SAMURAI JACK - An almost great finale/How it could have been better
Samurai Jack first aired on Cartoon Network on August 10, 2001 and tells the story of a samurai prince named Jack who has been gifted a magic sword that has the power to defeat the evil demon Aku. During his fight with the demon however, Jack is flung through a time portal into a dystopian future where Aku rules over the world with an iron fist. The TV show follows Jack as he travels the world defeating Aku's minions and saving innocent people while trying to find a way back to his past.
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| Sing it with me now, "Gotta get back, back to the past, Samurai Jack. Wshaa!" |
Across four seasons and three years, the show has garnered high critical acclaim, winning four Primetime Emmy Awards including Outstanding Animated Program, among several others. Unfortunately, despite an enormous fanbase and several accolades, the show was abruptly cancelled at the end of its fourth season without a conclusion to the series. In the years afterward, the idea of producing a film to give the show a proper ending was pitched several times, all of which were scrapped. For years, it seemed like Jack's journey to get back in time--to come back home--would never conclude.
That is, until March 11, 2017 when the first episode of a fifth and final season was released on Adult Swim, produced, written, and directed by original series creator Genndy Tartakovsky. After thirteen long years, fans of the series who were now in their 20's could finally experience the end of Jack's journey in a final season that promised a more mature and intense tone. The fifth season and the show as a whole finally concluded on May 20, 2017 and while it was not quite as amazing as I had initially hoped, it still is a satisfying ending.
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| #JackIsBack |
The Story
Samurai Jack season 5 takes place fifty years after the original show's run, revealing that travelling through time has caused Jack to cease aging. By the middle of the first episode, we also find out that he has long since lost his magic sword during a battle, and is starting to feel increasingly hopeless at the prospect of returning home and finally defeating Aku.
The darker tone of the show allows for most of the first half of season 5 to deal with more mature themes like depression, suicide, killing, and nature-vs-nurture psychology. It's a shame then that the second half of the season seems to forget just how brutally mature the first half was. After the sixth episode, the season abruptly becomes much more light and happy, which wouldn't be a problem had the first half not been so distinct in its grittiness. The moment a romance sub-plot was introduced, I began to lose interest. When you have such a short time to finish the story (only ten episodes) why introduce a new sub-plot so close to the end?
Perhaps the later episodes only feel bland when compared to the season's amazing first three episodes. The first episode in the season is admittedly quite forgettable, and serves mainly to inform us of what has passed since we've last seen our favorite samurai. Episodes 2 and 3, however, are arguably two of the best in the entire show and perhaps of all of animated television.
I highly recommend that anyone who is a fan of animated action cartoons or anime to watch the first three episodes of Samurai Jack, even if they had never seen the original run before. It's just that good.
Unfortunately, the rest of the season doesn't quite keep up, with the sole exception of the beautifully animated episodes 7 in which Jack has to go on a meditative soul search to retrieve his sword. The last episode in particular was actually quite bad, rushing to tie up too many loose ends.
The R rating the season gets is mainly to justify the brutal killing that takes place in episodes 2 and 3, although there are some adult jokes in there that always manage to catch me off guard. I guess I'm just not used to watching what was once a childhood favorite and suddenly hear a character make a penis joke.
I highly recommend that anyone who is a fan of animated action cartoons or anime to watch the first three episodes of Samurai Jack, even if they had never seen the original run before. It's just that good.
Unfortunately, the rest of the season doesn't quite keep up, with the sole exception of the beautifully animated episodes 7 in which Jack has to go on a meditative soul search to retrieve his sword. The last episode in particular was actually quite bad, rushing to tie up too many loose ends.
The R rating the season gets is mainly to justify the brutal killing that takes place in episodes 2 and 3, although there are some adult jokes in there that always manage to catch me off guard. I guess I'm just not used to watching what was once a childhood favorite and suddenly hear a character make a penis joke.
The Characters
Samurai Jack probably shines his best in the first three episodes of the season, which focus heavily on his depression and battling his own ghosts. He is seen constantly fighting to retain some semblance of hope rather than allow himself to fall to suicide as his only choice. We can immediately tell just how different this new Jack is, both in his appearance--having switched to an armor-clad look with an assortment of guns as his weapon--and in his psyche--he is clearly shown being mentally tortured by his own thoughts.
