Back in March, I strongly suggested that you put the 5th season of Samurai Jack on your viewing calendar. If you did, you were rewarded with a series finale that closed many series loopholes and completed the superb storytelling begun more than a decade ago.
There are spoilers below so if you haven’t watched the episode, bail out now. You have been warned.
The final episode had everything you could want in a show designed to tell the end of a hero’s quest and confirmed executive producer, Genndy Tartakovsky’s place as a master storyteller. Jack accomplishes his long-held mission of defeating Aku and he gets the girl. But he pays an unexpected (to him) price for his victory.
In the beginning of the season, we find that Aku had sired seven daughters who had trained their entire lives for the sole purpose of destroying Jack. Jack defeats six of the seven sisters, but ends up falling in love with the surviving one, Ashi. She, in turn, falls in love with Jack after discovering the honor of his quest and Aku’s subversion of nature over the eons. It turns out that season 5 was not so much about Jack’s quest as Ashi’s own hero’s journey. Her story was the more compelling one during the season and we are better off because we got to witness her growth.
While Jack was locked in his madness, having lost his sword and suffering psychotic episodes as a result of his 50 year quest to destroy Aku, Ashi begin to question the world around her. She discovers a world full of beauty previously unknown to her and finds people who know Jack to be a hero and not the villain she was led to believe him to be. Ashi learned to question her upbringing and as result discovers herself. She helps Jack reconnect with his purpose and helps him redirect his efforts toward accomplishing his mission. Together they discover mutual respect and eventually love.
In the end, she stood with Jack against Aku, denying her birth heritage (more on that later), and because she has Aku’s powers opens a portal to the past enabling Jack to finally kill Aku. With Aku’s destruction in the past complete, she prepares to wed Jack only to have a “time traveler’s paradox” kick in. Because she assisted Jack in killing Aku in the past, she never existed in the future and literally faded from existence in Jack’s arms on her wedding day.
It’s Jack’s story, but Ashi’s journey. Jack doesn’t win his battle with Aku without her. She is the star of season 5 and because her, Jack is able to return to his family in the past and he and the world have a new future. It’s a future that could never happen without Ashi – the girl who never existed.
Samurai Jack was fun to watch and will be sorely missed.
