History Recap / SamuraiJackS5E7XCVIII

Jack presents the tea to the elder, who sips and pronounces it to be terrible. He explains that although all ingredients are presented in the proper amount, the most important one is absent: balance within the spirit of the tea maker himself.

Meanwhile, in the realm of the mind and spirit, Jack has been met by an elder who bids him make tea. Jack performs the tea ceremony with appropriate respect and formality.

* NeverTrustATrailer: Not so much the "Next Episode" trailer, but the description text prior to the airing of the episode. Jack was supposedly going to undergo a series of dangerous tests in order to prove himself worthy to wield the sword. However, the only thing he was required to do was to make some tea, and then confront his inner "Mad Jack" self. The only real danger for Jack came from the physical side as the high priestess and her army was trying to kill him.

* HeroicBSOD: The incident that led to Jack getting PTSD during these 50 years is seen. He literally jumps into a time portal before being ''pulled'' out by Aku. Aku destroys it before revealing to Jack that it was the last time portal. Aku then mutates the sheep accompanyng Jack to kicks into giant monsters, but when Jack kills them, they revert to normal...but dead. The fact he technically murdered innocents shocks Jack and causes him to lose the sword. No wonder he lost it.

* ConservationOfNinjutsu: After Ashi takes out an army easily, she has to fight the High Priestess, and struggles.

* TheFinalTemptation: Given to Ashi by her mother, who offers her a chance to rejoin her by killing Jack. She rejects it quickly.

* ShownTheirWork: Jack's spiritual journey involves performing a tea ceremony, which is a Japanese custom where the server's spiritual balance is expressed through the quality of the tea. The tea's awful quality highlights that Jack is spiritually unbalanced and what causes Jack to confront the anger within.

* PetTheDog: Ever so briefly, the High Priestess pays her daughter a respectful compliment. She calls Ashi the strongest of her children.

* WhamShot: The archer shooting at Jack walks out from behind a pillar, and it turns out to be the ''High Priestess.''

* BatmanGambit: It's strongly implied that the army was just the ''diversion'' for the High Priestess, so that they can wear Ashi down.
* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Averted heavily this time. Ashi is bathed in the orc army's blood by the end of all the bacchanalia.

* GodzillaThreshold: The High Priestess must have gotten ''really'' desperate to kill Jack, going so far to get an army of brutish Orcs to kill do it.

* BatmanGambit: It's strongly implied that the army was just the ''diversion'' for the High Priestess.

* ItWasWithYouAllAlong: It turns out the sword literally vanished from existence, and Jack had to find balance within himself to gain it back. [[JustifiedTrope Given that the sword was made out of the essence of goodness and righteousness, Jack's loss of conviction would cause it to vanish.]]

* ThisIsSomethingHesGotToDoHimself: Ashi offers to help Jack recover his sword, but Jack explains that he has to do it alone.

* HeroicBSOD: The incident that led to Jack getting PTSD during these 50 years is seen. He literally jumps into a time portal before being ''pulled'' out by Aku. Aku destroys it before revealing to Jack that it was the last tiem portal. Aku then mutates the sheep accompanyng Jack to kicks into giant monsters, but when Jack kills them, they revert to normal...but dead. The fact he technically murdered innocents shocks Jack and causes him to lose the sword. No wonder he lost it.

* GorgeousGarmentGeneration: Jack is hit with multiple Clothes Beams, which instantly restore him to his former glory.

Ashi whistles for the help of the bird once more. Confronting the archer firing at Jack, it turns out to be her mother, the high priestess of Aku, here to finish the job her daughters could/would not. She offers Ashi redemption if she will kill Jack. Ashi refuses and fights her mother to protect Jack.

Jack presents the tea to the elder, who sips and pronounces it terrible. He explains that although all ingredients are presented in the proper amount, the most important one is absent: balance within the spirit of the tea maker himself.