Ashi begins as a potentially very interesting character, raised as a daughter of Aku to assassinate Jack. After the initial three episodes, the season seems to be more of her story as it follows her change her views on the world and come to join Jack's side. Unfortunately it seems as if she was most interesting when she was against Jack, since by the time she joins his side completely she becomes rather bland. What happens to her in the last few episodes of the show actually had me roll my eyes at how predictable and cliche it was, especially that last "gotcha" moment at the very end of the last episode (if you've seen it, you know what I mean). I had no problem with that happening and I actually expected it to, but it feels incredibly ham-fisted to have it shoved in at the very last minute.
Aku was extremely disappointing in this season, appearing very irregularly and is pretty boring when he does. The Aku in the original run was both terrifying and entertaining. In here, he doesn't really do anything until the last episode, which--as I've said before--was incredibly rushed. It's just too bad we don't get to give Aku a good send-off like we do with Jack.
Aku was extremely disappointing in this season, appearing very irregularly and is pretty boring when he does. The Aku in the original run was both terrifying and entertaining. In here, he doesn't really do anything until the last episode, which--as I've said before--was incredibly rushed. It's just too bad we don't get to give Aku a good send-off like we do with Jack.Cinematography and Music
I can't say much about the animation for this show other than spectacular. Definitely one of the best animated shows in recent history, Samurai Jack excels particularly in its amazing fight scenes. Again, I highly recommend everyone to watch episodes 2 and 3 for a look at what amazing fight animation should be like. The quieter moments are equally as stunning with some episodes having amazingly surreal art. Words cannot describe how awe-inspiring the artwork for the season is, and is the sole reason why my grade for this season isn't lower.
Music is also fantastic, with my personal favorite being episode 2's. The sound design of the show is also much more complex and realistic than other shows, from the crunching of leaves to the clanging of swords. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the fifth season's music was created by Tyler Bates, who I've previously praised for his work on the two Guardians of the Galaxy movies.
Final Verdict
Samurai Jack season 5 was a good finale to a beloved childhood show. While its quality dipped after the third episode into a cliche'd story, interesting characters that slowly became more and more bland, and a rushed ending, the show makes up for it with absolutely gorgeous artwork and a wonderful soundtrack. I still recommend fans of the show to watch it, but I HIGHLY recommend everyone to watch episodes 2 and 3 for their sheer brilliance.
Score: B-
Score: B-
How it could have been better [spoilers]
I believe season 5 had three major flaws:
Here is how I would have done Samurai Jack season 5.
The first three episodes remain exactly as they are. Jack is chased by the daughters of Aku, is stripped naked as he barely escapes alive, then comes back and attacks them, killing all except Ashi. The only thing I would change is that before Ashi or Jack could kill each other, they are separated. Each go their own way to rest and recover.
Episode 4 has Jack hiding in a forest, barely able to get any sleep because he is paranoid that Ashi would come and finish him off. At this point he is still severely injured and quite close to death (with his demons still there to tempt him to kill himself). As morning comes, Jack is discovered not by Ashi but by an old friend--the Scotsman. He is taken back to the Scotsman's hideout where he meets his infinite number of daughters (the same joke of "take whichever one you want" remains). They catch up briefly and we learn that Jack has been avoiding all of his old friends for years. In fact, the Scotsman hasn't seen him in a very long time and only knew that Jack was still alive from rumors that pop up from time to time. Jack is noticeably distant and doesn't seem to want to talk much. The Scotsman tells Jack that for the past few years he had founded a rebel alliance to overthrow Aku and periodically sends his daughters out to contact the other rebels. The reason he had found Jack in the first place was because one of his daughters had witnessed Jack's slaughter of the daughters of Aku. The Scotsman tells Jack he approves and that blood must be shed for them to win freedom, while Jack reveals he has doubts of whether or not he should be allowed to take a human life. Before thanking the Scotsman for his hospitality and leaving, Jack mentions that a rebel alliance would be useless without the missing magic sword, and that Aku hasn't been seen or heard from in decades anyway. He reveals that he had long given up hope of finding the sword again, and says his only goal now is to find the last remaining time portal. The episode ends with Jack wearing some armor and wielding some guns provided by the Scotsman as a parting gift as he rides into an open road.
