Review: Samurai Jack “Episode XCIII”

Posted on March 19, 2017March 19, 2017 by Tim Davis

Another Saturday night, and another brand new episode of Samurai Jack on Toonami! Let’s waste no time and jump right into the show!

WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW

This episode starts off by bringing Akuu back into the picture. The master of darkness is as evil as ever, but we get to see a different side of him here as we see that even the Supreme Lord of Darkness needs an alarm clock to wake up and puts on his flaming eyebrows one at a time, just like we all do! Amongst other lowly worshippers who have made the homage to revel in Aku’s greatness, some of his mad scientists have arrived to introduce a new bug drone that will definitely kill Samurai Jack, according to their research. Akuu’s surprise reveals that he doesn’t care about Samurai jack anymore, yet bestows permission upon the scientists to kill jack anyway. Aku dismisses himself and immediately has a counseling session with himself. Here we see the truth, that Akuu still does think about Jack. He apparently has kept close tabs on Jack all these years and is concerned about Jack not aging, especially since he thought that Jack would die after Akuu himself had destroyed all the of the time portals thought to have existed. Akuu is frustrated that the only thing that has happened to Samurai Jack in the last 15 years is the growth of his beard and mustache. Make no mistake, he still wants Jack dead.

A solitary white wolf walks through a forest and comes across a split path in the woods. Which path should he take? The wolf sets off down the left path.

Jacks makes his entrance to this episode riding on his motorcycle. He reaches a fork in the road… he takes the left path.

Back to the Wolf. The wolf continues down the path and is confronted by a pack of hungry, snarling predators with gaping wide jaws and sharp teeth. The wolf knows it is going to have to fight and won’t back down.

Back to Jack. Jack has reached a clearing. He stops his motorcycle. Birds flock overhead. The ground shakes. Jack arms himself with a trident. The trees part as the new bug drone appears! Jack throws his trident at it and destroys it in a single throw. Guess those mad scientists will have to go back to the drawing board.

Jack continues on his path but is quickly ambushed and attacked by unseen opponents.

Back to the wolf who is fighting for his life.

Back to Jack, who takes some blows from his unseen assassins. Each strike these assassins deliver shatter his armor. Jack is clearly outmatched and decides to retreat, detonating some explosives in order to make his escape. He finds a hiding spot. Jack’s armor has been shredded to pieces by his assailants and he is scraped up. Suddenly Jack’s conscious appears as a specter of himself and talks to Jack. Jack’s conscious is blaming himself for losing the sword, the only weapon capable of beating Akuu. Jack battles with inner-most thoughts, as even his own mind has turned against him, telling himself that there is no honor left in staying alive in this future. His conscious is tired and wants to be freed. Jack does his best to push all the negative thoughts out of his head as he sees a vision of a mysterious samurai upon horseback again. He decides to make a run for it. We immediately find out that his attackers are the daughters of Akuu.

Jack runs through an outdoor labyrinth towards a temple. He makes it inside, followed closely behind by the daughters of Akuu. They give chase to Jack following him through the labyrinth and towards the temple themselves. Upon reaching inside they split up and head their own ways. One of them follows a glowing green orb down a dark corridor. A second daughter of Aku follows some fresh footprints that leads to a passage that is being blocked by a network of tree branches. She climbs these trees and reaches a dead end. The third daughter of Akuu dives into an underwater passage in pursuit of Jack and meets another dead end. It seems all the daughters of Akuu have reached dead ends without finding Jack, so they decide to hide amidst the shadows.

Jack had managed to hide in a crack in the ceiling. He hangs down and tiptoes through the temple, searching for the exit before stumbling upon the same green orb as one of the daughters of Aku had earlier. Jack follows the orb down the dark passageway. One of the daughters of Akuu attacks Jack and is quickly joined by a second sister, but Jack is able to avoid all of the blows from two of the sisters in total darkness. Jack escapes and runs down the hall and reaches the tree where the other daughter bursts out of hiding. Jack manages to escape her as well, diving into the underwater path and immediately coming into contact with the daughter of Aku who had hidden there. Jack now has to fight 3 of the daughters under water. He still manages to escape and continues to run through the temple. Suddenly, Jack falls through a hole in the floor and is now pursued by all of the daughters of Akuu. As they search for Jack, the daughters of Akuu stumble across an entire cluster of the glowing green orbs in what appears to be a tomb. Most of the green orbs are concentrated around an ornately decorated skeleton sitting atop of a throne. The sisters continue their search for the hiding Jack.

Jack is crouched down in a dark space, so nervous that he is sweating bullets. Suddenly, the daughters of Akuu attack the coffin Jack was hiding in just as he leaps and escapes the crushing blow. An epic battle ensues between Jack and the daughters as they have forced him out of hiding. Jack nimbly navigates his way through the temple, grabbing an axe that had been laying on the floor near the previously mentioned skeleton, and fights back. Dodging consecutive destructive blows from a chained kusarigama, Jack flees further down the hall and sees daylight, but also runs into another daughter of Akuu. Blades clash and blood splatters. Jack managed to kill one of the daughters of Akuu and realizes these new assassins are actual people and not robots. Jack then notices that has also stabbed in the exchange of blos that just took place, and the other sisters still give chase. Jack takes the weapon of his fallen foe and heads towards the exit, using the dual bladed tuning fork on the walls of the temple, causing them to vibrate at a high frequency. Jack reaches the exit of the temple and is on the verge of passing out. As the temple explodes with the remaining daughters of Akuu inside, a woozy Jack falls into the river below. Jack is floats down the river, slowly bleeding out.

Back to the wolf. The wolf is dead, ripped to shreds after defeating its opponents

This episode was intense. Once the action started and Jack encountered the bug drone, it rarely stopped. When there was a short pause in the action, it was replaced by suspense while Jack was hiding from the daughters of Akuu. This was one of the bigger beatings I can remember ever seeing Jack take. This also one of, if not the first time, we have seen one of Jack’s opponents bleed blood, as he had been pursued mostly by machines up until now. Jack’s cool looking armor was totally destroyed and he suffered a serious looking stab wound that just wouldn’t stop bleeding before the end of the episode. The scene where Jack was talking to his conscious was intriguing as well. It shows a different side of Jack and shows you that even Jack’s own mind is against him. His own conscious was telling him he is too tired to continue living in this future, and he should retain his honor by joining his ancestors, departing from this futuristic hell. Yes, things look bleak for Samurai Jack. Also, despite being the Lord of all Evil and Darkness, it was good to see Akuu again, as he provided some comic relief at the beginning of what ended up being a pretty dark episode.

Once again, Samurai Jack fails to disappoint and delivers big in this week’s episode of the continuation of the series. The action was thick, nearly non-stop, and the fight scenes were animated beautifully. I am left questioning, how will Jack fair in his next encounter, due to the injuries he sustained? Will Jack be able to keep his mind strong? If so, for how long? I truly am enjoying the direction this series seems to be headed and the new challenges Jack faces.