Mad Jack, a version conjured internally by Jack's inner turmoil and frustration of his increasingly futile mission, demands Jack force the Elder to reveal the location of the sword. Jack realizes his inner Mad Jack has been the reason for his failures, and why he lost the sword. Once Jack tells this part of himself "I don't need you", he is balanced once again, and once more worthy of his enchanted blade. The godly figures who appeared to his father appear to him and reaffirm him as charged to defeat a great evil.

* BloodIsTheNewBlack: After crushing the army, Ashi is breathing heavily, with their blood all over her clothes and hair. (But she's clean again a few seconds later when her mother first appears, probably stopping to wipe the blood off herself before confronting the would-be assassin.)

* DarkestHour: The last time portal destroyed, forced to kill innocents, losing his sword immediately after... no wonder Jack became so jaded and haunted at the start of the season.

** Jack gives into blind, ravenous anger after being told there are no more time portals, and launches into a violent attack against three innocent sheep that Aku corrupted into giant demons. Because the sword can harm evil, it inflicts fatal wounds on the spot, but then the sheep revert back to normal... as ''corpses''. Not only does this cause Jack to [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone realize he's killed innocents for the first time]], but the sword rejects him as its master and leaves the mortal realm because nobody of good character would do what he just did. Jack has to overcome his inner anger to get the sword back, excising him of his fatal flaw.

* HeroicBSOD: The incident that led to Jack getting PTSD during these 50 years is seen. He literally jumps into a time portal before being ''pulled'' out by Aku. Aku destroys it before revealing to Jack that it was the last tiem portal. Aku then mutates the sheep accompanyng Jack to kicks into giant monsters, but when Jack kills them, they revert to normal... but dead. The fact he technically murdered innocents shocks Jack and causes him to lose the sword. No wonder he lost it.

* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Ashi kills her mother by throwing an arrow through her back and also kills several orc-like soldiers by tossing them onto spears. Another solder is seen with a sword hanging out of his gut.

* PostVictoryCollapse: After killing her mother, Ashi faints.

* SelfMadeOrphan: Ashi kills her mother in battle to protect Jack, throwing an arrow through her, sending her off a cliff.

* ThisIsSomethingHesGotToDoHimself: Ashi offers to help Jack recover his sword, but Jack says he has to do it alone.

* YankTheDogsChain: Probably the cruelest example of the series. Jack had finally found a portal, and managed to jump in... only for Aku to literally yank him out, destroy the last time portal left and corrupt the young sheep into monsters. And to top it off, the slaying of the corrupted sheep causes Jack to lose his sword (with the implications that the sword ''vanished'' because of Jack giving into wrath of that moment).

** Despite her cruel, brutal TrainingFromHell, it is possible that the high Priestess did not want to kill her last living daughter. She raised all the daughters to believe Aku made all in the world and sky that was good and pure. Had she succeeded in killing Jack, they could have gone on to an ordinary (for whatever value the High Priestess considers ordinary rather than sole focus assassination) life together. It is possible that under all that twisted evil, she still on some level loved her child. Or perhaps [[WeCanRuleTogether they would be by Aku's side]].

* PetTheDog: Ever so briefly, the High Priestess pays her daughter a respectful compliment. She calls Ashi the strongest of her children...
** HannibalLecture: Before [[KickTheDog berating her for being the most unfocused and always questioning everything and betraying her family.]] Almost like she hated the idea Ashi was born with the ability to exercise free will. She also gets very angry at Ashi for choosing to side with the man who took her siblings' lives.
*** ShutUpHannibal: Ashi tells her mother that she's the one responsible for leading her sisters to their deaths, not Jack. And really, she is, because she robbed them of their free will and forced them to a fate of destruction.

* YankTheDogsChain: Probably the cruelest example of the series. Jack had finally found a portal, and managed to jump in... only for Aku to literally yank him out, destroy the last time portal left and corrupt the young sheep into monsters. And to top it off, the slaying of the corrupted sheep causes Jack to lose his sword (with the implications that the sword ''vanished'' because of Jack giving into wrath of that moment.)