Episode 5 takes place some time later and features Ashi's return as she seeks to kill Jack, now fueled even greater by the death of her sisters. Noticeably she is not trying to avenge her sisters, but rather simply understands she needs to be ten times as vicious in order to make up for the fact that she is fighting alone now. Jack catches on to this quickly and--during the fight--tells her that she has no emotional connection to her sisters, her mother, or Aku, and that she is only fighting because she was taught to from birth. Ashi retorts, saying that the same holds true for Jack and that he should not advocate for peace when all his life he's done nothing but fight. Jack claims that Ashi, her sisters, and Aku deserved to die because they are murderers. Ashi says that she indeed has no qualms about killing, but how then is Jack any different from them? The fight becomes a battle of ideology--Jack's black-and-white view of the world versus Ashi's view of Jack's hypocrisy. At one point Ashi nearly falls off a cliff (or some other life-threatening situation), and Jack has to battle with his inner demons about whether or not he should save her or let her die. He initially chooses to leave her, but saves her at the last second. As the episode ends, we see Ashi repay him by stabbing him in the back, and leaving him to bleed out.
Episode 6 - Jack wakes up in the rebels' base and finds all the rebels fighting Ashi. We find out that Aku's forces had known of a rebel alliance, and that Ashi had wounded Jack so that he would be found by nearby rebels who would take him back to their base to treat him. Ashi then followed them back to discover their hideout and was now attempting to assassinate the Scotsman. Jack manages to stop her from killing the Scotsman and Ashi asks him why he didn't kill her before. Jack doesn't answer and leaves her, letting the Scotsman's daughters take Ashi captive. The Scotsman thanks Jack for saving his life, and urges him once more to join the rebels, to which Jack again declines. The Scotsman relents tells him that if he really is determined to go back to the past, the rebels have just found the last time portal. Jack finds his way to last portal, but finds out from someone guarding the portal that the fabric of time can only be ripped by an incredibly powerful force of utter destruction--the taking of a human life. Aku's time portals are constructed by killing and powered by the soul of the person who died. That is way travelling through time caused Jack to seemingly cease aging--the time portal he was initially flung through had been made when Aku killed someone from Jack's home, and the past 50 years Jack's been living without aging had been the 50 years that Aku's victim would have lived. Upon discovering this, Jack finds that he is unable to use the time portal with the knowledge that someone had to die in order for him to use it. Using the portal would be the same as saying he had the right to take away someone else's life for his own use. Jack walks away from the portal and towards the horseman of death.
Episode 7 - The episode starts with Ashi back in the rebel base as she learns of the things Jack had been doing, how he had been fighting tirelessly to save people from Aku's wrath. While she remains adamant that Aku is the rightful ruler of the world, she begins to question the validity of her belief that Jack must die, especially after he had saved her life. She is treated well for a prisoner, and finds it strange that the rebels show her so much mercy even though she had tried to kill them. The rebels reply that if Jack had shown her kindness, they will do the same. Ashi is impressed by the loyalty they have for Jack and almost seems to long for the kind of close intimacy that the friends share for each other. She manages to escape from them, promising that she will seek Jack only for questions, and tries to find him. Ashi eventually finds him at the site of the last portal and hears that time portals are made from human souls. She is confused when Jack refuses to use the portal because he cannot use a human life like that. She wonders whether she was right to accuse him of being a hypocrite, and follows him towards a ruined valley, where he sits, having lost all hope for defeating Aku. The ghastly horseman that has been haunting Jack announces that he must face the consequences of his failure or be dishonored. Jack prepares to commit seppuku, while the horseman attacks Ashi to keep her from interfering. She calls out to Jack for being a coward and running away from his friends, and for giving up so easily. She tells Jack she will not let him kill himself, because his death will be by her hands and not his. When she tells him of the hope she had seen in the rebels, the hope that he had sparked for them, Jack awakens from his depression and casts away the horseman. He gives Ashi his thanks, which she begrudgingly accepts. She asks him why he chose this place to die, and he answers that this was once his home, long ago before Aku attacked. She replies that she never had a home or a family, and Jack offers his hand and tells her that she can have one of she joins the fight against Aku. She refuses but does offer to help him find his sword, claiming that it would be dishonorable to defeat him when he is not at his strongest.
