The Scotsman Saves Jack (Part 2)
Episode numeral: XLVI
Original air date: 8/23/03
When we last left off, the Scotsman found an amnesiac Jack living under the name Brent Worthington. The Scotsman believes Jack lost his memory after an incident in the Great Unknown, a poorly explored region of ocean that several others have said they saw Jack heading towards. Hiring a ship, the two head off to find out what happened.
As the ship sails into a fog bank, an ethereal song begins to drift through the air. The Scotsman hates it, but Brent and the rest of the crew are hypnotized by it, the captain ordering the ship to make a course correction and head towards the music. They run aground on a skull-shaped island surrounded by shipwrecks, and the crew disembark the ship and head towards a cave with whatever treasure they can carry. The Scotsman follows, believing that he's close to figuring out what happened to Jack. The group enters a massive cavern filled with treasure, and the Scotsman sees the source of the music: three sirens, their hypnotic singing drawing in hundreds of sailors, pirates, vikings, and even robots to serve them.
The Scotsman is still having none of it and yells at the sirens for the bad music. The sirens are surprised to see something that resists their charms, to which the Scotsman yells at them again for being tone deaf (to him, anyway) and asks what they did to Jack. The sirens recognize Jack: he had come to the island before with intent to free their prisoners, but he was captured and his mind wiped by the sirens, thus producing Brent. Before he left, though, they stole his sword and gi as a trophy, keeping them in a place of honor among their hoard. Now thoroughly pissed, the Scotsman attacks with his machine gun leg and grenades, but the sirens are too quick for him to hit. The sirens command the hypnotized sailors to attack the Scotsman, and since they're brainwashed he's reluctant to strike back against them.
But during all this, he has an epiphany: the sirens' music is brainwashing the sailors, so playing music to counter them might break their hold. With this, the Scotsman pulls out his bagpipes and starts playing, drowning out the sirens' singing and sending Brent into a daze. Enraged with his interference, the sirens merge into a three headed snake creature, grabbing the Scotsman with intent to kill him. Before they can, though, Jack regains his memory and grabs his sword, killing the monster before it can harm his friend.
Jack and the Scotsman take some time to catch up before heading to the beach, only to find all the sailors have weighed anchor and left them behind. They're not completely stranded, though, as the Scotsman spots a small rowboat nearby and offers to row them back to civilization. Jack refuses, saying that he should be the one rowing since the Scotsman risked his life to save him, but the Scotsman won't back down. At a stalemate, they decide to hold a series of contests to see who wins the honor of rowing back. Jack bests the Scotsman in all sorts of contest from rock skipping to high jump, before they finally have an all or nothing thumb wrestle to decide the matter. The Scotsman almost manages to win, but Jack slips away and pins the Scotsman. Jack happily takes the oars while the Scotsman sulks all the way back to civilization.
This episode provides examples of:
- A Day in the Limelight: Again, the Scotsman is the real star of the episode until Jack gets his memory back.
- Always Someone Better: Jack's skills have advanced that he beats the Scotsman in every competition they do to settle who rows them home, ranging from rock skipping to sprinting to high jump to thumb wrestling.
- Anti-Climax: The second half of the episode is basically this, consisting entirely of Jack and the Scotsman competing to see who rows them back to the mainland.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: The sirens command the hypnotized sailors to attack the Scotsman.
- Call-Back: Jack can still "Jump Good", a fact he smugly rubs in the Scotsman's face during their high-jump competition.
- "Eureka!" Moment: The Scotsman has two.
- When everyone on the ship besides him is entranced by the sirens' song, calling it beautiful, he shouts, "HAVE YA ALL LOST YER BRAINS?!" That's when he pauses and looks at Jack, realizing that he just might've found the culprits behind the latter's amnesia.
- "If it's music ya want, wait 'til ya get a taste o' me pipes!"
- Loud of War: The Scotsman uses his bagpipes to break the sirens' brainwashing.
- Mundane Made Awesome: The episode ends with Jack and the Scotsman having the most epic thumb wrestling match in animated history, complete with cuts and slo-mo shots that wouldn't be out of place in any of Samurai Jack's normal fights.
- No-Sell: The Scotsman is completely unaffected by the sirens' singing. No supernatural powers here, he just hates the music."Yer all tone deaf! A banshee can at least carry a tune! Th' sound o' breakin' glass has more rhythm! I've 'eard pigs squeal better'n ye! Ya call this singin'?! Now my wife, she can sing! Her angelic voice floats such melodic an' heavenly tunes, it makes angels weep. Th' sun rises jus' ta 'ear her mornin' melodies! Even th' sweetness of birds can learn a thing 'r two from me precious bonnie lass! But you?! Ya cough out wilty notes not worth fer a whistle!"
- Our Sirens Are Different: Three of them are the main antagonists of the episode, using their music to hypnotize unwitting sailors into giving them treasure. Only the Scotsman is unaffected, and that's because he thinks their music sucks. They're also shown merging into a giant, three-headed snake creature (not that it does them any good against Jack).
- Shout-Out:
- It appears that one of the crews enslaved by the sirens came from The Love Boat.
- The Sirens look and sound like Destiny's Child.
- Surfer Dude: Again, the way Brent speaks.
- This Means War!: The Scotsman was already mad at the sirens for the bad music and brainwashing, but seeing that they're the ones that wiped Jack's memory and stole his sword is what tips him over the edge into attacking.Scotsman: That's it! She-dogs must pay! You've robbed yer last brain, you dappy-gippy-willy tooth-skatin' women!
- Ungrateful Bastard: The other sailors "thank" Jack and the Scotsman for saving them from the sirens by weighing anchor and leaving without them.
