04.23
NSFW
Oh boy, it’s a fanservice episode. All you folks who have been gorging on past Samurai Jack episodes to prepare for its return are now rewarded by a smorgasbord of return appearances and epilogues. Unless you were craving for the Spartans or the Guardian to come back, then fuck off. This episode has forsaken you. Instead, you find out the Woolies are now robed avengers, the Archers have kids, that girl from the rave is now an old woman, and Demongo’s alive. Somehow. It’s like finding old toys you haven’t played with or even looked at since you were a kid. While you make sure nobody’s looking, you hold one up and a glimmer shines in your eye. And who cares if one of your old toys sounds like Keegan-Michael Key instead of David Alan Grier for some reason, because you can pretend all those good times are back.
While it’s heartwarming to see these characters again, I am wondering why Jack never seemed to reunite with any of these people in the last 50 years. He’s spent the past six episodes moping about how he’s failed to change anything and has only been in the center of everlasting misery, yet all of these civilizations prosper and owe their lives to him. They’ve even built statues and wrote songs about him, yet he doesn’t appear to notice. Aku has seemingly caused no further misery to the ravers, the archers, or the Woolies. It’s almost as if Aku’s evil isn’t law for their realms. And yet, Jack still wallows in misery and stands on one thread between life and suicide. Yes, Aku hasn’t been defeated yet, but Jack has definitely made gains in this world. All of those flashbacks and hallucinations to rivers of dead children? Would they still happen if Jack actually went back to some of these places and checked up on them?
But that’s still an assumption, given how little we know of what Jack’s been through for the last half-century. Maybe when Genndy’s done, he’ll make his own version of The Phantom Pain that perfectly explains why Jack went from a calm samurai to a guy who’s always one minute away from gutting himself. And like Quiet, he also has a character to vent out all of his odd fetishes. Because it was very necessary to explain that Ashi and her sister were naked for the entire season up until this point. That’ll make quite a few sexually frustrated people happy to rewatch the past episodes with that in mind.
Speaking of sexual frustration, Scaramouche is still alive. But as just a head, and not even a head that can bite. He’s just an ineffectual head. I’m not sure what to think of him becoming a recurring character, because it would be hard to outdo his first appearance. Even though he’s comic relief, he was also a genuine threat then. Now, he’s lost that along with his body, so his ability to steal the show has greatly reduced. I guess hearing Tom Kenny make scat noises can be funny, but you can only do so much with this character. Like he rides the head of a penis man for a minute. He literally gives head to a talking penis. They even say it out loud in case you didn’t get the hint. Seems like he should have stayed dead if he’s going to be used for dick jokes.
Oh yeah, I guess Jack tries to kill himself this episode. The scene’s kind of a cool moment for both him and Ashi, but I was wondering how long it would take for Ashi to mention those kids last episode didn’t die. Seriously, that should’ve been the first thing she would mention instead of how Jack changed her as a person. I know she wanted to tug at his valor, but go for the direct facts first before you go for the sentimental route.