* BloodIsTheNewBlack: After crushing the army, Ashi is breathing heavily, with their blood all over her clothes and hair. (But she's clean again a few seconds later when he mother first appears, probably stopping to wipe the blood off herself before confronting the would-be assassin.)

-->'''Orc Leader:''' We're going to rip you apart into a bunch u' pieces, and then we're going to take those pieces and rip ''them'' apart into even more pieces!\\

* BloodIsTheNewBlack: After crushing the army, Ashi is breathing heavily, with their blood all over her clothes and hair. (But she's clean again a few seconds later when he mother first appears.)

* ClothingDamage: Ashi loses the flower on her shoulder, [[{{Fanservice}} some of the leaves covering her buxom]], and the [[LosingAShoeInTheStruggle tips of her grass-woven shoes]], leaving her barefoot.

* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Ashi kills her mother by throwing an arrow through her back and also kills several orc-like soldiers by tossing them onto spears.

* PlotHole: Jack calls Ashi by her name, even though she's never told it to him and the only time it's ever been spoken in his presence is by the High Priestess while he was meditating. She may have introduced herself offscreen.

** Despite her cruel, brutal TrainingFromHell, it is possible that the high Priestess did not want to kill her last living daughter. She raised all the daughters to believe Aku made all in the world and sky that was good and pure. Had she succeeded in killing Jack, they could have gone on to an ordinary (for whatever value the High Priestess considers ordinary rather than sole focus assassination) life together. It is possible that under all that twisted evil, she still on some level loved her child.

{{Flashback}}: in the earlier days of his time stuck in the future, Jack climbs up a mountain. He is soon joined by a tiny, adorable mountain sheep. Whimsically, he asks if it would happen to know if a time portal exists atop the mountain. When it is expectedly silent, Jack continues upward. Before long two other tiny sheep join the first and follow Jack up the mountain, eventually taking him to his goal.

* {{Evil Brit}}s: The army Ashi fought was made up of these.

** Despite her cruel, brutal TrainingFromHell, it is possible that Mother did not want to kill her last living daughter. She raised all the daughters to believe Aku made all in the world and sky that was good and pure. Had she succeeded in killing Jack, they could have gone on to an ordinary (for whatever value the High Priestess considers ordinary rather than sole focus assassination) life together. It is possible that under all that twisted evil, she still on some level loved her child.

* FreezeFrameBonus: During her (rather bloody) rampage through the Ogre/Orc army, Ashi is very briefly seen with her old pre HeelFaceTurn hairstyle.

* GoodIsNotSoft: Ashi was trained from birth to be a brutal, merciless killer, and while her HeelFaceTurn has changed her motives, her methods remain mostly intact. This is proven when she obliterate s an entire army with no hesitation or remorse to protect Jack, leaving only a few survivors.
* GrievousHarmWithABody: Ashi does this several times to the Orc army, starting with the leader.

* HisOwnWorstEnemy: During his spiritual quest, Jack recognizes that it was his own anger that caused him to lose the sword. Accepting this and letting go of his anger allow him to get the sword back.

* HopeSpot: Jack finally finds an intact time portal and immediately jumps in, only to be pulled out by Aku before he could complete the transit. To make it even worse, Aku after destroying the portal reveals that that was the ''last'' one still in existence, leaving Jack permanently stranded in the future.

* INeverToldYouMyName: Jack calls Ashi by her name, despite we've never seen her introducing herself. Likely happened off-screen.

* TheWorfEffect / ConservationOfNinjutsu: After Ashi takes out an army easily, she has to fight the High Priestess, and struggles.

* VisionQuest: Jack has to go on one to regain his sword, leading to a BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind with Inner Jack, where he finally let's go of his rage and despair to win. After this, the three gods return his sword.
* WhamShot: When the archer shooting at Jack walks out from behind a pillar, and it turns out to be the ''High Priestess.''

** Despite her cruel, brutal TrainingFromHell, it is possible that Mother did not want to kill her last living daughter. She raised all the daughters to believe Aku made all in the world and sky that was good and pure. Had she succeeded in killing Jack, they could have gone on to an ordinary life together.