Samurai Jack Season 5 Episode 6 Review and Recap: XCVII Ashi's Search

Tonight was the sixth episode of the final season of Samurai Jack on Adult Swim.

At the end of last week's episode, Jack and Ashi -- one of Aku's Daughters, who has turned good -- work together to save a bunch of children; however, Jack disappears, and Ashi begins a quest to find him.

Samurai Jack Season 5 Episode 6 Recap

This episode picks up with Ashi riding a blimp on her way across the terrain, presumably looking for Jack. While on the blimp, Ashi meets two characters who look like woolly mammoths.

The two characters share their story about Samurai Jack. According to them, Jack risked his life in order to save them from slavery, and they owe him eternal gratitude.

The story reaffirms Ashi's commitment to Jack, and she jumps out of the blimp and begins to look for him. In the forest, Ashi comes across a bunch of archers.

They also know Jack, and they tell her that a friend of Jack's is a friend of theirs. They show her their home, and explain that it would not exist were it not for him.

The group of archers had been cursed, bound to guard an evil castle. Samurai Jack defeated the archers, but instead of taking advantage of them, he freed them, giving up the chance of moving forward with his quest.

Since the day, they have not seen Jack. But they promise to help Jack and now Ashi in any quest.

Ashi then comes across a concert, filled with thousands of creatures. When they learn of her quest to find Samurai Jack, they tell her their story of how Jack saved them. In fact, they have a dance devoted to Jack.

During her trek, Ashi has a flashback. We learn that the black covering her body is not some sort of uniform - it is burnt coal.

When she was very young, she was thrown into a fire as part of her demonstration of devotion to Aku.

As she decides to rub off the coal, and after walking around naked, she covers her self with a dress made out of plants.

Next, Ashi goes to a bar where she meets a bartender whom Samurai Jack taught.

Outside the bar, she meets a character who tells her how to find Samurai Jack. After climbing through the woods, she sees Jack in what appears to be a cemetery.

Separately, we return to the old city from episode one, where Jack fought his first robot -- Scaramouche. Scaramouche appears to have survived his fight with Jack, and he eventually makes it to Aku's city.

Scaramouche finds a phone and calls Aku.

He tries to tell Aku that Samurai Jack had lost his sword; however, a dog (who looks exactly like Astro from the Jetsons) and his crew, pull Scaramouche away before he is able to tell Aku.

Back in the cemetery, the warrior on the horse summons other warriors, and tells Ashi that Jack has not fulfilled his purpose; therefore, he must meet his end.

He is about to commit suicide, when Ashi stops him and saves him from the warriors. Ashi convinces him not to listen to the warriors; she must fight the warriors in order to set Jack free.

The main warrior almost kills Ashi, but Jack awakens and comes to her rescue. He defeats the warrior, and saves Ashi. The warriors all return to their graves.

The episode ends with Jack telling Ashi that it's time for them to find his sword and restart the quest.

Samurai Jack Season 5 Episode 6 Review

This episode brought together a lot of themes from previous episodes, and some of the stories that were more open-ended, became understandable.

It also added what appears to be a romantic component to the series. There's no doubt that the romantic component will become more significant as the series continues.

But the most interesting aspect of this episode was the fact that we finally see Ashi fully changing into a good character, and we start to understand her motivations and her frame of reference.

There's no doubt that things will start to heat up in the next several episodes.

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