[9.4/10] I don’t think I was prepared for how dark and intense this season is. I thought this one was going to be a little lighter and gentler after the season premiere, especially because we started with what felt like the cartoonier and sillier version of Aku that was always an enjoyable ingredient of the original show. (See: him pulling his fiery eyebrows out of a little drawer.) There’s the hint of Aku dealing with depression, but for the most part, this is a Shogun of Sorrows who seems diminished himself after his grand fight with Jack seems to have petered out to a point of futility. (As in the Avatar-verse, Greg Baldwin does a nice job of filling in for dearly departed Mako here.)
But then, shortly thereafter, we have a heart-rending scene of Jack bargaining with his own suicidal thoughts, represented by an image of the classic Jack, and my good, it is tough to hear and watch. Jack was always so determined, so strong, that seeing him have to reassure himself that it’s worth it to go on, to fight off the voice that says there’s no point and his ancestors are waiting for him, that it’d be easier to just give up and be killed by his pursuers, is immensely sad.
The episode provides a good reason for him to think it’s too hard to keep fighting, especially without his magic sword. The Daughters of Aku are successfully established as a challenge more serious and threatening than Jack has ever faced before. They move so quickly that he cannot even see them. They are so attuned to the shits in sight and sound that a simple step immediately alerts them to his presence. They can hide in dark spaces or plain sight, and without his sword, their array of weapons challenges him in a way that no other implements have.
Their initial attack and his depareate attempts to evade them are intense enough to starters. But the game of hide and seek in the nearby temple is a tour de force. Once again, the show takes one of my favorite approaches, which is to allow near silence to signify how tense the situation is. The antagonists hiding in various nooks and crannies of the temple creates an ominous sense about the place, and Jack’s quiet footsteps on the stone floor as the only sound helps convey the precariousness of what’s about to happen.
At the same time, the show, as always, leans into the visual acuity to make that work. We see the baddies fade into shadows. We see Jack crammed within cracks in the facade. And we see a little green firefly, providing the only light in the room, until it becomes the spark that starts an epic fight for survival.
What ensues once the confrontation swings into full gear is pulse-pounding from start to finish. The episode completely sells Jack’s disadvantage both from the number game, but also for being without his weapon of choice and unable to make do with the replacement implements he’s amassed or found along the way. The swinging chains, slashing blades, and pointed daggers come fast and furiously, and show our hero constantly on his back foot, in a haunting thrown room full of coffins, roots, and fireflies.
His closing escape is nigh-perfect, a breathless escape that pays off the tuning fork dagger he nabbed from Scaramouche in the prior episode that sets the stone temple to an explosion. He falls into the river, having taken a knife to the gut, stumbling, weaken, and beaten, in a way we’ve never seen before.
But we’ve also never seen Jack take a life before, or at least, not a human life. There’s a startling call and response here. When Jack hides in his a capsule and has to reassure himself that there’s a way out of this, that plenty of times in the past it’s seemed hopeless but he’s always found a way, he repeats a mantra to himself: “it’s just nuts and bolts.” But when he defeats one of the Daughter of Aku, he sees something startling -- blood, real human blood. He has dealt death, not to another technological monstrosity, but to a living, breathing thing. That alone darkens this quest, so strained, so long, which seems to have taken and demanded more out of Jack than ever before.
I hope that this is the darkness before the dawn. I hope that Jack regains his optimism, his determination, his...well...hope. For that arc to have meaning, he needs to start in a bad place, to slowly but surely recover and regain that. But if it doesn't come, if he remains this haunted, wounded warrior throughout the new season, Samurai Jack will end in a very different place from where we last left it.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2020-05-10T20:40:42Z
[9.4/10] I don’t think I was prepared for how dark and intense this season is. I thought this one was going to be a little lighter and gentler after the season premiere, especially because we started with what felt like the cartoonier and sillier version of Aku that was always an enjoyable ingredient of the original show. (See: him pulling his fiery eyebrows out of a little drawer.) There’s the hint of Aku dealing with depression, but for the most part, this is a Shogun of Sorrows who seems diminished himself after his grand fight with Jack seems to have petered out to a point of futility. (As in the Avatar-verse, Greg Baldwin does a nice job of filling in for dearly departed Mako here.)
But then, shortly thereafter, we have a heart-rending scene of Jack bargaining with his own suicidal thoughts, represented by an image of the classic Jack, and my good, it is tough to hear and watch. Jack was always so determined, so strong, that seeing him have to reassure himself that it’s worth it to go on, to fight off the voice that says there’s no point and his ancestors are waiting for him, that it’d be easier to just give up and be killed by his pursuers, is immensely sad.
The episode provides a good reason for him to think it’s too hard to keep fighting, especially without his magic sword. The Daughters of Aku are successfully established as a challenge more serious and threatening than Jack has ever faced before. They move so quickly that he cannot even see them. They are so attuned to the shits in sight and sound that a simple step immediately alerts them to his presence. They can hide in dark spaces or plain sight, and without his sword, their array of weapons challenges him in a way that no other implements have.
Their initial attack and his depareate attempts to evade them are intense enough to starters. But the game of hide and seek in the nearby temple is a tour de force. Once again, the show takes one of my favorite approaches, which is to allow near silence to signify how tense the situation is. The antagonists hiding in various nooks and crannies of the temple creates an ominous sense about the place, and Jack’s quiet footsteps on the stone floor as the only sound helps convey the precariousness of what’s about to happen.
At the same time, the show, as always, leans into the visual acuity to make that work. We see the baddies fade into shadows. We see Jack crammed within cracks in the facade. And we see a little green firefly, providing the only light in the room, until it becomes the spark that starts an epic fight for survival.
What ensues once the confrontation swings into full gear is pulse-pounding from start to finish. The episode completely sells Jack’s disadvantage both from the number game, but also for being without his weapon of choice and unable to make do with the replacement implements he’s amassed or found along the way. The swinging chains, slashing blades, and pointed daggers come fast and furiously, and show our hero constantly on his back foot, in a haunting thrown room full of coffins, roots, and fireflies.
His closing escape is nigh-perfect, a breathless escape that pays off the tuning fork dagger he nabbed from Scaramouche in the prior episode that sets the stone temple to an explosion. He falls into the river, having taken a knife to the gut, stumbling, weaken, and beaten, in a way we’ve never seen before.
But we’ve also never seen Jack take a life before, or at least, not a human life. There’s a startling call and response here. When Jack hides in his a capsule and has to reassure himself that there’s a way out of this, that plenty of times in the past it’s seemed hopeless but he’s always found a way, he repeats a mantra to himself: “it’s just nuts and bolts.” But when he defeats one of the Daughter of Aku, he sees something startling -- blood, real human blood. He has dealt death, not to another technological monstrosity, but to a living, breathing thing. That alone darkens this quest, so strained, so long, which seems to have taken and demanded more out of Jack than ever before.
I hope that this is the darkness before the dawn. I hope that Jack regains his optimism, his determination, his...well...hope. For that arc to have meaning, he needs to start in a bad place, to slowly but surely recover and regain that. But if it doesn't come, if he remains this haunted, wounded warrior throughout the new season, Samurai Jack will end in a very different place from where we last left it.