Episode 8 - The episode plays mostly the same as episode 7 of the actual fifth season. I would change how Jack lost his sword--rather than losing it because he killed some goats on accident, Jack at one point was fighting Aku when he accidentally slashes an innocent child. Aku disappears cackling, and the sword deems Jack unworthy and vanishes. Although the child was treated and recovered, Jack is ashamed at having almost killed and leaves, breaking off all ties with his old friends. In the present time, Jack then meditates and goes on a spiritual journey to regain his inner balance and peace of mind. During this time, Aku's soldiers, led by Ashi's mother, attempt to attack Jack. Ashi single-handedly fends off Aku's forces and fights her mother. When she is asked why she is defending the samurai, Ashi questions her mother about the truth of who Samurai Jack is and whether or not Aku is as good as she had been taught all her life. As Ashi and her mother fight in the physical realm, Jack and his dark side fight in the spiritual realm, ending with Jack and Ashi winning. Jack is regifted his sword and he is transfigured back into his old appearance as he was in the original show.
Episode 9 - Ashi asks Jack for the truth of Aku and he explains to her everything. He tells her about his family back home, and how he dreams of one day being able to see them again, but the past few years these dreams have been nightmares. She seems unsure but understands that what she had been taught all her life was likely a lie. She is also touched by Jack's memories of his mother and father, saddened by her lack of a family or any real human connection. The two make it back to the rebel base and officially join the rebel alliance. Ashi tells the alliance that during her fight with her mother, she involuntarily tapped into Aku's powers. She focuses her abilities and is able to sense her father's location, revealing to the alliance the place where he's been hiding for years. Some time later, the full rebel alliance--consisting of people Jack has helped over the years--launch a full attack on Aku's base, led by Jack, Ashi, and the Scotsman. They attack Aku's tower and the Scotsman and other rebels stay behind to fight Aku's soldiers while Jack and Ashi go on ahead to assassinate Aku. Inside Aku's throne room, they discover a feeble old man in black and green who almost resembles Ashi. Jack realizes this must be Aku in disguise, and the old man confirms he is Aku. This, however, throws Ashi off guard; she was expecting him to be the powerful, evil demon that Jack had told her about. Instead, all she sees is a pitiful old man. A human. Her father. Aku chastises her for believing the lies of Samurai Jack, reminding Ashi that she had been taught all her life that Jack was a great deceiver. Jack urges Ashi not to trust Aku, saying that Aku must die. Ashi instead joins Aku's side, telling Jack that he once again proves his hypocrisy by wanting to kill another person. Jack asks if she is indeed betraying him, to which she replies that she was never on his side. She only wanted to see if Jack was a good person after all, and now she has her answers. The episode ends as Jack and Ashi fight one last time.
Episode 10 - The episode starts immediately with Aku broadcasting the original run's opening to the world like how it was in the actual final episode (but I elect to skip the season 5 opening to go straight into the old opening). Jack and Ashi fight, with Ashi being fed more and more of Aku's powers as he watches, cackling. Jack wins, but refuses to kill Ashi. Instead he demands that she look outside and watch as Aku's soldiers kill the rebels. He asks her if a human could possibly command his army to slaughter his own people. He points his sword at Aku and tells Ashi that her father is not a human, but a force of evil and destruction that must be destroyed. Aku transforms back into his demon form and controls Ashi to fight Jack alongside him. Jack fights Aku and Ashi as the rebel forces outside put up a losing fight. Eventually Jack is disarmed by Ashi who steals his magic sword. Aku laughs triumphantly as he commands Ashi to kill Jack. Ashi, regaining some control over herself, asks Jack why he fights when he knows he no longer has any chance of going home to the family he loves. Jack replies that he would gladly give up his past if it means he could save the future. Ashi's eyes start to well up as she walks towards Jack, but instead thrusts the sword into herself. Ashi tells Jack that she take her own life in order to construct a time portal for him to go back home and destroy Aku once and for all, saying that if Aku is killed in the past, she would die as well. Before he is sent back in time, Jack holds the dying Ashi in his arms and tells her that they could have been friends. Ashi tells him that she's grateful for having met him, and dies as Jack falls into the time portal she created. As Jack makes his way back to his own time, he has one final, epic duel with Aku before destroying him with the magic sword. He laments the loss of Ashi, but comes to tears as he hears the sound of his mother's voice. Jack looks up to see his mother, father, and fellow villagers approaching him from the distance. For the first time in a long time, he smiles. Jack lets down his hair and throws the sword into a nearby river. The sword is swept away by its currents, never to be seen again. Jack turns around to face the home he hadn't seen in years, as Aku's darkness fades and the light of a new day shines upon him.
