In the fifth season premiere, Samurai Jack begins slipping into madness and finds his psyche his own worst enemy.
After a very long wait, Samurai Jack is finally back on TV and continuing his journey. The creators obviously wanted to catch up for lost time and flex their muscles by making use of the more adult content they are allowed to put into their new episodes. This is shown through the extreme amounts of violence and adult themes which are addressed through the course of this single episode.
The most noticeable thing about the episode is how much Jack has changed. Gone is the hero in white ready to jump into danger for others. Instead, he has now become a man who waits before rushing towards smoke in the distance to save the innocent and prefers solitude. This is probably do to fragile state his mind is in. His unaging condition and constant battle has left him seeing visions of his family asking why he forgotten about them. The poor guy had enough to deal with already without having to be tormented by demons.
The other interesting aspect is the introduction of daughters of Aku. These seven children are raised with soul purpose of killing Jack by a mysterious cult which worships Aku. One of the daughters, Ashi (The only one of the seven who is named) seems to be the one of the group who may appear to be more. They look like they will definitely be a danger to Jack in the near future.
The real question to come from this episode is “Who is the green Samurai?” Throughout the episode, Jack keeps hallucinating about a Samurai on a horse surrounded in a green mist. Was this the enemy which caused him to lose the magic sword? Only time will tell.
