, or the fact that Jack is in great danger and might get killed by leaving his cover.
• In Episode XCIV, he appears while Jack is almost dying and starts to chase him, as if he is ready to claim him.
• He does not have an appearance in episode XCV, this is the only episode in season 5 in which no one gets killed.
• In Episode XCVI, Jack meets him after mistaking a group of unconscious children with a pile of corpses, thinking they have been taken away by death. He also might be considering suicide more seriously this time because he has lost all his hope after seeing this scene and is willing to finally end his life by following death.

• The Will of Jack's Ancestors: Some people consider him as someone who is actually willing to help Jack.
• His first two appearances in episode XCII might be him trying to force Jack into helping the people of the village and the third one might be his attempt at criticizing Jack for letting innocents die.
  • Jack sees him after he decides to leave his cover and try to outrun Daughters of Aku, an act which can only be done if he has enough will. The quote "I will make it" supports this theory.
  • In episode XCIV, he first appears behind a wounded Jack who acknowledges him. Jack is too tired to move after escaping Daughters of Aku, thus he starts to walk more and more slowly and finally stops, this is when The Horseman starts riding his horse, this scares Jack and gives him enough motivation to move to another direction, where he finds a cave he can rest in, something he probably could not have done if he had not been frightened of The Horseman.
  • His disappearance in episode XCV might be because of the fact that Jack is in good shape and is willing to do anything to save himself and Ashi , which means he does not need The Horseman's help.
  • In episode XCVI, the quote "It is time" might be a reference to how Jack needs to find himself again by getting his willpower back, thus he decides to follow him.

• Jack's Inner Demon/Dark side: Many people have noticed the similarities between the Horseman's appearance and Jack's:
  • Firstly, both the Horseman and Jack are Samurai; this could implicate that they are both one and the same. Jack could possibly fear the Future's affect on his morality and honor.
    • In Episode XCII, Jack looks towards a city under attack by Scaramouch and chooses to ignore it; as he has "forgotten his purpose", he possibly hallucinates his future of being neglectful towards innocents and therefore being a dark samurai.
    • In XCIII, his anger manifestation tells him that "there's nothing to fight for", possibly expressing that he wants Jack's heroism to end and maybe claiming that isn't he tired from saving innocents when clearly there's nothing to gain from it. Jack then looks out and possibly sees his future as being a dark samurai or possibly by looking out, there is a foreshadowing that Jack will enter the temple and kill a daughter of Aku, therefore being a 'murderer'.
    • This is evidenced when soon after his first human kill, the Horseman starts to stalk him more in the forest, hoping to change Jack's perspective into a darker one (XCIV).
    • The Horseman's disappearance in Episode XCV is most likely because Jack has regained part of his honor and good will through his patience and belief that Ashi can change her ways. Therefore, Jack is avoiding his darker future.
    • Jack believing that he killed all the innocent children, may have finally convinced him to accept that his dark future is inevitable and so his darker self claims that "It is time" to possibly accept his dark side.
  • Secondly, Both the Horseman and Jack have similar armor and gear on them. Although the Horseman is a silhouette, there are some distinguishing features that are similar to Jack's.
    • Both wear traditional Samurai armor. Jack wears a Beetle styled Kabuto (Helmet), whilst the Horseman wears a normal one with Stag horns on it. Since The Daughters Of Aku mistook a Stag's horns for a symbol of Aku, this could possibly foreshadow/emphasize Jack's dark future as becoming a minion or servant of Aku.
    • Although it is impossible to see the Horseman's face due to his silhouette form, it is possible that he may be wearing a Mempo (Face mask), due to his eyes only being seen. This is very similar to when Jack wore his Mempo to which only his eyes were the only visible part of his face.
    • Both also have a long polearm weapon for a weapon. Jack wields a staff that can retract into a trident and also an electric charge on the bottom. The Horseman seems to wield a Naginata or Spear, but what is different about this is that it appears of futuristic design with the rings around each end of the handle. Also, the Horseman appears to have a stick on his back, one that looks similar to Jack's staff when it is holstered/minimized.

Appearances

• Episode XCII
• Episode XCIII
• Episode XCIV
• Episode XCVI

Gallery

The Horseman appears.

Refusing to be ignored

"It is time"