An after-credits scene shows the Scotsman in the new, brighter future that Jack had created, leading one of his young children to see a statue. His daughter asks him who he is, and he replies that legend says the statue was of a samurai who lived long ago in a distant land and traveled through time to save the world from an evil demon. The camera pans up to see the statue of Samurai Jack.
I believe season 5 had three major flaws:
- The show's tone changes rather abruptly after episode 3, and never goes back to the bleakness that it started out with. I don't need every episode to be constantly dark and gloomy to be good, but I think it'll serve the overall theme of the season better to have a consistent tone.
- Ashi became pretty boring for most of the second half of the show since the most interesting thing about her is how she was raised to kill Samurai Jack. The show makes her transition from villain to hero rather abrupt, especially when she goes from bloodthirsty samurai killer to completely in love with him in the span of a few days. I would remove her romance with Jack and have her not be completely on his side until near the end.
- Aku had very little significant screen time. While my version will actually be the opposite and give him even less screen time, it'll hopefully make it much more significant.
Here is how I would have done Samurai Jack season 5.
The first three episodes remain exactly as they are. Jack is chased by the daughters of Aku, is stripped naked as he barely escapes alive, then comes back and attacks them, killing all except Ashi. The only thing I would change is that before Ashi or Jack could kill each other, they are separated. Each go their own way to rest and recover.
Episode 4 has Jack hiding in a forest, barely able to get any sleep because he is paranoid that Ashi would come and finish him off. At this point he is still severely injured and quite close to death (with his demons still there to tempt him to kill himself). As morning comes, Jack is discovered not by Ashi but by an old friend--the Scotsman. He is taken back to the Scotsman's hideout where he meets his infinite number of daughters (the same joke of "take whichever one you want" remains). They catch up briefly and we learn that Jack has been avoiding all of his old friends for years. In fact, the Scotsman hasn't seen him in a very long time and only knew that Jack was still alive from rumors that pop up from time to time. Jack is noticeably distant and doesn't seem to want to talk much. The Scotsman tells Jack that for the past few years he had founded a rebel alliance to overthrow Aku and periodically sends his daughters out to contact the other rebels. The reason he had found Jack in the first place was because one of his daughters had witnessed Jack's slaughter of the daughters of Aku. The Scotsman tells Jack he approves and that blood must be shed for them to win freedom, while Jack reveals he has doubts of whether or not he should be allowed to take a human life. Before thanking the Scotsman for his hospitality and leaving, Jack mentions that a rebel alliance would be useless without the missing magic sword, and that Aku hasn't been seen or heard from in decades anyway. He reveals that he had long given up hope of finding the sword again, and says his only goal now is to find the last remaining time portal. The episode ends with Jack wearing some armor and wielding some guns provided by the Scotsman as a parting gift as he rides into an open road.
Episode 5 takes place some time later and features Ashi's return as she seeks to kill Jack, now fueled even greater by the death of her sisters. Noticeably she is not trying to avenge her sisters, but rather simply understands she needs to be ten times as vicious in order to make up for the fact that she is fighting alone now. Jack catches on to this quickly and--during the fight--tells her that she has no emotional connection to her sisters, her mother, or Aku, and that she is only fighting because she was taught to from birth. Ashi retorts, saying that the same holds true for Jack and that he should not advocate for peace when all his life he's done nothing but fight. Jack claims that Ashi, her sisters, and Aku deserved to die because they are murderers. Ashi says that she indeed has no qualms about killing, but how then is Jack any different from them? The fight becomes a battle of ideology--Jack's black-and-white view of the world versus Ashi's view of Jack's hypocrisy. At one point Ashi nearly falls off a cliff (or some other life-threatening situation), and Jack has to battle with his inner demons about whether or not he should save her or let her die. He initially chooses to leave her, but saves her at the last second. As the episode ends, we see Ashi repay him by stabbing him in the back, and leaving him to bleed out.
