Samurai Jack: XCIII

March 20, 2017 7:11 AM - Season 5, Episode 2

Aku and Samurai Jack each deal with inner demons and self-doubt, but Jack also faces more pressing issues.

Samurai Jack creator unpacks this week's shocking moment (Entertainment Weekly with Genndy Tartakovsky)

posted by filthy light thief (8 comments total)

Unfortunately, I was expecting Jack to kill one of the Daughters of Aku, if not in this episode then soon, after reading an interview or seeing something where Genndy mentioned Jack killing a person and feeling awful about it. Also, there was a ton of foreshadowing with his "just nuts and bolts" almost mantra about his never-ending fight.

Still, a great episode, if a bit confusing -- I kept waiting for Jack to come across the wolf vs giant cat-like beasts battle, instead of it being an analogy for his fight to the near-death.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:49 AM on March 20, 2017

The part I was confused about was what was up with the fireflies and how one gave away which coffin he was in, if it even did, how the daughters knew where he was if not, why Jack was stressed about that one going out or not going out or if his stress had nothing to do with the firefly, etc. Great episode, but something wasn't communicated clearly there.
posted by Wandering Idiot at 1:56 PM on March 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm ashamed of how long it took me to get the "The Ecstasy of Gold" riff they were doing in the tombs. During that sequence I figured that the firefly was one of two things. The Daughters are either so good they can sense which coffin has the firefly in it; or Jack's panicking, he knows they can sense him because of it, and the firefly is just there so we can see him panicking.

My big takeaway was this: Jack gets stripped down to just about nothing, no tools, no armor, barely any clothes, gut wound, hallucinations telling him to kill himself. Traditionally this is where the battling back starts. Jack figures out a way and wins the fight. But there's the cat beast fight; the the wolf kills all of them, but dies himself. I saw it as foreshadowing. If Jack and the Daughters fight this out, none of them live through the experience. It's not going to be enough to win; Jack is going to have to figure out something else this time.

Also, Is it just me or did Jack's beard turn from black to grey over the course of this episode? It may be dust, but that choice was interesting.
posted by Grimgrin at 4:54 PM on March 20, 2017 [2 favorites]

I have the distinct impression that the firefly and the mysterious green rider are related in some way.
posted by qntm at 6:03 PM on March 20, 2017

WanderingIdiot, I was a bit confused by it too. I think the idea is that the tombs are sealed, so there shouldn't be any fire flies inside them. When Jack hid though, he left his tomb slightly open, enough so that a firefly could get in. When the firefly fluoresced it gave away that the tomb was slightly ajar.
posted by Balna Watya at 8:34 AM on March 21, 2017

Bender would not be cool with all this "nuts and bolts" talk. #killallhumans
posted by numaner at 12:04 PM on March 31, 2017

Aku's scene felt too silly. Of course Aku could be comic sometimes, but this stuff with his clone shrink (?) just felt goofy. And his voice was all wrong. I know Mako is gone, but they needed somebody who could do a better impression. This voice sounded more like Cheech Marin or something. I was also puzzled by the stuff with the firefly. There were a couple of aspects they kind of muffed in this one.

But there was a lot to like too. The fight was good, and that killing was a real shocker!
posted by Ursula Hitler at 3:24 AM on April 1, 2017

I read it that the firefly had followed Jack into the tomb, and it's light through the supposed-to-be-sealed cracks gave away Jack's position.
posted by Karmakaze at 10:29 AM on April 7, 2017