Episode 6 - Jack wakes up in the rebels' base and finds all the rebels fighting Ashi. We find out that Aku's forces had known of a rebel alliance, and that Ashi had wounded Jack so that he would be found by nearby rebels who would take him back to their base to treat him. Ashi then followed them back to discover their hideout and was now attempting to assassinate the Scotsman. Jack manages to stop her from killing the Scotsman and Ashi asks him why he didn't kill her before. Jack doesn't answer and leaves her, letting the Scotsman's daughters take Ashi captive. The Scotsman thanks Jack for saving his life, and urges him once more to join the rebels, to which Jack again declines. The Scotsman relents tells him that if he really is determined to go back to the past, the rebels have just found the last time portal. Jack finds his way to last portal, but finds out from someone guarding the portal that the fabric of time can only be ripped by an incredibly powerful force of utter destruction--the taking of a human life. Aku's time portals are constructed by killing and powered by the soul of the person who died. That is way travelling through time caused Jack to seemingly cease aging--the time portal he was initially flung through had been made when Aku killed someone from Jack's home, and the past 50 years Jack's been living without aging had been the 50 years that Aku's victim would have lived. Upon discovering this, Jack finds that he is unable to use the time portal with the knowledge that someone had to die in order for him to use it. Using the portal would be the same as saying he had the right to take away someone else's life for his own use. Jack walks away from the portal and towards the horseman of death.
Episode 7 - The episode starts with Ashi back in the rebel base as she learns of the things Jack had been doing, how he had been fighting tirelessly to save people from Aku's wrath. While she remains adamant that Aku is the rightful ruler of the world, she begins to question the validity of her belief that Jack must die, especially after he had saved her life. She is treated well for a prisoner, and finds it strange that the rebels show her so much mercy even though she had tried to kill them. The rebels reply that if Jack had shown her kindness, they will do the same. Ashi is impressed by the loyalty they have for Jack and almost seems to long for the kind of close intimacy that the friends share for each other. She manages to escape from them, promising that she will seek Jack only for questions, and tries to find him. Ashi eventually finds him at the site of the last portal and hears that time portals are made from human souls. She is confused when Jack refuses to use the portal because he cannot use a human life like that. She wonders whether she was right to accuse him of being a hypocrite, and follows him towards a ruined valley, where he sits, having lost all hope for defeating Aku. The ghastly horseman that has been haunting Jack announces that he must face the consequences of his failure or be dishonored. Jack prepares to commit seppuku, while the horseman attacks Ashi to keep her from interfering. She calls out to Jack for being a coward and running away from his friends, and for giving up so easily. She tells Jack she will not let him kill himself, because his death will be by her hands and not his. When she tells him of the hope she had seen in the rebels, the hope that he had sparked for them, Jack awakens from his depression and casts away the horseman. He gives Ashi his thanks, which she begrudgingly accepts. She asks him why he chose this place to die, and he answers that this was once his home, long ago before Aku attacked. She replies that she never had a home or a family, and Jack offers his hand and tells her that she can have one of she joins the fight against Aku. She refuses but does offer to help him find his sword, claiming that it would be dishonorable to defeat him when he is not at his strongest.
Episode 8 - The episode plays mostly the same as episode 7 of the actual fifth season. I would change how Jack lost his sword--rather than losing it because he killed some goats on accident, Jack at one point was fighting Aku when he accidentally slashes an innocent child. Aku disappears cackling, and the sword deems Jack unworthy and vanishes. Although the child was treated and recovered, Jack is ashamed at having almost killed and leaves, breaking off all ties with his old friends. In the present time, Jack then meditates and goes on a spiritual journey to regain his inner balance and peace of mind. During this time, Aku's soldiers, led by Ashi's mother, attempt to attack Jack. Ashi single-handedly fends off Aku's forces and fights her mother. When she is asked why she is defending the samurai, Ashi questions her mother about the truth of who Samurai Jack is and whether or not Aku is as good as she had been taught all her life. As Ashi and her mother fight in the physical realm, Jack and his dark side fight in the spiritual realm, ending with Jack and Ashi winning. Jack is regifted his sword and he is transfigured back into his old appearance as he was in the original show.
Episode 9 - Ashi asks Jack for the truth of Aku and he explains to her everything. He tells her about his family back home, and how he dreams of one day being able to see them again, but the past few years these dreams have been nightmares. She seems unsure but understands that what she had been taught all her life was likely a lie. She is also touched by Jack's memories of his mother and father, saddened by her lack of a family or any real human connection. The two make it back to the rebel base and officially join the rebel alliance. Ashi tells the alliance that during her fight with her mother, she involuntarily tapped into Aku's powers. She focuses her abilities and is able to sense her father's location, revealing to the alliance the place where he's been hiding for years. Some time later, the full rebel alliance--consisting of people Jack has helped over the years--launch a full attack on Aku's base, led by Jack, Ashi, and the Scotsman. They attack Aku's tower and the Scotsman and other rebels stay behind to fight Aku's soldiers while Jack and Ashi go on ahead to assassinate Aku. Inside Aku's throne room, they discover a feeble old man in black and green who almost resembles Ashi. Jack realizes this must be Aku in disguise, and the old man confirms he is Aku. This, however, throws Ashi off guard; she was expecting him to be the powerful, evil demon that Jack had told her about. Instead, all she sees is a pitiful old man. A human. Her father. Aku chastises her for believing the lies of Samurai Jack, reminding Ashi that she had been taught all her life that Jack was a great deceiver. Jack urges Ashi not to trust Aku, saying that Aku must die. Ashi instead joins Aku's side, telling Jack that he once again proves his hypocrisy by wanting to kill another person. Jack asks if she is indeed betraying him, to which she replies that she was never on his side. She only wanted to see if Jack was a good person after all, and now she has her answers. The episode ends as Jack and Ashi fight one last time.
Episode 10 - The episode starts immediately with Aku broadcasting the original run's opening to the world like how it was in the actual final episode (but I elect to skip the season 5 opening to go straight into the old opening). Jack and Ashi fight, with Ashi being fed more and more of Aku's powers as he watches, cackling. Jack wins, but refuses to kill Ashi. Instead he demands that she look outside and watch as Aku's soldiers kill the rebels. He asks her if a human could possibly command his army to slaughter his own people. He points his sword at Aku and tells Ashi that her father is not a human, but a force of evil and destruction that must be destroyed. Aku transforms back into his demon form and controls Ashi to fight Jack alongside him. Jack fights Aku and Ashi as the rebel forces outside put up a losing fight. Eventually Jack is disarmed by Ashi who steals his magic sword. Aku laughs triumphantly as he commands Ashi to kill Jack. Ashi, regaining some control over herself, asks Jack why he fights when he knows he no longer has any chance of going home to the family he loves. Jack replies that he would gladly give up his past if it means he could save the future. Ashi's eyes start to well up as she walks towards Jack, but instead thrusts the sword into herself. Ashi tells Jack that she take her own life in order to construct a time portal for him to go back home and destroy Aku once and for all, saying that if Aku is killed in the past, she would die as well. Before he is sent back in time, Jack holds the dying Ashi in his arms and tells her that they could have been friends. Ashi tells him that she's grateful for having met him, and dies as Jack falls into the time portal she created. As Jack makes his way back to his own time, he has one final, epic duel with Aku before destroying him with the magic sword. He laments the loss of Ashi, but comes to tears as he hears the sound of his mother's voice. Jack looks up to see his mother, father, and fellow villagers approaching him from the distance. For the first time in a long time, he smiles. Jack lets down his hair and throws the sword into a nearby river. The sword is swept away by its currents, never to be seen again. Jack turns around to face the home he hadn't seen in years, as Aku's darkness fades and the light of a new day shines upon him.
An after-credits scene shows the Scotsman in the new, brighter future that Jack had created, leading one of his young children to see a statue. His daughter asks him who he is, and he replies that legend says the statue was of a samurai who lived long ago in a distant land and traveled through time to save the world from an evil demon. The camera pans up to see the statue of Samurai Jack.
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